War Machine: Every Don Cheadle Marvel movie ranked worst to best

4. Iron Man 3

How do you counteract terrorist attacks made by the Ten Rings criminal organization? Well, you call in the big guns, obviously. Iron Man 3 had Colonel James Rhodes drop the War Machine mantle and instead suited him up as the Iron Patriot. However, that change didn’t last outside Tony Stark’s third leading project in the MCU because… well, War Machine rocks (Yes, that was the phrase used by Rhodey as his login password).

Rhodes worked alongside the U.S. government to try and locate the Mandarin and bring him to justice. Unfortunately, that plan backfired as A.I.M kidnapped Rhodey, stripped him down of his armor, and used it to hijack the plane where the U.S. president was. On the bright side, that meant both Rhodey and the Iron Patriot armor had a key part to play in Iron Man 3, which was great as we finally got to see more of Colonel James in action.

However, even when War Machine / Iron Patriot had more screen time than his previous appearances in the MCU, Iron Man 3 was completely a Tony Stark movie. Audiences worldwide got to see more of the genius, billionaire, playboy, and philanthropist without the Iron Man armor.

His anxiety attacks made him a human character and they were a clever way to explore the haunting ramifications of the events of the Avengers in a way that didn’t feel forced or executed just for the sake of world-building. This movie was the most vulnerable we’ve ever seen Tony Stark be, and it was a great change.

And while Iron Man 3 favored slow-personal moments instead of frequent action set pieces, we can’t deny the attack on Tony’s house, the mid-air rescue of plane passengers, and the final battle were standout moments of the film as a whole. It’s a shame the Mandarin twist completely ruined one of Iron Man’s greatest villains or Iron Man 3 could be remembered as one of the MCU’s best projects to this very date.