So, I went to go see Elon Musk in Iron Man 2, a great Mother’s Day outing.
A pre-release Tesla Roadster was in the garage of the first movie, and the SpaceX HQ features prominently in the second. They even left a SpaceX logo in by accident, circled in red above.
I knew that SpaceX was used for filming last year, but I was surprised at how extensive it would be (all of the Hammer Industries footage with the droid army), and that the opening sequence would show a Falcon 9 rocket under construction (the same one I photographed in 2009).
In the movie, Tony Stark greets Elon Musk by name, and Elon pitches the electric jet that emerged in some of Elon’s talks last year.
How did all this come to be?
Iron Man director Jon Favreau in Time: “When I was trying to bring the character of genius billionaire Tony Stark to the big screen in Iron Man, I had no idea how to make him seem real. Robert Downey Jr. said, “We need to sit down with Elon Musk.”. . . He was right. Elon is a paragon of enthusiasm, good humor and curiosity — a Renaissance man in an era that needs them.”
TechNewsDaily: “Stark channels the confidence and ambition of real-life innovator Elon Musk, in large part because Musk’s fast-lane lifestyle and technological prowess provided much inspiration for director Jon Favreau’s updated Iron Man. Musk takes on dual roles as both CEO and lead technologist for his companies Tesla Motors and SpaceX, as he relentlessly pursues futuristic visions of electric cars and private spaceflight.”
Even the pronunciation of Tony Stark sounds like Elon Musk, with similar syllables and gutturals… =)
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