The Iron Man Deleted Scene That Producer Jeremy Latcham Called 'Embarrassing'
I hate to upset people, but those who longed to see Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) doing a load of laundry in the 2008 film "Iron Man" will not get their wish.
It seems the scene was filmed, but then cut from the film and left on the cutting room floor. It was never included in any of the film's Blu-ray/DVD special features, and it was never screened outside of editing bays and the rooms where producers review dailies. The "Iron Man" laundry scene is, it would appear, lost to time.
To remind readers, the opening of Jon Favreau's "Iron Man" — a positively quaint film when compared to the groaning machinations of the Marvel Cinematic Universe it spawned — was about a hotshot inventor and weapons manufacturer named Tony Stark who was kidnapped by Middle Eastern terrorists. The terrorists, led by the gangster Abu Bakkar (Sayed Badreya), had been stealing Stark weapons and using them for nefarious purposes. Tony's heart was injured by shrapnel during his kidnapping, and he was only barely saved by a fellow kidnapping victim, a surgeon named Ho Yinsen (Shaun Toub). The two of them escaped by constructing a weaponized suit of armor that would allow one of them to run through heavy enemy fire. During the escape, however, Yinsen was killed. Thereafter, Tony devoted himself to ridding the world of weapons of mass destruction.
According to a recent interview Screen Rant conducted with "Iron Man" producer Jeremy Latcham, there were additional scenes of Abu visiting Tony and Yinsen in the cave. Evidently, there was a moment when Abu would be seen forcing Tony to do a load of laundry.
Evidently, the scene was so embarrassing, Latcham was glad to see it erased from history.
Laundrygate
The way Latcham describes it, the scene in question was meant to play as comedic. Abu, the vicious military leader, would have to do laundry, and then, when tired of the chore, force Tony Stark to do it for him. From a story and tonal perspective, such a scene does indeed feel largely unnecessary. Tony was already being held captive. Watching his captors do laundry, and then watching Tony do laundry, wouldn't help the film. Latcham discussed the scene with "Iron Man" executive producer Kevin Feige, and it seems the latter was adamant about leaving the laundry scene out of the movie. By Feige's measure, it would be so absurd as to derail the entire film. Latcham said:
"There are still three or four deleted scenes ... that I don't think will ever be released because they were so bad. I remember Kevin saying to me in 2012, when I was like, 'Should we put the Abu doing laundry deleted scenes out?' And Kevin was like, 'No. We can never put out Abu doing laundry. People will know we don't know what we're doing. It'll be embarrassing if they see these scenes.' But there was a whole runner in 'Iron Man' where Tony Stark was doing laundry, and I don't think they've ever come out."
As it stands, Favreau's film runs 126 minutes and is pretty impeccably paced. It seems that extra scenes of Tony being held hostage, while perhaps adding to his harrowing hostage experience, would have delayed the superhero mayhem that audiences came for.
'It's wild'
There was, however, an additional function to the scene. Tony, being a resourceful inventor, would take the opportunity to alter Abu's washing machines. Latcham knew that the laundry scene was lost to time and that it was not ever edited into any cut of the movie, nor was it included in any ancillary home video releases. The footage may exist in an archive somewhere, but no one considered it worthy of human consumption (well, other than the screenwriters and the director who made it in the first place). Latcham said:
"Someone should look into it, but I don't think they've ever been seen. Tony is doing laundry for the captors, but he's really breaking the washing machine and stealing parts from it to build the Mark 1 suit. It's so absurd. It's wild."
Given how absurd the Marvel Cinematic Universe would eventually become — "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3" featured a planet of animal people! — it seems a silly, humanizing scene of Iron Man doing a bad guy's laundry might feel at home now. But in 2008, Favreau and Latcham were only interested in making a good movie. The laundry scene was, it seems, an unnecessary and bad scene. The only purpose it could have served was to further highlight how resourceful Tony Stark is as an inventor. There is already a scene, however, where Tony is seen cannibalizing a Stark missile for parts, so having a washing machine in there as well wouldn't exactly enrich his pursuit or talents.
I have to admit, though, I still kind of want to see the laundry scene.