The First Enemy Iron Man Killed In The MCU Was Played By A Rebellious Rock Star

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has endured some protracted issues of late, mainly because it seems everyone's growing tired of superhero movies and endless Marvel Disney+ shows. But the franchise is still the biggest in cinematic history, having brought in more than $30 billion dollars worldwide since 2008's "Iron Man" kicked off the saga and changed Hollywood forever. Indeed, for every Multiverse Saga dud like "Captain America: Brave New World" or "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" we will always have the halcyon days of the early MCU, when Marvel transformed lesser-known heroes into cultural icons and turned the brand's cinematic fortunes around. "Iron Man" remains the epitome of that approach. The film took Tony Stark, then a B-tier character, and transformed him into one of the most beloved and recognizable heroes on the Marvel roster, helped enormously by Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role, who was so perfectly cast he can never truly be replaced.

Today, "Iron Man" seems quite far removed from the MCU as we have since come to know it. Tony Stark's arms dealing business and his eventual crisis of conscience over making stuff that kills people gave the film a sociopolitical aspect that simply isn't a part of the franchise in its current form. It was fitting, then, that the movie also featured a cameo from a man who's known for his political activism and sociopolitical conscience. Yes, Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello shows up early in the film in a brief cameo that almost everybody who saw "Iron Man" surely missed — mostly because Tony Stark wastes no time in wasting the rock legend.

"Iron Man" begins with Tony Stark touring Afghanistan to show off his fancy new Jericho missile. But after his convoy is ambushed and captured by terrorists from the group known as the Ten Rings (who use one of Stark's own missiles in their attack), the weapons dealer has a change of heart. Held captive in a cave system, Stark is forced to reflect on his weapons manufacturing business and all the tragedy for which he's responsible. He's also forced to use his engineering expertise to escape, which he does by building an armored suit that has since become known as the Mark I armor. This rudimentary version of the Iron Man armor was cobbled together using components Stark was able to steal from various places during his time in captivity, but the resulting suit was still impressive, even if it was a far cry from Tony Stark's mid-air suit-ups and nanotech.

Once it's complete, Stark begins the new anti-weapon phase of his life by ... er ... blowing up a bunch of people. That is to say, he fights his way out of the cave before flying away and crashing in the desert. During that battle to escape, it seems he managed to take out a rock god in the form of Tom Morello, who played one of the terrorists that faces off against Mark I Iron Man. In fact, Morello was the very first terrorist to face the wrath of Stark in his makeshift suit, as the man himself confirmed in a 2014 Facebook post.

In addition, the guitarist actually performed on the soundtracks for both "Iron Man" and "Iron Man 2." He'd also worked with director Jon Favreau back in 2001 when he had a small role as "Best Man" in Favreau's crime comedy "Made." He's not given much to do in "Iron Man" besides getting whacked and flying across a cave, but he's clearly visible in several shots and has the honor of taking the inaugural MCU Iron Man punch.