Iron Man 3 ending explained (spoilers)

[linda]

The world is under attack by an evil, America hating, terrorist called the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley).

Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) is suffering horrible panic attacks after what happened to him in the Avengers.

Happy (Jon Favreau) is blown up, but not killed by one of Mandarins henchmen.

Tony invites the Mandarin to confront him face to face and gives him his address over broadcast news. The terrorist responds by blowing up Tony Stark's house with Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Tony inside. Pepper thinks Tony is dead; however, he actually escaped and is hiding out in a tiny mid-west town.

Pepper is kidnapped and injected with the drug that has been turning people into human bombs. Tony follows leads and finds that the Mandarin is actually just an actor who was paid to be the face of the bad guy in exchange for drugs, gifts and money.The actual bad guy is Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), a drug manufacturer. He has been using the ldquo;terrorist claimsrdquo; by the Mandarin to cover up the fact that the super soldier drug he is developing for the DOD has a really bad side effect.

The end of the movie is about Tony evolving. He kills Mandarin, Pepper is saved and they are still together, Tony has a surgery to have the shrapnel removed from his heart, and he throws away the core that used to keep him alive. He recovers Jarvis from the wreckage of his old house and goes to build a new home.

Happy wakes up from his coma and Ben Kingsley goes to jail.

Evan adds this post-credits scene: We see Tony on a couch talking out his anxiety issues. The camerathen revealsa snoozing Bruce Banner aka the Hulk (cameo by Mark Ruffalo). When Banner wakes up, he apologizes for dozing off, noting he is not a therapist. Undeterred, Tony continuestalking abouthis life story as Banner nods off again.

[bryan]

Rhodey (Don Cheadle) saves the President (William Sadler) before hes executed. Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) temporarily obtains powers after having Extremis in her body and kills Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce). Tony (Robert Downey Jr.) decides to spend more time with Pepper and destroys the new suits of armor. He and Pepper undergo surgery: Tony has the shrapnel thats inside his body removed and also the miniature arc reactor that powers his suits; Pepper has Extremis removed from her body. Happy (Jon Favreau) wakes up from his coma.

Trevor Slattery/The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) and the Vice President (Miguel Ferrer) are arrested. Harley (Ty Simpkins) receives from Tony a bunch of donations (food, a new potato gun, a computer, etc). Tony narrates that even without his suits of armor, he will always be Iron Man. During the extra scene after the end credits, its revealed that Tony has been telling his story to Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), whos fallen asleep during the session.

[vadronovGaf]

Obadiah (Jeff Bridges) takes Tonys (Robert Downey Jr.) second version of the artificial heart used to power the suit (and thats used to keep himself alive) and uses it to power another suit that was recently built at Stark Industries. Tony battles Obadiah in his suit using the first version of the artificial heart. Tony asks Pepper (Gwyneth Paltrow) to overload Stark Industries arc reactor and Obadiahs suit malfunctions and falls into the reactor. The next day, at a press conference, instead of covering up the truth by saying that someone in an armored suit is his bodyguard (nicknamed by the press Iron Man), Tony reveals that he is Iron Man. A few minutes into the end credits, Tony arrives home and notices that someones sneaked inside his home. He asks the mysterious person who he is and its Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) who is the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. (the organization that wanted to talk with Tony Stark, throughout the movie, about how he escaped captivity in the mountains and the ones who helped cover up the arc reactor explosion). Fury says to Tony that now that hes revealed to the world that hes Iron Man.. hes stepped into another world he didnt know existed. Fury tells Tony that he wants to talk with him about a project called The Avengers Initiative...