What Is Scott Baio Tattoo On His Arm

The 8 Things Iron Man 3 Borrowed from Osculation Osculation Bang Bang

Missing fingers, Christmas, a Hispanic Scott Baio—managing director Shane Blackness proves that imitation is the sincerest form of self-flattery.

Marvel; Argent Pictures

Yesterday was a big day for semi-sequels to Marvel's The Avengers, featuring the Boob tube debut of Agents of SHIELD and the DVD release of Fe Man 3. When the latter was released in theaters, a lot was made of its Avengers references—the repeated invocations of what happened in New York, the line about when "the guy with the hammer fell from the sky," etc. Simply watching the movie a second fourth dimension, I was struck by how often information technology went out of its fashion to pay homage to another precursor: director Shane Blackness's 2005 film, Osculation Kiss Blindside Bang.

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A quick epitomize: From the mid-'80s through the mid-'90s, Black was synonymous with Hollywood excess. His screenplays (Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, etc.) sold for small fortunes and took the cinematic art of blowing things up to its inevitable extremes. But after The Long Kiss Goodnight was a relative flop at the box office, Black essentially took a decade off before returning with Kiss Osculation Bang Bang, a cunning satire of the hard-boiled detective genre starring Robert Downey Jr. The picture didn't make much coin, but it was a cult striking. More than important, information technology was a crucial step in the improvement of Downey, who'd only recently finished a stint in prison house on drug charges. A few years later, Downey returned the favor, helping Black—who'd actually done some uncredited consulting on the kickoff Atomic number 26 Man—become the gig directing Iron Homo three.

Hither are several of the nods that Black's latest moving-picture show makes back to Kiss Buss Bang Bang. (Feel free to note whatever I may have missed in the comments.)

1) The unreliable narrator. Iron Man three opens with a Downey, in voiceover, getting verbally tangled upwardly in an effort to quote a "famous man," before giving up altogether: "I don't … ah … I'k gonna start again." In Kiss Kiss Blindside Bang, Downey narrates—and self-edits—even more promiscuously, at ane point offering, "Oh shit, I skipped something ... This is bad narrating."

2) Christmas. The holiday is a staple of Shane Black films: Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Sentinel, and The Long Kiss Goodnight were also all set at Yuletide. Black claims that he initially resisted the idea with Iron Homo three simply was ultimately persuaded by co-writer Drew Pearce.

three) The missing finger. In Osculation Osculation Bang Blindside, Downey's character loses a finger when Michelle Monaghan slams a door on him. In Atomic number 26 Man 3, Tony Stark'southward young cohort, Harley, breaks a finger off his armor. It's a niggling hard to tell, but it looks equally though in both cases it's the ring finger of the left manus.

4) "The Hispanic Scott Baio." The clearest nod of the bunch, this is how Stark describes the tattoo of his likeness on Gary the cameraman'southward arm. It's a variation of the game that Downey and Monaghan play in a bar, describing fellow members of the clientele as "the Brazilian Billy Bob Thornton," "the punk-rock Steven Seagal," and, most memorably, "the Native American Joe Pesci."

5) Abased at the machine. In Iron Man iii, Stark drives off, leaving a forlorn Harley in the street, following one of the funnier exchanges of the picture. Harley: "So now y'all're just going to leave me here … like my dad?" Stark: "Yep." In Kiss Buss Bang Bang, it's Downey who's abandoned at a low ebb past Val Kilmer, who has to physically lean him up off the car in order to drive away.

6) "In determination…" At the end of Iron Man 3, Stark explains in voiceover, "So if I were to wrap this all up, tied with a bow, whatever…" It's nearly a straight lift from his line in the last scene of Kiss Buss Bang Bang: "If I had to sum it all upwards—and I practice, 'cause information technology's, like, the end."

7) Demolishing the quaternary wall. In the epilogue to Kiss Buss Bang Bang, Downey (and Kilmer) dispense with all pretense and address the audience directly. In the post-credits sequence in Iron Homo 3, information technology's revealed that Stark'southward true audience is not us, simply a dozing Bruce Imprint.

8) Protocop. I mean, seriously. How obvious could it have been that Shane Black was destined for Iron Man?