Original subtitles

JIM: Tony's new Water Strider really cooks!

Look out, world, we're steaming!

(BEEPING)

Unidentified enemy warcraft ahead, Jimmy.

Arming defense. Evasion Mode!

Looks like it's time to stand up and fight!

Those torpedoes were meant for us, but surprise, surprise!

Now let's see what else they're packing.

Well done, Captain.

Hold the party hats, Wanda! Two to go!

Prepare to ram!

TONY: Great, Jim and Wanda!

You brought my new Water Strider through its first test with flying colors!

(SCARLET WITCH LAUGHING)

Thanks, Tony, dearest. But I wish I'd been watching beside you.

Like some lucky people.

If you're referring to me, Wanda, Tony insisted I be here.

After all, I am VP of R&D.

- Jim, are you still there? - JIM: Not necessarily.

Look, if the cat fight's over, it'd be a good time to go on

to the second phase of testing, all right?

- A trans-oceanic crossing at full speed! - TONY: Go for it!

JIM: Aye, aye, sir.

Elevating jet skippers to reduce friction drag

and setting course for Emerald Cove, Sardinia.

(CAMERA CLICKING)

Great, Alana! Now give me something wild! Beautiful!

Keep moving! Yes! Get up! Turn! Now show me how you move!

Now, run into the surf. That's it! That's it.

Beautiful! Sensational!

(ALANA GIGGLING)

This is Sam Jaggers speaking to you from an extremely private beach here

at beautiful Emerald Cove, in blissful Sardinia, preferred getaway retreat

of mysterious international supermodel Alana Ulanova.

(LOUD RUMBLING)

ALANA: What in the world? MAN: I don't know what it is! What...

SAM: This is a private beach! Get away!

(SCREAMS IN PAIN)

What did you do to my boss?

Closer, my dear. You will look good in granite.

No! Hold it. We won't give you any trouble, will we, Alana?

- I haven't decided. - No heroics, please, miss.

Whirlwind! Blizzard! Secure the perimeter.

Remove those stone effigies from view and unload the electronic components!

Carefully, Blizzard. We don't want them operational until we're ready for them.

We have taken the sea cove, Mandarin!

Without difficulty, I trust.

Unfortunately, the beach was not deserted.

But they will not be a problem.

No! You must abort the mission.

We cannot endanger innocent bystanders.

Conscience bothering you, Modok?

Or have you merely lost your oversized mind?

They are world-famous persons.

Their presence could cause unwanted attention.

- It is not... - Well done, Blacklash! Carry on.

Tony Stark's experimental Water Strider

will put in at that cove tomorrow.

My forces must be on hand to welcome it.

No matter who may be hurt!

Of course, Mandarin, you are correct, as always.

It's just that in this case, I...

Recent solar flares have disturbed my cybernetics,

giving me a giant headache. May I have your permission to leave?

I am quite fatigued.

- As you like. - Thank you for your kindness.

Wherever you go, I shall be watching.

Fascinating.

Most intriguing.

TONY: How's she running, Jimbo? JIM: Smooth and sassy, Tone.

Keep us informed of your progress, Jim. Over and out.

Everybody. Let's get serious.

The Water Strider will revolutionize shipping,

which means Justin Hammer will want it.

Which means that The Mandarin is cooking up something nasty

to take it away from us. So, what's your point, man?

My point is, we've got to be ready!

So I've prepared a little refresher course on whom we have to fight.

"Whom." Get that?

"Whom," because it's the direct object of the verb "fight."

(CHUCKLES) What a fabulous time for an English lesson.

You all know The Mandarin and the power of his rings.

But he seldom does his own dirty work in the field.

He leaves that to Blizzard.

Yeah, maybe he'll keep my root beer cold if I ask him real nice.

Whirlwind.

May the raging winds of Phoebus spin him into the Earth.

Dreadknight. Not just another pretty face. This dude is bad news!

Blacklash, ten tons of mean in a one-ton bag.

- And the lovely and talented Hypnotia. - HAWKEYE: Hey, hey, hey!

Don't forget The Mandarin's most dangerous stooge, Modok!

Eighty percent brain and a hundred percent rotten!

(ALL LAUGHING)

(ALARM SOUNDING)

Code Ten alarm! Someone got through perimeter security!

- That is not possible. - Nonetheless, we have an intruder

entering the ammo dump in the arsenal compound.

Armoring up! Speed Mode!

CENTURY: Weapon systems engage and lock on target.

Interface protocols interlock with mainframe and evaluate options.

Robot sentinels arm and patrol at once.

No intruder shall pass alive.

Our intruder is brilliant, Tony.

He radioactively tagged his molecular structure

so security sensors read him as inorganic furniture.

IRON MAN: No living being could do that and survive! Let's check him out!

Halt, whoever you are!

Sanctuary! I claim sanctuary!

- Modok! - ALL: Modok!

I have defected. I am here to serve you.

Greetings, Iron Man, Century, Hawkeye, and Spider Woman.

I had not expected so large a welcoming committee.

Hail, Modok. And farewell.

No! Do not touch me! You must hear me out!

- Your time is growing short. - IRON MAN: Explain yourself!

I will neither explain nor cooperate until we have an agreement.

HAWKEYE: What makes you think we'd cut a deal with you?

Because I can provide you with extremely valuable information.

(THE MANDARIN LAUGHING)

I think not.

Come on, Century agrees with me.

No deals! We'd be bonkers to trust Modok!

IRON MAN: We won't need to trust him if he's in cyber-isolation.

No! You must not deprive me of my cybernetic capacities!

Why? Are you afraid it'll make it too tough for you

to carry out The Mandarin's mission?

In cyber-isolation, we can access your memory circuits

and learn the truth of your defection. Watch him!

(MODOK ROARING)

He's reversed polarity!

I have interfaced with your control override system.

(ALARM SOUNDING)

He'll blow us, everything, to smithereens!

ARMOR: Countdown commencing.

MODOK: I have come solely for the reason I stated.

Now, will you agree to my demand for an exchange,

or do we all become formerly living history?

Cover our tracks, Whirlwind! We don't want anything to arouse suspicion.

(SOFTLY) They left the refrigerated one to guard us.

BLIZZARD: Hey, Blacklash, Whirlwind!

Working so hard in this tropical heat must be very uncomfortable.

(BLIZZARD LAUGHING)

Too bad you lack the ability to generate your own personal air conditioning.

(SIGHS CONTENTEDLY)

It looks like our bizarre kidnappers are preparing an ambush

for someone they expect to put in at this cove.

Henry, we must escape and send out a warning before anyone gets hurt.

And put my tender body in harm's way? No chance.

If you're smart, Alana, you'll sit tight like me and do nothing.

I've never been smart in that sense, Henry.

If you won't help me, stay out of my way.

BLIZZARD: Who's there?

(ALARM SOUNDING)

Are you insane? I relied on your intelligence, your will to live!

IRON MAN: Computer. Reset all devices and systems. Situation normal.

(ALARM STOPS)

You tricked me!

I had control of the fail-safe override all the time.

But you couldn't have known that.

But why subject me to this exercise in terror?

IRON MAN: To see if you were really serious.

You were, so I've decided to hear you out.

Now, just what function do you want us to perform for you?

HAWKEYE: That's Emerald Cove in Sardinia!

SPIDER WOMAN: Jim and Wanda are heading into a trap!

The Mandarin plans to shanghai Tony Stark's Water Strider.

Now, thanks to me, you can prevent it.

In return, I only want you to rescue the prisoners

that have already been taken there!

- Baloney! It's a setup, isn't it? - I am telling the absolute truth!

IRON MAN: Why? What's your motivation?

It'd have to be something extraordinary for you to betray The Mandarin. Talk!

My motives are my business. Just do as I have requested,

and you will save the Strider and defeat The Mandarin.

IRON MAN: Talk! Or you'll get nothing from us!

(SIGHS)

Very well. I will talk.

But only to Iron Man, in private.

(DREADKNIGHT LAUGHING)

DREADKNIGHT: Run, rabbit, run.

Bad little girls will be punished.

It is undignified to pin me in space!

IRON MAN: But a reasonable precaution.

You've got the privacy you requested. Now, talk.

Why is it so important to you that we save the Water Strider?

The Water Strider is immaterial! It's the captives.

(STUTTERS) I want you to free them! Unharmed!

But what are they to you?

The woman, Alana Ulanova. I...

I love her. She is my wife.

Alana Ulanova is your wife? What's the joke, Modok?

(LAUGHS) The joke?

Yes, it is a joke that such a beautiful woman

would find me worthy of her love,

would see me as the being I once was

and not as the pathetic organism who now begs you to rescue her.

I cannot leave.

Not until you have assured me you will bring my Alana to safety.

You will do that, won't you?

You're asking me to suspend my judgment,

ignore all previous experience with you, and believe something incredible.

I had hoped to avoid the pain of revealing everything,

but you leave me no alternative.

(SIGHS) You have seen me access my cyber-helmet.

The images before you come from my true mind,

from my soul.

I was a brilliant young physicist from the steppes of Central Asia

when my work brought me

to the KGB's Secret Institute for the Advancement of Soviet Science.

I was working with the preserved brains of madmen and criminals,

seeking to find a cybernetic link to memory which would transcend death,

when I came to the attention of the director of the Institute,

a genius known only as the Red Ghost.

IRON MAN: Creator of Titanium Man!

His brilliance was matched only by his complete disregard for human life.

MODOK: I never said I was lucky, did I?

He saw my youthful ambition and daring were equal to his own

and convinced me to be his guinea pig

in experiments designed to expand the human intellect.

Bio-mutated DNA molecules were implanted in my cerebral cortex.

I was bombarded with isotopic gamma rays.

My mind was growing beyond imagination.

And then fate danced into my life.

Alana Ulanova. She was breathtaking.

We fell head over heels in love.

I did not know the Red Ghost loved her, too.

Unbeknownst to me, he learned of our love

and increased test dosages without telling me.

Although I was now in constant pain and suffering from strange dreams

and flashes of intense intellectual brilliance,

love conquered all, and Alana and I were married.

But the Red Ghost, using cybernetic control,

completed the hideous conversion process he had begun on me.

All was lost!

Alana, my love, my life, would detest the monster I had become.

Only The Mandarin has the power to offer me a future

in which I might be restored to normal,

a future where I may yet return to Alana, the woman I love!

Save her, I beseech you!

SPIDER WOMAN: Modok must tell one heck of a story.

He did. I can read lips.

IRON MAN: What will The Mandarin do to you when he finds out

- you have come to us for help? - I am prepared for any consequences.

My life is in your hands.

Sorry to barge in, I.M., but Jim just called in.

He said he'd make Emerald Cove within the next hour,

and then transmission went nuts!

The Mandarin! He must know I've contacted you!

IRON MAN: We've got to get there before Jim does!

- Do we have an agreement? - IRON MAN: We do!

HENRY: Are you crazy? They put that fire out

so the smoke wouldn't alert the bloke they're laying for!

- Hey... - Do not cry out even if I burn you.

We must get free and thwart our captors.

Sardinia, Jim. We are almost there.

BLACKLASH: They're on the way. Run the test. Quickly!

Let us see if the molecular compression force field works!

Success! The tank has been shrunk to specifications!

(GRUNTING)

WHIRLWIND: Heavy.

It's now like a dwarf star,

retaining its original mass and weight

even though it has been molecularly imploded.

WHIRLWIND: And now, we wait!

ALANA: So that's their plan!

Perfection! James Rhodes suspects nothing.

JIM: Emerald Cove, here we come!

Jim! Alarm!

JIM: (GRUNTING) Must armor up!

(ALARM SOUNDING)

Strange force field!

We're shrinking!

(SCARLET WITCH GROANING)

DREADKNIGHT: No! The process is reversing itself!

- It's not possible! - DREADKNIGHT: How can this be?

The prisoner! Seize her!

WAR MACHINE: Hands off, turkey!

SCARLET WITCH: Detour ahead, my darlings.

The road is blocked by figments!

IRON MAN: One up! GREY GARGOYLE: Come back!

(SCREAMING)

IRON MAN: There's still a little mopping up to do.

No!

(IRON MAN GROANS)

Our drama has come to the last act, Iron Man.

But before I ring the curtain down,

I must deliver my farewell soliloquy.

To be or not to be.

And the answer is, not!

IRON MAN: Didn't your mother tell you, "Never mess with magnets"?

THE MANDARIN: What?

(SCREAMS)

THE MANDARIN: You've won a battle, Iron Man, not the war. I'll be back.

What an amazing adventure!

Alana, is she all right?

IRON MAN: Yes. She's waiting to see you.

Here?

(SHUDDERS)

(STUTTERS) She knows what I've become?

And yet she still wishes to see me?

To see me like this?

IRON MAN: She loved you once, Modok.

She told me that will never change. Look.

(MODOK GASPS)

I must shave, change into a fresh helmet.

And I have nothing to give her!

Flowers! Yes, flowers would be perfect.

(MODOK GROANS)

IRON MAN: She cannot wait forever, Modok.

The past is dead, Iron Man.

You had no right to do this to me!

Our agreement has been fulfilled!

IRON MAN: Then you're free to go, Modok!

MODOK: I will tell The Mandarin that you used me,

that I was forced to cooperate against my will!

IRON MAN: And I'll do the same, if he asks me.

- You will? - IRON MAN: I will.

You're a sentimental fool.

A fool!

IRON MAN: And I will tell Alana that you will always love her.