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I have noticed that as the Iron Man movies progressed Tony's arc reactor got thinner and thinner. I don't get why the movies never tried to explain this cause I find it important.

For example, in the first movie if Tony already built the arc reactor into Rhodes’ suit then how come we don't see Rhodes struggle to get in the suit with a 9 cm arc reactor in the middle? I get that he made it thinner in the next movies but in Iron Man 1 the arc reactor is clearly about 9 cm thick. Explain please.

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marked as duplicate by phantom42, Valorum, KutuluMike, Meat Trademark, Jason Baker Apr 15 '16 at 13:33

This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.

  • @phantom42: I'm not sure this is a duplicate. This question asks about the reactor, which the other question or answer doesn't even bring up. – b_jonas Apr 15 '16 at 11:22
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That suit was prepared for Rhody - at least that's what is implied during this conversation in Iron Man 2, Randy's Donuts scene (emphasis mine):

Fury: You let your friend fly away with your suit. Now, if I didn't know better...

Tony: You don't know better. I didn't give it to him. He took it.

Fury: Whoa, whoa, whoa. He took it? You're Iron Man and he just took it? The little brother walked in there, kicked your ass and took your suit? Is that possible?

Widow: Well, according to Mr. Stark's database security guidelines, there are redundancies to prevent unauthorised usage.

Rhody is clearly an authorised user.

My reasoning here is that Tony thought he was going to die - and didn't want to let Iron Man go to waste. Who else to leave a suit to, than his best friend?

Later in the movie they (Tony and Rhodes) exchange a couple of lines about the suit, but Tony never actually attempts to take it back.

That, and also if the suit wasn't modified for a new, thinner Arc Reactor Rhody wouldn't be able to put it on without making a gigantic hole in his chest. A reason for that could be to make the suits use less power from Tony's own reactor, thus not accelerating his process of dying.

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    “if the suit wasn't modified for a new, thinner Arc Reactor” — are we assuming that when we see Iron Man in Iron Man 1, the arc reactor that we see in Iron Man’s chest is literally the arc reactor in Tony Stark’s chest? To me, that seems unlikely: the arc reactor is flush with his chest, so the armour would have to be pretty thin for the actual arc reactor surface to be visible. – Paul D. Waite Apr 15 '16 at 12:16
  • @PaulD.Waite I always had the impression that the reactor in Tony initially served as a power source for the Iron Man suit, at least in Iron Man 1. The armor isn't thin - at the end of the movie, when Tony is lying unconscious, you can see that there is a several centimeters deep "window" into his own Arc Reactor. Why make a window? No idea. – Petersaber Apr 15 '16 at 12:48
  • sure, it’s definitely the power source in the first movie, but there could still be a design bit on the suit that looks like an actual arc reactor, but isn’t. That’s cool there’s a window in Iron Man 1 though — I watched it the other day but I wasn’t paying attention to this issue. – Paul D. Waite Apr 15 '16 at 13:07
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in the first movie if Tony already built the arc reactor into Rhodes’ suit then how come we don't see Rhodes struggle to get in the suit

Rhodes, of course, doesn’t get into any Iron Man suit until Iron Man 2, so it might not be the same silver suit we see in Iron Man 1.

I get that he made it thinner in the next movies

Did he? I thought the arc reactors were always pretty much the same size, i.e. the exact right size to fit in the cavity in Tony’s chest.

how come we don't see Rhodes struggle to get in the suit with a 9 cm arc reactor in the middle

Why would Rhodes struggle to get into a suit that has an arc reactor built-in? If the suit has an arc reactor built-in, it must also leave enough space for a person without a cavity in their chest to fit inside it — otherwise if Tony wanted to wear such a suit, he’d have to remove his own arc reactor before getting into it, which seems a bit fiddly.

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  • @pecoru: no problemo. There’s a bit more discussion of Rhodes and Iron Man suits here and here. – Paul D. Waite Apr 15 '16 at 9:52
  • Sorry 1 more question if the arc react is built in the suit and the suit does have enough space for a person to fit in, but than the Iron-Man suit's wouldn't look like it would in the movies nor comics there would be a huge bulge at the chest which clearly not present. – pecoru Apr 15 '16 at 10:06
  • @pecoru: if you’re right about the arc reactor being 9cm thick, the suit would only need a 9cm bulge. And looking at this Iron Man 2 picture, or this Iron Man 2 screen grab, I think that’s plausible. – Paul D. Waite Apr 15 '16 at 12:05

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