How was this character able to recover from a mortal wound?

Question

In Avengers: Infinity War, Tony Stark is mortally wounded while in hand-to-hand combat with Thanos. It is clear that he has been run through the abdomen by some kind of large blade, and the blood coming from his mouth shows that he is bleeding internally. It is important to remember that Stark sans Iron Man armour is a normal (if relatively fit) and relatively vulnerable human in contrast to physiologically superior and rapidly healing colleagues such as Captain America and Spider-Man.

However, he appears to spray himself with some kind of restorative spray. What is this spray, and how does it save Tony?

There is a related question here about how Tony could have been wounded by an edged blade attack in the first place, but I am interested in his apparent 'healing' after the fact.

Answer 1

Nanotechnology.

The suit Tony uses in A:IW is based on nanotechnology, and has a characteristic "seething" quality as it builds or reconfigures itself.

In a scene after being stabbed, Tony is shown spraying a foam-like substance on the wound, which "seethes" in the same manner. It's reasonable to assume that it was stitching him up, internally and externally, and dealing with wound contamination - the two things required to deal with an abdominal wound.

Answer 2

I'm not familiar with the comics from which the Iron Man movies are made. It is possible that this spray and its capabilities is mentioned there. However, my answer is based on general human physiology.

Most abdominal wounds are not immediately fatal. The main areas of immediate concern would be perforation of the stomach (acid in the abdomen is very bad), liver (causes severe bleeding), one of the arteries running through the abdomen, or the spine (paralysis).

If none of those are hit, then his chances of living for many hours to days are very good. The primary concerns are closing any bowel perforation, gradual blood loss, and infection. IV antibiotics usually can defeat the infection caused by a perforated bowel if treated soon enough.

So if Tony's magic spray can treat the perforated bowel to close and stop any bleeding, he'd be very sick and need to be watched closely for a week or so but should otherwise be fine.

In the movie, they state that Tony's newest suit used some sort of nanite technology. If you assume his spray also contained programmable nanites, then it is not an unreasonable stretch to assume his magic spray could fix these issues.

Answer 3

This was already sufficiently answered above but I wanted to share some information from the comics the MCU is directly based on so people that are unfamiliar have some frame of reference.

MCU Ironman is very strongly based on the Extremis arc in the comics, which included a new origin story for the Ironman armor where in the post 9/11 world Tony Stark's weapons are being used to fight Al Qaeda and after an incident during an inspection he is injured by one of his own bombs and is kidnapped by terrorists in Afghanistan.

That part you already should be familiar with, the movies present that part of the story verbatim but the rest is a quick recap/summary of what follows and how it's presented in the comic and translated in the MCU.

The suit that he uses in Avengers: Infinity War is the MK50 AKA the Endo-Sym suit which in the comics is the most advanced version to date of Ironman's armor, specifically it is designed to compliment a Tony Stark who has Extremis.

To understand the suit and how it works in the comics, you also have to understand that the Extremis storyline was a similar but very different thing in the films, in the comics it was an attempt to recreate the Super Soldier Program that created Captain America with a sort of biological nanotech.

I can understand why they wanted to keep all that of out of the MCU but the short version is that in the comics (that MCU Ironman is most strongly based) on Tony Stark has Extremis, therefore he HAS a healing factor, but he also in fact developed his own version of Extremis which also gave him the ability to interface directly with machines, they left a lot of this out in the films but the basic components of the storyline are essentially in tact as is the functionality of the MK50 Ironman armor.

In the comics this suit is like the ultimate suit for a Tony Stark that has Extremis and interfaces directly with technology. The MK50 Ironman armor in the comics is based off the Venom Symbiote and nanotech. It's described and looks like a sort of a liquid smart-metal suit very similar to the t1000 liquid metal Terminator. While the suit doesn't quite have a mind and personality of it's own, it's a sort of biotechnological prothesis and is very much alive.

In the MCU, Tony Stark doesn't have Extremis but the MK50 still functions very similarly as seen in the film. So with some limitations (there's only so many nanobots it has to work with) it can form into any configuration (in the comics, the armor can even grow into a new version of sorts of the Hulkbuster armor) giving Tony use of virtually any tool he might need on the fly, one would assume including advanced medical equipment.

Of course the MCU doesn't explain any of this technology in detail and it just borrows elements from the Extremis arc and comics that followed it, so you're intended to fill in the blanks yourself and suspend your disbelief. But all the basic elements of that storyline and the tech in it are present in the MCU...just reconfigured. Instead of Tony having Extremis + cool symbiote suit, he has this nanotech suit.

Answer 4

After Tony Stark was stabbed mortally, Doctor Strange made a bargain with Thanos. He offered Thanos the Time Stone in exchange for Tony's life. So, it was actually Thanos who protected Tony Stark from a mortal wound leaving him with a minor injury, which he could heal with a spray.