marvel - How much did Iron Man's suitcase weigh?

How much was Iron Man's suitcase supposed to weigh in the Iron Man 2 movie?

Happy Hogan played by Jon Favreau seems to haul it around fairly easily.

Answer

Considering the ease with which the case is being moved about by "Happy" Hogan, granted a man considered to be physically fit and capable, it appeared to have an apparent weight of no more than fifty to sixty pounds, tops.

But this would belie the incredible armor within, so how do we reconcile this? Part of the difficulty is so much of the comic physics of Cinematic Iron Man and Marvel's canon comic character have not been perfectly translated from the old medium to the new one for easy reference. What was true for Comic Iron Man may or may not have been true for Cinematic Iron Man.

History of the Briefcase Suit

To understand the dilemma we must have a brief history of Tony Stark's briefcase armor carrying system. Yes, his briefcase was a sophisticated system designed to carry, protect and charge his early armors. In many ways the case was a subset of the armor using many of the same technologies to keep the suit mobile and ready for action.

For example:

• During Iron Man's briefcase years it was made clear that even though the armor was quite heavy, Stark wore the heaviest part of the armor on his body and the rest of the components were stored in the suitcase.



• This included the power cells that were on his hips, the gloves, the boots and the faceplate. These components alone weighed over one hundred pounds. The chestplate and its power components weighed another hundred pounds.


• The briefcase was a technological wonder just like the suit. It came equipped with a repulsor field gravity manipulator similar to the ones in the suit.


• These allowed the suitcase to move as if it weighed less and was as easy to handle as a normal business case.


• The briefcase was armored and able to withstand any casual explosive ordinance. It was also armed with a variety of defensive mechanisms to prevent anyone from opening the case.

Cinematic Iron Man's Briefcase

Armed with this history we can look at the Cinematic Iron Man's briefcase and work a few assumptions:

• This briefcase wasn't just a storage unit. It was part of the actual armor plating. That works in its favor, because Stark didn't need to wear any parts before-hand.



• The armor did not have a complete feel to it. It looked as if it were only half of the armor Stark normally wore. It obviously include the strength actuators (easily pushing the limo out of the way with nothing more than a gentle shove).


• It also had repulsors, but they did not seem to charge as quickly as the normal suit.


• The suit was durable but not nearly as tough as the normal Red and Gold suit.


• We did not see the briefcase suit fly, so we don't know if the capacity was built into this unit.

So if the normal suit fully plated and ready is listed in the Marvel Handbook weighing in at 225 pounds, we could call this "Armor Lite" version at 125 pounds, missing the boot jet systems, the fast recharge capacity, and the heavier armor plates.

Shared Cinematic Universe to the Rescue

The only way Happy is lugging this bad boy around easily is if the case is using the same repulsor, antigravity technology from the comics and hinted at during the Captain America movie that Howard Stark (Tony's father) was reputed to be working on in 1942.

Was that the point of showing us that clip in Captain America, to presuppose that at some point in the future that technology is utilized in Tony Stark's flying armor? I hope so, because if it wasn't, then Happy is even stronger than any normal human has any right to be. There is no way he could move that case that easily at 125 pounds, give or take unless something were assisting with the weight displacing at least part of it.

Since the suit would be powered, it has repulsor technology built into it, and even if it wasn't flight capable, the repulsors could always be emitting a low grade antigravity field making the briefcase easier to handle. If this is the case, it is a subtle but brilliant nod to a different time in the Iron Man mythology, a time many fans remember nostalgically as just plain awesome.

And we all admit, while the appearance of the suit was a little different (paying homage to only other suit of Iron Man armor that was ever accepted even momentarily, the Red and Silver suit, what we liked the most was seeing the suit come out of a briefcase, strap itself on to Tony Stark and make him Iron Man, while still being able to fit in the backseat of the car!