Tony Stark, who has inherited the defense contractor Stark Industries from his father is in war-torn Afghanistan with his friend and military liaison, Lieutenant Colonel Rhodey Rhodes, to demonstrate their new missile. After the demonstration, the convoy is ambushed and Stark is critically wounded by a missile used by the attackers. He is captured and imprisoned in a cave by a terrorist group. Yinsen, a fellow captive doctor, implants an electromagnet into Stark's chest to keep the shrapnel shards that wounded him from reaching his heart and killing him. The leader Raza offers Stark freedom in exchange for building a Jericho missile for the group, but he and Yinsen know that Raza will not keep his word. Stark and Yinsen secretly build a small, powerful electric generator called an arc reactor to power Stark's electromagnet and a prototype suit of powered armor to aid in their escape.
