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The Iron Giant is a 1999 animated science fiction film, directed by Brad Bird, produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation, and released by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Script (written by Tim McCanlies), and for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. It is loosely based on a 1968 children's book by Ted Hughes, The Iron Man. A young boy named Hogarth Hughes discovers an amnesiac "iron man", and saves him from electrocution. Grateful, the childlike Giant becomes friends with him. Hogarth, with the help of the beatnik Dean, has to stop a U.S. military force led by a general and his egotistical federal agent from finding and destroying the Giant out of paranoia. There are many references to the Cold War, the McCarthy era and science fiction films and TV of the age. The characters are voiced by a cast that included Harry Connick Jr., Jennifer Aniston, John Mahoney, and a then relatively unknown Vin Diesel.
Tagline: It came from outer space!
Synopsis
Intro
The story starts in the fall of 1957, when a large, flaming object is seen plunging through space towards Earth, where it crashes into the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of Rockwell, Maine. This meteorite turns out to be the Iron Giant, a 50-foot tall robot of unknown origin and purpose.Hogarth Hughes is home alone as his mother Annie has to work late again waitressing at the local diner. We never see or hear anything about Hogarth's father, but a photograph of a man standing next to a military jet in the boy's room leads one to the possibility that the father was a fighter pilot killed in the Korean War. Hogarth is watching a cheesy science fiction film on the television when its reception fails.
Hogarth goes outside with his BB gun in hand and finds the TV antennae chewed up on the ground. Seeing a trail of destruction leading off into the woods, Hogarth follows a path of wrecked trees to the power station.
He comes upon the Giant in the process of trying to eat the metal at the power station. The Giant gets shocked into nearby powerlines and is electrified. Hogarth heroically saves the Giant by shutting off the station's main power link. His mother comes looking for him; and despite his best efforts, Hogarth cannot convince her that the iron giant was real, or that it was still in the woods as they drove off.
The Antagonist
The next day, pompous and self-centered U.S. Government agent Kent Mansley arrives at the power station as part of his investigation into reports of a strange object that landed off the Maine coast. With the recent launch of the satellite Sputnik 1 by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957 (seen orbiting Earth as the movie opens), a shocked America became even more paranoid of the Iron Curtain nations during the Cold War.Apparently Mansley was sent to Maine to see if the meteorite report and smashed power station were all part of a secret Soviet weapon aimed at the United States. At that time, Americans feared that if the Soviets could place a satellite into Earth orbit with their rockets, they could just as easily launch a nuclear bomb on the U.S. with very little warning in a matter of minutes.
Mansley finds Hogarth's smashed BB gun with part of his name ("Hog Hug") on the remains of the gun stock. Mansley is ready to leave the power station and drop the whole investigation as not being important enough for him, when he suddenly discovers that half of his car is missing! Mansley tries to find a witness to verify what has happened, but by the time they return, the entire automobile is gone (the Giant was hungry).
Meanwhile, Hogarth goes into the woods with a camera to find the Giant again. When he does, the Giant tries to follow him home, not understanding or heeding Hogarth's pleas to remain behind. But when the Giant accidentally causes a train wreck, Hogarth changes his mind and lets the Giant follow him home, hiding him in his barn. There he shows him comic books depicting Superman as an alien visitor who becomes a hero, but also some evil robots and alien invaders. We also learn from these scenes that the Giant's parts can function independently to reassemble themselves and that he can survive the impact of a speeding train.
At the same time, the engineers of the wrecked train (who are caricatures of and voiced by veteran Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston) tell Mansley that the train ran into "a giant metal man" and points to Hogarth's house as a likely place to find a telephone. He calls his superior in Washington, D.C., who angrily tells him to get more evidence. As he leaves, he realizes that the BB gun he found belonged to Hogarth.
The Giant meets Dean
In order to conceal the Giant, Hogarth relocates the Giant to the nearby scrap yard; as the Giant is happy with the massive amounts of metal present for him to eat. The proprietor, a metals artist named Dean, agrees to let him stay the night.At the same time, Kent rents a room in the Hughes house so he can keep an eye on Hogarth. Little by little he uncovers the truth, finally tracking the robot's wherabouts to the scrap yard and summoning the army. Hogarth, however, warns Dean, who disguises the Giant as a massive statue, which he proudly displays, and even offers to sell to the Army. The General is not happy with Mansley at this point.
The Giant, while playing with Hogarth as the army is leaving town, unwillingly reacts to Hogarth's toy gun with automated defensive fire. Hogarth fails to realize what's happening, but Dean rescues him and sends the Giant away, only to help Hogarth chase after him after identifying the gun as the provocation for the Giant's defensive mechanism.
Army vs. Giant
Eager to be proven right, Mansley lies to convince the general that the Giant is a threat. Just as the giant rescues two boys that have fallen from a balcony, tanks open fire on him. The Giant tries to avoid fighting back, as Hogarth has tried to instill in the Giant that he can be whatever he chooses to be in life and does not have to be "a gun."When the Giant is shot down while flying with Hogarth to escape military jets, he sees Hogarth unconscious and assumes that his best friend was killed by the missile attack or the fall to Earth. The Giant is grief stricken and mourns the loss. When the military arrives on the scene and attacks him from behind at Mansley's command, the Giant becomes enraged. Discovering his true purpose via the bump on his head disappearing, his body transforms into a heavily armored battle mode, and he begins using the full force of his superior alien weaponry. The 1950s U.S. military machines are devastated by the attack and have no choice but to retreat, as their own weapons prove useless.
The Giant blasts his way towards the town of Rockwell; automatically assuming that everyone and everything is his enemy. The military tries to divert him away from the town with some battleships in the harbor, which fire their cannons unsuccessfully at the armored behemoth.
In the meantime, Hogarth has regained consciousness and makes his way try and talk to the Giant. Averting the destruction of the battleships, he is able to calm the Giant, who reverts to his regular form.
Hero
Despite the General now being convinced the Giant means no harm, Kent Mansley causes a nuclear missile from the submarine USS Nautilus to be launched against the robot - who is standing right in the middle of town. Mansley then shows his true colors by trying to escape the fate he has wrought for the town, but is foiled by the Giant.As the townspeople fearfully prepare themselves for the end, the Iron Giant decides what must be done. Saying goodbye to Hogarth with the famous quote "You Stay, I Go", he launches himself skyward, directly into the path of the approaching missile. Heroically sacrificing himself by colliding with the bomb head-on, the Giant finally is seen as a hero.
The massive detonation is seen clearly on the ground, piercing clouds and the night sky and alerting the town that they are once again safe. A tearful Hogarth is left only with his mother and Dean to console him as they watch the fading flash in the sky.
Epilogue
Dean and Mrs. Hughes become involved in a relationship, and Dean creates a metal statue of the Giant that is placed as a monument in the town park. Hogarth is given a screw by the Army, the only piece recovered from the space explosion. As he goes to bed that night the piece awakens him, apparently activated in order to re-unite itself with the rest of the Giant. A smiling Hogarth opens the window and lets it roll away. The movie ends with the Giant's body parts traveling to the Langjokull glacier in Iceland to reassemble themselves.Voice Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Vin Diesel | The Iron Giant |
| Eli Marienthal | Hogarth Hughes |
| Harry Connick, Jr. | Dean McCoppin |
| Jennifer Aniston | Annie Hughes |
| Christopher McDonald | Kent Mansley |
| John Mahoney | General Rogard |
| James Gammon | Marv Loach/General Sudokoff/Floyd Turbeaux |
| M. Emmet Walsh | Earl Stutz |
Box-office and reception
According to RottenTomatoes, the critics' reviews were 97% positive. Despite critical acclaim, it did poorly at the box office, grossing only $23 million in the U.S.; this failure can be attributed in part to anemic marketing. The total worldwide gross was $80 million.* But since movie theaters keep 45-50% of a film's gross, this was not enough to cover the studio's $48 million budget. However, it has gained a cult following through VHS and DVD sales, and is regarded as a poignant classic by many, despite poor box office.
Trivia
In 1989, Pete Townshend of The Who released a concept album based on the book The Iron Man titled A Musical. Townshend and stage director Des McAnuff developed a stage version that had a successful run at The Old Vic Theatre in London in 1993. They originally wanted to produce a film version of the stage production. But McAnuff and Warner Bros. agreed it would work better as a non-musical animated feature. Although, this film is very different than Townshend's concept, he is still credited as an executive producer.
Soundtrack
External links
1999 films | Animated films | Warner Bros. Animation films | Science fiction films | Films based on science fiction books
"The Iron Giant"