| “ | I had a thought that would guide me for years to come. Anonymity, Tony. Thanks to you, it's been my mantra ever since, right? You simply rule from behind the scenes. Because the second you give evil a face, a Bin Laden, a Gaddafi, a Mandarin, you hand the people a target. | „ |
| ~ Aldrich Killian confessing to a captive Tony Stark. |
| “ | The good news is, a high-level position has just been vacated. | „ |
| ~ Killian after fatally shooting Maya Hansen. |
| “ | It's a glorious day, Savin. This time tomorrow, I'll have the West's most powerful leader in one hand, and the world's most feared terrorist in the other. I'll own the war on terror! | „ |
| ~ Killian to Eric Savin of his plans. |
Aldrich Killian is the main antagonist of the 2013 Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero action film Iron Man 3, the third and final installment of the Iron Man trilogy.
He was the founder and CEO of Advanced Idea Mechanics (or A.I.M.), a terrorist organization disguised as a technology company he used to attack the Chinese Theater and the Roxxon Docks, under the guise of The Mandarin. Killian set himself to kill and destroy Tony Stark and his loved ones once he was turned down by him years ago, doing anything possible to incorporate himself above him and the world.
He was portrayed by Guy Pearce, who also played Charlie Rakes in Lawless and Dr. Emil Harting in Bloodshot.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General/Past[]
- Even though he has some comedic moments, they never detract from his villainy and only made him come across as even more sadistic.
- His legacy to the true Mandarin does not help his case at all, since the latter even resented Killian's appropriation to his legends.
- Despite being underwhelmed of the Mandarin's heinousness, Killian is still by far morally worse than the true Mandarin, who's life was reasonably tragic and committed explainable atrocities (after his tragedy) while Killian's actions are done out of pettiness and envy.
- His involvement with Slattery upon Killian's death got the former almost killed by the Mandarin's executioners due to his associated monstrosity.
- Despite being underwhelmed of the Mandarin's heinousness, Killian is still by far morally worse than the true Mandarin, who's life was reasonably tragic and committed explainable atrocities (after his tragedy) while Killian's actions are done out of pettiness and envy.
- He turned to a life of depraved villainy because a drunken Tony Stark jerkishly ditched him without warning during a New Year's Eve party in 1999.
- Inevitably, this has always been treated as an extremely petty reason for his irrevocable turpitude, as while this nearly led Killian to commit suicide because of his inferiority feelings due to his physical disabilities back then, he later cured himself from them and refused to accept that Tony changed his ways.
Iron Man 3 Prelude[]
- He lured Colonel James Rhodes in his Iron Patriot suit into Hong Kong, China, attempting to extract his armor from him with numerous terrorists holding hostages with the Extremis virus to be released.
- His plan was to kill Rhodes by a Hammertech nuclear reactor tank, and by doing so would not only kill him but also millions within the Hong Kong precinct, due to how powerful a nuclear reactor can exert. Thankfully, Rhodes threw the tank into the ocean before it self-destructed.
- He had his men hold a Hong Kong bio-lab hostage, with twelve people endangered.
- He berated one of his henchmen for failing to retrieve the War Machine armor, threatening him to "not leave the room alive" if he didn't provide reasons to be spared, with it being left ambiguous whether the man was killed or not due to the information he retrieved.
Iron Man 3[]
- He used Tony Stark's disinterest in his engineer work and his own anonymity status to his advantage, creating the Extremis serum that regenerates limbs to support and restore the limbs of disfigured war veterans, survivors, and amputees.
- He tested the serum among innocent disfigured war veterans and subjects like Chad Davis in Rose Hill, Tennessee, where he ended up exploding due to lack of control, killing five people inside the experiment.
- Most of his incidents involving the Extremis project, he later branded them as terrorist attacks like the Chinese Theater where Happy Hogan was critically incapacitated upon the explosion, which made Stark plan his vengeance upon him.
- He tested the serum among innocent disfigured war veterans and subjects like Chad Davis in Rose Hill, Tennessee, where he ended up exploding due to lack of control, killing five people inside the experiment.
- He used Trevor Sattery as an actor for the Mandarin terrorist persona and caused many other terrorist attacks ranging from India, Afghanistan to Northern Sudan by the terrorist groups whom he supplied the weapons to.
- Even though he has an affection towards Pepper Potts in the first half of the movie, it's only out of blatant obsession since he admitted holding her hostage as a prize than just as leverage against Tony and later retconned this factor by making a bleak response to her supposed death to hurt Tony, and had no problem harming her even before she was enhanced with Extremis. Flirting with her was likely also to spite Tony.
- Since he's referred as the "producer" by his washed-up actor pawn Slattery in the 2021 film (meaning everything he did is all under Killian's orders), this also means he orchestrated the attack on and destruction of the Stark Mansion, with second-in-command Eric Savin as one of the helicopter pilots to rid of Stark's years of work and resources on Malibu, after the latter publicized his house address to the Mandarin in hopes for an in-person civil meeting.
- He executed Thomas Richards, a Roxxon Oil Corporation accountant, live on television for everyone, including President Matthew Ellis to see, just after he responded the Mandarin's landline to ensure the man's release and safety. Even though it was Slattery's doing, it was implied that he ordered Slattery to shoot him regardless.
- He coldly murdered Maya Hansen, his assistant and Tony's ex, by shooting her on the spot after she decided to attempt a murder-suicide by threatening to inject herself with 1,200 cc's of the Extremis dose.
- He tortured Rhodes inside the Iron Patriot Armor by heating his stomach to the point where its armor forced Rhodes out to later be knocked unconscious by Savin during a brief fight.
- He would then allow Savin to use the armor to infiltrate the unknowing President Ellis in Air Force One, so that he can capture Ellis with the armor and take him to Roxxon Docks, followed by the aircraft's destruction upon Savin's death.
- He kidnapped both Potts and later President Ellis to Roxxon Docks where the latter is used as a sacrificial lamb in front of the live audience, including the Iron Patriot armor to mock the president's security, have Vice President Rodriguez take the president's place, and benefit his goal to finance off from war on terror, stated from his third quote. It's also stated by him that he did this for some particular reason he doesn't even care, and needed one for the President to die on TV.
- He used Pepper as a motivator to Tony, and attempting to make her his trophy, even so to inject her with the Extremis dose and display her pain to both Tony and Maya upon Tony's captivity, only because he acknowledged Maya secretly aiding Stark due to his intellect on perfecting Extremis.
- Before his kidnapping procedure against Pepper, he instantly killed a hotel employee by snapping his neck upon entering.
- He tore many of Stark's armors and suits with his Extremis powers during the final battle on Roxxon Docks, leaving Stark to his last set of resources to take him on, such as:
- Mark XXXIII (33), known as Silver Centurion, by immobilizing the armor of its arc reactor and destroying it when Tony arrived to save Pepper,
- Mark XVI (16), also known as Nightclub, by impaling the chest-plate with his fist after Tony ejected himself,
- Mark XL (40), Shotgun, by cutting off the armor's right leg and using it against Tony before splitting the armor in half after Tony ejected once again.
- Not to mention, all of these armors are robots that are capable of showing sentience, so these all count as kills on his part.
- Despite the incredibly high Heinous Standards of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Killian still passed them for attempting to commit populicide by trying to bomb all of Hong Kong, orchestrating horrific torture experiments with the Extremis, and the uniqueness of profiting from terrorism and war as a whole.
- While his death was outright horrific, it wasn't played for sympathy, but well deserved considering what he did to Tony and everyone else.
Trivia[]
- He's the only villain in the Iron Man trilogy of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be Pure Evil, since the other two film-adapted villains, Iron Monger and Whiplash can’t qualify due to MCU’s high heinous standards, with the latter having a sympathetic backstory and some redeeming qualities.
- He's the second villain of the Iron Man trilogy to be Pure Evil, following Obadiah Stane’s novelization counterpart.
- His backstory of being rejected by his idol Tony Stark, is similar to Syndrome's backstory of being rejected by his idol Mr. Incredible, as well as Mysterio being rejected by the same person, but for different reasons.
- Coincidentally, they are all prime examples of Laughably Evil and From Nobody to Nightmares/Wholly Debased Pure Evil villains too.
- The director and writer of the film, Shane Black originally intended for Maya Hansen to be the hidden main antagonist of Iron Man 3, with Aldrich Killian being her accomplice, but former Marvel Entertainment executive Ike Perlmutter forced him to change Hansen for Killian as the villain due to the idea that a female villain wouldn't sell well in the toy making business. Had Black kept his original plans intact, it's unknown if Killian would have been Pure Evil or not.
External Links[]
- Aldrich Killian on the Villains Wiki
- Aldrich Killian on the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki
- Aldrich Killian on the Disney Wiki
