Revealing: Some of the shots involving the terrorists firing at the prototype suit are "flipped" duplicates of other shots. In the scene where he first emerges from the cave, several of the terrorists are firing M4-type rifles with the ejection port on the LEFT side of the rifle. In reality, except for a few specially made versions, all M4-types eject spent brass through an ejection port on the right. Later in the scene, this shot is repeated, but with the proper orientation.

Other: When Iron Man and Iron Monger are fighting, Iron Man catches the SUV, and you can see the family inside the car. Although the car is completely vertical, the hair of the people in the car seem to defy gravity.

Continuity: In the scene when Pepper is watching the television program about Stark Industries' stock troubles after Tony's press conference, notice she has a wireless headset in her left ear. When Tony calls her down to the lab, the camera flashes back to Pepper and the ear piece is gone.

Visible crew/equipment: In the extra footage after the credits, the reflection of the crew is visible in the picture frames around the apartment.

Continuity: In Tony's workshop is a silver clock resting on a shelf with his model airplanes. At one point, this clock is stopped reading a little after midnight (a stopped clock is a common technique used by filmmakers to keep continuity problems to a minimum between shots,) and it is rational that Tony would display the clock for its artistic or sentimental value even if it was broken, but later the clock reads about ten past nine, showing that someone has changed the time.

Continuity: At the party, when Stark goes to order a Martini and chats with the girl, the extras in the background keep changing position between shots.

Continuity: In the montage of Stark designing the Mark II suit on his computer, he picks up a coffee mug to his left and absent-mindedly drinks it, then gets a not-good expression as the liquid was presumably not what he was expecting. A second earlier, the coffee mug had been shown completely upside-down on the desk.

Continuity: When Stark is paralysed his fringe keeps changing style all the time.

Continuity: In the scene where Tony Stark is at home, he's wearing a black tank top, and is working on the suit, there is a bad cover-up of one of his tattoos. It almost looks like a band-aid is over it. It goes away and comes back.

Continuity: When we first see Tony Stark arrive at the benefit, his car doesn't have a front plate. When we actually see him pull up to the entrance though, his personalised "Stark" plate has appeared.

Continuity: When Iron Monger throws Iron Man into the bus and it explodes, an Audi R8 suddenly appears on the road. This is explained in the deleted scenes, where Rhodes drives an Audi R8 into Iron Monger to help Tony, but still a mistake in the finshed movie.

Factual error: After Stark escapes, he is walking in the desert, and crests the brow of a sand dune. Then, helicopters burst into view over him and you hear them for the first time. Stark was on the brow of the dune and should have heard them long before.

Continuity: Just after Pepper replaces Tony's chest piece, she clenches her hands, complaining about how disgusting the "pus" is. When the shot changes, she closes her hand again.

Continuity: In the shot just before Obidiah paralyzes the guy that held Tony prisoner, the ear plugs are not in his ears and when he paralyzes him they are.

Continuity: When Tony is paralysed on the couch, in one shot his head is facing to the left. However, in the very next shot he is facing forward and slightly slouching back a bit. There wasn't enough time for him to move into the other position, even if he wasn't paralysed.

Continuity: When Stark fires the two rockets to Raza, before Yinsen dies, there's two green rockets standing next to him that change position in less than a second.

Continuity: When Pepper is changing out Stark's arc reactor chest piece, in one shot she pushes the device in, then in the next shot she pushes it in again.

Factual error: When Iron Man catches the Audi SUV, the front wings/fenders don't bend when he catches it, the car weighs close to 2 tons, some damage should occur to them as they are made of such thin metal.

Character mistake: There is a misspelling on the cover of the issue of Forbes magazine shown in the presentation about Stark's life. It reads "Tony Stark takes reigns at 21". The correct spelling of the word is "reins". Stark may "reign" at Stark Industries but he would take over the "reins" of the company.

Continuity: After Stark is paralysed and slightly recovers, he goes to get his energy. Right then the blood arond his left ear has vanished. Being seconds away from dying, the last thing he would think of is taking a shower.