When The Pentagon Met Iron Man

(Video Comes from Iron Man Fan JFG.)

The relationship between Hollywood and the military is particularly interesting.  Hollywood needs the military to give them clearance to use equipment and the military wants to look good on the big screen. So when Michael Bay wants to use a whole bunch of gear in "Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen" the military says, "Sure Michael, just make sure it all looks shiny on film." Actually the Transformer's sequel used more military equipment than any other movie. This way everyone is happy, the good guys with the big guns torch the robots, and the millions of the people watching the film think "Jeah, the military is a flawless organization that really gets it done. They totally would defend us if the robots attack."

This video I posted above is interesting however, because it features Clark Gregg, who in the Marvel Universe plays S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Coulson, a member of a fictional government organization. For the non-nerds out there, S.H.I.E.L.D runs The Avengers which is a super hero team. Click here for more information on the team and upcoming film. So now we have a fictional character interacting with real private contractors to  convince us that the military has Iron Man technology coming. Interesting, when you think about it, because it shows how the military is using hollywood to craft it's own narrative of it's operations.

If there is one thing that cracks me up about this video, it's that this whole suit doesn't really remind me of Iron Man at all. Rather it reminds me of the suit from "Avatar." You even see it being used in "Avatar" for military personal to perform the tasks described in the video. Does this mean that Stark Technology has made it's way that far into the cinematic future, I doubt it, but it shows that the military certainly likes their comic book movies.