Iron Man 3 is a 2013 American superhero movie based on the Marvel Comics character Iron Man. The movie was produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It’s a sequel to 2008’s Iron Man and 2010’s Iron Man 2, and the seventh movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Take a look below for 30 more interesting and fascinating facts about Iron Man 3.

1. The movie was directed by Shane Black from a screenplay he co-wrote with Drew Pearce, and starts Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, alongside Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Stephanie Szostak, James Badge Dale, Jon Favreau and Ben Kingsley.

2. In Iron Man 3, Tony Stark deals with PTSD caused by the events of The Avengers, while investigating a string of terrorist attacks led by the mysterious Mandarin, and comes into a conflict with an old enemy, Aldrich Killian.

3. After the release of Iron Man 2 in May 2010, Jon Favreau, who served as director, decided not to return.

4. The movie grossed over $1.2 billion worldwide, making it the second highest grossing movie of 2013 overall, and the second highest grossing movie released in 2013 in the United States and Canada.

5. Iron Man 3 became the 16th movie to gross over $1 billion and the fifth highest grossing movie of all time, with its opening weekend ranking as the sixth highest grossing opening of all time.

6. The movie received a nomination for an Academy Award in the Best Visual Effects category, and received another nomination for a BAFTA Award in the same category.

7. The first cut of the movie was three hours and fifteen minutes long. The final cut was two hours and ten minutes long.

8. The Mandarin has a tattoo on the back of his neck of Captain America‘s shield with an anarchist “A” symbol in the center instead of a star.

9. The ring on the Mandarin’s right pinkie is the same one Raza wars in the first Iron Man movie.

10. Robert Downey Jr. pushed to get Gwyneth Paltrow to have some action scenes, and Kevin Feige approved: “We are bored by the damsel in distress. But sometimes we need our hero to be desperate enough in fighting for something, other than just his own life. So, there is fun to be had with, “Is Pepper in danger, or is she the savior?”, over the course of this movie.”

11. The first day that Robert Downey Jr. and Ben Kingsley met on set, they snapped a photo together to send to director, and mutual friend, Richard Attenborough.

12. A Super Bowl trailer that promised an “extended look,” had Robert Downey Jr. staring at the camera.

13. The movie was originally budgeted at $150 million, but after The Avengers became a massive hit, Marvel Studios and Disney upped it to $200 million, in order to allow Shane Black to make the best movie that he could.

14. The movie was heavily edited for Chinese audiences. The Chinese edit has additional scenes featuring the character Dr. Wu and his assistant, which were played by Chinese stars Xueqi Wang and Bingbing Fan.

15. The character of U.S. President Ellis is named after comic book writer Warren Ellis, who wrote the 2005 Iron Man story arc “Extremis,” a primary influence for Iron Man’s movie franchise storyline.

16. Originally, the movie intended to start with flashbacks of Tony Stark’s youth. Another idea considered was to start the movie with Tony landing in Tennessee, and another had Tony cleaning up land mines with the Stark logo on them, as an allusion to the many explosive elements from his past waiting to detonate.

17. Pepper’s brief wearing of the armor is a nod to Pepper Pott’s one time career as the superheroine Rescue in an “Invincible Iron Man” comic book series from 2009 to 2012.

18. Iron Man 3 is the only Iron Man movie not to feature any songs by AC/DC.

19. Shane Black admitted that Jon Favreau gave him tips and advice during filming, though he noted that Iron Man 3 had a different feel than the first two.

20. In the flashback at Switzerland, Tony Star briefly meets Ho Yinsen. In the first Iron Man movie, Yinsen is the man who helps Tony in the caves, and he mentions having met him before, referring to the brief meeting at Berna.

21. According to Kevin Feige, the Mandarin is inspired by Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now. He said, “He wants to represent this sort of prototypical terrorist, someone who worked for the intelligence community, who went nuts int he field, and became this sort of devotee of war tactics.”

22. During the flashback party, Tony Stark is wearing a name tag that reads, “You Know Who I Am.” This was also Robert Downey Jr.’s Twitter bio for a period of time.

23. One scene was shot inside Epic Games, a video game development company known for the Gears of War franchise.

24. The scenes taking place in Chattanooga, Tennessee, were actually filmed in Kenansville, North Carolina. In real life, Chattanooga is a mid-sized, fairly modern town, and in an ironic twist, has some of the fastest internet speeds in the world.

25. Shane Black described the movie as a Tom Clancy thriller, with the focus on real world type villains, and not, “two men in iron suits fighting each other.”

26. Originally, Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Pictures were looking to shoot the movie in Michigan, due to the tax incentives. However, due to North Carolina guaranteeing a $20 million tax credit, the producers decided to shoot there instead.

27. Production was delayed on August 15, 2012, when Robert Downey Jr.’s ankle was injured in a stunt.

28. Shane Black initially said that he had no intention of doing the Mandarin at all, citing the character’s reputation as a racist stereotype as the reason.

29. Screenwriter Drew Pearce compared Tony Stark to an American James Bond, for both being, “Heroes with a sense of danger to them, and unpredictability.” He also likened Tony to the protagonists of 1970s movie, like The French Connection, where, “The heroes’ idiosyncrasies is what makes them exciting.”

30. Iron Man 3 marked the first time that Samuel L. Jackson didn’t appear in an Iron Man related movie as Nick Fury.