| NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Justin Hammer from the Marvel Cinematic film series. The mainstream version can be found here: Justin Hammer (Marvel). |
| “ | I took stuff, how does that make you feel? Does it make you feel bad? Good, BECAUSE THAT'S HOW I FEEL!! | „ |
| ~ Justin Hammer’s Villanous Breakdown |
| “ | What I saw you did to Tony Stark on that track, how you stepped up to him in front of God and everybody, that was... WOW! | „ |
| ~ Justin Hammer explains how he was impressed by Vanko's intimidation and destruction at Monaco. |
Justin Hammer is the secondary antagonist of the 2010 Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Iron Man 2 and a minor character in the 2014 direct-to-video short film All Hail the King.
He is Tony Stark's business rival and the owner of Hammer Industries. When Stark leads him to lose his contract with the U.S. military, Hammer joins forces with Ivan Vanko to destroy Stark and his legacy. He also created the Judas Bullet that Diamondback attempts to use to kill Luke Cage.
He was portrayed by Sam Rockwell, who also portrayed William Wharton in The Green Mile, Eric Knox in Charlie's Angels, Zaphod Beeblebrox in The Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy, Randy Borland in Law & Order, Billy Bickle in Seven Psychopaths, Mortimer Ramsey in Dishonored 2, Jason Dixon in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Mr. Wolf in The Bad Guys.
Biography[]
Iron Man 2[]
In that version, Justin Hammer was portrayed a little different compared to the comic book version: Justin appeared to be younger than Tony Stark instead of being older, he whined when he didn't get his way, and appeared to be less intelligent.
Hammer was one of Tony's rivals. He owned Hammer Industries, a company that made weapons similar to those of Stark Industries, but he was not a match still for Tony's company and therefore worked with Thaddeus Ross to develop a single pilot close-quarter combat vehicle with full protection and attack capabilities to discredit Tony Stark's Iron Man, but his claims of it being invulnerable was quickly proven wrong as it was shot down by Congolese Army in a hostile territory, which only served to make Iron Man more popular as Stark successfully rescued the pilot.
Clearly displeased, Hammer continued his work on discrediting Tony Stark by attempting to use prototypes of the Arc Reactor for the purpose of creating a new version of the Iron Man Armor, to little avail, as all of the prototypes failed, even at one point leaving the tester's spine severely damaged. This would doom Hammer when he was called in as an expert during the senate committee meeting to prove that Tony's ego and monopoly of his armor was dangerous. Although at first Hammer put up an impressive struggle by arguing that all Stark's efforts as the Iron Man were not good enough to protect the world, noting that due to the creation of Iron Man, there would be threats which Stark would not be able to foresee, claiming Stark keeping the armor was selfish and dangerous, and Stern, the one who hired Hammer in the first place, then strengthened Hammer's words by showing there were many attempts from the enemies of America to replicate the armor and therefore meant the Iron Man Armor should be under Hammer Industries' watch, Tony simply responded by revealing to the senate Hammer's failure and that he had injured many in his attempts to replicate his tech, utterly humiliating him and causing his weapon contracts to be suspended.
Furious and backed to a corner, Hammer resolved to extreme measures while he and his assistant Jack watched Iron Man fight Whiplash. Hammer was impressed with Whiplash and planned to break him out of prison, while at the same time place a fake Whiplash to take his place so that they could perform a fake death.
Hammer and Whiplash made a deal with each other that if Ivan made a huge army of drones (known as Hammer Drones), they would use them to put an end to Tony's career. What Hammer didn't know was that Whiplash was planning to turn against him and destroy Tony with the drones.
During the unveiling of the Hammer Drones, Hammer is confronted by Tony, who has known of Hammer's true allegiance with Whiplash. However, Whiplash activates the Hammer Drones to attack the entire area, forcing Tony to use his Iron Armor to fight back. When Pepper Potts (Tony's girlfriend and temporary CEO of Stark Industries) found out that Hammer was working with Vanko, she called the cops on him.
Natasha Romanoff also forced Hammer to reveal Whiplash's current location at Hammer's building, where she finishes off several of Hammer's guards before finding out that Whiplash has escaped to fight Tony. Following Whiplash's death and the destruction of the Hammer Drones, Hammer is arrested for his crimes, and he vows revenge on Pepper for this.
All Hail The King[]
In the short film, Hammer is held a prisoner in Seagate Prison. During the end credits, he is seen watching Trevor Slattery (the actor who had been hired by the deceased Aldrich Killian to impersonate the Mandarin) in the prison cafeteria being admired and fawned over by other inmates. Unlike the other inmates, Hammer remarks that he doesn't understand Slattery's appeal and isn't impressed with him at all.
Personality[]
Justin Hammer is an egotistical industrialist and serves as Tony Stark's business rival. Hammer is overconfident, but he is also incompetent when it comes to the caliber of his technology. For example, an attempt to copy Tony Stark's Iron Man Armor results in the pilot's injury, the out-of-date software at Hammer Industries is referred to as "shit" by Ivan Vanko, and the Ex-Wife Missile, despite being marketed as a weapon of mass destruction, barely scratches Vanko's second Whiplash Armor.
Hammer Industries started engaging in legally questionable activities to finally get the upper hand over Stark after the media kept diverting attention away from Hammer Industries to Stark, especially after the revelation of Iron Man's identity and his subsequent humiliation. Hammer even broke the terrorist Ivan Vanko out of prison and convinced him to help Hammer. Although he calls himself a businessman, Justin Hammer lacks original ideas, as evidenced by his creation of the Hammer Expo a few months after Stark's own Expo, which he lined with drones (though Hammer initially requested suits instead), as well as his sale of the War Machine Suit despite the fact that Rhodes from Stark Industries gave it to him.
As he did with Vanko, Hammer is also prepared to put up with constant criticism of himself and his business for a while in order to advance the cause. Hammer may, however, go into rage-filled, nearly temper-traumatic rants against someone who has mistreated him when pushed to the limit.
Powers and Abilities[]
Hammer, although not to the same level of Tony Stark, was still an exceptionally intelligent individual with superb engineering and business skills. This is shown by how he had developed weapons of sufficiently high level to impress the US Government and replace Stark Industries when they stopped making weapons for the government and even before that he had already been a strong rival of Stark Industries with several military and government contacts.
Gallery[]
