2008's Iron Man was a gamble for Marvel, but became the beginning of a cultural phenomenon. Not only did it launch the B-List armored Avenger into the mainstream, but it subsequently spawned the massively popular Marvel Cinematic Universe. The movie also cemented Iron Man's origin to the general public, with his capture by terrorists and building of the Iron Man armor becoming as well known as Peter Parker's spider bite.
However, since the film's release, there's always been one question surrounding this origin story: where was James "Rhodey" Rhodes at the time of the attack? Tony Stark's military contact and friend, Rhodey was strangely nowhere to be seen when Tony was captured. Now, a deleted scene released on Disney+ answers where Rhodey was during this pivotal scene -- but in doing so adds more plot holes to the movie.
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The Capture of Tony Stark
The first movie dove right into the action that became Iron Man's origin story, with Tony and Rhodey flying into Afghanistan for the former to show off his new weapons. All seems to be going well, with Tony enjoying a relaxing drink while riding in a military convoy. Suddenly, the vehicles are attacked by an unseen enemy, with Tony Stark the obvious target. The result is Tony's capture by the Ten Rings terrorists, who make a video to publicize his kidnapping.
One of the biggest questions that arose from this scene is the whereabouts of Rhodey during this catastrophe. After all, as Stark's military liaison and friend, he would have likely been around his vehicle when all of this transpired. It also makes trying to find Tony an afterthought, as if no one really attempted to save him. This issue is slightly touched upon in a deleted scene added to the film, but this only serves to add an even bigger plot hole.
Iron Man's Deleted Scene
Disney+ released a deleted scene from the original Iron Man that was taken out of the theatrical release. In this scene, it's shown that Rhodey's vehicle is behind Tony's in the military convoy before it's attacked. Although this solves the mystery of where the heck Rhodey was during this event, it makes his lack of doing anything even more suspect.
This scene does not show Rhodey trying to get to Tony or doing anything at all once the attack starts. If he had been incapacitated while trying to get to his friend, that would be one thing. It would also make their tearful reunion all the more dramatic, as saving Tony would have literally fallen through Rhodey's fingers.
The fact that Rhodey just doesn't show up anymore once the fighting starts is incredibly strange, and speaks to why the scene was taken out. Likely, director Jon Favreau didn't want to have a full on battle sequence in this scene and wanted Tony's capture to be quick and get straight to the point. Thus, this snippet was removed entirely to not beg the question of what Rhodey was doing. It's also worth mentioning that, in most cases, deleted scenes are not considered canon to an actual film. This is definitely the case here, where the deleted scene literally contradicts or adds more plot holes to a movie, in essence making it worse.