2008's Ironman blew me away in its depiction of the swaggering, quippy, and casually genius protagonist Tony Stark, played to perfection by Robert Downey Jr. After the lackluster comic book movies of the 90s and early oughts, I didn't really expect much, but Tony Stark turned out to be a man of science who made everything about physics and engineering seem like the coolest thing you could possibly do. The film inspired in me, as it did for many, an intense curiosity about tech and a desire to understand the world at large. In short, to learn as much as possible.