IRON MAN 1
Tony disappeared after a Stark Industries missile demonstration in the Middle East when the military convoy he was traveling in was attacked by terrorists. Mounting a search, Rhodes tried to find his friend, although their reunion did not come until months later, after Tony escaped, when Rhodes found the injured Stark trudging through the desert.
Tony came to visit Rhodes after announcing his plans to cease arms manufacture and asked Rhodes for help with a new private project. Rhodes disagreed with Tony's approach; he believed Stark was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder because of his capture and needed time to recover.
When Iron Man left a confrontation in the Middle East, two F-22 jet fighters spotted him and word of the sighting was quickly passed to Col. Rhodes. When asked about the status of any new developments, Rhodes contacted Tony, who denied any knowledge of the incident. Iron Man tried to outrun the jets but they were too much for him. Tony called Rhodes and revealed that he was responsible for the "unidentified craft." Rhodes was furious about Tony sending in unauthorized equipment, and horrified when Tony explained that the "equipment" was actually himself. Iron Man was hit by one fighter jet, sending him flying into the wing of the second jet. The pilot ejected, but the parachute failed to open. Iron Man, still under fire, managed to fly in and successfully deploy the parachute in time to save the pilot's life. Tony convinced Rhodes to pass off what happened with the jets as a "training exercise."
Rhodes arrived at Stark's mansion just after an altercation had transpired there between Tony and Obadiah Stane. He watched Tony suit up, awestruck at the Iron Man armor, saying that it was the "coolest" thing he had ever seen. As Tony flew away, Rhodes looked at the prototype armor Tony had built earlier, then shook his head and mumbled, "Next time, baby." Acting on Tony's orders, he is able to prevent the military from getting involved in Tony's fight against Stane by passing it off as a "routine training exercise".
Days later, Rhodes held a press conference about the incident with the two armored people, the same conference where Tony Stark revealed himself as Iron Man.
IRON MAN 2
James Rhodes is called upon to write a report analyzing Iron Man. He is used to try and convince Stark to hand the Iron Man armor over to the US Government. Later, Tony in his Mark IV armor gets drunk at his birthday party because he knows he is dying of palladium poisoning. Rhodes was forced to put on the Mark II armor to stop Tony from endangering his party guests. After the brawl that destroys half of his mansion, Rhodes flies back to the airbase. The Mark II is upgraded into the "JRXL-1000 Variable Threat Response Battle Suit" or "War Machine". Rhodes is selected as the pilot. During Justin Hammer's display of Hammer Drones at the Stark Expo, Ivan Vanko takes control of the drones and the War Machine armor, trying to use them to destroy Iron Man. Agent Romanoff of S.H.I.E.L.D. manages to reboot the system enabling Rhodes to regain control over his armor and he uses it to aid Iron Man in his fight against the drones. The two friends are then faced by a new and improved Whiplash. The pair defeat Whiplash and Rhodes decides to keep the suit. Stark and Rhodes are then awarded medals for their bravery by Senator Stern.
IRON MAN 3
Sometime after the battle at Stark Expo, a new version of the War Machine armor was created by Tony Stark in order to restore the original War Machine armor to its Iron Man MK II form, taking away any trace of Hammer technology, which Stark felt was an insult to his creation. Stark stated that he gave Rhodes the armor only because he trusted him and that the world needed another Iron Man at any time Stark wasn't available. Rhodes continued to use the War Machine armor, now re-branded as Iron Patriot, in a number of missions for the United States government. One of his primary objectives was to investigate a series of terrorist bombings that had plagued the world for some time, but without even residual bomb fragments to track, he found himself flying around the globe chasing one false lead after another. During one of his attempts to apprehend the phantom bomber in the Middle East he blasted into a small textile factory room, inadvertently freeing a number of enslaved women working there. One of them proved to be an Extremis-enhanced soldier however, and she disabled the suit's systems with a surprise attack before Rhodes could react.
Whilst still inside the Iron Patriot, Rhodes was taken to Miami and hauled before Aldrich Killian, the head of A.I.M and mastermind behind the Extremis soldiers. Killian wanted the Iron Patriot for his own goals and began torturing Rhodes with his exothermal abilities, until Rhodes was forced to exit the suit's confines. Initially intent on fighting his captors, he quickly gave up the fight when he witnessed the extent of Killian's Extremis power. Rhodes was able to escape and overpower a guard, confiscating the man's pistol in the process. It was after this escape that Stark contacted him about the Iron Patriot, and Rhodes informed him of Killian's theft of the suit. Together they confronted Trevor Slattery about Killian's plans and learned enough to understand that President Ellis was Killian's next target.
The pair set off on a boat to confront Killian at the coast where he had set up the next part of his plan on a salvaged Roxxon oil tanker. Stark spent part of the trip trying to rescue President Ellis remotely, but had to resort to tracing him to the oil tanker instead. There they found Ellis strung up, inside the Iron Patriot, to be incinerated in a very public execution, and with neither Stark nor Rhodes suited up they were left with the prospect of facing Killian's men armed only with their wits and a pair of 9mm pistols.
They resolved to rescue the president, but it wasn't long before their presence was detected and they found themselves facing a force of Extremis-enhanced soldiers. Fortunately Stark's backup plan of having a number of semi-autonomous Iron Man armors in reserve came to fruition, and Stark promptly took to the skies to fight the soldiers while Rhodes made his way to the president. He managed to free Ellis by turning one of the Iron Patriot's gauntlet repulsors onto a restraint. Once they were clear he donned the Iron Patriot himself and flew the president clear of the battle.
With the crisis averted, Rhodes had the Vice-President arrested for conspiring with Killian. He and Pepper were present in the operation where Tony had the shrapnel removed from his heart for good.
Rhodes is a "Soldier with a Conscience". He doesn't inherently want to kill, however if he is attacked, or has no other option he will. Though the toll of which will weigh on his mind.
Rhodes is depicted in the film wearing a "Brass Rat", the MIT school ring, indicating that in the film, he and Stark were graduates of the same college, and on his other hand he wears an Air Force Academy ring, suggesting that he received his masters degree from MIT after earning a "grad school slot" for high academic achievement while at USAFA.
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