Iron Man 3 Memorial Scene: Is It Really What It Looks Like?

In the Iron Man 3 trailer, Tony Stark seems to be struggling to deal with the events of the alien attack on New York in The Avengers. Stark says, "I've got a lot of apologies to make. Nothing's been the same since New York. You experience things, and then they are over. I can't sleep, and when I do, I have nightmares. Honestly, there's a hundred people that want to kill me." As Tony Stark is talking about New York and nightmares, there is a memorial scene with crosses and flowers shown. The impression given by the way the scene is cut into the trailer is that it's a memorial for victims of the alien attack on New York, but is it really? Comicbook.com paid a visit to the Rose Hill, North Carolina set where this scene was filmed back in July. On the Rose Hill town set, all the surrounding building indicated that the scene took pace in a small town in Tennessee and not New York. Now, it could be argued that maybe this one particular scene was set in New York even though the rest of the scenes were set in Tennessee. Or it could also be argued that maybe the residents of the small town in Tennessee are mourning a popular townsperson who was lost in the New York attacks. However, we don't think that is the case, because of the signs that appeared on the building next to the memorial. Several of the signs referenced a particular individual named Mike, who was dressed in military camouflage on the photos attached to one of the signs. There were also several references to the date 12/12 and Christmas not being the same again. In addition, there was a huge impact crater in the pavement and a burned out building next to the memorial. Every indication from the set was that some tragic event had happened in that exact spot, which the local townspeople had set up a memorial around. Our guess is that the memorial is for some tragic event that happens in a small Tennessee town in the movie, and the trailer is cut in just such a way to try to throw viewers off and make them think it is for the events that happened in New York.