Robert Downey Jr. David Fincher's mystery thriller "Zodiac", which was based on a true story. He played the role of "San Francisco Chronicle" journalist Paul Avery, who was reporting the Zodiac Killer case. With all of the critical success Downey had experienced throughout his career, he had not appeared in a "blockbuster" film. That changed in 2008, when Downey starred in two critically and commercially successful films, "Iron Man" and "Tropic Thunder". In the article Ben Stiller wrote for Downey's entry in the 2008 edition of "The Time 100", he offered an observation on Downey's commercially successful summer at the box office: In
Robert Downey Jr. named Downey the worst "SNL" cast member in its entire run, stating that the "Downey Fail sums up everything that makes "SNL" great." That same year, Downey had a dramatic acting breakthrough when he played James Spader's sidekick in "Tuff Turf" and then a bully in John Hughes's "Weird Science". He was considered for the role of Duckie in John Hughes's film "Pretty in Pink" (1986), but his first lead role was with Molly Ringwald in "The Pick-up Artist" (1987). Because of these and other coming-of-age films Downey did during the 1980s, he is sometimes named as a member of