By Konner Kern

Mark Edward Fishbach, more commonly known as Markiplier, made his directorial debut with
the movie Iron Lung. Iron lung is a movie based on the video game with the same name, which
was released in 2022. The game wasn’t made by Markiplier, but Markiplier loved the game so
much that he made a movie about it. He saw it as a “awesome idea with great lore.” He pitched
the movie to the creator of Iron Lung and he wanted it to happen. Mark stars, directed, wrote,
and produced this movie over the course of a year. So how did the movie preform?

Iron Lung is a horror game of the player in a submarine nicknamed, “The Iron Lung.” The lore is
about the entire universe ending named, “The Quiet Rapture.” You are placed in the submarine
on this barren moon, and you navigate through a blood ocean. Take pictures of anomalies or
inconsistencies, put out fires, and try to escape before the ship wears out. The gameplay is very
simple, just navigate to certain waypoints and capture photos of anomalies. It boils down to
simple gameplay but charming visuals. Everything is much more clear in the movie.

The movie starts off with our main protagonist named, “The Convict.” He is in the Iron Lung and
talking to someone on the speakers. The woman on the speakers doesn’t have a name but The
Convict is still confused how he got there. His mission is to find missing planets and stars, and
he has no idea what he is doing. While he is deep in the blood ocean, he mentions that
something is alive down there. The woman gets concerned and sends him back up to the
surface to the lab. When the convict starts to get angry, he uses the flash. He didn’t know that it
was radiation, and a doctor named Jack, (played by JackSepticEye), gets hit by it. The woman
sends The Convict back down to the blood ocean and continues his journey through the blood
ocean. He gets angry with this revelation but continues to move through the ocean.

The Convict starts to examine the ship and finds a computer from the radiation flash. He
continues to investigate till he finds a note that says, ‘cross the wires.’ Convict does exactly that
and the computer turns on. He looks through the files and finds his brother was also on this
ship. Which means the lady lied to The Convict because she said he was the first down in the
blood ocean. The Convict is rightfully mad at this and shuts off the computer. He continues
going through the blood ocean and the intercom turns back on. The lady talks to the convict,
and she tells him that he was the first one. The Convict calls her out and she admits the truth.
After a while, the intercom turns off.

The Convict is still on his journey to take pictures of more anomalies. There are some obstacles
like the submarine catching on fire. A little later, the entire ship starts falling about with glass
breaking and the oxygen running low. The Convict goes under the ship and turns off a switch to
get rid of all the blood. More encounters include The Convict going insane with hallucinations of
his past. It cuts to a tree and kids being around it. Then, a bunch of blood and flashing images of
people, the dream ends. The intercom starts bugging out and a person continually says the
phrase, “Hull breach.” The convict keeps getting mad until he punches it with the intercom
oozing blood. The Convict gets out of the hallucinations, and the woman is speaking in an
urgent tone. The woman is panicked and tells The Convict a way for him to escape. He needs to
head to a certain area, and he only has 30 minutes to get there. Before The Convict leaves, he
wants to know his name. The lady says that his name is Simon, and she reveals her name Ava.
Simon leaves to try and make it to the event on time. Unfortunately, a creature found the ship
and the entire ship is filled to the brim with blood. Simon is drowning and becomes deformed
from the radiation flashes he has been doing this whole movie. The movie ends with Simon
drowning in blood and the credits rolling.

Iron Lung fulfilled it’s potential to be a good adaptation to the video game with some people
saying it was better than it. The movie made around 17 million dollars in the box office on its
opening weekend. The movie was all self-funded by Markiplier and costed them three million
dollars to make. For a few days, it was even billeted number one above many major movies like
Melania, the Donald Trump movie, Send Help, the huge Sam Rami comeback movie. This is
huge for indie movies and will change Hollywood forever.

Graphic by Philip Berkwit