Iron Lung Finds Humanity in a Dying Universe

By Staff Writer Eleanor Chen

Stars have disappeared. Planets, along with the humans once inhabiting them, are gone. No one has no trace or knowledge for why — only the sinking dread that this apocalypse, dubbed the Quiet Rapture, has doomed humanity to a dying universe. Released on January 30, Iron Lung follows Simon (Mark Fischbach), a convict forced into a dangerous solo mission in a failing, outdated submarine, known as the Iron Lung. In exchange for the promise of freedom from prison, Simon must investigate mysterious anomalies of once-barren moons now filled with blood oceans. 

What begins as a simple bargain quickly becomes a psychological descent as Simon is lost, communication cut from the mission’s captain, and hallucinations warp the line between reality and the impossible. Most of the movie is set in a dark submarine, where the only way to see the outside world is through cryptic, static images taken by the vessel’s camera. The profound shift in Simon’s mental state is shaped by both the isolation and fearful knowledge that an organism lurks outside. At the start, he’s nihilistic with a bleak outlook for humanity’s future. But as the ship crumbles around him, Simon finds hope and the will to continue fighting. It’s an immensely difficult change to convey, especially without professional training or experience, but Fischback is able to walk this delicate balance effectively: dramatic moments capture intense emotions, teetering on the brink of insanity, while suffocating silences capture emotional depth.

The film is faithfully adapted from the first-person horror video game Iron Lung. Fischbach, better known as Markiplier on YouTube, is the lead actor, director, co-writer, and editor. Unlike most first-time directors, Fischbach didn’t rely on traditional studio systems, instead funding much of the project himself and exercising creative control over the final product. Despite the minimal marketing consisting mostly of YouTube videos, Iron Lung grossed around $18 million in its opening week — six times as much as its original budget of $3 million — largely thanks to fans contacting theaters, turning what was meant to be a limited release into thousands of screenings. 

Iron Lung closely mirrors the game from long silences, slow, monotonous tasks, limited visibility, and confinement in a small, real submarine. Spending two hours staring at a depiction of a gloomy submarine interior could have easily been boring, but the carefully crafted cinematography consistently finds new angles to keep viewers engaged and the haunting soundtrack immerses them. Tight camera angles showcasing the Iron Lung heighten the claustrophobia and isolation, and light on screen is utilized to its fullest. As the movie took place mostly in the dark, light is played to make the audience fear it. Whenever the camera on board flashes, the screen lights up with a bright, white light, slowly dimming to reveal distorted visuals, terrifying the audience itching to see creatures lurking in the blood ocean.

Despite the excellent immersion, the movie can be incredibly confusing. The pacing starts off slow, but as it builds in both speed and intensity as Simon loses his mind, the plot quickly becomes too much to comprehend with such little information to go off of. Without prior knowledge of the game, an explanation becomes increasingly difficult to grasp. The only method of understanding this world is through gleaning information through Simon’s sparse arguments with Captain Ava (Caroline Kaplan) over the radio. However, the film was constrained to the little explanation given by the original game — which intentionally offers minimal exposition and leaves much of its world ambiguous — overall limiting the information that can be explored in the film without straying too far from its source material.  

Overall, Iron Lung was never meant to be a movie to wow people for years to come. Fischback originally meant the movie itself to be for like-minded fans of the game. However, as an unconventional movie, breaking Hollywood film production molds, and as Markiplier’s film debut, it incredibly captures humanity’s will and hope to live despite the odds. Iron Lung isn’t just any movie — it’s proof that indie passion projects still have a place to be appreciated in cinema.