Iron Lung: The Human Within
The Overview:
Iron Lung is a movie directed and written by Markiplier (Mark Fischbach), a very popular YouTuber. The movie came out on January 30th, 2026, and broke Hollywood. But how is the question?
Let's start with what Iron Lung is.
Iron Lung is a psychological and body-sci-fi horror movie dripping with mystery and, yes, blood. The story is set during the Quiet Rapture around 2370. The movie starts with this eerie introduction.
“The stars are gone. The planets have disappeared.
They were barely enough of us left to give "the end" a name. The Quiet Rapture.
Supplies dwindle. Infrastructure crumbles. Too few to rebuild. Too many to feed. Humanity decays.
But don't despair, my sons. I tell you now that there is more to these moons than meets the eye.
The Consolidation. They hide their technology. Their people. They won't tell you what they found. But I will.
One moon stands apart from the rest. And in the darkness of that moon:
An ocean of blood.”
So yeah. Interesting world to say the least.
What I understand about the Quiet Raptures is that something just happened. Nothing big or flashy, something just started to slowly and quickly kill everything. Things just started collapsing for one reason or another, and no one knows why.
The biggest clue the last of humanity could find was this moon with an ocean of blood chilling on it. Spooky and kinda weird. But this moon, AT-5 or affectionately known as the Blood moon, is potentially the key to humanity's survival. Throughout the movie, you do get more clues about what the blood really is and how it can help or annihilate what’s left of humanity.
Our main protagonist is the convict, Simon. (When you first hear his name, it is important, so pay attention to it.) Simon has one thing on his mind. Live. Nothing else matters, but he lives and is free. Simon will do everything in his power to live and be free, even if it means bargaining with a god he doesn’t believe in. I hear he wants the most in the movie trailer quote, “I just want to live. Is that so wrong? Why doesn't anybody else want that?” That quote hits my heart every time. Simon isn’t quite a morally gray or anti-hero; he is simply human. Markiplier captures this so well, from his movements, his tone, everything just screams a human who wants out. And why does he want out? He is welded shut in a very… not safe-looking submarine called the Iron Lung. Hence the title. Oh, also, there’s an ocean of blood I mentioned? Yeah, they dropped in, with only a camera to defend him with.
This camera does have a reason. Simon’s mission is to collect picture evidence for a group known as the Consolidation of Iron (or the C.O.I or the Consolidation). The Consolidation is a democracy that is doing everything it can to keep humanity alive. Captain Ava emphasizes it by saying, “There aren’t enough of us left to be throwing lives away, but there is too much at stake not to take calculated risks.” Simon is at risk for the Consolidation, and what is in it for Simon? His freedom.
Blood is not the only thing moving on this moon. There is something down there. Not the Frog or the Lizard from the games, but something more. Similar to the games, Simon finds a skeleton sparking the Captain into learning more, keeping Simon down there longer, with something that looked back at him in the photos. And it doesn’t want him going anywhere.
I do want to talk about the main reason I watched Iron Lung. When Iron Lung started becoming popular, I finished a TV writing class, which taught me that the only way to get your picture on the big screen is through Hollywood. Yeah…. Guess who decided to say, “Screw that,” and made a movie without involving Hollywood. Markiplier. He looked at this game he loved with all his heart and decided he wanted to make something not just for him, but for his fans as well. He didn’t want anything to be corrupted by corporations or Hollywood. He wanted his movie. This movie was funded by the fans for the fans. He showed indie directors that they don’t need to be in bed with Hollywood to make a great movie. You just need your loyal fans.
Here is the fun part. Hollywood is now scared of Markiplier. A Youtuber of all things to break into the #1 movie spot for 90 hours until it dropped to second then picked right back up to first. Then it vanished off the charts. Completely. Like someone removed it. (Side eyes Hollywood) Not saying it was them... but it was most likely them. The "smaller" people are now realizing they have a shot and Markiplier is paving the way and adding guard rails. So, who knows what the future of the Movie industry will look know.
My Thoughts:
So, I have a confession. I could have cared less about this movie when I first heard about it. I’m serious. I had no desire to watch it, even after my boyfriend told me about it. I didn’t even know who Markiplier was. Hi, sheltered child, I know. I wasn’t really big into the gaming community, still not really, but my boyfriend is fixing it. So, Iron Lung remained off my radar for a while.
Then Markiplier kept popping up on my for you page.
Among us is what brought me in. I recognized the name from my siblings' COVID era and said might as well. Then his group Markiplier's series, and here we are. While I am not a dedicated fan… I did hunt him down and Twitch to follow him.
On one of his newer videos, he mentioned ‘Iron Lung.’ Me beinging a curious little Bard, decided to look up the trailers and… yeah, my boyfriend was right. I was hooked. It took everything in my power not to research more about the game and movie possibilities, so I could have a clean slate. Then I dragged two of my friends and my boyfriend to the last showing in my theatre. And I loved it.
I did end up becoming the fan who, from February to May, I Googled when I could buy Iron Lung. And when the day was announced, I saved the date on my calendar and bought it the moment it came out. And now I’ve watched it like 7 times. I have no regrets.
One of the reasons why I have no regrets is how much the story tells you, without telling you. There are many theories about what Iron Lung’s symbolism means and what really happened. I’ll go through two of them in the spoilers section. But Markiplier does a fantastic job showing them using something in the movies. Every line, every angle, and every shot hints at something; it just takes you a couple of watches to figure it all out.
The Realism behind the movie is fantastic. Medically, Simon would be all over the place like the movie shows. He shows accurate signs of pressure sickness, concussion, alcohol poisoning, and oxygen deprivation. Let’s just say… I’m surprised Simon made it through the first hour of the movie.
Suspense has been something horror movies have struggled with. Markiplier does something not a lot of horror media has done. He stepped away from jump scares and focused on suspense. There were no really big jump scares to release the suspense. You literally have the suspense in the back of your head for the entire movie. And I mean the entire movie.
The main reason I love this movie is that you need to do research and watch the movie all over again. I love movies like this because it gives the creators more room to build. Instead of rushing and condensing all the information into one poorly made movie, Markiplier decided to let us try to use our heads to figure it out. I’ve had the most fun researching and talking to my friends about the theories about this movie. My ADHD brain is very happy.
I do HIGHLY recommend this movie. One, it is one of my favorite movies for the reasons above. Two, you are helping the indie community smack big corporations in the face. Markiplier showed Indie Creators should not be messed with. It brings me hope as an indie creator trying to make a name for myself.
But here is the graph to see if you are comfortable watching it.
The Graph:
Language- It’s Markiplier, and he likes to cuss a lot! Mostly F and S’ bomb.
Explicit Material- Simon takes his shirt off. That’s it.
Violence (adding blood and gore)- Other than the obvious ocean of blood, the end is particularly graphic. Simon does get tossed around quite a bit, and he performs poorly done first aid.
Drug/Alcohol use- Simon downs a thing of Rubbing Alcohol.
Non-Problematic- I’m keeping this at a lower because the movie is very intense, while there are some funny moments, but overall, it will mess with your head.
Name Meaning:
Simon - (Hebrew) "to hear," "listening," or "he has heard."
Ava - (Hebrew) "Life," "breath," or "living one." (Latin) “Bird” or “bird-like.”
David - (Hebrew) "beloved" or "dear one".
Ellie - (Greek and French) "Bright shining one" or "Light" (Hebrew) "God is my oath" or "My God."
Links for you:
Iron Lung: Iron Lung Movie,Iron Lung Merch
Where to play: Steam, GoG, PlayStation, Nintendo
Deep Dives: The Christian Theory, The Other God Theory, A Deep Dive, Another Deep Dive, The Making of Iron Lung
Hollywood: Penguin0z, Colin and Samir, Markiplier himself, OR just use this link to see what I searched and got.
Medical: Doctor ER
The Spoilers:
The Ellie Theory: This theory is pretty widely accepted among the fans. There are different interpretations of the theory. Ellie is the crew from SM-8… and probably the other Iron Lung Divers… tbd. Her name is a combination of her two voice actors, and Captain Ava’s voice comes through at the end when she gets absorbed by this creature. Official art, done by Molly Brown (deadlymelodic), is eerily human-like. This includes: merged skulls, limbs coming out of her eel-like body, and a second set of human teeth behind her angler-like teeth. If you want to see a clear photo of Ellie, click here. Videos: The Christian Theory, The Other God Theory, A Deep Dive, and Another Deep Dive.
The god Theory: One of the popular theories is that the Quiet Rapture is happening because a god peered into this universe and tried to change it to become like its own. This theory dives into different lines that Ellie states during her time leading Simon to the light. She asks if Simon believes in ‘god.’ Simon refuses to talk about it. Understandable. Where I see this making sense is the line exchange between Simon and a male voice. The male voice breaks through the chaos of Simon seeing the light and says, ‘I see you.’ Simon, seeing an eye, repeats it back. The voice then says, ‘I agree.’ Then chaos becomes insanity. I want you guys to watch this movie, so I’m going to emphasize and pay attention to the lines. Videos: The Other God Theory
The Christian Theory: This theory is steeped more in the visuals and potential symbolism that laces the movie. Specifically, Simon’s name. Simon is one of the only one who’s character name is not the same as their actor’s. Simon is one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ, and one of his most brutal. Both Simon the Zealot and Simon Peter had violent tendencies, similar to our Simon the Butcher. There is a lot in this theory, so I recommend watching some videos on it to get a real feel for it. Videos: The Christian Theory
The Blood is human: Yeah… that. It also has some sort of corrupting and changing element to it. It’s hinted that Ellie was created by the blood merging of the SM-8 crew. And when blood began to seep into the sub, then onto him. Simon began to change and turn into something else.
Why Simon?: This was the question posed by my mother, which then she proceeded to answer. Simon was human. And he kept his humanity. Simon never once did something that was ‘against’ human nature. Simon changed everything because he refused to be anything other than human.
Simon’s Mom didn’t want him to be a killer: One of the last lines Simon says is ‘Keep it safe, Mom. This is bigger than me.’ as he tied the belt that held his dagger around the black box in the life jacket. Daggers are not attack weapons; they are made for defense. Simon’s Mom knew Simon was the key to survival, and the dagger was to remind him what the real mission was. Saving humanity, not humans.
The death of Simon means the hope of Humanity: Plot twist! Simon dies. After the blood overtakes the sub and the tree grows, destroying Ellie and the sub, the black box tied with Simon’s bullet bob to the surface. This box supposedly contains the answers to not only the Quiet Rapture but also how humanity can stay alive.
Thank you so much! For reading my rantings and my random links. Definitely a 5 star movie and deserves all the love it got. Let me know your theories or what you thought of the movies. And if you could create any movie what would it be? You never know what will be the next big hit, until you give it a try.
Keep turning pages. Bard out!
Okay, this is pretty epic. Never new how one of these reviews would turn out but i love the personal touch and facts you have in here. It was very cool to see a chart that explains how “intense” the movie can be, I really enjoyed it especially because most films just slap a rating and leave, its so annoying that a movie like, “saving private ryan”, has the same rating as “Game of thrones” when the explicit content is drastically different.
Seeing that you have the links of your research posted too just helps readers to better understand where your coming from and i liked that as well.
Overall great summary of the movie and personal perspective, cant wait…