Iron Lung (2026) Thoughts

Got back from watching Iron Lung, the new hit movie from the mind of Markiplier. I do have to say, it was a wonderful and refreshing feat of filmmaking creativity and of a video game adaptation done right. This movie hits all the marks for me and was super fun to watch all the way through. Even me with ADHD brain sometimes and even me who gets real sleepy during night theater shows was completely engaged all throughout to the point where it didn't feel like 2 hours of run time at all. Iron Lung is so impressive to me, like a movie based on that game seems so strange when I first heard about it but Markiplier and his team hits it out of the park on so many regards. It's definitely a labor of love, and I think this film deserves its props beyond having his name attached to it.

Some things that blew me away was the overall narrative structure and the willingness to really slow things down to control the pacing and the drama. The premise itself is pretty much a linear one: take this submarine into this pool of blood waters and take some cool pictures. Main character goes down, takes some pictures, things go wrong, things go really wrong, and the whole climax and resolution happens. Simple enough, right? But keeping a good pacing for two hours is not an easy task, but balancing between dialogue scenes and scenes where there is no talking but the literal actions and more creative would-be actions from the game - running back and forth to take pictures, dialing in coordinates while not crashing into walls, mapping and pinpointing landmarks, messing around with computers and systems - it makes it all flow really well. I've read comments about how this film should be shorter or goes on for too long, and to that I say you sit your butt down and listen. I loved how this film doesn't have to be all action all the time like a lot of the recent films I have been watching in theaters. Slow, quiet moments can still have intensity and doesn't need to have a lot of motion on screen to be exciting. And to be literally on the same set for the entire movie and still have it be dynamic and sectioned like the crawlspace and the back computer space, and to have the excitement of discovery despite it being such a small and unassuming setting just goes to show how strong the writing and how strong the overall design is. Again, super cool to see.

I'll leave it on this point: I absolutely love Markiplier's acting and writing throughout this film. With his lengthy career as an entertainer I can see some people having a hard time separating his "gaming persona" from his character as the convict, but I think he achieves a balance here too as well. The convict goes into fits of rage and borderline psychosis, and contrasts that with both little moments of victory and of regret with a tinge of extreme sadness. These emotions we see with Markiplier in his career videos but I feel that it hits different in a film context. In a way, I felt he is a lot more subtle yet puts a lot of care in his portrayal as this character in a way that separates what he does for his other projects. For example, the scene near the end where he talks to the speaker who is shocked to know that he is still alive despite days of no contact - he blends once more his rage to then a feeling of acceptance of his fate to having a hint of hope after unvealing a new piece of information to ultimately bargaining which leads to the final call to action. Such a wide spectrum of emotions in such a short amount of time was really impressive to witness, and honestly these were really cool moments. Lines like "I never told you my name" may be a bit corny but given the context and the later on reiteration of "what is my name" followed by a blank silence just, to me, hits so hard.

Also, to be honest, I think I got the majority of the story (though some of the speaker stuff was hard to hear due to I think audio mixing and also by stylistic design effects) but there are parts of vagueness and up-to-interpretation type beats that I do love especially with this narrative. Sometimes things are more fun when they are not explicitly explained and can be discussed with others for their thoughts, especially with how Iron Lung the game leaves a lot of room for interpretation. To take that inspiration and add your own spin of the main character, the overall setting, the idea of the antagonistic force, and create an ending that I think is satisfying is all such an amazing feat of art and film that I am so glad that this got made, came out, and can be experienced by so many.

Iron Lung is one of my favorite films I have watched this year, and I think one that I'll be thinking about for a while. I definitely recommend it, if not for Markiplier who put so much love and care for it then for a stellar example of how you adapt a video game idea to a movie in the best way possible.