Hello everybody my name is Noah Coss and Tommy Steimer…

On March 10, 2022, an indie game developer, David Szymanski, made a small horror game called Iron Lung. The game is about a convict piloting a very small one-man submarine, named the Iron Lung, in an ocean of blood. You must navigate the ocean, taking X-ray pictures of the bottom of the ocean, and the camera is the only way to see outside of the sub. You click two buttons to move forward and backward, two buttons to change the direction of the sub, and one button to take weird, low-quality images. The game is quite suspenseful because you don’t ever know what is outside the submarine, aside from the vague, creepy pictures that you take. Aside from that and the provided in-game lore, there isn’t much else to the game. Which begs the question, how did the self-financed indie film adaptation of this little game make $21 million at the box office in one weekend?

On May 19, 2022, Mark Fischbach, the famous YouTuber known as Markiplier, made the video titled “IRON LUNG,” where he played and completed the short game in about an hour. The video gathered millions of views and was a really good and enjoyable video. Part of that was because Markiplier really got into the role of playing the convict. Then he actually became the convict… For the next couple of years, he wrote, directed, produced, starred, self-financed, and self-distributed the indie film Iron Lung, based on the game of the same name. The film premiered on (really the day before) January 30th, 2026, making $9 million opening day and around $21 million at the end of the weekend. Mind you, the film had a $3 million budget and was self-made, with no major studio backing it or anything.

This is a truly huge moment for indie cinema and the industry in general because, nowadays, the major motion pictures dominating the box office are NOTHING like Iron Lung. As of right now, the movies that have everyone’s attention are produced by big studios and made by big-name directors. Avatar: Fire and Ash, Marty Supreme, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, and Send Help, director Sam Rami’s newest film, produced by 20th Century, have been the A-Listers dominating the playing field. Meanwhile, this little indie YouTuber passion project has been fighting tooth and nail for even the bottom spot on the leaderboard, when it really deserves number one.

Throughout his YouTube career, Markiplier has made very good long-form content on the platform. His Iron Lung (2022) playthrough video is a very good example of that because it was one of his longer videos and was very fun to watch. But Iron Lung (2026) is on a completely different level than what he has done in the past. Ethan Maciel states, “Markiplier has made short, movie-like things before, but nothing to this scale. It truly was impressive.” It’s really an understatement to call this movie impressive because it is so much more than another really good indie film. It is a triumph for indie cinema and a satisfying slap in the face to the current state of Hollywood.

There are many good things about the Iron Lung, so much so that it’s hard to find where to start. First of all, the film is not your typical big-budget Hollywood blockbuster, even though it genuinely feels like one. What’s impressive about Iron Lung is that it is able to look and feel like an $100 million production, all thanks to the passionate small crew Markiplier’s clear $3 million vision. Almost every shot feels very pre-planned and executed with the utmost precision. Because the set is one very small confined space, wide shots become very boring very quickly and can make the film feel dull. However, this becomes a 2nd thought issue because of how interesting the camera angles are. Most of the shot types are really uniquely framed close-ups and medium close-ups, which give you a good look at the details of the distinct, filthy, rusty, and ominous set design.

The set that they shot the film on was at Troublemaker Studios in Austin, Texas, using with a 9,000-pound custom submarine set mounted on a hydraulic armature. Mark was actually being thrown and shaken around inside a rusty container, which significantly assisted the production value of the film as well as the overall horror tone. Not to the 80,000 gallons of fake blood, which is more than any film in cinema history. The inside of the sub looks exactly like it does in the game, with a few minor changes here and there, keeping the same ugly, creepy, horror look. Anytime the sub moves, it feels as if it will begin to implode any minute, thanks to the loud rattles and controlled shakes. The film really accomplishes its goal at providing that desired tone with its impressive set, paired with great camera angles, a good ominous score, and an engaging direction that feels like it came from a top-tier filmmaker.

Now, as good as it looks and sounds, it’s undeniably a slow film, yet it really uses that to its advantage and somehow never gets boring. First of all, Iron Lung is a cosmic sci-fi horror movie about navigating what cannot be seen. The setting within the film is a very dark ocean of blood, which is already an ominous start, tagged with a set that feels like it’s about to collapse under the devastating ocean pressure. Rhiannon Olson says, “I absolutely loved the submarine breaking down throughout the movie and watching it slowly fill with blood. It really helped build suspense.” That deliberate rise is what really brings the horror aspects home, by having different instances that slowly push the protagonist to insanity, the suspense really sticks.

To be completely straight, the entire movie just somehow sticks. The vision is so clear-cut that it actually manages to take the tiny 45-minute game and make a 2-hour film out of it. In the Iron Lung game, the protagonist doesn’t face all too many challenges, aside from the fire. In the Iron Lung film, the protagonist becomes an actual character with some level of depth and faces several challenges.

The photos that the Convict are exponentially scarier than anything seen in the game, and the build-up is handled very well. Navigating the ocean becomes a serious and scary issue that, at times, feels life-threatening. There are moments where the main character is hallucinating, and you as the audience, believe it because the decline in the Convict’s mental state is handled properly. A lot of that buildup, claustrophobia, and insanity has to do with how Mark Fischbach directed the scenes, but his performance is nothing to dismiss either.

Many people obviously held concerns because this is a YouTuber leading the film; however, his performance isn’t half bad. At first, it does kind of feel like Markiplier is doing a genuine and serious take on the role he played in the IRON LUNG YouTube video. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing since it makes for a good survivor. But as the film progresses, Mark starts to fit into the lead more comfortably, feeling less like role-playing a survivor and more like being a flawed person with hatred and guilt. That takes skill, especially since he is the only cast member holding our attention for the majority of the film. That would come naturally, though, since he has kept the retention of millions of viewers from just one camera angle in the corners of god knows how many YouTube videos.

What also takes skill is writing a film like this, which, if done wrong, can be extremely stale and boring. There are a few things that Mark does correctly when writing the script. Despite taking place in a tiny one-man submarine, Mark manages to find multiple ways to get the most out of The Iron Lung. By utilizing claustrophobia, intense delusions, and ever changing obstacles that the Convict faces, the film never feels really feels dull. The film also has multiple characters, with some level of depth, talking over the intercom, keeping the dialogue from sounding stale. “You really get thrown in with these characters at the very start, and you don’t feel anything towards them or know who they are.” Ethan Maciel explains, “As the film goes on and we start to understand these characters more, you really start to care and empathize with them.” Although the film’s narrative is a bit weak at times, it still has a story with characters that grow and react realistically under such tension, as well as natural dialogue exchanges between characters. For some viewers, that really isn’t enough to justify the 2-hour runtime, but for others, it’s plenty.

Whether the movie is for you or not, because it definitely might not be, it is undeniably one of the biggest movies of the year so far, despite being a YouTuber indie film. To think that a content creator could make a blockbuster-style film out of his own pocket, have the most fake blood in any movie ever made, lead it himself both on and behind the camera, go toe to toe with the biggest movies at the box office, and come out at number 1, twice. The story behind the making of this film is just so inspiring, showing that you don’t need the biggest budget, the biggest studio, the biggest crew, or the biggest IP. You just need a dream, and Iron Lung (2026) is the shining product of a true visionary. Take notes, Hollywood!

Absolute cinema…