Iron Lung (film)

Iron Lung (film)

Iron Lung is a 2026 American independent science fiction horror film written, edited, and directed by Mark "Markiplier" Fischbach. It is based on the 2022 video game by David Szymanski. It stars Markiplier, Caroline Kaplan, Troy Baker, Elsie Lovelock, Elle LaMont, Mick Lauer, Seán McLoughlin (Jacksepticeye), and Isaac McKee. The plot follows a convict named Simon (Markiplier) who is forced to pilot a submarine through an ocean of blood on a desolate moon; following a post-apocalyptic event known as the "Quiet Rapture" that caused all the stars and most planets along with their human inhabitants to disappear without warning.

Development on an Iron Lung film adaptation began in April 2023, when Markiplier announced he would be adapting the game into film. Markiplier, who had previously played Iron Lung on his YouTube channel, stated it would be self written, self financed, and star himself alongside Kaplan. Szymanski had been involved with it since pre-production, assisting with its screenplay and being on set during filming.

Iron Lung was self released by Markiplier in North America on January 30, 2026. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $52 million.

Plot

Iron Lung (film)

In the distant future, an event called the "Quiet Rapture" causes all stars and planets to mysteriously vanish; most of the human population vanishes as well, with only those on space stations and spaceships remaining.

Simon, a convict imprisoned for his involvement in the destruction of a space station, is forced into piloting the ramshackle submarine SM-13, nicknamed the "Iron Lung", sent to explore a moon covered in an ocean of blood; Simon is told that if he completes this mission, he will be freed. The submarine is welded shut and its porthole is sealed, meaning Simon can only see outside using a crude camera that can only take still images. Limited communications arrive through a radio from members of the mission's crew present at the surface.

During the dive, the submarine's sensors indicate movement outside, and Simon captures images of a skeleton on the ocean floor. The crew return the submarine to the surface to review his findings; they choose to send Simon back down to collect a sample from the skeleton. A frustrated Simon, demanding to be freed, activates the camera to get the crew's attention. The crew's commander berates Simon, explaining that the camera is an x-ray imaging device, which has by consequence heavily irradiated the crew outside of the submarine.

Simon, who had been led to believe that he is the submarine's first pilot, discovers audio logs from a previous pilot, proving he was lied to. He tries to tell the commander about an image of a living creature he took, but she urges him to collect the sample. As Simon progresses, blood and an unidentified liquid drip into the sub. Simon is knocked unconscious when he collects a sample. He awakens in the submarine with camera pictures showing movement. He repairs the sub and attempts to return to a charted area, all the while hallucinating and losing touch with reality.

Simon encounters a wrecked submarine labeled SM-8, but is unable to access the data within its black box. A woman talks to him through the radio about a godly light beneath the ocean, and Simon believes he is hallucinating. In a vision where the sub is destroyed, Simon breaks the surface to see a giant eye filling a stormy red sky. Simon awakes again, and the commander says he has been missing for several days, far longer than his oxygen supply should have lasted. She tells him to recover the data of the other submarine, promising to rescue him herself if he complies, as well as revealing her name to be Ava. Meanwhile, blood and congealed organic matter collect inside the submarine. Simon discovers that the skin on his arms has become cracked and blistered.

Simon reaches SM-8 and accesses its data, including audio logs confirming that the blood ocean comprises human blood. As the submarine becomes flooded with blood and fleshy matter, Simon learns Ava cannot rescue him. She apologizes and asks him to protect the SM-8 data because it may save what is left of humanity. Simultaneously, the mysterious woman's voice tells Simon to destroy the data so others will not learn about the light. Shortly after, a monster destroys Ava's vessel. Simon, struggling to move through the blood and fleshy material growing in the submarine and onto his body, ties the black box to a life vest and sabotages the submarine so that its hull will fail under pressure. The submarine implodes upon being bitten by the monster, blowing open its jaw and killing both of them. The life vest and the black box are shown floating on the surface of the ocean, illuminated by a flashlight.

Cast

Iron Lung (film)

• Markiplier as Simon, a convict • Isaac McKee as a young Simon • Caroline Kaplan as Ava • Troy Baker as David • Elsie Lovelock as the voice of the Monster • Lovelock also appears as a research lead on the SM-8 • Elle LaMont as the voice of the Monster • LaMont also appears as a research assistant on the SM-8 • Mick Lauer as the voice of the previous occupant of SM-13 • David Pettitt as the Father • Seán McLoughlin as Jack • Alanah Pearce as a Familiar Voice

David Szymanski cameos in the film as himself. Additionally, Rahul Kohli, Ethan Nestor, Valkyrae and Mika Midgett all provide additional voices.

Production

Iron Lung (film)

Markiplier directed, edited, wrote, starred in, and funded Iron Lung.

Development

On February 16, 2023, David Szymanski joked on Twitter that Mark Fischbach and Seán McLoughlin (known by their online usernames Markiplier and Jacksepticeye, respectively) would be starring in a film adaptation of the game Iron Lung, which Fischbach and McLoughlin had both played, with a soundtrack by Andrew Hulshult, slated for a summer release. In an interview with Variety on March 8, 2023, Markiplier confirmed he was directing, writing, and acting for a film, but did not state what it was. On May 7, 2023, McLoughlin confirmed on Twitter that he would be in it. Szymanski assisted with the script and pre-production, and filmed a brief cameo. Andrew Hulshult was also confirmed to be scoring, in what would be his first film soundtrack.

Filming

On April 21, 2023, Markiplier officially announced a film adaptation of Iron Lung with the release of a teaser trailer. Additionally, Deadline Hollywood reported that Markiplier was also self-financing, co-starring with Caroline Kaplan, and producing with Will Hyde and Jeff Guerrero; filming had already commenced in Austin, Texas. Szymanski confirmed it was intended for a theatrical release, marking it Markiplier's first theatrical film; he previously directed and wrote the YouTube Original interactive films A Heist with Markiplier (2019) and In Space with Markiplier (2022).

Markiplier's makeup designer Anna Fugate documented that pre-production began February 7, 2023, with filming beginning on March 7 and ending on May 1. It was shot at Troublemaker Studios. During production, Markiplier confirmed that Iron Lung would contain the most fake blood of any horror film, beating 2013 film Evil Dead's 50,000 US gallons (190,000 L); during filming, he had to go to the hospital after getting too much fake blood in his eyes. In a YouTube livestream posted on December 7, 2025, he revealed that the approximate amount of blood for the final movie was over 80,000 US gallons (300,000 L).

Post-production

On April 29, 2023, Markiplier announced on his YouTube channel that filming had been completed, marking the beginning of the editing and post-production process. In July 2023, Markiplier revealed that he is a member of SAG-AFTRA, and that the production of Iron Lung would be delayed due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. After filming was completed, Valkyrae was cast in a voice role.

On October 14, 2023, Markiplier published the official trailer of Iron Lung on his YouTube channel. On October 16, in a livestream on his YouTube channel, he stated that he had turned down a role in Five Nights at Freddy's (2023) in order to produce Iron Lung, due to the two films having conflicting production schedules.

Release

Iron Lung (film)

In June 2024, Markiplier announced that it was "officially done", and that he was in the process of negotiating its release. On December 5, 2025, Markiplier published the release date trailer and opened ticket pre-sales. Despite an initial slated release in only 60 independent US theaters, Markiplier encouraged fans to request it directly from their local theaters, leading to a grassroots word of mouth campaign reaching Cinemark, AMC, and Regal Entertainment Group, among several others. As of the official release day, January 30, 2026, it showed in 4,161 theaters internationally.

Iron Lung debuted in North America, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and some European territories by Piece of Magic Entertainment. Along with the release, some theaters partnered with local donation centers for moviegoers to donate blood, with a goal of breaking the world record of 37,000 donations. In February 2026, Markiplier expressed interest in releasing Iron Lung on DVD and Blu-ray.

On March 3, Warner Bros. India announced they had acquired domestic distribution rights to the film, after an intense fan-led campaign to release the movie in India, and subsequently uploaded the trailer to their YouTube channel. It opened in Indian theatres on March 13.

Reception

Box office

As of March 15, 2026, Iron Lung grossed $41 million in the United States and Canada, and $11 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $52 million.

In the United States and Canada, Iron Lung was released alongside Send Help, Melania, and Shelter. It opened with $3.5 million on Thursday previews and was initially projected to make $9–10 million domestically on opening weekend. After an $8.9 million opening day including Thursday previews, projections were increased to $14–17 million. It opened with an estimated $17.8 million from 3,015 theaters per Variety and Deadline; though it opened to a slightly higher $18.2 million when official figures came out.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 61% of 46 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "A claustrophobic video game adaptation that can veer into just plain stifling, Iron Lung is more interesting for its production than its story, but it conjures enough atmosphere to announce Mark Edward Fischbach as a filmmaker to watch." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 54 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

Some reviewers praised Iron Lung for its visual approach and atmosphere, while others criticized its slow pacing and Markiplier's performance. Writing for The A.V. Club, Simon Abrams praised the film's attention to detail and noted its potential as a cult film, though he also characterized Fischbach's performance as "distractingly monotonous". Zachary Lee of RogerEbert.com wrote that the film's visual language was "consistently interesting" and that it was "more interestingly shot" than comparable productions but criticized Markiplier's performance as sounding like he was rehearsing; Lee gave the film 2.5 stars. Tasha Robinson of Polygon compared the film to slow burn horror such as Skinamarink and We're All Going to the World's Fair and argued it was "pretty frightening".

In more negative reviews, Eric Goldman of IGN rated the film 4/10, citing its pacing and "low energy" but praising Andrew Hulshult's score. Mike McCahill of The Guardian gave it two stars and described the production as "barebones". Dan Jolin of Empire also gave it two stars and called the film "leaden" and "monotonous", finding that its "low-budget sci-fi horror makes Event Horizon look like 2001: A Space Odyssey."

Dennis Harvey of Variety wrote that the film "could have used a wee more actual horror content". Alison Foreman of IndieWire gave the film a C+ and called it "audacious and at times astonishingly boring". Luis Pomales-Diaz of Horror Press called the film a "worthy successor" in the cosmic horror genre, praising its special effects and final act while describing Markiplier's acting as "hit or miss, but mostly hits".