Frag Tag Mini 3
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- 11 de Mar, 2025
TLDR; In most of the ways that matter this is a surprisingly good movie. Great effects, a decent performance, and a solid world with original story make this surreal sci fi horror movie a solid 7/10 that I would recommend.
Now on to the main body. Iron lung is the large screen writing, directing, and acting premiere of one, Mark Fischbach. AKA Markiplier. A man who became famous for internet let's play and has done previous work in streaming and with youtube films such as "Edge of Sleep" And "In space with Markiplier" to name a few. It's an adaptation of the indie horror game "Iron lung," made by David Szymanski, a video game developer famous for quite a few titles including the indie hit "Dusk." The premise is rather simple. The star along with most of the planets have disappeared leaving behind. In their wake, desperate survivors from space stations left behind struggle with survival and making sense of what's left. Of the few things left is a moon with an ocean of blood. An unnamed convict with a guilty conscience is placed into a makeshift submarine as part of a deal. Explore this blood ocean and photograph several points of interest and in exchange he'll become a freeman. However something terrifying is down there in the depths with him as the movie becomes a race against time for him to earn his freedom and make it out alive.
So, the good. If the plot sounds like it's not much to work with, that's because it's not. All the lore of the video game could probably be fit onto 5 pages of paper and lacks alot of details. That being said, Mark does his best as a writer and squeeze's quite a bit out of what little there is while expanding the story in directions that make sense and feel natural. The special effects are also of note. While it's obvious the movie is working with a limited budget, it does look good. The entire film more or less takes place in one room, which probably helped. But whats there looks great. Of all the complaints I could have, looking cheap is not one of them. Though I will warn that alot of the special effects and most impressive ones are in the tail end of the movie. The loo and feel of the sub is put together wonderfully and at no point was I left thinking "this is just a guy in a hollywood studio, flailing about in a room made of cardboard." I think at one point in some of the behind the scenes footage Mark has uploaded to the internet it shows them using a room set up on hydraulic rams for some of the shots and I think that really paid off.
The bad. Some of the dialogue can be a tad clunky. And some of the pacing was a touch off. Maybe the biggest problem I encountered was more then once it took me a minute to figure out exactly what was happening in a scene due to how it was shot and either the lack of lighting, or directorial decisions in how certain actions were displayed. A great example of this was that in one scene, Mark finds a life vest. As he looks it over he beings to curse that he drank too much water. I honestly had no idea why this was an issue until after a few moments of him struggling with the vest he spits on it which activates the chemical light on the life vest. However, until the light came on, I could not have told you for the life of me why he was upset.
Ok, now time for the big problem. This film was clearly made by a man with a goal, but not a message. So what does that mean? Everything in the movie is either very competent or very well done. VFX, above and beyond. But what makes a movie great and really elevates it from a movie to a classic is (yes I know this phrase has been abused to hell and back by political hacks. Just bear with me) themes and subtle messaging. Alot of you may have recently seen where Wendigoon live streamed the entirety of Francis Ford Coppola's 'Apocalypse Now.' So let's use that as a good example. Apoc Now is about a spec ops soldier traveling up river in the Vietnam war in order to assassinate a rouge American colonel. At least that's the surface level story. The actual story is one of men confronting the horrors of war and how that can warp the mind of a sane man while exploring the idea of ethics and rules in a war where none exist. The insanity of it all and getting to comapre and contrast two soldiers at opposite ends of the same journey. Willard who is at the beginning where he struggles to make sense of the chaos around him and is coming to terms with the horrible things he has done, meeting Kurts who is at the end of the journey and no longer struggling with the horrors of war but is using them as best as he can to fight and end the war in whatever way he can.
There's also a ton of other stuff in there. Like the slaughtering of a cow happening at the same time that Willard Kills Kurts. The scene being a parallels to help show the audience that Kurts is letting this happen to him and help hammer home the violence of his death while keeping the gorey details in shadow. I could go on and on but the point is that Ford had alot of things he wanted to say about war, ethics, and violence. You might not agree with his politics or what he thought, but what he was trying to say helped to shape the events and how it was told. It's what elevates an action movie about going up river from something that you just watch while eating popcorn to that stimulates the subconscious and makes you take extra note. You may not know what it's trying to say, you may not even recognize it's trying to say something. But your brain will recognize that something worthy of note is happening on screen.
And that's what Iron lung lacks.
In every department it is put together in an amazing way. And there are a few things that come close to it but lack the depth. One example is the repeating bit where markaplier speaks to his superiors over the radio. They tell him to do something, altering the deal. And each time he agrees to go along with it, he asks "And then I get to go free, then you let me out." To which they never confirm. Until the end when he asks it for the final time and they repeat back "And then you go free." On the surface this seems fine. Some would even say this should count as a kind of theme since this is the end of the story. This helps to show this is the most important part of his mission along with helping to signal that the charecter arc of the convict and dealing with the guilt he feels over the loss of his home has been over come. The problem is that's me reading into his intentions as a film maker and filling in the blanks. His guilt over the loss of his home, while shown isnt really discussed much or anything about it really shown. The amount of screen time his guilt has is probably less then 3 minutes. To be frank, I'm not even entierly sure what his role in the destruction of his home was other than he didnt want it to happen. And the only way you understand this particualr mission is the most important of them is because it's the end of the movie. Is it bad? No. It's ok and servicable.
Really I think this speaks to who and what mark is more than anything else. Having watched him its obvious the man is driven to want success in what he does. But if you were to ask him why, I don't think he could really tell you. I know his mom is asian and is a big influence in his life, and I know asian families tend to push their kids towards working hard and being successful. But to me at least it's clear he had a goal. Show everyone I can make a movie and that I have all this ability and talent. Which is fine. You need ability and talent to make a good movie. But to make a truly amazing movie you need that message to help shape what you are doing.
Small update. Mark is claiming that Iron Lung is number one for Thursday preview ticket sales. He is also claiming that now studios want to talk to him. All in all, Good for him. Hope he sees plenty of success with this.
Another Small update as of 1/31/2026: According to Variety Iron Lung beat out all competition to be number one at the box office friday.
Now on to the main body. Iron lung is the large screen writing, directing, and acting premiere of one, Mark Fischbach. AKA Markiplier. A man who became famous for internet let's play and has done previous work in streaming and with youtube films such as "Edge of Sleep" And "In space with Markiplier" to name a few. It's an adaptation of the indie horror game "Iron lung," made by David Szymanski, a video game developer famous for quite a few titles including the indie hit "Dusk." The premise is rather simple. The star along with most of the planets have disappeared leaving behind. In their wake, desperate survivors from space stations left behind struggle with survival and making sense of what's left. Of the few things left is a moon with an ocean of blood. An unnamed convict with a guilty conscience is placed into a makeshift submarine as part of a deal. Explore this blood ocean and photograph several points of interest and in exchange he'll become a freeman. However something terrifying is down there in the depths with him as the movie becomes a race against time for him to earn his freedom and make it out alive.
So, the good. If the plot sounds like it's not much to work with, that's because it's not. All the lore of the video game could probably be fit onto 5 pages of paper and lacks alot of details. That being said, Mark does his best as a writer and squeeze's quite a bit out of what little there is while expanding the story in directions that make sense and feel natural. The special effects are also of note. While it's obvious the movie is working with a limited budget, it does look good. The entire film more or less takes place in one room, which probably helped. But whats there looks great. Of all the complaints I could have, looking cheap is not one of them. Though I will warn that alot of the special effects and most impressive ones are in the tail end of the movie. The loo and feel of the sub is put together wonderfully and at no point was I left thinking "this is just a guy in a hollywood studio, flailing about in a room made of cardboard." I think at one point in some of the behind the scenes footage Mark has uploaded to the internet it shows them using a room set up on hydraulic rams for some of the shots and I think that really paid off.
The bad. Some of the dialogue can be a tad clunky. And some of the pacing was a touch off. Maybe the biggest problem I encountered was more then once it took me a minute to figure out exactly what was happening in a scene due to how it was shot and either the lack of lighting, or directorial decisions in how certain actions were displayed. A great example of this was that in one scene, Mark finds a life vest. As he looks it over he beings to curse that he drank too much water. I honestly had no idea why this was an issue until after a few moments of him struggling with the vest he spits on it which activates the chemical light on the life vest. However, until the light came on, I could not have told you for the life of me why he was upset.
Ok, now time for the big problem. This film was clearly made by a man with a goal, but not a message. So what does that mean? Everything in the movie is either very competent or very well done. VFX, above and beyond. But what makes a movie great and really elevates it from a movie to a classic is (yes I know this phrase has been abused to hell and back by political hacks. Just bear with me) themes and subtle messaging. Alot of you may have recently seen where Wendigoon live streamed the entirety of Francis Ford Coppola's 'Apocalypse Now.' So let's use that as a good example. Apoc Now is about a spec ops soldier traveling up river in the Vietnam war in order to assassinate a rouge American colonel. At least that's the surface level story. The actual story is one of men confronting the horrors of war and how that can warp the mind of a sane man while exploring the idea of ethics and rules in a war where none exist. The insanity of it all and getting to comapre and contrast two soldiers at opposite ends of the same journey. Willard who is at the beginning where he struggles to make sense of the chaos around him and is coming to terms with the horrible things he has done, meeting Kurts who is at the end of the journey and no longer struggling with the horrors of war but is using them as best as he can to fight and end the war in whatever way he can.
There's also a ton of other stuff in there. Like the slaughtering of a cow happening at the same time that Willard Kills Kurts. The scene being a parallels to help show the audience that Kurts is letting this happen to him and help hammer home the violence of his death while keeping the gorey details in shadow. I could go on and on but the point is that Ford had alot of things he wanted to say about war, ethics, and violence. You might not agree with his politics or what he thought, but what he was trying to say helped to shape the events and how it was told. It's what elevates an action movie about going up river from something that you just watch while eating popcorn to that stimulates the subconscious and makes you take extra note. You may not know what it's trying to say, you may not even recognize it's trying to say something. But your brain will recognize that something worthy of note is happening on screen.
And that's what Iron lung lacks.
In every department it is put together in an amazing way. And there are a few things that come close to it but lack the depth. One example is the repeating bit where markaplier speaks to his superiors over the radio. They tell him to do something, altering the deal. And each time he agrees to go along with it, he asks "And then I get to go free, then you let me out." To which they never confirm. Until the end when he asks it for the final time and they repeat back "And then you go free." On the surface this seems fine. Some would even say this should count as a kind of theme since this is the end of the story. This helps to show this is the most important part of his mission along with helping to signal that the charecter arc of the convict and dealing with the guilt he feels over the loss of his home has been over come. The problem is that's me reading into his intentions as a film maker and filling in the blanks. His guilt over the loss of his home, while shown isnt really discussed much or anything about it really shown. The amount of screen time his guilt has is probably less then 3 minutes. To be frank, I'm not even entierly sure what his role in the destruction of his home was other than he didnt want it to happen. And the only way you understand this particualr mission is the most important of them is because it's the end of the movie. Is it bad? No. It's ok and servicable.
Really I think this speaks to who and what mark is more than anything else. Having watched him its obvious the man is driven to want success in what he does. But if you were to ask him why, I don't think he could really tell you. I know his mom is asian and is a big influence in his life, and I know asian families tend to push their kids towards working hard and being successful. But to me at least it's clear he had a goal. Show everyone I can make a movie and that I have all this ability and talent. Which is fine. You need ability and talent to make a good movie. But to make a truly amazing movie you need that message to help shape what you are doing.
Small update. Mark is claiming that Iron Lung is number one for Thursday preview ticket sales. He is also claiming that now studios want to talk to him. All in all, Good for him. Hope he sees plenty of success with this.
Another Small update as of 1/31/2026: According to Variety Iron Lung beat out all competition to be number one at the box office friday.
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