Markiplier is one of YouTube’s most popular content creators.
Recently, instead of our beloved content creator being accessible on the public’s phones or personal computers, he has made his way onto the big screen. The movie “The Iron Lung” is based on the game of the same name, developed by David Szymanski, and was released on March 10, 2022.
The game takes place in an ocean of blood where the player is sent down in a submarine to find lasting resources during the apocalypse. The game itself has only a one-hour playthrough, but it has a lot of story to be put into a two-hour film.
Story:
The movie takes place during the apocalypse, where the survivors force a convict named Simon down into a blood ocean on a moon named AT-5, having to find resources.
Down in the ocean of blood, he finds bones of an unknown creature and is forced up to the surface. He is then sent back down to collect a sample of the bones, but is suddenly attacked by a massive creature resembling an anglerfish.
After being attacked and waking up in an unfamiliar part of the ocean, he tries to find his way back to safety. But it is then attacked once again by the creature, causing the submarine to be destroyed. Causing the death of Simon.
Review:
The film has gained a lot of attention for being directed by and its main character being played by Markiplier.
He puts on a very good performance, as the movie only takes place in a small submarine. The movie has made nearly $50 million at the box office, and rightly so.
For it to be an independent film and also be based on an indie game is quite impressive. In December of last year, we saw the release of the Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 movie, and its story was very messy and incoherent in some parts, but having a significantly bigger budget being produced by Blumhouse. “Iron Lung” only has a budget of merely $3 million in comparison. But seeing that Iron Lung was built with a small team of people, it’s production and story are heaps better than the FNAF 2 movie.
“
The golden standard of independent filmmaking.
— David Moyer, 28'
.sno-pullquote-69a2226de5dfe { display: flex; float: left; margin: 30px 30px 30px 0; width: 50%; border-color: #888888; border-top-width: 5px; border-right-width: 5px; border-bottom-width: 5px; border-left-width: 5px; } .sno-pullquote-69a2226de5dfe p.pullquotetext, .sno-pullquote-69a2226de5dfe p.quotespeaker { } .sno-pullquote-69a2226de5dfe .pullquotepic { width: 33%; margin-left: 25px; } .sno-story-body .sno-pullquote-69a2226de5dfe p.pullquotetext { font-size: 22px; line-height: 1.4em; } .sno-pullquote-69a2226de5dfe .quotebar { background: #dddddd; flex: 0 0 90px; margin-top: -15px; margin-left: -15px; padding-left: 15px; padding-top: 15px; margin-right: 15px; } .sno-pullquote-69a2226de5dfe .largequote { color: #870000; } .sno-pullquote-69a2226de5dfe .quotebody { width: unset; } Introduction:I watched the movie with some friends, and some of my acquaintances shared the same idea as I did. David Moyer, ’28, says, “The golden standard of independent filmmaking.”
Adam Fritz, ’28, says, “The movie was pretty good, but if you don’t understand the story, it gets a bit confusing at the end.” Soham Patel, ’28, says, “The movie did a great job adding to the story of the game.”
The movie does a good job at showing the atmosphere and also does a great job at “show, don’t tell”. I really like how the only way we’re able to see outside of the submarine is pictures Simon takes, and that really makes it a good mystery about what is outside.
I feel the game has some trouble with that, by just telling you about the story of the game instead of showing you the desolate ocean Simon is being sent into. Also, the creature has a bigger role in the film than in the game.
In the game itself, there are some sound cues that play to show an unknown threat, and at the end, you get jump scared by the creature, and the game ultimately ends, but in the film, I feel you get to see the creature more than just a small jump scare.
Conclusion:
Overall, the film is a really good watch to go see with your friends.
It has a really great story and is good at showing its environment, even though the entire movie takes place in the submarine.
In my opinion, Iron Lung has to be one of the best video game movie adaptations so far. It’s very impressive how small the production team was for this movie, and seeing that it was able to gross nearly $50 million.
If you ever want to watch the movie, I would recommend either playing the game or watching Markiplier’s playthrough of the game before watching the film, just in case you get confused story-wise. I rate the movie a nine out of ten, and I highly recommend seeing it.