The 2022 indie darling Iron Lung is a clever, tense horror game that builds an oppressive, claustrophobic atmosphere. The game distracts with navigation “busy work” while delivering scares through faulty, counter-intuitive survey equipment. It tells a dystopian story: a convict, welded into the Iron Lung submarine, is sent to the bottom of a blood ocean. This bleak narrative shows humanity’s desperate last moments and the lengths people go to survive.
The tale of the unfortunate soul on SM-13 and the terrifying depths of an alien ocean seems to have really struck a chord with popular YouTuber Markiplier. His independently funded full-feature film debut is an adaptation of David Szymanski’s Iron Lung, which has become hugely successful on a global scale. I went to see Markiplier’s full feature directorial debut, Iron Lung, and these are the game references that sent a chill up my spine.
Spoiler warning for both the game and movie!
The Soundscape
Hull Breached
In the sparse and stripped-back game of Iron Lung, the soundscape is a huge part of what establishes the world outside the submersible and drives home the danger that the player-character is in. The creaks and thuds of the submarine under pressure, combined with the jarring, scratchy noise of the image capture and intermittent warning alarms, make for a very tense environment.
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Sound is one of the movie’s most impressive features. Recreating the immersion of a first-person horror game is difficult, but the cinematic sound design draws viewers into the convict’s isolation and danger. It will never be the same as playing the game for the first time, but it has been translated very effectively to the big screen.
The Convict
He finally has a name!
The figure trapped in SM-13 was always anonymous. This is not an unusual move for an immersive horror simulator, but this is used as a means of dehumanizing the player character, who is simply branded a convict. The people who sent the convict to the bottom of the ocean do not see them as an individual, but rather as a disposable source of labor to be exploited.
The movie maintains the premise of the unknown and unnamed player-character until a crucial point in the narrative. The dehumanizing effect of not using his name is played for emotional effect as he tries to appeal to his captors to save him and set him free. It becomes all the more emotionally resonant as his name, Simon, is weaponized against him by whatever eldritch horror lurks below the surface.
Hot-wiring the terminal
Cross the wires
The lore and broader story of the world in the Iron Lung game were very vague, but the life outside SM-13 was always intriguing and left players looking for more information. The 2.0 update in 2023 added the game’s most substantial, explicit storytelling and lore component, while still leaving things open to interpretation. One of the main changes made in the 2.0 update was the addition of the terminal, which the player can access to look up information using specific keywords.
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In a nice touch, the terminal is not immediately available to Simon and is only accessible after he discovers a note attached to a keepsake, which tells him to “cross the wires.” He can bring the terminal back to life and has limited access to its functionality until Ava gives him the password. It neatly mirrors the player’s relationship with the terminal, filling in some of the more sinister details of what came before SM-13 made its descent.
The Vest Torch
Reference to the cheat code
The equipment in the submersible is terrible in the movie; the map is terrible, and fires break out sporadically. However, Simon does have additional handy things that weren’t immediately available to the player of Iron Lung. The terminal, which was added in the 2.0 update, didn’t just add additional lore to the game; it added a way to enter cheat commands, and there is an interesting nod to one of those cheat commands.
Entering ‘chvest’ into the terminal activated a “life vest” which amounted to a torch that was fixed to the player’s point of view as though they were wearing a life vest with a light attached. Simon discovers a flotation vest with a water-activated torch, which facilitates exploration of the compartment beneath the main chamber of the Iron Lung.
SM-08
Those who came before
The convict is led to believe that they are on a scouting mission, the first person to be lowered into this kind of submersible to survey the blood ocean. But it becomes increasingly clear that this is absolutely not the case. The haunting note on the floor from someone who was in the same situation makes this explicit, as it details their last moments and warns whoever comes next that they are not being sent on an expedition, but “an execution.”
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However, it seems that not everyone was a prisoner sent to their death under the promise of freedom. The convicts in both the game and the movie discover the ruins of SM-08, which seems to have been sent down with scientists and better equipment, with the expectation that they would come back with information. Seeing the ship in the movie is a chilling moment that is heightened by Simon’s further realization that he has once again been lied to.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)
Eden
Maybe, sort of a death cult?
The 2.0 update, which added a significant lore dump, introduced the conflict and brutality carried out by the remnants of human society. In the post-apocalypse after the Quiet Rapture, factions formed based on space stations. Eden was one of the biggest of those space stations and had the last of the trees. They are set up in opposition to the Consolidation of Iron, which is responsible for the Iron Lung. It is implied that the convict of the game was a prisoner of war from Eden.
In the movie, the violence and division of post-apocalyptic society are fleshed out through Simon’s interactions with his captors from the Consolidation of Iron. Simon is part of Eden, which is framed as a faction that appears to be preoccupied with death and resigned to the fall of civilization. He wears a charm or pendant that contains preserved plant life, presumably from his home station.
The Consolidation of Iron
It’s bigger than us
Ever since the post-apocalyptic event known as the Quiet Rapture, societies have organized around what little remained of their usable resources. Out of that reorganization of society came the Consolidation of Iron, which united against other space stations that surrounded it. This is all inferable from game lore.
The movie gives the people of the Consolidation of Iron a face. It shows their resourcefulness, brutal efficiency, and stubborn refusal to admit that the human species is dying. This is in sharp contrast to Eden, which creates ideological friction. This appears to have festered into full-blown animosity and hatred.
The Attack on Filament Station
What happened to Filament?
One of the enduring mysteries of David Szymanski’s Iron Lung is what exactly the convict did. What could they have done that would lead the last of humanity to doom one of their own to a slow, miserable death? The movie has the convict being part of an attack on the Filament station, which is referenced in the 2.0 terminal update.
Simon’s role in the attack is a little difficult to parse. He is wracked with an internal guilt, which implies that he was more involved in the attack than he claims to have been. His state of mind is scattered, and he is hallucinating, so it is unclear what is true and what is a symptom of Lovecraftian madness.
Synthesizing Food From Blood
Problem solved!
This is a neat callback to the initial question Markiplier had when first playing Iron Lung for a video on his channel. Upon reading the introduction to the game, which detailed the blood oceans, he suggested ‘If it’s blood, just drink the blood’. He then asked his editor to detail all the nutrients that could be found in blood. In the more confusing final act of Markiplier’s Iron Lung, this idea is suggested, and then it becomes clear that the blood is not just blood. It causes blisters and literally melts the flesh of Simon’s skin, melding him to the pipes and causing the horrific final scenes of the movie.
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It provides a more prolonged and agonizing death for the protagonist than being suddenly devoured by a beast that has been stalking them. Markiplier doubles down on the gore implied by a blood ocean and integrates that striking imagery into the cosmic horror of the Quiet Rapture.
