Markiplier’s Iron Lung Proves to be a Once-in-a-Lifetime Hit for Independent Filmmaking

Iron Lung
Director: Mark Fischbach
Self-Released
In Theaters: 01.30.2026

If you’ve been present on the internet in any major capacity within the last decade or so, you may be familiar with the various films and television shows made by YouTubers. Some that may come to mind  are the horrendously bad FЯED movies or maybe Logan Paul’s attempted foray into filmmaking with the dumpster fire that is Airplane Mode. YouTube Red’s various television programs, which ranged from average to poor in quality, are of note. The unfortunate pattern is clear: When a famous YouTuber spearheads a Hollywood project, it tends to be a cash grab, unable to get off the ground. It tends to lack passion and care. It’s a statistic that makes an outlier like Iron Lung so much more unique.

Mark Fischbach, better known by his YouTube username Markiplier, wrote, directed, starred in and funded Iron Lung entirely out of pocket. The film was marketed almost exclusively via word of mouth and Fischbach’s YouTube channel. It’s based off a relatively simple game programmed by David Szymanski, a game which has a *shorter* run time than the actual film and whose gameplay consists of mostly menial tasks. It sounds like the setup to a punchline that would get scrapped during production and written off on a studio’s taxes.

The real punchline is that not only did the film succeed, it maintained a stranglehold on the box office for almost the entirety of its opening weekend. Initially, the opening weekend consisted of a small release to no more than 60 independent theaters. Through a large influx of requests to theaters from Markiplier fans, the film was picked up by Regal, Cinemark and AMC, ballooning the film’s opening weekend to a massive 4,000 theater international invasion; this is a feat that only a few people can achieve with studio backing, let alone bankrolling the film singlehandedly.

Prior to the events of the film, humanity has been put in a dire situation: Every star and planet has mysteriously disappeared in an event dubbed “The Quiet Rapture.” All that remains are various space stations and moons. Those of humanity that remain have been plunged into a civil war.

Upon the discovery of a mysterious ocean of blood on a newly discovered moon, the crew of one of the space stations sends convict and former soldier Simon (Fischbach) to the bottom of the ocean in a crudely manufactured submarine. If he can map out the floor and get the information the crew needs, he earns his freedom, but he’ll soon find there’s much more to the crew and ocean than initially anticipated.

So, does the film live up to the hype? I’d say yes and no. Don’t go into this film expecting The Godfather, but absolutely don’t expect Megalopolis either. The film is Fischbach’s first serious foray into filmmaking, discounting his various ‘choose your own adventure’ programs written for YouTube Red. For a first-time writer and director, and the difficult source material the film is based on, Iron Lung proves to be a truly impressive film.

Right off the bat, the issues with the film lie in its writing and pacing: I think fans of Markiplier’s content will absolutely enjoy this film but may have difficulty seeing the character Fischbach is portraying. Especially in the first half of the film, which consists mostly of Simon moving around the submarine, completing tasks and uncovering various secrets about the crew and ocean, I found it difficult to see Simon in the submarine and much easier to see Markiplier in a tin can. I anticipate this will not be an issue for individuals who are not familiar with Markiplier’s content.

Some major plot beats of the film are easy to miss if you aren’t paying attention. Quite a few very important lines of dialogue are conveyed as throwaway lines. I saw the film in theaters twice, and only upon the second viewing did I realize that one of the major characters actually died. You don’t even realize how she died or why she’s screaming at Simon unless you paid attention to her dialogue twenty minutes earlier. If you aren’t a fan of movies where you must sit and pay attention to grasp the plot, you likely will find this film very confusing or may not even enjoy it.

Despite some of the qualms I have with the film, it oozes with passion and creativity. Fischbach made it a point to bring people on set who were equally as passionate about the project as he was, and it shows in just how enjoyable the film is. At the end of the day, only Mark Fischbach could realistically bring a film like this to fruition. The YouTuber has a backing of 38 million subscribers, built up slowly and surely over the course of 13 years on the platform, and just enough industry connections to make a project of this scale happen.

The success of the film came as a genuine surprise to Fischbach, who in a vlog titled “I didn’t think this was possible,” was moved to tears when he discovered an independent theater in his hometown had sold out every single one of its scheduled screenings. Fischbach says, “It’s so easy to get lost in the sauce when you’re three years into a project and you’ve only had your reputation and your word to go on and…” Fischbach pauses, “…And you believed me?”

A viewer commented in response: “Mark, you raised me.” —Ezra Smith

Read more reviews by Contributing Writer Ezra Smith:
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