Since Feb. 2023, longtime YouTube gamer and content creator Mark (Markiplier on Youtube) Fischbach has been hinting to fans about his film that he’s been working on since the announcement.

In his Feb. 28 video Need Some Help, he vaguely mentions his movie for the first time and requests fans to give him more video ideas in the coming month as he works on the movie. He described this project as something “more official” than his A Heist with Markiplier series and those of a similar sentiment. Just under a month after posting his announcement, Markiplier finally released the name of his movie: Iron Lung.

The movie’s title proved that the movie would indeed be about a video game, though not the Five Nights at Freddy’s series that many fans speculated about. Instead, it would be about Iron Lung (2022), a short (blood) ocean-exploring adventure and horror game that Markiplier made a playthrough of last year. The teaser trailer itself showed two insides of the submarine, The Iron Lung, which the protagonist of the video game uses to travel. One scene is of the submarine’s insides as it is portrayed in the game; it is blocky, pixelated, in a low resolution, and is hued red. The other scene gives a peek into the visuals of the movie, which are greener, glowing, fresh, and highly realistic while still keeping the claustrophobic aspect of the video game counterpart.

In Iron Lung, the video game, one plays as an unnamed and untrained protagonist that is forced to explore an ocean of blood. It is on a moon named AT-5 where humans have found natural resources after the disappearance of many of the universe’s stars and planets known as The Quiet Rapture. The entire game takes place in a submarine named The Iron Lung where you must blindly traverse through the blood ocean and take grainy pictures at specific coordinates while avoiding bumping into walls, provoking sea monsters, and sometimes putting out fires in the submarine. At the final desired location, the player (as well as Markiplier) has their submarine destroyed by a giant sea monster, where the player dies off-screen on the seafloor, only for the credits to roll.

On Markiplier’s playthrough of Iron Lung, posted nearly a year ago, he spoke about the positives of the game, specifically its use of horror and danger, at the end of his playthrough. 

“That was actually excellent,” Markiplier said. “That was incredible, I really loved that experience. It’s so novel, it’s so interesting, [there’s] not like a super direct thing that’s threatening you, it’s everything around you…and it’s constant and pervasive. And any game that can create a constant and pervasive sense of death lurking right outside a thin metal wall is a pretty cool game in my book.”

Markiplier would make a video on the game’s massive “lore update” in July where much more information regarding the in-game world’s background was revealed through a ChatGPT-esque submarine information terminal. Many specks of context are revealed in this way, including that the ocean’s blood is in fact human blood and is mysteriously kept in a permanent state of liquidity. Not only that, but the player is one of a dozen convicts to have gone through this exploratory punishment, which is referred to as “conviction realization.” Even more revealing is the referencing of the main interplanetary government running these operations, which is a suspicious, censoring, and radically collectivist organization known as the Consolidation of Iron or C.O.I. In short, the update’s information terminal reveals the true nature of the player’s authority figures, it gives more context regarding the exploratory and technological progress done by the game’s humans, and it even gives the player opinions through the lens of the C.O.I.

Iron Lung, even before the lore update, received overwhelmingly positive feedback from gamers and even Markiplier’s content creators. YouTubers like the Irish gamer Seán “Jacksepticeye” McLoughlin and American theorist Matthew Patrick, otherwise known as “MatPat” or “The Game Theorist” would make their own playthroughs and state their own opinions on the game. 

“I love the amount of dread that’s in this game,” Jacksepticeye said in his own playthrough of Iron Lung. “It’s so simple too. It just shows that you don’t need a lot…to scare you. This game’s awesome…I mean, there’s a reason it has such fantastic reviews, but…it’s awesome, I don’t know what else to say.”

On April 29, Markiplier posted a video titled i’m back, where he revealed that he finally finished filming for Iron Lung, announcing he will go back to regular uploads. He would go on to voice his opinions on the project upon reflection and reveal even more on the movie’s development and expectations, including the fact that it is expected to be seen on “the big screen.” 

“I’m finally done,” Markiplier said. “It’s great to be able to commit yourself to something so fully and I can’t wait to tell you more about it…I can tell you I am incredibly proud of what we are making here…but this was a new [experience], this was another level, this was just crazy.”

With all of this information in mind, many are now only waiting for the release date, casting choices, and even more visuals in the movie. Markiplier fans and general content creator followers are waiting anxiously for more updates and disclosures on the movie’s production. As Markiplier goes back to regular uploads, it may take some time before anything more exciting and official than the teaser trailer is revealed any time soon. All that’s left for the Markiplier fans is to turn on notifications and wait.