The Iron Lung Conspiracy

*delicately unearthing the plot of Iron Lung with an archaeologist's brush*

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The (Incomplete) Ultimate Guide to Canon Iron Lung Lore

This blog serves as a record of every minute detail of Iron Lung's lore that I am capable of unearthing, as well as some of the more scientific details of the world that I've been able to extrapolate from canon. I'm sticking to the movie's canon and avoiding wild speculation or fan-theory whenever possible to keep things as accurate to canon as I can. My own personal hypotheses will stay in the tags or replies and any posts that stray too far from canon/lack significant evidence will be tagged with [#wild conjecture].

I'm in the midst of compiling everything into an actual reference guide and will tack it onto this post soon.

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Crew Manifest

Molly Brown, concept artist and designer for Iron Lung, posted a shitload of the assets from the movie on her website (love you Molly)

Some of the assets under "Cam Pictures" include files from the SM-8's black box that are very very briefly seen on screen from 01:43:30–01:43:50. This post is specifically focusing on the Crew Manifest seen at 01:43:41.

Inferences:

All crew members are listed with their ID numbers, surnames, sexes, blood types, and role.

All ID numbers include a sequence of 4 digits, 4 characters, then 2 characters, aside from crew member Vaughan, who has 2 digits, 1 character, 1 digit, 4 char, 2 digits. Considering that it's the only outlier, I'd assume this is a typo or a glitched 8. There isn't any immediately obvious pattern, but I'll have to do some further analysis to say for certain.

The presence of surnames confirms that 300+ years in the future, humanity, or at least those within the C.O.I., has continued the use of surnames

Speculation:

There doesn't seem to be any order to how the crew is listed; not alphabetically, not by ID number, not grouped by crew role. This leaves us with the options of:

Sorted by hierarchy

Sorted by order of when they joined the crew

Sorted by a column that is not shown in this section of the file

My instinctual reaction is to say by hierarchy? Captain, Chief Officer, Head Engineer, etc etc. I have no confirmation of this obviously, it's just a working hypothesis that could easily be disproven.

Speaking of hypotheses, I doubt that this is the crew manifest of the SM-8 itself. The SM-8 and the SM-13 are similar enough to share the same manual, and the size looks to be about the same. There's no way they're fitting 33 people in there, so unless this is a complete list of everyone who has gone on a voyage in the SM-8 (doubtful), my hypothesis is that this is the crew manifest of the tow ship at the time of the SM-8's voyage.

Questions:

Is the crew really 18% medical staff or does the role of "Medic" encompass like... medical research staff?

Why do they have the crew's blood types on file?

What convention are the ID numbers following?

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I am not immune to bloodymary.

If I'm absent from this blog for more than a couple days at a time, assume it is because I am busy doing bullshit science for the fic I'm working on, which you can find here:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/84501971/chapters/225461551

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Spent days doing bullshit math and research for every throwaway line. I think this is going to kill me.

Chapter 1: Icarus

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Third Point of Interest

Timestamp 00:08:16, SM-13 estimated coordinates at 125.00, 330.00, angle unknown.

Image by Molly Brown, original can be found here.

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Second Point of Interest

Timestamp 00:08:14, SM-13 coordinates estimated at: 230.00, 200, angle unknown.

Image by Molly Brown, original can be found here.

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Timestamp 00:29:13

Simon removes the tape that had been holding the previous SM-13 pilot's Eden pendant in place inside the terminal panel. He sticks it to the broken hinge on the pilot's chair.

Conclusion: he is a just a silly guy your honor

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Dear @markiplier,

What is the gravity coefficient of AT-5?

Regards,

negative-"Losing my goddamn mind over the accuracy of my hydrostatic pressure calculations" pressure-ventilator

[ctrl-shift-alt-9]

Simon rocking the shit out of that eel!!! Also, for people drawing/writing tree!Simon stuff, it does seem like it has networked to the side of a trench wall and webbed through it.

Yeah, no, that's definitely just a tree. I was going for something a little more fleshy, like maybe a basket starfish/vine shape, but that is, indeed and confirmed, a whole ass tree, trunk and everything.

Full VFX breakdown under the cut.

View this post on Instagram

[ctrl-shift-alt-9]

The Shadowman

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@steelenspots got a third of the way through answering your reply to this post before realizing I was writing a fucking novel of a response, so here's a whole post just for you :)

"on the note of x-ray vs sonar cameras for navigation- i'm curious if previous ships such as the sm-8 might've had sonar, especially since the radiation was such a risk and they wouldn't want to hurt their scientists that were planned to be brought back."

My working theory for the x-ray vs sonar issue is just material availability. Sonar is useless in space, so why would the few stations and ships left after the Quiet Rapture have that kind of tech on hand? X-ray emitters may have just been more readily available, so that's what they used on the hemorovers. Again, working theory, not proven, just working with the info I've got to come up with the simplest answer.

I do like your theory about the earlier rovers potentially using sonar instead of x-ray imaging; it would fit pretty nicely with the material scarcity theory. Give the less hazardous navigation method to the rovers that have people of value aboard and leave the "radiation gun" to the ones with more disposable pilots.

Though something has been bothering me about Simon supposedly getting radiation poisoning. I haven't gone over this in a post yet, still need to gather more data, but just based on my initial findings I don't think Simon was exposed to as much radiation as people seem to think. The SM-13 definitely was, that's likely why it was heating up over time, but to my understanding the heat created by radiation exposure is not the material "becoming radioactive." Inducing radioactivity in stable materials is really fucking difficult. I'll spare you my half-assed science rant on that, but what it boils down to is: I don't think the pilots of the hemorovers equipped with x-ray navigation were at a high risk for acute radiation exposure. Some, yes. Enough to cause issues further down the road, maybe. Simon may be a special case considering that the SM-13 is an abomination held together by sheer audacity and Jack's welding skills. Again, still need to gather more data on this.

"on the x-ray subject- does this imply the blood eel is just unnaturally dense? the lettering on the sm-8 being visible could potentially be lead paint (im actually unsure if that would actually work but it's something that would make logical sense to someone if they're just told it's x-rays. the inconsistency of the "skeleton" potentially being alive and being bones vs the blood eel being visibly fleshy is harder. unless we also consider the eel might just be made out of bone."

Good question! X-rays lose strength the more distance they have to travel; that's part of why the x-ray camera on the SM-13 is so goddamn strong. A chest x-ray only requires about .1 millisieverts of radiation because the emitter's less than a meter away. The higher the radiation level, the further it will travel, and the easier it will pass through objects. We can use the picture that Simon took in the tow ship as an example.

Jack's right in front of the camera, so the x-rays pass straight through him and show only his skeleton. Realistically speaking he probably should've barely shown up on the picture— x-rays that strong would easily pass through bone— but I'll excuse that for now. Ava and presumably David are further away; the x-rays don't penetrate as deeply, and they show up as almost solid in the picture.

So basically the answer to your question is no, the eel isn't super dense, just far enough away that the x-rays aren't penetrating deep enough to show bone! Which also means that, considering the pictures of the skeleton were taken at about the same distance from the SM-13 that the pictures of the eel were, the skeleton really was just a skeleton. Maybe a slightly fleshier, late stages of decay/being consumed skeleton, but it was a skeleton.

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"I do like your theory about the earlier rovers potentially using sonar instead of x-ray imaging-" yeah that theory lasted all of five minutes

Timestamp 01:05:01 - Terminal readout of the SM-8's status

The SM-8 used x-ray imaging, same as the SM-6 and SM-13. Ah well. Occam's Razor and all that.

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Timestamp 00:25:31

David, directed to the Convict: "This actually is bigger than us, man. Because if that's a skeleton down there, that means this ocean supported life. Things could be alive down there right now! Food! Air! We need this! Not just the COI, all of us! We need this! It's the first shred of real hope we've had in twenty f..."

Inferences:

Twenty four. Twenty four years since the Quiet Rapture, or at least since what remains of humanity had a shred of hope.

If we're assuming the movie places the Quiet Rapture in the same year as the game (357 EIC, 2349 AD), that puts the current year at 381 EIC, or 2373 AD.

Speculation:

Twenty four years since the Quiet Rapture... sounds right. Given the the SM-8's manual was requisitioned on April 1st, 366 EIC (timestamp 00:04:56), that puts the SM-13's second(?) voyage as happening about fifteen years after the SM-8.

Nine years to discover the moons, build at least eight hemorovers, send out at least eight voyages, probably more. Then, after the SM-8's destruction, fifteen years, five more hemorovers, six-ish more voyages (assuming that the SM-13 had one voyage before Simon's).

That slowed down significantly. Were things going well up until the SM-8's destruction? Did something change? Was the COI losing interest? Losing hope?

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FUCK the manual was originally the SM-6's not the SM-8's fuck my timeline is off fuck

Corrections:

The SM-8's SM-6's manual was requisitioned on April 1st, 366 EIC. The SM-8's voyage occurs at an unknown point sometime between 366 and 381 EIC.

Nine years to discover the moons, build at least six hemorovers, and send out at least six voyages. Then another fifteen years to build at least seven more hemorovers (eight if you count the SM-14) and send out at least eight voyages (assuming that the SM-13 had one voyage before Simon's).

That timeline tracks better. This means the COI was a bit more consistent with the assembly of the hemorovers and with the voyages. There definitely was a slow-down, but if we assume they were getting more than one voyage out of each hemorover and just building new ones as the old ones broke down/were destroyed, it isn't that notable.

In conclusion: no clue when the SM-8 was destroyed. But we do have evidence that at least one other hemorover (the SM-6) was in service.

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TIMESTAMP 01:06:51!!! IT'S THE FUCKING DATE! IT'S 005-386!! IT'S THE FIFTH DAY OF 386 EIC!!! JANUARY 5TH 2378 CE!!!!!!!! FUCK!!!!

editing this post to correct the math, summarizing below:

362 EIC (2354 CE) - Quiet Rapture occurs

366 EIC (2358 CE) - The SM-6's original manual was printed/requisitioned

386 EIC (2378 CE) - The SM-13, piloted by Simon, descends.

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@steelenspots got a third of the way through answering your reply to this post before realizing I was writing a fucking novel of a response, so here's a whole post just for you :)

"on the note of x-ray vs sonar cameras for navigation- i'm curious if previous ships such as the sm-8 might've had sonar, especially since the radiation was such a risk and they wouldn't want to hurt their scientists that were planned to be brought back."

My working theory for the x-ray vs sonar issue is just material availability. Sonar is useless in space, so why would the few stations and ships left after the Quiet Rapture have that kind of tech on hand? X-ray emitters may have just been more readily available, so that's what they used on the hemorovers. Again, working theory, not proven, just working with the info I've got to come up with the simplest answer.

I do like your theory about the earlier rovers potentially using sonar instead of x-ray imaging; it would fit pretty nicely with the material scarcity theory. Give the less hazardous navigation method to the rovers that have people of value aboard and leave the "radiation gun" to the ones with more disposable pilots.

Though something has been bothering me about Simon supposedly getting radiation poisoning. I haven't gone over this in a post yet, still need to gather more data, but just based on my initial findings I don't think Simon was exposed to as much radiation as people seem to think. The SM-13 definitely was, that's likely why it was heating up over time, but to my understanding the heat created by radiation exposure is not the material "becoming radioactive." Inducing radioactivity in stable materials is really fucking difficult. I'll spare you my half-assed science rant on that, but what it boils down to is: I don't think the pilots of the hemorovers equipped with x-ray navigation were at a high risk for acute radiation exposure. Some, yes. Enough to cause issues further down the road, maybe. Simon may be a special case considering that the SM-13 is an abomination held together by sheer audacity and Jack's welding skills. Again, still need to gather more data on this.

"on the x-ray subject- does this imply the blood eel is just unnaturally dense? the lettering on the sm-8 being visible could potentially be lead paint (im actually unsure if that would actually work but it's something that would make logical sense to someone if they're just told it's x-rays. the inconsistency of the "skeleton" potentially being alive and being bones vs the blood eel being visibly fleshy is harder. unless we also consider the eel might just be made out of bone."

Good question! X-rays lose strength the more distance they have to travel; that's part of why the x-ray camera on the SM-13 is so goddamn strong. A chest x-ray only requires about .1 millisieverts of radiation because the emitter's less than a meter away. The higher the radiation level, the further it will travel, and the easier it will pass through objects. We can use the picture that Simon took in the tow ship as an example.

Jack's right in front of the camera, so the x-rays pass straight through him and show only his skeleton. Realistically speaking he probably should've barely shown up on the picture— x-rays that strong would easily pass through bone— but I'll excuse that for now. Ava and presumably David are further away; the x-rays don't penetrate as deeply, and they show up as almost solid in the picture.

So basically the answer to your question is no, the eel isn't super dense, just far enough away that the x-rays aren't penetrating deep enough to show bone! Which also means that, considering the pictures of the skeleton were taken at about the same distance from the SM-13 that the pictures of the eel were, the skeleton really was just a skeleton. Maybe a slightly fleshier, late stages of decay/being consumed skeleton, but it was a skeleton.

[devondespresso]

Simon's Eden tattoo and burn mark on it from the beginning of the movie

first screenshot unedited from film, second with increased sharpness and exposure

Eden symbol from the official Iron Lung movie website, also appears on the outside of the wires box on the set (simon touches it, touches his tattoo/scar, then opens it to find the seed and note)

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Timestamp 00:24:40

Simon hallucinates seeing a mutated figure stepping around the corner towards the console and freezes. He instinctively reaches not towards the sheath on his shoulder, but towards a second sheath on the back of his belt

Conclusion?

Simon absolutely carried at least two knives on his person at all times.

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The Map

Above is the map seen in game; from what I can tell, the map in the movie is similar enough that the game map can be used as a very rough reference.

The map covers one square kilometer of the ocean floor; Ava confirms that the map's units are indeed meters at timestamp 00:34:45.

My best assumptions is that the maps were made using either sonar or radar scans, most likely radar for the following reasons:

The map is very, very vague. There's some suggestion of depth, but there's a lot of noise. I haven't been able to locate a clear shot of the depth gauge yet, but based on what I could get from timestamp 00:35:12 I'd say the average depth in the trench is about 9,800-11,200 meters (I really need a clear shot, I do not believe the SM-13, Hunk of Junk™ could go deeper than the lowest point of the Mariana Trench but this is all I've got). The intercom's radio signal gets spotty at depths below 10,00-ish.

Even if they were using a higher powered radar to map the ocean floor, the radio waves just wouldn't be able to get through the liquid medium very reliably (at least, based on what I've read on radio waves vs water. Radio waves through blood? fuck knows). Unreliable radar penetration = shitty, vague map.

Okay, but why not sonar? We've been able to get decent sonar scans of the Challenger Deep (deepest point of the Mariana Trench, 10,935 meters or so below sea level), so wouldn't it make more sense to use sonar, even if it may interact unpredictably with the viscosity of the liquid medium?

We have to remember that what remains of humanity after the Quiet Rapture lives aboard space stations and sea-faring vessels. Sonar is completely useless in space; there is no reason why they would have readily available sonar technology, let alone sonar high powered enough to penetrate 10,000+ meters of a much thicker liquid medium than water. Hell, the fact that they have a functioning ship to launch the SMs from is impressive.

So, radar.

Tangential question:

The proximity alert, right? I'd wager a guess that it's some kind of primitive passive sonar that was simple enough to make and install in 14+ hemorovers. Maybe radar, but using a radar system for the proximity sensors could potentially affect communications via intercom. But... if we're spending the resources to build and install high-powered x-ray cameras and engines that can produce the voltage needed for said cameras... would it be that hard to build a better sonar system? The x-ray camera can only see maybe 10 or so meters ahead. A decent sonar system with a much, much lower voltage requirement could see up to 60 meters.

I'm asking not to poke holes in the movie, but to try and figure out potential explanations. Why would the COI jump to x-rays instead of sonar? What is the benefit? What is their reasoning?

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Good news, found an image of the map used in the movie.

Bad news, it's a screenshot of the fucking mousepad merch.

It's fine we can work with this. Also thanks @ladydanger420 for pointing out that the movie map only went up to 600!!! I'm still parsing out the shots from later in the film so I'd completely missed that.

The map used in the movie is pretty similar to the one used in the game, though the grid starts about about 50 meters further north and 150 meters further east than the game map. There's also.... bathography lines? That don't quite match up with the terrain? Maybe mapping the currents? Remind me to refresh my knowledge of bathography charting symbols. Those also may have been added just for the merch, I'll have to double check.

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it's VERY out of focus but that bit of text directly below the needle says LBS! Which means this is a pressure gauge!! Which means I can recalculate the average depth of the ocean floor!!!

If we're using Earth's 9.8m/s² gravity and blood's fluid density of 1060 kg/m³, at that gauge's maximum pressure read of 15,000 psi the depth would be about 9,955.2 meters. The SM-13 is usually between the 9,800-11,200 psi mark at its highest, so between 6,504.7–7,434.0 meters deep.

If we're using a lower gravity constant (I've been using Mercury's 3.7m/s² for my own personal calculations so we'll stick with that), that makes the average depth between 17,228.8–19,690.1 meters and the maximum 26,370.5 meters.

[sykosixx]

MARK E FISCHBACH IPLIER. I BEG YOUR PARDON.

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Timestamp 01:40:18

"A Familiar Voice," directed to Simon during flashback:

"...They have a tree. It'll feel just like home."

"Simon, don't be like that."

"You'll love it there."

Inferences:

This is the only dialogue that I can confirm is from "A Familiar Voice." Based on tone and context, I'd say this is Simon's mother or maternal figure. This conversation reads as a mother trying to console a child who's upset about having to move.

These pieces of dialogue are interspersed with other flashbacks pertaining to Simon's experiences related to Eden. That, in addition to the referenced tree, leads me to believe that Simon's mother is referring to Eden.

From there, I can reach the following conclusion:

Simon is not from Eden. He moved there as a child or young teen. Unsure if this is before or after the Quiet Rapture, though I'd presume before.

This adds context to a lot of Simon's behavior towards Eden that I have yet to dig into here. All I'll say right now is he is nowhere near as indoctrinated as I have seen people make him out to be.