but it does things, too. we deliberately see it doing things. i mean, it's kind of hard to otherwise explain the concept of the speaker reconnecting and whatnot, but there's a specific scene i noticed last night
the "asleep at the wheel" scene takes its time to show us how simon operates. it's deliberate with it.
to me, it seems very logical and step-by-step. every time simon hits a wall on his radar, he marks it on his map. he takes a picture when he doesn't see a wall for a while, to see where he's at. he marks out his situation. he finds alien shit. he goes back to steering
but every time that he takes a picture, we see him operate the camera. he's standing beside it, or he visibly hits it. the film could easily just show us the pictures in a collage as he progresses; hell it DOES, but only at the beginning of the film after he loses his first oxygen meter (8:05)
not here, though. simon always is at the camera when a picture is taken
it really feels like that's intentional. like it's setting up for something
^ this is the last picture we see simon take. but it's not the last picture in the scene. in fact, ten seconds later, we get this shot:
simon isn't near the camera.
hm. interesting. okay.
but this scene in general is, in mark's own words, hypnotic. maybe it's a case of simon being drowsy and disoriented?
the next time we see a photo get taken, simon is, again, not shown to be anywhere near the camera. the shot before and after show him at the steering console, and at the map. though, we don't see who took this specific image, nor do we see that simon DIDN'T take it. we just know that it was taken. i'm not claiming one argument or the other here
and then simon falls asleep, and he doesn't wake up until he's at the sm-8.
but when he's at the sm-8, the terminal computer connects to the sub and tries to initiate the black box recovery program. it then tells simon that he doesn't have the right credentials, so he can't download anything.
that includes photos.
when he gets frustrated with the computer not letting him download the archive, he hits the mouse and it begins to cycle through photos until it lands on a shot of the eel's tail, complete with her legs poking out
and simon looks at it like it's something he's never seen before
but these are all his pictures. they can't be from the sm-8, he doesn't have the credentials to download anything. he should recognize them
unless, of course, he didn't take it.
let's look at the images in order and compare them to the photos in the scene before he falls asleep:
this, being the last photo we see simon take.
this, being the first photo that was taken without simon.
this, being the ambiguous "might have been the ship, might have been simon" photo
and lastly, a photo that we do not see get taken at all, because our perspective follows simon into his sleep.
i'm fairly confident that this photo was taken while simon was asleep, by the ship, and that's why he doesn't recognize it.
the following question is, why does the eel swim away? if simon is unknowingly following it, why do we not see it in any other picture?
my answer: coordinates.
stick with me.
these are the coordinates from right before simon falls asleep. it's important to note that both x and y coordinates are going down; y faster than x. he's probably at an angle somewhere in the early 200's, but it's obstructed, so we can't see exactly
the coordinates are 704, 679
these are the coordinates when simon wakes up
still 704, 679. despite driving forwards, he's in the same spot
and, oddly, despite him navigating south-west, the coordinates have somehow bumped up 0.8 units between these two screenshots. that movement doesn't follow what angle simon was at before
and, yeah. the angle changed. he's now pointed mostly west and a little north, going at an angle of 273°.
a few options here. either:
despite showing clear shots of the coordinates before and after simon falls asleep, the iron lung crew just didn't pay attention to the coordinates and what they meant (which i doubt)
simon somehow steered 300° in his sleep
or, wild concept, there's some kind of aforementioned mysterious force that has already showcased that it knows how to take pictures, and could probably additionally learn how to steer the ship
my thoughts?
the sm-13 is, in fact, alive.
it noticed the sm-8 before simon. how? i don't know. but, while simon slept, it turned the ship around as simon held the lever forward
the eel was following them from behind. she noticed the ship turning around and tried to swim away before it could get caught, but its tail was still captured in a picture that the sm-13 takes
when the turnaround was complete, the angle changed to guide simon towards the sm-8 instead of past it, and simon woke up when the indicator began to beep
when i was on my way to watch iron lung last friday, i listened to all of the typical markiplier songs. it's the treatment i give movies when i go to see them. the first song was "space is cool" and one of the lyrics that really stuck out to me was "my computer can't handle the rendering." of course it was just a joke about the game lagging, but it made me think about the dozens of videos i've watched on distractible over the past couple of years where mark has talked about the render farm he's been building. i think that it says something, not only about how far he's come, but also about much care and effort mark and everyone else on the team has put into the movie. and he's always been capable, he proved it to us with his past projects, and that's why we waited years, through droughts of main channel inactivity, for this movie. and we were proven right.
and i like that he's encouraging fans to try and do the same, to take inspiration from his work and try their own hand at creating something. i like that he wants to prove to everyone, especially the industry, that independent movies can and will be made. i like that he's describing his experiences working on this movie, explaining his preferences for different tools he's used, so that other people can start out with the equipment that feels best to work with.
that movie has not been able to leave my mind, i am enthralled. please watch iron lung if you haven't. truly a really beautiful experience.
talked to my dad about this the other day but as much as unus annus was an equal effort between mark and ethan, i think it's often more attributed to mark due to him being the more popular between the two. but i think of the moments i remember the most, the funnier or more memorable ones were ethan's bits
