#iron lung analysis

[martyrborne]

"I just wanna live...Is that so wrong? Why doesn't anybody else want that?"

Iron Lung 2026 Dir. Mark Fischbach // Laika, The Soviet Space Dog

[h4amarch]

You guys ever think about the glass pendant of the leaf Simon wraps around his left wrist, as an emotional support pendant and a symbol of Eden (the fellow Eden "brother" who left it in the ship, a sprouting seed leaf representative of the Tree, etc.) despite the clear distaste he has for what Eden as a collective has done re: Filament Station/his tattoo/etc.

You ever think about when he transitions into the fever dream of waking up in the blood ocean, his left wrist keeps him chained to something deep within the ocean even when he wants to escape.

A shackle you find comfort in. Simon and the familiarity of the cult that raised him even when they betrayed him. Eden and the belief of the Tree even as it demands atrocities against mankind. Consolidation and the ocean they can't turn away from despite the people they keep losing to it.

Toward the middle of the movie this pendant cracks. Later in the climax, Simon pulls himself free from a crucifixion, and notably it's his left arm that doesn't follow him. You have to break free from the delusional hope for a perfect outcome, and it will hurt and it will be like pulling off a limb and it will feel like losing your home both past and future. But now you are free. You can look at the present.

[makeshift-moth]

"An ignorant god sees a sliver of our universe through a pinhole and thinks it understands all that is and all that will be."

There's something about the symbolism of the pendant and the window in Iron Lung that won't leave me alone.

There is no practical reason for a window to be part of this submarine. Even Ava points out that you cannot see through the blood without an X-ray camera. The window exists so the others can look in at the convicts - the only things that give them hope for the future.

The seed pendant seems to fill a similar role. It doesn't serve any real purpose, but Simon clings to it like a lifeline. It's a symbol of hope and life, despite the overwhelming odds against it.

Simon is trapped in the Iron Lung, just like the seed has been sealed behind glass. Neither of them can live in that environment, but they were placed inside anyway in the hopes that they will create a brighter future.

And this may tie in with the line, "An ignorant god sees a sliver of our universe through a pinhole and thinks it understands all that is and all that will be."

But these thin panes of glass cannot last when they try to hold something that has a greater purpose.

A seed can never sprout, and a convict can never touch the outside world until they break the prisons created by their ignorant gods.

And what happens when a symbol becomes a living, breathing, fighting thing? The ocean doesn't break in - Simon's will breaks out.

[projectlung]

iron lung (2026) isn’t hopeless! not to me!! it’s a movie that features an eldritch horror being destroyed because it couldn’t comprehend the indomitable human spirit! the spite and the strength simon feels to sacrifice himself in the hopes of helping others! in the hopes of forgiving himself!! simon died, yes, but he took down a god with him!

[cathartik]

Something I noticed about Simon's character watching the movie a second time that I didn't realize my first time around was how much Simon acts like a caged animal. On my first watch I had trouble relating to Simon because I had expected him to have a much more slow decent into anger and despair. What I didn't realize was that Simon is already practically at his breaking point by the time he gets welded into that sub. I think he knew somewhere, subconsciously, that he was trapped, that he wasn't coming back from that expediiton.

Yet he still does everything he can think of to get out, he's scrambling, clawing at the bars of his enclosure, begging his captors for salvation they can't easily provide him. He lashes out because he is a scared animal trapped in a cage and desperately trying to find a way to set himself free. At multiple points he acts like a fox stuck in a bear trap chewing off his own foot to escape. He does several self-destructive behaviours just to self-sooth. He drinks the alcohol instead of cleaning his wounds with it, he chugs the only water he has instead of rationing it, he punches and breaks things to release tension at the risk of hull damage.

He knows, maybe subconsciously, salvation isn't coming, but he still screams into the void for someone to give it to him. Until he finally accepts that there is no salvation, not for him at least, but maybe there can be for everyone else.

[ctrl-shift-alt-9]

Iron Lung (2026) - Unofficial Transcript

Now Available in the Master Reference

This version of the transcript was handwritten and edited by myself over a week after being tasked by Markiplier's deaf community. It took twelve hours and many cups of coffee. This is not the transcript from Fandom Wiki. It is from-scratch.

This is NOT the official transcript, either. Please do not get that confused. I spent many hours slowing down audio to interpret tones due to the involvement of requested tone tags. It's eons better than what we had previously, but it will never be truly correct due to the nature of it being unofficial, even though I tried my absolute best. This is meant as a free writer's resource and does not accrue any revenue.

This version includes:

Tone tags for nearly all lines.

Italic stressors for easier tone interpretation.

Sound effects, music indication and descriptions, and basic contextual movement beats.

Indication of slurring, stuttering, muttering, etc. that was not previously included on the YouTube closed captioning (I literally counted every single stutter for accuracy.)

Extra dialogue from whispering voices that were audio enhanced and then interpreted (best I possibly could.)

Access to open annotation and commenting.

I hope this helps the community out! It was a labor of love.

[g3ck0o]

The way Markiplier portrays humanity in his works in honestly so beautiful I don't even know where to begin.

Engie, Simon, Yancy, Wilford, even The Actor and more- all of them have, as we know, done horrible things. Some didn't have a choice, didn't mean to, and some outright chose to do it. But Mark never stops making them feel human. They process what they've done in so many different ways, but they feel so real when they do so. "I'm tired, Captain" was easily one of the most memorable lines for me in ISWM. Simon is someone I canNOT go over In one post, but I've talked about his humanity a lot more in depth before. coughs. Wilford is always a bit hard to draw that towards with all his insanity, but the way he spoke to Abe in WMW makes me think he's a lot more aware than he seems. He's, surprisingly, maybe one of the only characters that may have accepted their trauma???? obviously he has issues, but he's arguably more himself than The Colonel ever was. The Actor is one of my favorite examples of Mark's characters still being people. "People" doesn't mean anyone with good intentions or can be redeemed- It means a human. It means the best and worst person you can think of. It means you and me. The Actor is not a good person by any means, but you still see his reasoning. His twisted, horrendous reasoning. You still see his facade crack, you see why he keeps it up, you see how foolish he is to think he's the one in control. Mark doesn't hide why Actor does what he does, he doesn't excuse his actions because of his spiral, but it does add to why he isn't a "monster." Yancy is one I don't see talked about too much. Yeahh we all love him, and he IS a silly little guy!! but I love to see Mark picking on the justice system in "I Don't Wanna Be Free." I don't see it talked about enough, even with Simon. Which, was one of the main reasons I made this post.

Mark touches on how people are perceived because of their actions too. I don't know why no one talks about it AHH!!!!! Simon with the C.O.I DIRECTLY puts pressure on things like the death penalty, how people are treated in prison, etc etc. They're HUMAN. Iron Lung is about desperate people in an impossible situation making impossible choices and we DONT TALK ENOUGH ABOUT WHAT ITS CRITICIZING!!!! "I Don't Wanna Be Free" talking about how the outside world would be for Yancy after what he did???? hello?? Even on another note about society, the references to poverty is so clear but amazingly covered up by the silly energy of Yancy himself, which I also quite liked about it. I'm sure there are plenty of other times he's made jabs about the world in general, but it is SO intriguing to me the way he does all of this. Hiding it behind comedy and such, or putting it out there in such a realistic way it's barely noticeable.

The characters are all so unbelievably human in nature, they all make their share of bad choices, but they aren't watered down to just that. Those choices affect them and everyone else, they handle them in their own ways, and despite many being unforgivable, they never lose their humanity. I think that's such an artful reflection on us as a species that I can't properly put into words even in this post.(just like my Simon rant😭)

[i-defy-categorization]

Okay I need to talk about Simon characterization a little bit. Because he is so so hard to write exactly correctly and as someone who reads a LOT of bloodmary... I have many thoughts.

You gotta understand that Simon is both A Mass Murderer who was raised in and thrived in a violent cult AND someone who hopes so desperately for a better world, who wants to change, and has never had a gentle touch in his life and wants it so bad without being able to put to words that's what he wants.

I feel like I'm going insane.

Because on one end people focus waaaayyyy to much on his anger. They make him an asshole for no reason who never opens up ever and always makes things more complicated. Like... you guys he was crying for at least half of the movie. Obviously he's not going to open up instantly but please that man had to have been repressing SO MANY emotions.

So many things there was never a chance to express because you cannot convince me that Eden did not have so much toxic masculinity with allllll of that biblical imagery. And when Simon finally had a chance to relax, the moment he realizes that Grace is a Safe Person, those emotions are coming out whether he likes it or not. It's too much to keep in ALL the time and we already know when he's having a Bad Time, he cries.

And on the other end... guys they are NOT going to be good communicators immediately, Simon has never had any therapy ever in his life and again. The raised in a violent cult thing. The only reason that Simon was able to survive in his world at all is because he adapted soooo well to the violence. He's angry, he throws shit around and swears like a sailor, he REFUSES to go down without a fight. In any fight or flight situation, his instinct is always going to be fight. He's not going to know how to properly comfort, at least not right away.

The only thing he knows is how to fight, to bare your teeth and puff yourself up. What do you even do when the monster is in your head? When Grace is having nightmares and there's nothing Simon can fight to fix that?

It will take a looooong time for Simon to even believe this is real, to think that for once there's nothing to fight, nothing to defend against, no battle to win. All that anger still in him that now has no place to go. It's going to come out somehow, and even if he has on some surface level acknowledged that Eden was wrong (we see in the movie he rejects both the COI's and Eden's philosophy in some way), detangling all of that trauma is going to be a lot of work. See when he's arguing with Ava, even when he disagrees with Eden's philosophy, he still falls back on their reasoning out of habit ("At least they're not deluding themselves with some biiiggg future for humanity if we all just believe hard enough") Yes he was the one to stand against them once he started to "grow a conscience" and yes, he still carries over a lot of those violent tendencies from y'know. The ENTIRETY of his life?

I feel like I yapped way too much but just. I have so many thoughts. This isn't directed at any one fic or person in particular, it's just something that's been on my mind a bit.

Feel free to yap with me on the comments! Am I onto something or going crazy for no reason?

(Also feel free to leave fic recs that you think do this particularly well in the comments, I love bloodymary but I fw any version of Simon lives fics give them to me please please please-)