The Feinics Gate Podcast - Issue 159 - Iron Lung: Echoes from the Blood Ocean

Ladies, now it's Showtime. Let's show them. We can. Rise from the Ash, Jane Lavender and Scarlet Phoenix power. So Gaga. Where will rise? They tried to ban us with. One like a flower. They didn't know we had a Phoenix's power. Phoenix Power. What's up everybody? It's your girl Jade Phoenix. We are back for another thrilling episode of the Phoenix Gate. I am so excited because, as always, I am joined by my cohorts. But because the snow fucking destroyed us again, fuck you. This is the worst winter we've ever had.

We are all in our individual nests. So I'm coming from the Phoenix nest and we have, of course, coming from down South and you know, in the New Jersey nest we have new set KA Crimson. What's up, buddy? How's it going, everyone? Hi, How are you? You good. You're all right. You good? Yeah, I'm good and. The Griffin. 'S nest. Yeah. Yeah. And then obviously we have our lavender in her nest. Hi, we. All started when I was born. Hello everyone, I will say this has been the worst winter ever and it makes me want to cry and I've basically said that I better have the best spring and summer this year or I am going to revolt against Mother Nature.

I can't do that anymore. It's so bad. Like tell me how we had, we had finally gotten rid of all the, well, not all of it, but 90 percent, 90% of the snow from that Blizzard. We had, what was it not even like 2 weeks ago? Yeah. Like 3. It was around like 3 weeks ago, yeah. I would say beginning of February. Didn't like the beginning of February. We had a Blizzard roughly, yeah, we got about a foot and a half, two feet in certain places. I know there was a lot over here by by by me, me and Lav, because we live in the same neighborhoods.

I I know that Crimson also got hit pretty bad. Yeah, no, it was, it was pretty bad over here. Like it was, it was to the point where the window like I have one of those doors that has like obviously like one of those windows with blinds in it. And it was at least the the snow, it was very weird because I don't know if it's because of the wind, but I had one section of the backyard, just nothing on it at all. And then right up against that door was literally 3 feet of snow. Well. I mean, it is also a possibility that like it just didn't pile there.

It it, I think it was the winds kind of just blew it more up against certain areas. Like, at least I know the space, The Walking space between the two houses here, that was at least another three feet worth of snow. That must have been some kind of wind tunnel where all the snow got piled in there. I had to. I had to. I had to shovel through all that. It took me all this all day. Yeah, and then what happens 2 days ago Sunday you get another one, another fucking foot and 1/2. I'm like. Was despicable.

I can't. Oh, I was talking about the I was talking about. The one I was talking about was this one. Oh no, I was talking about the first one. No, I'm talking about the second one. I thought we were talking about that one now. No, we're talking about bulls. We're talking about bulls.

For some reason this one hit a little bit harder me where I'm at in like certain areas. I would believe it because it we we got hit decent but not anywhere near I think as bad as the first one if you want my honest opinion. Yeah, overall, no, it would definitely. The first one was worse. Yeah, I think the big. Reason we didn't get that. Luckily we didn't get that like whole temperature drop either. No, yeah, like that's what I was going to say. That was the main reason, you know, because I think what made the first Blizzard so bad was that it iced and then the entire neighborhood was iced over for like.

Emotional damage. Yeah. Until literally right before this was that was just like literally a day and a half left beginning of the week. At this point, it feels like it was a day and a half ago. It was the beginning of this week. It was the beginning of this week. At least it's not like frozen frozen. Like at least it was like it's actually melting because I can actually see it from my fire escape and my cat is absolutely like enthralled watching it melt through the fire escape, of course. But I'm over it.

I'm done. Like I can't do it anymore. Well, I mean, and then what sucks is that like we got we got more snow last night. I know, and it's supposed to snow again this week. Yeah, and then we get. There no. Sorry, go ahead. No, I was saying, yeah, we do get a two days worth of snow, I think starting Sunday and then a week, almost 10 days worth of. Rain. Look, I'd rather have rain. We're going into March. We'd rather take rain exactly like and look. Granted I hate the winter, I've never loved it. Once it's past Christmas, I'm over it.

My nervous system goes insane. I. Know she wasn't ready. I don't mind the rain, and at least the rain means it's a. Little. Bit warmer. Well, you know what they say, March showers, March showers. It's, you know, March comes in like a lion, goes out like a lamb for April. Yeah, You know, so you have the March showers, You have April showers that bring May flowers. And if we're entering a rainy season, I'll take rain over fucking snow. Same. What about you, Crimson snow versus rain? I prefer neither, but yeah yeah, choose rain.

Yeah, if you the the lesser of two evils, I believe is rain. Agreed. Yeah. Yeah, 'cause this, this, this winter is brutal. It's been it has not been fun.

So usually people are like, oh, you know, you should be thankful that we're still getting snow and all this shit after the years of us not getting any snow. Yes, but it is also a sign that global warming is a fucking thing. And it makes me hello, McFly. We're we're no like. And then last night, apparently the Cheeto in charge had a State of the Union. I didn't. I haven't even watched. Anything anymore I've refused. I refused to put it on. Diginan had it on for a little bit, but it was loud and I could hear some of it and I was just, I could feel the rage just bubbling because he was just, every word out of his fucking mouth was a fucking lie.

And I, I'm like screaming. I was screaming downstairs. Turn it off. I can't fucking listen to this fucking buffoon. And I got so fed up that I just turned on the TV up here and I blasted it. I, I just, I'm, I'm, I can't, I cannot pretend anymore. I can't do that. I've tried. It didn't work. I, I can't, I just, but, you know, congratulations to the US women's hockey team for bringing home the gold. I mean fuck yes. Honestly, what a great year for women in the Olympics. Oh my God, yes, we have one of the one of our Figure skaters brought home gold.

I believe there's several other of our women have brought home the gold. But the reason why I'm singling out the women's hockey team is because the men's hockey team, yeah, they also did win gold. And I believe they did it on like the 50th anniversary of the Miracle team or something. I believe that either the 50th or 40th year of the Miracle team, the same fucking date they they did it and whatever. But because they decided to be a stupid drunken frat party with Cash Patel and there was a recording of how they were laughing and being stupid about the women's team with the Cheeto.

Fuck you.

I'm sorry. Go fuck I'm. Sorry, no, I was like, well OK, you just proved everyone loud and clear why I don't care about men's sports. No, it makes me really. Never treat women like they're your equals. Well, it's not even that. Even though they expand you in every way. It's not even that for me. It broke my heart because hockey is my sport. Like if like some people are obsessed with football, some people are obsessed with baseball. I am a hockey person. I love hockey. That is my game. That is my sport.

I always want I, I always want to go to games. I love hockey. And for me, I was rooting for these teams because you know, hockey and on top of that, you know, Marco. But now I, I'm like, I'm disgusted. I'm fucking disgusted the way that the men's hockey team, you know, did what they did in the locker room. Yeah, OK, give me the argument. It's locker room, Tom. But you were on camera. How dare you fucking turn around and and say that the women's aren't as good as you. If anything, they're better because they brought it home before you did, asshole.

Why a few times? Quite a few times, but other than that, I haven't really been paying attention to the Winter Olympics. I'm not going to lie, I really haven't. I've been kind of a little bit more focused on stuff here. Me and Crimson did a big show on Sunday during the Blizzard. Actually, it was. Crazy to actually like you guys. Were there kind of more? It was kind of more just before it started. Actually it started it. Started while we were. There. But it, it was already starting. It was already starting though, because it was flurrying and it was cold and it was wet.

But we, we did the inaugural Toy Stop NYC. It's the first one that they've ever done. Because you know how the Phoenix gate likes to be on the ground up for everything. But you know, it was an amazing time. We got to hang out with some cool vendors. We got some great interviews that you guys need to be following us on our social media to see because we put up a Reese, not a recent interview, but an interview that we did back in November at the big event exs with the American Gladiator, J Rod and and that you can find on on our YouTube, our TikTok and our Instagram.

So if you're not following us on there, you're not going to be able to see these new interviews and a few others that are up and coming because we're releasing another one tomorrow.

So just saying. Get on it. Like seriously, follow us, we're pretty fun, we do fun shit. But other than that, Crimson got to show off more of his skills with his 3D printing and talk to people that you are having some pretty long conversations there. Yeah, yeah, I was. I was chatting with certain people like they were, they were asking me a lot about like in terms of like what kind of stuff do I print? What you know, what's the processes and stuff, you know, because they, they, they saw how some of the statues that I made were done and they were just curious as to how I got the certain textures onto it.

And pretty much I just kind of didn't really go too crazy into detail because there's not really much to really say. It was mostly just the material more than anything else that kind of just worked for me because, yeah, when it comes to these 3D printing materials, like they have their own sort of qualities to them. Either they have sparkles or they'll have, you know, sort of like a stone like texture to it. This looks like very interesting. I mean, hey, you're, you're the master of that. Me, me and me and Lavender are just like, OK.

I just go pretty thing. Yeah. Pretty. Pretty, pretty things. Yeah. But no, I mean, that's great. And you know, the talent touch is your company and we're promoting that obviously. Yeah, you know, so you guys should also give that social media a follow. It is the talent touch on Instagram and you can hit up our Crimson for and you know, a custom because you do. Do you take Commission? Correct? Yes I do. I'm currently working on a few right now, but still open to taking in a few more that obviously would be a little bit on a wait list, but not anything like too egregiously long.

Which is great, which is great because we're all about creation here. And one of the things that we are going to be talking about tonight, it's the best movie I have ever seen in quite a long time. I was skeptical about this movie because, you know, I'm, I'm skeptical about everything. Let's call a spade Spader. But. But not only did I get to have a fantastic time with these two and two other friends of the Phoenix Gate that are family, and we had fantastic dinner. We had, you know, coffee. It was a great fucking night.

This movie blew my fucking mind in so many ways and I am just so happy that we are going to be talking about tonight. Iron Lung.

I mean it. I want to go see it again in theaters. I know that our Lavender got to see it twice in theaters. Yes, I actually did get to see it twice. I saw it actually opening night when it first came out in the first round of theaters that Markiplier's team had dropped the film. So it was even more exciting getting to see it a second time because it's just, it just proved all the things I loved about it the first time. And it's definitely one of those films that I feel the more you watch it, the more you get out of it, especially if you're a big film fan.

And even if you're not and you just enjoy media in general, just seeing the craft of it, how much care went into making the movie and how many fun little nuances there are as the film rolls is so cool because the film is essentially A1 man show. It is so this movie only had 123-4567 people starring in it 7 and I'm pretty sure that on you only maybe maybe see on screen at any point in time 4 of them. So that's pretty impressive.

Yeah, one thing I do want to add to for because obviously I actually got a chance to see when he when Markiplier actually did play the game that the movie was. Based off of if. I'm not mistaken. I think it came out back in 22 when he did the recording for it. Very interesting story. It was it definitely, it's funny. It definitely played with the same sort of not super slow, but gradual progression within the story. The game, obviously, you know, it's, it's, it's a game. It's a little bit different than how it is with the movie because there's a lot at least with a movie you have, even if there's not a whole lot going on, there's still things that are going on within the area around the character within the movie compared to the game, like doing a comparison, I guess to the game.

The game, it's a lot of it was more just like strictly going to the locations, kind of like how it was in the movie, But there wasn't a lot of and when I say environment, I'm talking about more like environment within the the I guess submarine or iron lung, they want to call it because that's what the the actual device is called is there's not a lot of scenery things going on within the space that the characters in. They do get some random notes, which was also, I'm pretty sure it's one of those like little sort of things that they added in there as well within the film.

But what I did notice is that there was a, there was, I guess other people might not think so in terms of film, but in terms of like from game to silver screen, there was a lot more going on. And obviously then there was in the game and the ending, which I'm not going to say anything. It's still fairly in theaters. So let people actually watch it when they get a chance. Yeah, we don't want to give them any spoilers because it's that good. Of course. Yeah. Like we want you to go in and really get to experience it the way that we all got to 1st experience it.

And if you're like me, you're getting to see it a second time, experience it with the open eyes of, oh, you do know what's going to happen. But now you get to appreciate all of the really cool nods and just awesome practical effect work that Markiplier's team did. It's true because we can talk about the original game, which is obviously of the same title, Iron Lung, and this is a game that was created by David Szymanski. I'm probably butchering that, but here we go. This came out on Windows March 10th and 2022.

It was a Windows powered game and they created a port to play it on the Switch as of December 19th of the same year. So this started out as a computer game that was so good that if they moved it to the Switch and then PlayStation 5 and Android got it later in 2025. PlayStation Five got it in October, Android got it in December. So you can play these things on all of those. You can play this game on all four of those systems. It's a submarine simulator horror game. It's a single player game. Now the gameplay itself is you are, it's a first person silent protagonist and you are piloting a Midget submarine.

The gameplay isn't set entirely in one room, no real room to move around, and it's controlled using navigational equipment in the front and the heading and position are displayed with a minimalist interface. So you're not getting like the whole like a super powered submarine kind of shit. You're not getting any of that. You're getting numbers and a direction, like an arrow pointing in a single direction and that's it. You don't have any windows because the one window that you can use, you can't open because you're in a sea of blood and the pressure and all sorts of stuff.

And you have to get you, you can't leave the submarine and you have to use only the camera to navigate your ship. And you events are going to occur throughout the game, including, you know, obviously, you know, oxygen issues, pressure issues, and there's also obviously tons of cheat codes that you can use, you know, for this game because it was a computer game of somebody's always going to figure out how to how to do it. The game itself actually got really good reviews when it first came out. But in 2023, Schmansky got some criticism because he increased the price of the game by $2.00.

And that made everybody not want to buy it, which is so stupid to me. I'm sorry. And then like, $2.00 is kind of like nothing in the world of video games, but. Then do you want to know what what is hysterical to me? Do you want to know what what surged the popularity of this game again? Do you guys, do you guys have any idea what made this game become popular and on people's lips again? I'm telling you, Markiplier's playthrough, it really got people interested again. I mean, it got me interested and I didn't even know the game initially.

No, that's not what did it. I mean it helped. I. Remember. Watching it, it helped, but that's not what made the game popular again in 2023. It was the implosion of the Titan submersible. Oh, I felt like that was like, it's been that long. Wow, has it been that long? I thought that was just the last year. Yep, I so. I don't have any plans at the time. There is no such thing, so Iron Lung experienced a surge in popularity and sales, with some comparing aspects of the video game with real world circumstances of the five victims on board of Titan, such as the inability to open the submersible from the inside.

Chamansky expressed his discomfort at the increased sales in multiple tweets, first posting a weekly sales chart from Steam with the words This feels So wrong, and further remarking that the thought of Titan's occupants being trapped in a similar scenario was pretty horrific, even if it was their own bad decisions.

Yeah. Also, by the way, just want to throw that out there. When you did mention about the price increase, I understand that it's, it's not really more that people are complaining about the price. It's more the principle behind that, by the way. I'm sure. Because it's it's a game that was released a while ago. There was nothing else that was edited or changed onto it. And they increase the price. What what was you know that that's kind of it's like you're it's not like you're not allowed to do it.

It's more it's kind of frowned upon. We're just like you kind of just released it in the initial price. If it now again, if there was an update where they added more content to it and they increase the price, nobody would really say anything. But the black guy was already released. Yeah, that that's kind of like a poor choice. Yeah, like that makes sense because I mean, realistically, having played it myself, you could technically finish the gameplay in an hour. Yeah, you could. It's not a long game.

That's it's not a long game. And I think that's also what makes the game so terrifying is the whole idea of the game is that you're essentially like trapped into your own execution. And obviously, like the movie gives far more storyline and really adds on to the world that David had initially created, but that the whole idea of the game is the fact that you're inevitably dead. The end. No matter what you do, no matter how you play, you meet an inevitable end. Yeah. So it's kind of like crazy when you think about they were like, oh, it's only an hour of being play.

I'm like, yeah, but like, that's spooky about it. There's nothing you can do to extend it, because there's no way that you can avoid your own faith. No. And it's such a like terrible, like not terrible, but it's such a freaking like metaphor for the human life. It's like no matter what you do, you're stuck in your human meat suit, piloting them, your mech, your human mech meat suit, and in the end we all end up the same way no matter what. Sometimes it's just a little bit more horrific than others.

Exactly. And I think that's what's so interesting about then how it was adapted for the film, because we get so much more contacts as to what that meat suit has been through. Emotional damage. You really don't get much back story for the protagonist that you're you're not supposed to essentially inheriting. You're not supposed to because you're really supposed to see yourself through the eyes of this protagonist you're inheriting. So they kind of like he leaves him a bit as an empty shell. Besides, hey, you did something wrong.

You are now here essentially to die. And now you're just going to see your own fate, or a fate that the people that sent you there don't even fully understand, That you're going to experience play before your very eyes with no way out. Oh, but they do know they do. Oh yeah. They just don't. They give them a little bit more ambiguity in the movie, but yeah, they kind of, they know that there's something down there and that's exactly why you're going. What I love about this movie is that it gave us the context that those of us who have played the game may or may not have gotten from the gameplay itself.

And I love that while it gave us a little bit more, I guess I want to call it rounding out of the edges of this game, it didn't expand on it in such a way that now we have a whole fucking thing where we're going to get all these spin offs and we're going to get the, you know, it's just no, because it still gives you that whole finality of the game itself. And it's not, it's not open to interpretation. There is no, oh, maybe it didn't happen. No, it fucking happened. It happened. This is what how it happened.

You can't question it. And I loved that. Yeah, I I would agree. I think that's what's So what I love so much about Mark being the person to adapt Iron Lung is and y'all have heard it on this podcast before. I I am not against people taking creative liberties with source material. I feel like when you do it right it's awesome. Great example. Not video game related but Silver lining playbook. I think the movie was actually better than the book because of the creative liberties they took, because it was in the the honor of the character in the story.

And I think that's exactly what Mark did, was he was able to take the first material, expand it in such a way that honors the original first material, didn't take anything away from it, didn't try to morph it into some beast of its own. I'm calling you out The Hobbit movies and take away the core of the story. And I think that's what was so great about it. Like, as a fan himself, Mark was able to take that material and do justice to it. In a world where big Hollywood would have been, actually, we need six of these movies.

Can we also like, talk about the fact that it's literally this movie was written by Markiplier, directed by Markiplier, edited by Markiplier. It was produced by Markiplier Studios, Like, like and literally the team of this movie is so small. It was only produced by two other by two people, Will Hyde and Jeff Guerrero. It only stars Markiplier, Carolyn Rose Kaplan, Troy Baker, Elsie Lovelock, Elle Lamont, Sean McLaughlin and Isaac McKee. The cinema, cinematography, Philip Roy, and music by Andrew Hysholt or Halsholt I should say.

I'm butchering people's names, but that's it. This film only had a budget of $3,000,000. That is it. That is nothing in the bucket of Hollywood. Nothing. It is a. It is a tear. Dry never supposed to be released in this way solely because Mark's fans said we want to see it in a theater. And then Mark went ahead and petitioned for it to go to the theaters. Like when it opened that initial weekend I went to go see it, it was only going to open in a few 100 theaters. Now it's more than doubled its return for how much they spent making the movie, of which Mark made a point to highlight that first week of those sales that they made of that original.

Nearly 20 million he gave out as bonuses to his crew. As of today, as we are recording this, this movie has made over $50 million. And rightfully so. As is well deserved. Well fucking deserved. Now the three of us went to go all go see it together obviously. And now I am well known for having claustrophobia. I do not do well in enclosed spaces. I am, I have a history there. There's trauma being buried underneath 2 buildings will kind of make you a little afraid of fucking tight spaces. So going to see this movie, I was very much like, because the way Lavender described it was you do get that very claustrophobic feeling.

And there were a few parts in the movie where I'm just sitting there going, Nope, absolutely the fuck not. No, no, no, thank you. You're a monster, I. Don't want it, but it was. I think that's what made it spookier, you know? I mean, personally, it wasn't one of those films that made me jump, which I I don't mind. Don't get me wrong, I love a good jump scare, but it was one of those movies that was definitely fucking with my psyche where I'm just sitting there going and I'm quite like the whole time I'm sitting there, I'm going.

OK, what's going to happen next though? I need to see it. I need to know. And it left me with questions, which I think is fucking so good. Because if you're doing psychological horror, nails it. Oh 100% And personally I would view Iron Longmore as eldritch horror just because of the cosmic nature of this film and the world surrounding the film. Like it was giving me very like Lovecraftian ideals into how they were building the world around the movie. And I just think he did such a great job. And I feel like there's so few eldritch horror, whether it be films, books, television, that really capture that feeling of muchness without overdoing it.

But it's this cosmic horror of there are forces you cannot control, nor can you stop them. And they did it in such a way that one man, you could see it go through one man's entire experience verse like what you're used to in this non creator based media economy where everything is like, oh, Michael Bay is just going to blow up a big giant snake monster like it was. No, this actually feels so terrifying and so authentic and unique because an independent creator put it out there. I don't disagree Crimson your perspective like what was going through your head while watching this movie?

For me it was mostly just kind of like obviously because the game itself doesn't have a lot of like lore and back story to it. But for me, what I was kind of looking for was First off, getting the, the, the correct scenery be correct, like detail. It's like, it's more of environmental storytelling because that's more of like what that game is about. It's more environmental storytelling. It's a type of storytelling that not a lot of people really tend to adapt in their movies or films, TV shows, you know, obviously matter of fact, you don't even see that in TV shows, but you don't really tend to see that even a whole lot within just video games.

Like there's not an abundance. There are a good amount, but not a not as large of a library as you know, you know, games that have like no, like they actually have like dialogue, even at least some kind of form of dialogue and storytelling.

For me it was just more the details of the capsule of the submarine that the characters in, like how big the space is, the details of the equipment. Now obviously the defer people who haven't played the game or are wondering and now like after watching the film, they want to go see how the game is. Obviously don't expect it to be like hyper realistic graphics. It is a indie game. So it is a very simplified, detailed game. You could tell it's indie, you could tell it they have a lot of people working on it.

But that's the point of indie. You don't have like large studio groups working on a project. So, but it's kind of it's kind of what's really nice about indie games. But but yeah, like the equipment is definitely one of the biggest things that I was looking at. I was trying to see, does he have old dials that he should be having? Does he have more? Does he have less? Are they going to get that Switch that's in the back, you know, for taking the photos and stuff? Now what I kind of liked is the fact that, if I remember correctly, they didn't really specify what type of camera that was.

They did. In the game in. The game in the game in the movie they did. I'm talking, yeah, because we're talking. We're talking. Yeah, exactly. I I'm talking about the game itself. They don't, I don't believe, unless it was in one of those like small notes, but I highly doubt it. I would have to double check. But in terms of the game itself, I don't believe there was really any descriptions as to what kind of camera it was or, you know, the fact that it you know, if it had some sort of radiation to it.

So I, you know, I felt like that was a nice little detail that they added on along with the rest because again, we are talking about highly dense organic material you're swimming through, which is blood, flesh, blood and flesh from where? Who knows? But it actually makes logical sense and more from, I'm pretty sure from a medical perspective. And I'm pretty sure, Jay, you could kind of, you know, correct me if I'm wrong on that. I could. Yeah, yeah. No, I mean. They did well, yeah, they did really well, I think when it came to converting the game aesthetic and play style to a movie, if that's what you meant.

Yeah. Yeah, I I I agree. With you the difference between. You. No, I definitely agree. With you, yeah, I think it's. Cool. Speaking on that is a lot of the actual design and mechanics from the game are in the movie, which I think is so fun. So the map that he's using is actually the exact same screen print of the map used in the game. Yes. Yep, as well as the as well as the the journals. In the journals, exactly in the way that they actually set up the manuals where they're almost like these concise, like video game manuals, even just going as far as into it as like how he delivers certain lines of dialogue.

It's very fun because it feels like beyond just, oh, we're watching like a film adoption of a video game. It's, oh, I'm watching a video game being made into a film. Yeah, there's a very disdainful Prince. Yeah, I mean, and let's talk about this cast. So we obviously have Markiplier, who's playing the convict, which they finally give a name to, and they call him Simon. But they have Isaac McKee, who plays, you know, young Simon in his flashbacks. Then you have Carolyn Rose Kaplan, who plays Ava.

You have Troy Baker, who plays David. You have Elsie Lovelock as the voice of the speaker and also appearing as the research lead of the SM-8. You have L Lamont, who is the voice of the whisper. Lamont also appears as a research assistant on the SM-8. Mick Lauer is the voice of the previous occupant of the SM-13, David Pettit as the father. Sean McLaughlin, who's also known as Jacksepticeye, is Jack and. And Alana Pierce is the familiar voice, but we also get cameos from Schmansky himself and Raul, Raul Kohli, Ethan Nestor Valkyrie and Meeka Midget all provide additional voices for this movie.

And seriously, usually you would have like on a on a typical Hollywood movie that that list would be like way bigger. You know, these are all people that I, I honestly personally have never even heard of in the acting field. I mean, have any of you? I mean, Raul Coley actually in terms of people in the movie, he is actually decently well known. I you actually mentioned him at New York Comathon. Did I? Oh my God, yes I did. My, my brain just went explosions.

Yep, you're right, I did. I love him. Never mind. Yeah, because he's in the The Haunting of series. He's in all of Mike Flanagan's stuff on Netflix. Yeah, you're right. You're the. Only one that I would say is any traditional besides maybe Troy Baker, but he's more of a like video game voice acting kind of famous, if that makes sense Yeah, go holy would be the only one I would say is like close to maybe like a movie star type success but. But he only provided additional voices. He didn't. He didn't even.

Appear on screen. Exactly. He only did, he didn't appear on screen. So like and it doesn't surprise me that he would want to be in on this type of project. Well, he's a gamer. He's very out. He's not only is he a gamer, but he's super outspoken about making sure that artists get their chance in Hollywood overall. Yeah, especially in the age of everything's about social media, everything's about TikTok, He's a very big supporter of just curating and supporting all types of art. So it's actually, I didn't even originally know that he provided additional voices.

So it makes me really happy that he like stands behind what he preaches, you know what I mean? So it's great to see him on that list. And also does Markiplier, who even before this has been like, even though he obviously does all his playthroughs. Like I'm personally a big fan of Markiplier and I love seeing him transition into his own original work, like his original content and story ideas. His own short series Anus Anus was a huge thing that he did. And just getting to see him really show his chops and get to flourish in such a way that like any Joe Schmo on the street may not know who Markiplier is.

But I feel like this just proves that independent artists deserve to be represented in a big Hollywood way. Well, Markiplier came out in 2023, I believe, and he officially announced that he was making this game, that he was making this movie, and this was intended to be his theatrical film. Even though he has previously, you know, did a couple of original films for YouTube which were a heist with Markiplier in 2019 and then In Space with Markiplier in 2022. He did those. But also, you know, this was one of those things where he works.

So they Schmansky was on board for this even before Markiplier announced that he was doing it. Like they worked in tandem to make sure that this film would be true to the original source material, which I find to be the best because there are so many things like I'll use an example, the Witcher, the Witcher series. The Witcher series was great because you had an actor there who was like, if you do not stay to the source material, I am not fucking doing it. And that was Henry Cavill. Henry Cavill is such a fucking gamer where he was like, I'm not doing it.

And that's why after I believe it was season 2 that he exited and refused to do season 3 because they weren't staying true to the source material anymore. And that's why they got the other dude, Thor's brother, to do it. Oh, Liam Hemsworth. Yeah, they got Liam Hemsworth to take over as the Witcher because Cavill turned around and said no, you're not staying true to the games, you are not staying true to the story. I'm not fucking doing it. And Hollywood turned around and said OK, bye. So crops of people that stick to their fucking convictions like Markiplier, like Cavil, who are like, no, no, no, you're not going to bastardize something that is so beloved by so many fucking people and make it just Hollywood and and and easily shoveable down people's throats.

There is a point to some of these games that they are not supposed to be liked by everyone. They are not supposed to be stomach by everyone there. That is the whole fucking point. And I love the fact that Markiplier was like, Nah, I I'm going to do this the way that it needs to be done. He fucking basically financed it, most of it out of his own pocket. And. He beat a record when he did it. He beat a fucking record when he did it. He says that he had announced that Iron Long is going to contain the most fake blood of any horror film, beating Evil Dead from 2013's 50,000 US gallons used during filming, and he had to go to the hospital after getting too much fake blood in his eyes.

Yeah, yeah. And if you've seen the film, you can see why. He revealed in a live stream on December 7th from to 2025 that the final amount, approximate amount of blood, was 80,000 gallons.

Holy fucking shit. It's called commitment, ladies and gentlemen. Dude. That's that's beyond like, dude, how like, ha, you have to go to the hospital to have the fake blood taken out of your eyes. That's not just commitment. That is insanity, and I'm here for it. No, it's amazing. Yeah. Markiplier has never been a creator that's ever done halfway anything. I mean his whole project and his anus was it's only about making 365 days of all original content that was only viewable for 24 hours because it was supposed to be about experiences and not just putting out content.

And no normal human being, and I say this with all love to Markiplier, no normal human being would be able to commit to that bit the way that Markiplier commits to bits above and beyond every single time.

I mean, Markiplier even turned down a roll in Five Nights at Freddy's to be able to do Iron Lung. Yeah. Because of the schedule conflict, yeah. Because he wanted to make sure that he could commit everything to this adaption. And I love that every bit of it is not only paying off for him, but for his entire crew. Like some top names in horror have been citing just how much they believe that the way that this was done is how it should be done. Like Bruce Campbell went out of his way recently to actually shout out Markiplier and say like, this needs to be the future of media and especially for the film forum.

I agree. What do you think, Crimson?

Are you there, Crimson? Hello. Hello. Oh, my God. OK. Did you fall asleep? I'm like, OK, no, I'm over here talking. I'm like, OK, I guess. I guess drop in a connection there for a moment. All right? No, like I was saying before, yeah, like I was saying before, when it comes to the whole thing with Mark, I know I've, I've been watching Mark since like, I was probably in like early high school, senior freshman year. I remember watching his videos. But so I've always known him to be that type of character.

Yeah, he's been around for a very long time. I didn't watch my. Tubers like that. I never watched Youtubers like that. I did. It was past my time.

Yeah, I didn't, but yeah, that's, that's honestly, I've always seen Mark and it kind of makes me, it's almost like, wow, man, I've known you for years and you're, you're doing good. Like I, I, I, I, I love the success that he's, he's going through, especially with this, with this whole film, because like him, I, I strive to do things creatively a lot. So, and I don't really like doing things that other people tend to do either too. I kind of like standing out-of-the-box a little bit or, you know, kind of just making things that people haven't seen and his mindset, I, I essentially have been embodying that type of same mindset for a while, just in different fields.

Take that depression, but. I do not disagree. Now, overall, the response for this movie has been positive. I mean, it's 61% out of 38 critics gave it a positive review. That's a lot for an independent film. It even, Yeah. And especially for a film that could be just beyond the fact that it's an independent horror film, it's also an indie eldritch horror film. And that is a really hard genre for a lot of people, including critics, to really, like, wrap their hands their heads around and enjoy at a commercial success.

Yeah. So the fact that you've been ranked that well on Rotten Tomatoes, it considerably impresses me all the way and speaks to Mark's filmmaking. I don't disagree considering the fact that in the box office as of February 22nd, Iron Long has grossed 40 million in the United States and Canada and 10 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $50 million. And in the United States and Canada, Iron Lung was released alongside a movie that we will not name because we ain't given it any press and shelter.

It opened with 3.5 million on Thursday, so it already made back what it spent with a little bit of .5 interest. And it was initially projected to make 9 to 10 domestically on the opening weekend. But after an 8.9 million opening day, including the Thursday previews, projections were increased to 14 to 17,000,000. And it opened with an estimated 17.8 million from 3015 theaters, as per Variety and Deadline. And though it opened to a slightly higher 18.2 million when the official figures actually came out in the first weekend.

Yeah, I know. It's crazy. And I mean, now they're even saying it's grossing over 43 to 50 million worldwide as of today. Yes, and that's I'm sorry for a film that only had a budget of 3 million for a sing for a for it to be focused on such a single space actor with very minimal outside interference and stuff like that. Bra chefs fucking kiss that movie. I mean, personally, personally, I'm going to give that movie a 9.5 out of 10. That's my opinion. It was that good because there are very few movies that I'll go to the theaters and actually like be like, I'm very glad that I got to see this in theaters or why didn't I wait for this to come out on streaming or whatever.

This is one of those movies that you have to experience it in theaters. You just have to it's, it's that. Good 100%. It's that good. One of the friends that we went to with to see the movie has the attention span of a Sparrow and even he said no. This is definitely the kind of movie that I'm very glad that I saw in theaters because if I tried to watch this at home, I would get distracted and then he wouldn't be able to give the movie. It's appropriate attention and it deserves that attention. And those that coming from him is very high because he is like the worst when it comes to shit.

So if he's sitting there and saying he fucking really liked that movie, then it's a good movie because he hates everything.

It's true. It's true, but not the baby.

Now I want to know you, both of you, your rating before we start wrapping it up. So we'll we'll start with you, Crimson. What is your rating for this movie out of 10? I mean, I, I honestly just based off of how good it was, how true it was to the to, I would arguably say minimal source material, you know, and there's a story though, and there's a story environment is different, but story settings and all that. Honestly, I gave it around the same same rating. You gave it like a 9.5. Yeah, that's pretty much my reasoning for it.

High rating from from Crimson and Crimson is also another hard to please person when it comes to film. So impressive. What about you, Lav? You saw it twice. So what's your rating? Yeah, I I would have to say 9.5 to 10. Like, I really love this movie. Granted, I was very, very excited for this movie. Like I was planning to see it back when he announced it was even going to be released in that first handful of theaters around the world. And I was like, I have to see it. I don't care where I have to go.

It ended up being great that it was right in my backyard and way easier. But I would give it a 9.5 to A10. I just, I loved everything about it. It was everything that I love about horror. It was everything I love about creators and I just really love Mark. And I don't just say that because I'm like a fan of his work. He's just a really good person and it makes me feel good to see good people succeed and seeing him succeed as someone that's gone out of his way to not only do like verse like a Mr. Beast for example, who's like a crazy sociopath narcissist I hate.

Him. I love seeing someone like Mark who has a kind true heart, like really succeed at this and I just loved everything about the movie. Can't wait for the DVD release because Mark's confirmed as of February 19th that a DVD Blu-ray release is going to be in development. I definitely am getting that. I'm definitely I will be the first person to have that freaking whatever the special edition version of it is, it's going to be in my possession. I agree because it's funny that we were all literally talking about that as we left the theater.

Yeah, that I needed it. That we need in my physical library. I agreed I don't buy Blu rays or DVDs anymore, but this is one that I will make an exception for.

What? What about you? What about? You Crimson.

What about? You Crimson, would you buy the would you buy that DVD or? If I were to buy it, it would be to have them sign it. That's it.

That would. I'm not really much for. I'm not really much one for for, you know, having DVDs, you know, even though if we're talking about like just having this, I'd probably prefer to have my games as physical, but DV DS, I do not have a collection of DV DS at all either. So, but honestly, just just for to have an opportunity, if I ever get one to have them sign it, I have at least something. So yeah. Definitely, for sure, for sure. So it is a very rare occasion when you have all three members of the Phoenix Gate agreeing on an overall rating of 9.5 out of 10 for a movie because you like, we all have so many different requirements on what we personally like to see in a movie.

So for the for the anybody that hasn't been listening to us for a long time for the three of us to agree across the board that has never happened actually at all in the history of the three of the color wheel it we just no, it doesn't happen. So this is this. Is this? Is a first and Markiplier, congratulations on everything and I cannot wait to see where you go in the future and what you do in the future. Because honestly, I like I said, I didn't watch Markiplier doing his streams and stuff. I've heard good things that I believe that he's funny.

I just never really like had. I don't, I don't, I don't watch people stream games because then it makes me want to play the actual game itself and I'd rather do that. Does that make sense? That's totally different. So like, I never hated on him because I myself have like wanted to do the Twitch stuff and and stream things for the gate. But you know, I'd rather be playing the game than watching someone play the game. So for Markiplier to go from someone that was just doing silly shit on YouTube and Twitch years ago to being who he is now and giving us this gem of a movie, thank you.

We love you, Mark. And on that note, yeah, we're going to get out of here. So check us out. We are going to be bringing so many bigger and better things to you guys. If you're not following us on social media, as I mentioned earlier, you really should be because there's so many wild things that will only be on certain bits of our social media. So if you're not following us by now, I don't know what to tell you, but get get on that, fix that. And if you can, if you are hearing this on any of the major listening platforms that we are on, because we are on every single one, give us a like and a follow.

Help us come to you more often so that you know what is up with the gate. And till next time, see you later, Phoenix Nation. Bye, say bye. Bye.

The Feinics Gate Podcast - Issue 159 - Iron Lung: Echoes from the Blood Ocean

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