Markiplier’s ‘Iron Lung’ and Hollywood’s Collapse

We are only a month into 2026 and it is already shaping up to be an absolute nightmare for Hollywood.  One of the few success stories in streaming shows, Stranger Things, came to a pathetic (and gay) end, pleasing no one and demonstrating the creative bankruptcy at the heart of Hollywood.  The current generation of writers are experts at planting mystery boxes but have repeatedly demonstrated that they have no idea how to complete a compelling narrative.With Star Wars reduced to a smoking hole in the ground, Star Trek was the next property to be consigned to oblivion.  I’ve actually reached my limit in terms of putting up with Starfleet Academy.  It’s completely unwatchable, even through the eyes of a reviewer.  Step by miserable step, Hollywood has trashed beloved franchises to the point where they have zero market pull.  Fans loved them, then hated them, and now just don’t care.

As bad as that was, things just got much worse, thanks to a Youtuber with a dream.

Iron Lung Triumphant

I freely admit I’ve never heard of “Markiplier” nor was I familiar with the Iron Lung game.  I have a daughter who follows both, however, and Mark Fischbach has a massive audience.

As everyone knows by now, Fischbach is a tremendous fan of Iron Lung and decided that not only should it get a film adaptation, but that he would be the one to do it.  With tens of millions of subscribers and film technology more accessible than it has ever been, he essentially put on a one-man show of writing, directing, acting, producing and editing the film, which he then marketed directly to theater chains, leveraging his audience to lobby the owners and management into giving him an impressive number of screens.

Whether the film is any good, I leave to others, since I have no interest in the topic or the genre.  What is not in dispute is that it has been a staggering financial success, bringing a return on investment previusly unknown to modern filmmaking.

Not only is this a giant stick in the eye of the creative establishment, Fischbach now has seed money and the infrastructure to move onto more projects.  Just as importantly, he has showed to way for other independent-minded creators to break Hollywood’s control of theatrical entertainment.

History Repeating Itself

The film industry may seem venerable, but in terms of human institutions, it is very young.  It has not yet been a century since the first “talking” film was released, and since that time, the industry has been disrupted multiple times by new technologies and emerging competitors.  The old studios survive in name only, with their brands serving as little more than advertising props.  Many of them no longer even own their old back catalog, and any sort of institutional culture has vanished.

What has replaced it is conformist, identity-driven and strongly influenced by demonic ideas and practices.  It is consistently at war with Christianity and the heroic virtues, preferring instead to valorize greed over altruism, envy over generosity, cowardice over courage and sexual immorality over chastity.  Love is treated as a transaction for self gain.

Recognizing this shift, one of the few remaining giants, Disney, tried to build a creative monopoly, capitalizing on decades of diligent lobbying that created almost permanent copyrights to control all existing and future creative content.  It has backfired in every possible way.

Some might compare Iron Lung to the Blair Witch Project, which was a similar independent film phenomenon.  The difference was that Hollywood back then had the wit to coopt it and embrace its success.  Apparently, the current strategy is to suppress the box office success of Iron Lung and hope it goes away.

Spoiler alert: it won’t.

The AI Threat is Fake, Yet Real

If we strip away the buzzwords and hype, Artificial Intelligence is just a different way to mine data.  In terms of script-writing, AI will basically load all the manuscripts from every ’80s Choose Your Own Adventure book, randomly sort the choices, and spit out what appears to be a cohesive story.  It will produce slop because for all the type, Garbage In, Garbage Out still applies, and the people programming the AI are just as stupid at their writers.

It’s sole advantage will be price.  Instead of paying 10 writers to produce hot garbage like Starfleet Academy, AI will cost pennies on the dollar.  This will appeal to the bean-counters who currently run the place.  While money has always been a prime motivator, not long ago it was guided by creative-minded leaders, who were willing to trust visionary writers and directors to produce iconic films which made huge sums of money.  Now the only thing that matters is squeaking out a percentage of profit, and it shows.

Hollywood will therefore embrace it, and its decline will accelerate.  However, this is an opportunity for creative people like Fischbach to expand their reach and grow their operations.  While it is too early to tell, Amazon seems to be getting the message about pushing inferior product, having fired the disastrous Jennifer Selke and empowering Henry Cavil to make a Warhammer 40,000 movie that is actually respectful of Warhammer 40,000.

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— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) [timestamp]

We shall see if this is the last gasp for the current order or the beginning of a long-overdue course correction.

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