Markiplier Says Iron Lung Used 79,800 Gallons of Blood
markiplier says Iron Lung used 79,800 gallons of blood, a figure he says broke the cinematic record for blood used on camera. The $3 million horror film is based on David Szymanski’s game, and its reported scale now sits far beyond its budget.
79,800 Gallons on Set
79,800 gallons was Mark Fischbach’s final estimate, and he tied it to the week when the blood-flooding scenes were shot near the end of filming. He said the calculation came from eight hours of pump time, which he reduced to seven hours, then multiplied by 190 gallons per minute.
190 gallons per minute came from two Honda WH20 pumps running at 80% of their flow rate, according to Fischbach’s breakdown. He said, “We had two pumps, I believe they were Honda WH20s. They pump at 119 gallons per minute. But I'm not going to 100% of the flow rate because other factors can affect that. So, I figured 80%, and 80% of two of those pumps is 190 gallons per minute. I have [behind-the-scenes footage] of each basin getting filled. I technically know the volumes, but they were filled multiple times, filled and drained, filled and drained, and so I can calculate based on the time it took to fill each one, and how many times.”
Evil Dead and the Old Record
2013 is the year Fede Álvarez’s Evil Dead held the previous estimated record for blood used on camera. Fischbach said Iron Lung moved past that mark, which turns the film’s practical effects into a production statistic rather than just a visual gimmick.
660,000 gallons is about the size of an Olympic swimming pool, so Iron Lung’s total still lands well below that benchmark. Even so, 79,800 gallons on a $3 million movie is the kind of ratio that makes the production feel engineered around one extreme image rather than spread across a typical effects budget.
Iron Lung’s Scale
$51.2 million is the amount Iron Lung has earned to date, giving the film a commercial footprint that now sits alongside the record claim. It is based on the video game by David Szymanski, and the movie’s blood-soaked premise matches the scale of the number Fischbach says he measured.
7 hours is the figure Fischbach used in his final calculation, and he spelled out the math plainly: “So, you do seven hours, which is 420 minutes, times 190 gallons per minute, which is 80% of the two flow rates, that's 79,800 gallons of blood.” For readers tracking the film as a business story as much as a horror one, that is the number to watch: a modest-budget release built a headline around a production metric no standard box-office line can capture.
