Trapped in a Sea of Blood: What Iron Lung Teaches Us About Futile Determination

If there is still hope, it lies beyond the veil. Hope in this void is as illusory as the starlight. I will choose to breathe my last at the bottom of an ocean, unseen, unheard, and uncontrolled. They will get their execution. - Letter, Iron Lung (2026)

Iron Lung is both a game created by David Szymanski, and Mark Fischbach created a movie based on its premise. Both tell a story about a convict named Simon who is trapped in a welded-together submarine and sent on a mission to find something in the blood oceans that will help humankind survive. The deal is, he does this mission, and he gets his freedom. While Iron Lung explores different avenues of what it means to be human, one of them is through both the researchers sending Simon down and Simon himself: Determination to survive despite the futility.

Survival and Determination

Despite what the world wants many of us to believe, giving up is simply not something that is built into us as people. There are extreme lengths people are willing to go to survive and continue on. It’s something we often read about in history or on the news: individuals under extreme circumstances pushing forward in the name of living. Human evolution happens in the name of survival. We are built to survive.

Self-Determination Theory

Human motivation and determination have led to a theory called Self-Determination Theory, created by Richard Ryan, PhD, and Edward Deci, PhD, in the 70s and 80s. This theory proposes that there are three things a person needs to build internal motivation.

1. Autonomy

2. Competence

3. Relatedness

When a person has all three of these things in place, the theory states they will have more motivation for a task. The theory also distinguishes the differences between motivation for the self (Intrinsic Motivation) or for someone else, or to avoid a punishment (Extrinsic Motivation). In Simon’s case, we can see a little of both happening as he is desperate to live as a free man after being wrongfully imprisoned. He is seeking to survive the submarine he has been welded into, live as a free man, and more towards the end, acts in order to try and further human survival.

Iron Lung’s Intrinsic Motivation

Simon is motivated by his own desire to live freely after being imprisoned for a bombing attack. When he was originally offered the deal to go down, there was an intrinsic motivation to do so. He meets all three of the requirements of motivation as determined by the Self Determination theory.

Autonomy

While it may feel like this is a non-choice for Simon, he does have a choice in going through with the offer. When the deal was offered to him, regardless of whether he knew all the information or considered who was offering it to him, it was his choice. Oftentimes, we feel as if we have no choice, as if the person offering has put us in a position that takes away our autonomy. Choices of Life or Death, Freedom or imprisonment, or any deals with the Devil. However, we still have autonomy in these moments of choice. Simon made a choice to work for his freedom in the end.

Competence

In Self-Determination theory, competence is referred to as one's ability to be effective in a task. Simon’s task was to go down in a submarine, take pictures for research, and mark things on a map. We can assume that he felt competent in doing these things based on his ease of understanding the mechanics of the vessel he was in. Sometimes, ones determination and motivation to do something hinges on whether or not they will look foolish in the accomplishment. Many people have a fear of starting new hobbies or trying new things in general that halts them from taking those first steps. This anxiety holds many back from discovering something new they may enjoy. This is because, to the anxious mind, the benefits of trying the new thing are outweighed by the consequences of looking foolish or stupid. To Simon, we can see the opposite. His desire for freedom outweighed any consequences of feeling incompetent in his ability to accomplish the task.

Relatedness

Simon felt betrayed by those who left him holding the weight of the explosion that happened when he was a child and the deaths of those caught in it. In Simon’s case, there isn’t relatedness in the sense of finding community in the researchers and relating to them for his initial motivation. While it is not something we see directly in Iron Lung, this is something that can be inferred. As people, we need other people; we are creatures of community. We are often more motivated to do something that involves other people. Working out, going grocery shopping, anything is easier with a community that joins you. A 2008 study, “Social Support and the Perception of Geographical Slant,” found that individuals who were alone perceived the hill as steeper than those with a friend. 

Iron Lung’s Extrinsic Motivation

Simon also faces some Extrinsic Motivation or external reasons for doing, as the movie goes on. When he is asked to go back down and collect the black box through transferance of data to his sub. He is pushed by the researcher talking about humans’ survival after the Quiet Rapture. After making a deal that Ava will rescue him if he does this. As he does, we see Simon start to lose touch with reality, and he is asked by a voice to “destroy the box”. Simon has a choice in this moment. Ava begs him to save the black box, even after she reveals that she cannot save him, to help save humanity, and this voice is telling him to do otherwise. At the end, we see him sacrifice himself to destroy the monster living in the blood ocean and the black box tied to a life raft floating at its surface.

Extrinsic Motivation focuses on external reasons for doing something. While survival is mostly intrinsic in its need, helping others has external factors. This is more than receiving praise or a recognition of some kind; this can be wanting a loved one to do well, or wanting to help future generations of people. External focuses on reasons outside of us to do something.

Motivation and Futility

Even in futile moments, people choose to act. This can be seen in everyday stories. When floods devastated Camp Mystic and lives were lost, people searched the area, trying to find survivors and not knowing if there were any. When Katrina flooded New Orleans in 2005 and killed 1,392 people, those who survived pushed on, not knowing if help was coming. In doing so, many were able to see it to the end, but others died in the August heat for a multitude of reasons, yet they tried to survive. Even still, others risked their own safety to help bring needs to the community. All of this is a mixture of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. The intrinsic desire to survive, the extrinsic desire to avoid punishment from a community, and the mixture of the two become the desire to help others. 

Zombie media is a great example of how these two motivations play in a futile world. Simon faced his own mortality more than once in Iron Lung and found that in the end, he was never going to make it out alive. Yet despite that, he still tried. He was still determined to beat the odds and survive because humans are built to do so. We can’t help it. It’s part of the hope found at the bottom of Pandora’s Box; it is part of the curious question that asks, “What if we survived?” Even when Simon succumbed to the idea he wouldn’t survive, he found a way to help others do what he could not.