SnowpiercerPeople have a tendency to invent elaborate solutions to their problems, just to bypass their own reluctance at dealing with the root cause. Snowpiercer is a dystopian, post-apocalyptic movie about a world placed into a new ice age, one of mankind's own doing. In an attempt to course correct global warming, humanity inadvertently caused an extinction event, with the last vestiges of our species confined to an ultra-massive super train that circumnavigates the icy globe. Becoming nothing less than a microcosm of society via a profound class struggle, the massive train--called "Snowpiercer"--is on the verge of a revolution, between the cars in the front and those in the rear.
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From its premise alone, it becomes clear that Snowpiercer is a movie that requires a significant suspension of disbelief. After all, a train seems an unusual (at least) refuge for those few survivors of the catastrophically misguided efforts by mankind to avoid a lesser disaster. But the film seems comfortable with this anachronistic setting because it is so arbitrary. There is a whole society, code of conduct, and even a religion built up around this new way of life, which has only been operating for just shy of eighteen years. Those unfortunate enough to have been dumped in the the tail section of the train are treated as slaves, fed protein blocks by armed security guards, and occasionally have their children taken from them for unknown purposes. Suffice to say, an understanding of what the world was like before the apocalypse instills righteous anger within this newborn slave class, which is on the verge of an uprising at the start of Snowpiercer. The man at the head of the charge is Curtis Everett (Chris Evans), strong of mind and body, but reserved and even a bit aloof. As a counterpoint to his cool disposition is his "second-in-command" and friend, the young Edgar (Jamie Bell), ready with a witty retort and an ebullience that comes from never having known life outside of the train. The official "leader" of this band of revolutionaries is the elderly Gilliam (John Hurt), who may be missing an arm and a leg, but still walks with his people at the frontlines. Curtis has been receiving secret messages hidden within protein blocks that indicate that the time to strike is nigh, despite past insurgencies that have failed. But they know that in order to bypass the multitude of locked gates that lead to the front engine car where the elusive Wilford (Ed Harris) commands the Snowpiercer, they will need the expertise of its security designer: a Korean man in cryosleep named Namgoong Minsoo (Song Kang-ho). To ensure Namgoong's compliance, they will need to also free his daughter, Yona (Go Ah-sung), and offer up a steady supply of a train-produced drug made from industrial waste named kronole.
Beyond the idea of a train barreling through the rime-encrusted wastelands of a long-frozen planet Earth, there is an overlying patina of the surreal and dreamlike to Snowpiercer, one that persists from car to car, and scene to scene. Each train car is more like a caricature of some aspect of the world, and defies conventional logic in its arrangement or structure. There is one car that resembles a luxury diner car, which transforms into a hair salon, which segues into a car with built in pools and a sauna, and yet there is no apparent place where anyone sleeps. Each car sets a stage that speaks to the tone of the film at that juncture, with blatant disregard to plausibility. (In for a penny, in for a pound, it would seem, in creating a world that is more fantasy than reality.) Wilford's tyranny is represented in the overwhelmingly condescending Minister Mason (Tilda Swinton), an asexual zealot and authoritarian bureaucrat who relishes using her position to abuse the downtrodden. Tilda Swinton has said that she modeled her character after assorted maniacal despots and politicians, and this cuts right to what Snowpiercer is: a metaphor for the madness we accept as a society, despite our protests to the contrary. Every day, one has but to turn on (what passes for) the news and see a world that--if we stop to think about it--barely resembles our world a couple of decades prior. People in power espouse their agendas as being in our best interests, and because of our intrinsic need to feel at home in our environment, we accept these maddening proclamations as the "new normal". Fundamentally, there is nothing that necessitates that the people at the tail end of the train should be treated like garbage, except that Wilford deems it to be so, and those who benefit from his "compassion" become his sycophants and enforcers. The poor are ignored by the better off at the head of the train, who prefer to indulge their impulses to party and simulate the routines of a civilized world that ended eighteen years ago. Ultimately, Snowpiercer explores how humanity is paradoxically compelled to discard its morality when confronted with the disintegration of society, and yet also grab ahold of a code of laws and rules--no matter how abominable it may seem--so long as it restores some warped semblance of order.
Recommended for: Fans of a bizarre sci-fi adventure set after the end of the world, which offers a healthy dose of social commentary as subtext, albeit delivered in broad strokes. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Snowpiercer was adapted from a French graphic novel called "Le Transperceneige", and this film embraces that sense of the fantastic that seems to naturally flow forth from the medium.
Beyond the idea of a train barreling through the rime-encrusted wastelands of a long-frozen planet Earth, there is an overlying patina of the surreal and dreamlike to Snowpiercer, one that persists from car to car, and scene to scene. Each train car is more like a caricature of some aspect of the world, and defies conventional logic in its arrangement or structure. There is one car that resembles a luxury diner car, which transforms into a hair salon, which segues into a car with built in pools and a sauna, and yet there is no apparent place where anyone sleeps. Each car sets a stage that speaks to the tone of the film at that juncture, with blatant disregard to plausibility. (In for a penny, in for a pound, it would seem, in creating a world that is more fantasy than reality.) Wilford's tyranny is represented in the overwhelmingly condescending Minister Mason (Tilda Swinton), an asexual zealot and authoritarian bureaucrat who relishes using her position to abuse the downtrodden. Tilda Swinton has said that she modeled her character after assorted maniacal despots and politicians, and this cuts right to what Snowpiercer is: a metaphor for the madness we accept as a society, despite our protests to the contrary. Every day, one has but to turn on (what passes for) the news and see a world that--if we stop to think about it--barely resembles our world a couple of decades prior. People in power espouse their agendas as being in our best interests, and because of our intrinsic need to feel at home in our environment, we accept these maddening proclamations as the "new normal". Fundamentally, there is nothing that necessitates that the people at the tail end of the train should be treated like garbage, except that Wilford deems it to be so, and those who benefit from his "compassion" become his sycophants and enforcers. The poor are ignored by the better off at the head of the train, who prefer to indulge their impulses to party and simulate the routines of a civilized world that ended eighteen years ago. Ultimately, Snowpiercer explores how humanity is paradoxically compelled to discard its morality when confronted with the disintegration of society, and yet also grab ahold of a code of laws and rules--no matter how abominable it may seem--so long as it restores some warped semblance of order.
Recommended for: Fans of a bizarre sci-fi adventure set after the end of the world, which offers a healthy dose of social commentary as subtext, albeit delivered in broad strokes. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Snowpiercer was adapted from a French graphic novel called "Le Transperceneige", and this film embraces that sense of the fantastic that seems to naturally flow forth from the medium.