Set in 2031, the entire world is frozen except for those aboard the Snowpiercer. For 17 years, the world's survivors are on a train hurtling around the globe creating their own economy and class system. Led by Curtis, a group of lower-class citizens living in squalor at the back of the train are determined to get to the front of the train and spread the wealth around. Each section of the train holds new surprises for the group who have to battle their way through. A revolution is underway. It's 2031, seventeen years after authorities in seventy-nine countries decided collectively to combat global warming with the coolant CW-7. The result was the Earth being immediately sent into a deep freeze, killing all human life except a handful who now live on a proverbial "ark", a revolutionary train built before 2014 by a train aficionado named Wilford, the train which at that time was considered useless and self-indulgent. The train is required to be constantly moving to generate energy for life inside, it which circumnavigates the globe on a single continuous track once every year. The train is still controlled in all its aspects by Wilford, who has created three separate classes housed in different parts of the train: the privileged "one percent" who are at the front of the train, the workers who support both ends and occupy the middle of the train, and the "tail people", the masses who live at the back of the train like cattle in a windowless cattle car, they being solely fed protein bars, whose ingredients the tail people do not know. The face of Wilford's ideology to those in the tail end is Minister Mason, as Wilford never ventures to that end of the train. Some of the policies which Wilford has implemented is taking many of the children from the tail end for an unknown purpose never to be seen by the people in the tail end again, and committing occasional indiscriminate genocide in the tail end, most of the tail people believing as a method of population control and to demonstrate his dictatorial power in an effort to have a complacent populace among the masses. There have been many attempts of revolution by the tail people in the past, all quashed by Wilford. Curtis, one of the tail people, wants to attempt another revolution, he believing all past attempts having failed because they have focused on Wilford as opposed to what he feels needs to occur for power: take control of the engine at the front. Supporting Curtis in this fight are among others: Gilliam, the wise old man; Edgar, who Curtis took under his wing when he became orphaned in the early years; and Tanya and Andrew, who want to find their children taken away. Along the way, they have to co-opt Namgoong Minsoo, an addict of a synthetic hallucinogen called Kronole, he who designed the security system, namely the locking mechanism of the gates between all the train cars. As Curtis and his team try to work their way from car to car from the tail to the front, their priorities are influenced by what they see, what they learn and by revelations including secrets from their individual pasts. I am stunned reading all the positive reviews of this movie. In fact they are long reviews for this forum, But, thus far, no one has comprehensively answered this one question; why in the name of heaven are they on a train??? The world as we know it has come to an end. 99.9% of the population is (apparently) dead and gone. They have an inexhaustible energy supply or so it would seem. So why spend all their time circling the globe on a train? There may actually have been some good acting here I don't know. I couldn't get past the fact that they were on a train that never stopped. Don't they have to stop once in awhile to grease the bearings or something? I don't mind taking a stretch to achieve a setting that is ideal for telling the story the filmmaker wants to tell. But that stretch cant consist of a complete separation from reality. Whatever truth was being presented here, I couldn't get past the ridiculous premise. Taken at face value, the somewhat ridiculous premise of this film — the last remnant of humanity trapped on a perpetually moving train upon which a strict class system has been put in place — isn't promising. However, seen as an allegory on religion, class stratification, revolution and even social evolution, there's a lot to be derived from the story it tells. I suspect it's one of those films that will seem more and more clever the more it is watched, though it works as perfectly serviceable Sci Fi thriller if you want to watch it like that. I was reminded tangentially of Kar Wai Wong's 2046, another clever film.<br/><br/>Tilda Swinton, who is nearly as ubiquitous as Scarlett Johannson but has the virtue of appearing not to play herself every time, is very good as Mason. The closing sequence is very beautiful. Snowpiercer has been brought to the screen with the kind of solid narrative craftsmanship, carefully drawn characters and — above all — respect for the audience’s intelligence rarely encountered in high-concept genre cinema.
Deedralee replied
295 weeks ago