Snowpiercer

Did You Know?

• The film premiered at the Times Square on 29 July 2013 in Seoul, South Korea.
• Harvey Weinstein requested 25 minutes of footage be cut, with less dialogue and more action, and a voice-over sequence at the end.
• The film was adapted into an American television series that premiered on TNT on May 17, 2020, set in a rebooted narrative about seven years after the catastrophe.

Plot

In 2031, seventeen years after a climate engineering attempt using CW-7 backfired and created a new ice age, the last humans live aboard the Snowpiercer, a self-sustaining train that circles the globe. The train is strictly segregated: the elite occupy luxurious front cars, while the poor are crammed into squalid tail compartments under armed guard. Urged by his mentor Gilliam, tail-section leader Curtis Everett and his second Edgar lead a revolt. They discover the guards have no ammunition, overwhelm them, and free security specialist Namgoong Minsoo, bribing him with the drug Kronole. Namgoong insists his clairvoyant daughter Yona be freed as well. The rebels learn the protein bars they were fed were made of cockroaches. They advance but face guards with melee weapons overseen by Minister Mason. Edgar is killed, but Curtis captures Mason. Curtis's group—including Namgoong, Yona, fighter Grey, and parents Tanya and Andrew—moves forward through opulent cars. They see a landmark suggesting the ice may be thawing. In a schoolroom, a bald man brings eggs for the train's eighteenth circumnavigation, then uses hidden automatic firearms to kill the tail army. Andrew is killed; Grey and Tanya are later killed by Franco, who is seemingly killed by Curtis and Namgoong.

Cast

Chris Evans plays Curtis Everett, the revolution's leader. Evans said the tail section was where he had the most fun, describing it as hard and real. Casting directors suggested Evans to Bong, who initially had misconceptions due to the 'caricature of the American all muscle' but found Evans sensitive, quiet, introverted, and smart. Bong was introduced to Evans's performances in Puncture and Sunshine, which showed his sensitive acting. They spent months discussing dialogue, and Bong received help from the cast and crew due to it being his first English-language film. Hiding Evans's muscular physique was the most difficult part of working with him, as Curtis was supposed to have eaten only protein blocks for seventeen years. Evans said the film surpassed all his expectations. Song Kang-ho plays Namgoong Minsoo, the security specialist who designed the train's security features. This was Song's third collaboration with Bong, and he called it a wonderful experience. Bong said Namgoong sets up the ending because he has a vision different from Curtis's and desires to go outside. The name Namgoong was chosen for being difficult for foreigners to pronounce. Song's character speaks only Korean, which he found refreshing and fun.

Production

In the winter of 2005, Bong discovered Jean-Marc Rochette's graphic novel series Le Transperceneige at a comic book shop near Hongik University and read the entire series standing there. Fascinated by the ideas of survival and social stratification on the train, he showed it to friends Park Chan-wook and Lee Tae-hun, who also loved it. Bong realized the film needed an original take, stating he had to create a new story and characters for cinematic exhilaration. The following year, Park's production company Moho Film acquired the copyrights, extended in 2007. The first screenplay draft was completed on 15 September 2010, and the second in December 2010. Bong initially considered shooting in Canada for its infrastructure and Korean expatriates, but the production team scouted European studios. They chose Barrandov Studios in Prague over Korda Studios in Hungary, and a Czech producer began negotiations in August 2011. The studio provided a 75- to 100-meter-long space for four train car sets mounted on gimbals to simulate motion.

Reception

Between its South Korean opening on 27 June 2014 and 23 October 2014, Snowpiercer earned US$86.7 million worldwide. It was the tenth highest-grossing domestic film in South Korea with 9.35 million admissions, and set records for fastest to reach four million admissions (five days) and highest weekend figure for a Korean film (2.26 million viewers). In the US, it took $171,000 on its opening weekend, averaging $21,400 per theater. Its largest international market was China with $11.1 million. On Rotten Tomatoes, a percentage of critics gave a positive rating based on reviews with an average score; the critical consensus called it 'an audaciously ambitious action spectacle'. Metacritic assigned a weighted average score of 84 out of 100, indicating 'universal acclaim'. Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly gave an 'A' rating, saying it leaves the sensation of seeing something never seen before. A. O. Scott of The New York Times wrote that planetary destruction is rarely this refreshing. Andrew Pulver of The Guardian called it the sum of extremely disparate parts adding up to cinematic excellence. Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out New York gave five stars, praising Bong's headlong rush into conceptual lunacy.