The television adaptation of Bong Joon Ho’s 2013 sci-fi thriller took some major liberties with the source material.
The climactic action sequences in Snowpiercer are among the most viscerally exciting I’ve ever seen. However, this film’s intriguing, layered world and characters prove far more memorable long after we leave the theatre, and that’s ultimately what makes it special. Based on a graphic novel by Jacque Lob, Jean-Marc Rochette and Benjamin Legrand and South Korean director Bong Joon Ho’s first English-language feature, Snowpiercer is set in a post-apocalyptic world where humanity has fled to the train of a perpetually moving super train that travels around the planet as the ice caps have melted into oblivion. Passengers live in extreme class segregation inside of cars divided by poverty.
“The film and graphic novel are essentially about what happens to people when you separate them by class to such an extent – the animosity and tension between them.”
The story is set in 2021, Seven years after the world was covered by a frozen wasteland. The only form of human existence is situated in a moving train orbiting the globe. Netflix Sci-fi series couldn’t feel more timely.
Scientists in an attempt to save the world from global warming, went too far resulting in the ice age making the earth uninhabitable with temperatures hundreds of degrees below Celsius.
A few thousand survivors managed to get on board the train marshalled by a tycoon with an **eremitic** existence called Mr Wilford. Inhabitants have to conform to a new way of living. Snowpiecer, a fable about the haves and have nots is Based on a movie in 2013 of the same name directed by this year’s Academy Award-winning director Bong Joon Ho. The movie itself was inspired by the 1982 French graphic novel *Le Transperceneige*
The gigantic train, essentially a great ark with differences in social class. The front of the train is solely occupied by first class enjoying sushi, spa treatment, and good music whilst those at the “Tail” have to survive on mysterious lumps of black jelly
Onboard, the surviving remnants of humanity are divided into strict social classes, with the wealthy front-train passengers in perpetual party mode, and those in the back cars facing off in brutal gang wars.
Those at the ‘Tail” got tired of the way they were treated, led by Daveed Diggs cajoled plans to attack and set themselves free.
Daveed Diggs stars as Andre Layton, a former homicide detective.
The story took a dramatic turn when Andre was escorted from the black mutiny (The Tail) right before they could initiate their escape plan.
Andre happens to be the only homicide detective on the train. He needs to investigate a murder in first class.
Episode 1 ended with the revelation to viewers that Jennifer Connelly, the “Female Voice of the Train” who announces Mr Wilford directives over the PA is Mr Wilford. Yes, Melanie is Mr Wilford. She kept up appearances for seven years, a secret known only to her engineers. Does that represent our current society where Men in leadership are more respected than women?
The journey through the train allows all kinds of characters to come to the forefront and shine, without distracting from the overall message of the movie.
Jennifer Connely gives the best performance of her career as an antihero in The Frozen Ground. She carries the movie on her shoulders, playing a flawed and ambiguous character who makes extremely tough decisions in order to fulfil her mission of protecting humanity or to let it die in the frozen tundra outside her train.
Season 2 of Snowpiercer is like a mirror gone wild. It’s chaotic and energetic, but it doesn’t abandon the fundamental idea that connects the show to its audience. Snowpiercer is as exhilarating entertainment as it is a meditation on the fragility of civilization. Snowpiercer is the closest we’ll get to living in a climate-change dystopia. It’s that bad! So watch it already.
