family movie review snowpiercer

SNOWPIERCER

"brilliant and exciting but violent and ultimately depressing".

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

What You Need To Know:

(HH, SoSo, ACapACap, B, C, AC, LLL, VVV, S, N, A, DD, MMM) Strong nihilistic humanist worldview with strong humanist socialist, anti-capitalist allegory that turns into a more nihilistic commentary about man’s fight against man and man’s fight against nature (movie suggests that evil, cruel oppression and violence are necessary parts of society that can’t be eradicated but can only be used to keep society in balance), mitigated by some moral redemptive elements and touches, including a clever implied attack against environmentalists who support schemes to stop alleged global warming (in the movie, their schemes backfire) and including a skepticism about big, totalitarian, statist government that isn’t fully developed and is eventually overcome by the godless, humanist, nihilistic, and pessimistic view about man’s ability to truly change things for the better; at least 56 obscenities (mostly “f” words but not all), two GD profanities, one using the name of Jesus, and one “G*d!” profanity; very strong, sometimes disturbing violence with some blood includes gunfire where people are shot, two groups fight with pipes and hatches and knives, but movie usually just shows some bloody after-effects and avoids extremely graphic chopping, other hand-to-hand fighting, man sticks his arm into gears to help a child and risks the use of his arm, an evil pregnant woman murdering people has a knife thrown into her throat to stop her, [SPOILERS] train crashes, train punches through blocks of ice, fight over bomb, and an extremely sad story is told about past cannibalism, and man sorrowfully says that babies tasted the best and admits he himself didn’t have the guts to stop it, but one man did; no sex depicted but one train car has lots of people dancing, and another implies people are in various stages of kissing and hugging and sexual activity, but nothing is really shown because the scene goes by pretty fast, and camera doesn’t linger; upper male nudity, and some women appear to be dressed in slightly skimpy, expensive dresses and such; alcohol use; smoking and apparent drug use, but [SPOILER ALERT] the main drug use turns out to be a trick where the alleged drugs are really just explosive material two people are gathering to make a bomb; and, [some SPOILERS] authorities kidnap two poor children, forced and dangerous child labor but rebuked, lying, deceit, betrayal, leader sacrifices his friend’s life to continue battle against cruel villains but is filled with remorse, manipulation, survival of the fittest implications, but no references to evolution.

More Detail:

SNOWPIERCER is part science fiction thriller, part political allegory. It’s a unique, provocative movie with some impressive production values, but there’s a lot of strong foul language and somewhat graphic, sometimes disturbing violence. A ruthless businessman and inventor is the villain, but he runs a political dictatorship controlling everything while enforcing a strict class system among the people he rules.

In the story, a climate catastrophe occurs in 2014 when officials try to stop “global warming” by cooling down the Earth’s atmosphere using jets releasing chemicals. Instead of just reducing the heat, they turn Earth into a floating ball of ice.

Seventeen years later, the remnants of the human race are riding a special train created by an entrepreneur inventor named Wilford. The train enforces a strict class system where the poorest of the poor ride in the back of the train and are fed with a processed bar of black jelly that looks like coal and tastes terrible. Meanwhile, the richest of the rich ride in fully fed luxury up near the engine, which Wilford runs from his railroad car designed like a fancy penthouse. None of the poor people in the back get to eat the fancy meat and vegetables grown and raised by the train’s agricultural experts.

A revolution, however, is brewing among the grimy lower classes in the back. It’s being led by Curtis, the protégé of Wilford’s rival, an elderly man named Gilliam, who only has one arm and one leg. Curtis (played by Chris Evans, who plays Captain America in the current Marvel movies featuring that character) and Gilliam (played by John Hurt) think they have a plan that will get them to the engine room, something previous revolutions failed to do.

After they release an imprisoned Korean engineer who can open the gates to the other cars ahead, the revolution begins in earnest. However, Wilford (Ed Harris) and his thuggish minions have a couple tricks up their sleeves. Gilliam hasn’t told Curtis all that he knows about Wilford and himself. Meanwhile, next to Gilliam and his sacrifices, Curtis feels inadequate to take over the engine room as planned. Also, the Korean engineer, played by Korean star Song Kang-ho, has a secret plan of his own that could derail the whole revolution and lead to new challenges for humanity.

SNOWPIERCER is clever and exciting, with a lot of interesting, sometimes profound, ideas about society, government and popular revolts. The plot twists that are revealed when Curtis and the Korean engineer finally make it to the engine room and when Curtis finally confronts Wilford carry these political, moral themes to a deeper level. For example, when Wilford reveals some uncomfortable truths to Curtis about what’s happening behind the scenes, he talks about the “eternal engine” that metaphorically runs society. Overall, however, the movie’s worldview seems rather socialist, anti-capitalist and utopian, until the twists at the end lead to a more pessimistic, if not nihilistic, humanist conclusion about the human condition. So, leftist ideology eventually seems left behind at the railway station, so to speak.

One of the more interesting ideas in the movie’s beginning, though, is the notion that the environmentalist left’s ideas to turn around global warming could very well backfire in the end. This is exactly what happens when the governments of the world accidentally turn Earth into a floating ice cube. It would be interesting to see whether any of our leftist friends will catch that particular subversive message in the movie. Even if global warming were true, it might not be as serious as the environmentalists and left-wing ecologists are making it out to be. In fact, it might not even be a problem at all. Their solutions, as this movie suggests, might actually make things worse. Or, as some critics suggest, they might not make that much of a difference.

Be that as it may, as noted above, the movie’s worldview ends up being rather humanist, but in a nihilistic way that leaves the movie’s socialist notions behind. Ultimately, the movie suggests humanity may be doomed to extinction when confronted by the forces of nature. The movie also suggests people are doomed to a never-ending cycle of oppression, revolution, change, then back to oppression. As The Who rock group once sang, “Meet the new boss; same as the old boss!” A tragic death that occurs just before the third act adds a poignant quality to these messages.

That said, SNOWPIERCER has one redemptive aspect to its depressing viewpoint. Without giving anything away, at the end, Curtis makes a sacrificial decision that lends some hope. His decision seems to tell viewers that, even if your situation seems or even is hopeless, sacrificial love or compassion may often be the only positive decision that you can make, or that you should make. The movie seems to suggest that, even if your sacrifice doesn’t lead to a good result, it’s an inherent good in and of itself. This shows that even a humanist movie can have some Christian elements. After all, Christians preach the sacrificial love and compassion of Jesus Christ to all people, whether or not those people eventually believe the Gospel and come to Christ. In fact, even if they don’t come to Jesus in the end, the preaching of that Gospel may mitigate their sin in some way that will lead to a better world for some person, or even many people, or even the whole world.

SNOWPIERCER also contains lots of strong foul language and very strong, sometimes disturbing violence. The violence isn’t as overtly graphic as it could be, but it’s very strong and sometimes bloody, either overtly or by implication. This negative content, and the movie’s depressing worldview and socialist allusions are unacceptable, though not perhaps completely abhorrent. Thus, MOVIEGUIDE® gives this movie Four Stars and a Minus 3.

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Movie Reviews

The satisfying chill of the audacious 'snowpiercer'.

Ian Buckwalter

In Snowpiercer , the children of the wealthy who inhabit the front of the train are offered luxuries such as education, while the people who dwell in the train's rear — (from right) Curtis (Chris Evans), Grey (Luke Pasqualino), Yona (Ah-sung Ko) and Namgoong Minsoo (Song Kang-ho) — survive in squalor. Radius TWC hide caption

From Korea, A Thriller Hitchcock Would Admire

'the host' rewrites the monster-movie rules.

Getting To Know Tokyo, One Story At A Time

"All things flow from the sacred engine. ... The engine is forever." The passengers on the titular train in Bong Joon-ho's grim, post-apocalyptic sci-fi tale essentially deify the locomotive that is their salvation. This "rattling ark" carries the last remainders of humanity, after an attempt to reverse global warming goes terribly awry, plunging the planet into an extinction-event deep freeze. Extinction for all but those on this endlessly circling, perpetual-motion-driven train that can't stop, or else these few survivors will meet the same fate. When the movie begins, they've been running nonstop for 17 years.

There's nothing subtle about the allegorical implications of this messianic express, nor any of the other metaphors piled up like the ice and snow the train blasts through relentlessly. For the survivors, this technological marvel has become a religion, and as such, dictates appropriate behavior for its acolytes — be they willing followers or not. Science and religion become blurred here, both flawed, but flawed via their filtration through humankind. Even near extinction, humanity finds ways to continue perpetuating cruel class systems and authoritarian oppression of the many to benefit the few.

So it is that those designated poor live in the tail of the train in absolute squalor, sleeping on top of one another and subsisting on gelantinous brown "protein blocks." (The revelation of their contents, while not people, still packs a disgusting Soylent Green-style shock.) They're regularly beaten, arbitrarily tortured, and punished to maintain order. As one moves up toward the front, there are cars for the sick, for prisoners, for water management and food production, eventually leading to opulence and drug-addled decadence upfront.

Curtis (Chris Evans, in brooding, dangerous contrast to his Captain America performances) is a tail resident with a plan to upset the order of things, planning a car-by-car push forward to take control of the engine from its creator and the Snowpiercer's de facto king — a mysterious Oz-like figure called Wilford (Ed Harris). No need to follow the yellow brick road; there's but one way from back to front, and Curtis has a small army of tail section comrades, as well as a trio of more vital misfit sidekicks: Gilliam (John Hurt), a wizened multiple amputee who acts as mentor; Namgoong (Bong regular Song Kang-ho), a sprung prisoner who can hot-wire the doors between cars; and Edgar (Jamie Bell), a hot-headed youth with no memories of life before the train. Their nemesis: a wicked witch of a bureaucrat, Mason, played by Tilda Swinton with blackly comic vigor and a fearsome dental appliance.

The clownish comedy amid dire circumstances is a typical device for Bong, a director who delights in playing games within established genres, from Godzilla-style monster movies ( The Host ) to detective thrillers ( Mother ). This foray into post-apocalyptic survival territory is the director's first English-language feature, and it's a pleasure to see many of his idiosyncrasies intact — even if he had to go through a much-publicized battle with The Weinstein Co. to preserve his cut of the film.

That allows for rhythms that feel slightly off-kilter from those of an American action flick, with more attention paid to developing the unusual details of this hermetically sealed manufactured society, a lengthy conversational lead-up to the film's climax, and characters that are far from stock — many even deeply strange, beyond just Tilda Swinton's enhanced overbite. Thankfully, there is also no attempt to hold back for a PG-13 rating; Bong loves artful sprays of blood on train windows and a grisly hand-to-hand combat that feels like it has real impact. Whether or not everyone who dies here is named, no one dies anonymously or carelessly.

There's some evidence of the film's wild ambition slightly outstripping its grasp: The complexity of all the plot's moving parts makes for some muddled details in the climactic moments, and the CGI of the train's exteriors often comes off as extremely shoddy, as if money ran dry before the film got to the digital artists. But very little happens outside. The interior, meanwhile, is a triumph of design, first in the claustrophobic industrial nightmare of the rear of the train (John Hurt's character's name is likely no coincidence, as a great debt is owed to Terry Gilliam's dystopic visions), and then in the mishmash of 20th and 21st century luxuries in the front.

Idea-heavy science fiction hasn't exactly been burning up the box office lately with films like Edge of Tomorrow and Transcendence . Snowpiercer 's limited release isn't going to do much to change that, but this is exactly the sort of ambitious, audacious and uncompromising filmmaking that deserves to be seen.

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Snowpiercer Reviews

Snowpiercer is a mix of something unfathomable, subversive, thought-provoking and thrilling.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 4, 2024

Snowpiercer is one of the most unique post-apocalyptic film’s I’ve ever seen, and my pick for the best science fiction film from 2014.

Full Review | Jun 17, 2024

... a high-speed metaphor speeding down the science fiction tracks of genre cinema.

Full Review | Sep 8, 2023

Snowpiercer is one of the best films of the respective decade. With a brilliant screenplay, Bong Joon-ho delivers an extremely complex narrative, filled with emotionally shocking character development, and featuring excellent stunt work.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Jul 24, 2023

Bong Joon-ho’s first English-language film is this incredible world about class, global warming, and the price of freedom.

Full Review | Feb 22, 2023

The film's strength lies in the way the screenplay's built. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 5, 2022

This graphic novel adaptation is a blend of science fiction and social commentary that plays out like a video game... With it comes Chris Evans’ finest performance.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 10, 2022

It’s a visual delight.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 25, 2022

Thoughtful, provocative, and far more enjoyable than your average blockbuster, Snowpiercer's pure entertainment value is outmatched only by its sobering commentary on the continual inhumanity of the human race.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 5, 2022

If you needed any more convincing of Bongs versatility as a director, credit should be given to the fact that this is an English-language film from a Korean director, that uses language and cultural perspective as a tool in the movies very storytelling.

Full Review | Feb 21, 2022

Snowpiercer examines a class system that refuses to die no matter the circumstances. Director Bong Joon-ho constantly asks whether a person must accept their preordained place in society for the sake of balance and harmony.

Full Review | Jan 22, 2022

Part allegory, part Hero's Journey, Snowpiercer makes no concessions about its religious and political metaphors, and it is all the stronger for it.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Nov 30, 2021

Its satire of actual class warfare is as cutting as the axes the rebels and guards use.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Aug 31, 2021

An extraordinary work of climate-change fiction, with bold visuals, gripping action, shocking violence and a brutally clear allegory for the class system.

Full Review | Aug 27, 2021

It's just as interested in examining topics like climate change, class, and cultural disparity as it is in revealing just how the film's core team navigates a never-stopping hell train to take on the bad guys.

Full Review | Jul 28, 2021

An environmental thriller - if you haven't already seen Bong's "The Host" do so now! - that is unapologetically weird, keeping the audience off balance for the entirety of its two-hour running time.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Feb 1, 2021

Overflows with ideas, encompassing the spectrum from vividly bizarre to profoundly mesmerizing.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Dec 4, 2020

Insanely brilliant.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 26, 2020

It has plenty of action, while the story contains an unexpected intelligence. It has a message, but never gets too preachy. It's very violent, yet avoids being overly bloody. It's dark, but knows when to lighten the mood.

Full Review | Jul 14, 2020

Bleak and grim and almost desolate, there is a spark of hope, just enough to keep the gloom and doom from becoming oppressive.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jul 7, 2020

Cast & crew
User reviews

Snowpiercer

In a future where a failed climate change experiment has killed all life except for the survivors who boarded the Snowpiercer (a train that travels around the globe), a new class system emer... Read all In a future where a failed climate change experiment has killed all life except for the survivors who boarded the Snowpiercer (a train that travels around the globe), a new class system emerges. In a future where a failed climate change experiment has killed all life except for the survivors who boarded the Snowpiercer (a train that travels around the globe), a new class system emerges.

Bong Joon Ho
Jacques Lob
Benjamin Legrand
Jean-Marc Rochette
Chris Evans
Tilda Swinton
1.1K User reviews
485 Critic reviews
84 Metascore
35 wins & 108 nominations

Top cast 47

Namgoong Minsoo

(as Ko Asung)

Franco the Elder

Franco the Younger

(as Stephen Park)

(as Marcanthonee Jon Reis)

All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Trivia Director Bong Joon Ho often clashed with producer Harvey Weinstein , who frequently interfered in order to demand "his" version of the film. Among the many requests, the producer insisted on having the fish scene removed in favor of more action. Bong, who considered it his favorite shot in the film, was adamant to keep it in. He told the producer that he wanted to keep the shot for a personal reason, as a tribute to his late father, who was a fisherman. Upon hearing this, Weinstein said that family is very important to him, so he granted Bong to keep the shot. In an interview, the director said "It was a fucking lie. My father was not a fisherman."
Goofs Wilford congratulates Curtis for being the first human being to walk the whole length of the train; however, Claude, Wilford's assistant, is seen at the tail of the train, as well as the front. Though Claude does not travel very far into the tail section and while she has been in every car, Curtis has been to the very back of the train, making him the only person to traverse its entire length. The children taken by Claude, however, were the first people to travel along the entire length of the train.

Mason : Order is the barrier that holds back the flood of death. We must all of us on this train of life remain in our allotted station. We must each of us occupy our preordained particular position. Would you wear a shoe on your head? Of course you wouldn't wear a shoe on your head. A shoe doesn't belong on your head. A shoe belongs on your foot. A hat belongs on your head. I am a hat. You are a shoe. I belong on the head. You belong on the foot. Yes? So it is. In the beginning, order was proscribed by your ticket: First Class, Economy, and freeloaders like you. Eternal order is prescribed by the sacred engine: all things flow from the sacred engine, all things in their place, all passengers in their section, all water flowing. all heat rising, pays homage to the sacred engine, in its own particular preordained position. So it is. Now, as in the beginning, I belong to the front. You belong to the tail. When the foot seeks the place of the head, the sacred line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.

Crazy credits Snow is seen falling during the end credits.
Connections Featured in Snowpiercer: Transperceneige, From the Blank Page to the Black Screen: A Documentary by Jésus Castro- (2014)
Soundtracks Strange Brew Written by Eric Clapton (as Eric Patrick Clapton), Gail Collins , Felix Pappalardi (as Felix A. Pappalardi) Performed by Cream Courtesy of Polydor Ltd. Under License from Universal Music Enterprises

User reviews 1.1K

Jun 29, 2014
How long is Snowpiercer? Powered by Alexa
July 11, 2014 (United States)
South Korea
Czech Republic
Official site
El expreso del miedo
Hintertux, Tirol, Austria (mountain)
SnowPiercer
Opus Pictures
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$39,200,000 (estimated)
$86,758,912

Technical specs

Runtime 2 hours 6 minutes
Black and White
Dolby Digital

More to explore

Snowpiercer

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

I felt lip-smacking anticipation about seeing Snowpiercer , the first English–language film from South Korean menace maestro Bong Joon-ho ( The Host , Mother ). Just imagine: It’s 17 years into the future. The world has frozen over, leaving almost everyone popsicles. The survivors are all living on a high-speed train – yup, the Snowpiercer – that keeps cracking through arctic blocks and zipping around the planet’s periphery. Not everyone is equal. The have-nots, led by Curtis (a terrific Chris Evans taking Captain America to the dark side) and his buddy Edgar (Jamie Bell), are stuck in the caboose, forced to survive on black bars of protein glop. The privileged middle and upper classes, wrangled by Mason (a sensational, mad wicked Tilda Swinton with a killer Maggie Thatcher overbite) ride in luxury in other cars that house a schoolroom, a garden, an aquarium, a beauty salon, a sushi bar, a night club suitable for orgies and – in the head car – a slick-dick wizard named Wilford (Ed Harris). It’s when the brutes in the rear start to push their way forward, egged on by Gilliam (John Hurt) – a deep bow to the dystopian depths of Terry Gilliam’s 1985 Brazil – that Bong pulls out all the stops. Wilford’s stormtroopers start cracking heads. And a battle royale conducted in near darkness as the train zooms through a tunnel is tremendously exciting. Ok, I’m afraid the train is a rattling microcosm of society as we know it. But you can forgive Bong a few ham-fisted lunges at profoundity given the film’s sheer visionary splendor. Adapted by Bong and Kelly Masterson ( Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead ) from a 1982 French graphic novel, Snowpiercer is everything Transformers: Age of Extinction wishes it could be: a slambam sci-fi thriller with a brain, a heart and an artful sense of purpose. You’re in for a wild whoosh of a ride.

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Snowpiercer: film review.

South Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s first English-language production, an adaptation of a French comic book series starring Chris Evans and Tilda Swinton, centers on a revolution in a class-segregated train carrying the last human survivors on Earth after the world is iced over.

By Clarence Tsui

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Snowpiercer Film Still - H 2013

All the world’s a train, and all the men and women are merely passengers — a twist on one of William Shakespeare ’s most oft-recited lines could serve well as a summation of director Bong Joon-ho ’s latest film. An adaptation of the cult French comic book series Le Transperceneige, Snowpiercer is an epic yet nuanced, contemplative yet entertaining vehicle that uses its titular locomotive as an allegory for human existence as we see it in the here and now.

Boasting a stellar cast that will certainly help open doors to the international market — with the presence of Chris Evans , Octavia Spencer and Alison Pill to whip up the interest of U.S. filmgoers, and Tilda Swinton and John Hurt to cement the film’s art house credentials — Snowpiercer sees Bong maintaining his own artistic grip on the proceedings.

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Snowpiercer Parent Guide

Going nowhere fast..

Release date July 11, 2014

A global climate disaster destroys all life on Earth, except for a handful of passengers on The Snowpeircer. But after years aboard the constantly moving train, class systems, hostilities, and rebellions emerge.

Run Time: 126 minutes

Official Movie Site

Snowpiercer Rating & Content Info

Why is Snowpiercer rated R? Snowpiercer is rated R by the MPAA for violence, language and drug content

Page last updated July 17, 2017

News About "Snowpiercer"

This film is based on the graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand, and Jean-Marc Rochette.

Cast and Crew

Snowpiercer is directed by Joon-ho Bong and stars Chris Evans, Jamie Bell, Tilda Swinton.

The most recent home video release of Snowpiercer movie is October 20, 2014. Here are some details…

Related news about Snowpiercer

2015 Critics Choice Awards—Best of 2014

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SNOWPIERCER Review

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Sci-fi can be a harsh mirror. It doesn't just expose the human condition. It can expose our past and present with a serious warning with regards to our future. Bong Joon ho 's Snowpiercer is incisive science fiction that cuts into the historical narratives of revolution by keeping a sharp eye on not only class conflict, but how that conflict manifests itself in insidious ways far beyond the living conditions of the haves and have-nots. Although Snowpiercer is at times brutally dark and pitiless, it also keeps a thrilling pace inside a rich, interesting world filled with compelling characters. The movie can be a bit blurry around the edges and shaky with its thematic conclusions, but Snowpiecer is a constant force to be reckoned with.

In an attempt to stop global warming, humanity launched CW-7, an effort to cool the Earth back down to sustainable temperatures. The project was a catastrophic failure that caused a second ice age, and killed most of humanity. The last of our species is on a train powered by a perpetual motion engine. The poor survivors live at the back of the train and under the tyranny of the rich passengers, who reside on the front of the train. In the year 2031, seventeen years after the failure of CW-7, Curtis ( Chris Evans in an amazing performance) rallies the other poor passengers, and stages a revolution to move all the way to the front and take the engine. However, as he begins to move further along the individual cars, he discovers both the sacrifices required to progress and the revelations that lie ahead.

Before Snowpiercer even really begins, it forms an intriguing central mystery without ever having anyone vocalize it: Why keep the poor passengers alive at all? They stay huddled in the back and do no work. The movie then adds another mystery regarding the forceful removal of certain children from the poor, but not explaining why only a few kids are taken and for what purpose. These two mysteries run the length of the movie, and the payoff is worth the wait, but you have to trust it's there. Snowpiercer earns that trust with the breadth of Bong's vision.

The level of detail running throughout the movie is remarkable. The structure of the plot and the setting allow Bong to literally and figuratively compartmentalize a new world of class warfare. Production Designer Ondrej Nekvasil put a stunning level of detail into each car, and Bong fleshes it out by showing how these characters function within their socioeconomic station. The filmmaker sees the intersection of how geography defines culture and vice-versa. It also provides a clever assist to the script as certain cars lead to particular scenes, such as the children's classroom showing indoctrination but also providing exposition.

There is one major compromise Bong has to make in his specific vision, which is to cut out media and entertainment. Although we see opiates such as the wealthy worshiping the engineer's designer, Wilford, as well as passengers using the drug "Kronol", the movie omits the opiate of entertainment, which, in keeping with a view of history, would supplicate the lower classes. Additionally, a news service would inform the wealthier cars about the coming revolution. But it makes sense why Bong would leave out entertainment since it's difficult to critique what you're providing.

Snowpiercer isn't a tirade or agitprop. It's entertaining, and features some thrilling action scenes that are both grand and intimate. Bong knows how to keep us on our toes not just with the brutality of the violence, but with how far he's willing to go in forcing his characters to continue onwards. He has no hesitation about making us care about characters and then killing them off because this isn't a revolution in the abstract. Although Bong has broadly drawn the sides of the poor people are good and the rich people are bad, the revolutionaries have personal lives beyond the revolution. These aren't just people looking for a better life. They're friends. They're family. And their deaths have meaning.

Sacrifice is a huge theme in Snowpiercer , and Bong never shies away from what people are willing to do in order to disrupt a status quo that imposes cruel living conditions and steals children. There's no turning the revolution back, but whom will be left to move forward? Even Curtis doesn't want to lead; he wants that responsibility to lie with his mentor, Gilliam ( John Hurt ). Curtis is the rare revolutionary: He's reluctant to lead, he doesn't spout treatises on the class warfare, and he rallies people through personal relationships rather than demagoguery. Again, this may not fit perfectly into a believable historical paradigm, but we can suspend our disbelief because the larger conflict connects.

Although I don’t agree with all of Bong's thematic conclusions, he makes a fairly strong argument, and it's also an admirable one that's as unflinching and unforgiving as his movie. Snowpiercer may wear the guise of a sci-fi action-thriller, but it's as dark and damning as any straight drama. The genre trappings, along with the excellent performances, are what stop the film from being a depressing slog. The tension is always taut as we root for these characters to succeed even though as a present-day audience we're well aware that the wealthy usually win.

Except Snowpiercer isn't just a critique of the über-rich. It's an indictment of those who choose to neglect the less fortunate and our unwillingness to sacrifice our comfort while others suffer. I doubt Bong wants us to give up our material possessions and become socialists, but he also wants us to acknowledge the severe dysfunction of our social strata instead of ignorantly coasting along in our cushy compartments.

Snowpiercer is a challenge in a movie landscape where sci-fi action rarely challenges us. As we've seen in films such as Prometheus and Transcendence , sci-fi in modern films usually amounts to Icarus stories. Bong Joon ho forces us to look deeper and done so with a film that can be harsh, but never hateful. It's a cold, grim world, and yet the fire and fury of his characters and their story keep this unique vision burning bright.

Bong Joon-ho

Snowpiercer

Review by brian eggert july 5, 2014.

Inside a mobile dystopia running across the icy wasteland of Earth, the inhabitants of the “Rattling Train” or Snowpiercer live in a class-segmented microcosm of human society. The planet has been frozen and uninhabitable ever since a plan to prevent further global warming went horribly wrong, when world powers released the chemical CW7 into the atmosphere and incited a new ice age by mistake. What’s left of the human race rides on this high-speed train. Originally built by an eccentric futurist as a sustainable, ever-mobile ecosystem of amenities galore, now this perpetual motion machine keeps out the sub-zero cold and keeps humans in, with nowhere else to go. The privileged few live in luxury cars toward the head of the train, while squalor and hunger run rampant at the grimy tail end. By design, any attempted revolt in the rear cars is separated from the front, and these bloody uprisings serve only to thin out the numbers in the lower classes. Indeed, all the worst social and political atrocities conceived by the human race have been locked up in a series of train cars in Snowpiercer , an ambitious and visionary film.

Based on the French graphic novel series Le Transperceneige from 1982 (authored by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand, and Jean-Marc Rochette), Snowpiercer marks the first English-language production from Bong Joon-ho, the South Korean director behind box-office champs The Host (2006) and Memories of Murder (2003). Bong and Kelly Masterson ( Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead ) adapted the material and primary investors at CJ Entertainment developed the $40 million independent production outside of Hollywood, a rarity for an epic science-fiction tale featuring an all-star cast, among them Captain America himself, Chris Evans, and S. Korean star Song Kang-ho. Snowpiercer opened internationally in 2013 through various companies, but U.S. distributors at The Weinstein Company fought with Bong over which cut would be released stateside. And while Bong was victorious in fending off Harvey Weinstein’s demands that the director cut 20 minutes of footage to better suit U.S. audiences, the film’s debut was truncated to a limited release as Bong refused to compromise his art.

After brief explanatory titles in the opening, Bong thrusts us into his train’s Dickensian rear compartments, where plans for a rebellion have already begun to form. Seventeen years have passed since the world froze over, and various people tried raids and failed to overthrow the Powers That Be, none of them getting more than a few cars forward. But the rear-class leader, no doubt deliberately named Gilliam (John Hurt), has received encoded messages in their food supply—slimy-looking protein bars made out of… well, you’ll just have to see. The messages suggest the train’s security designer, currently detained in the morgue-like prison car, can engineer their way passed the security doors. Gilliam relies on a leader-in-the-making, Curtis (Evans, in his best performance yet), and his young protégé, Edgar (Jamie Bell) to guide the revolt. But even as the plan commences, we get a taste of this twisted world when comically fascistic spokesperson Mason (Tilda Swinton, behind grotesque dentures and a thick Yorkshire accent) arrives with armed guards to oversee the seizure of several children. Two single parents, Tanya (Octavia Spencer) and Andrew (Ewen Bremmer), are forced to watch as their younglings are torn away for Wilford’s yet-unknown plans.

Meanwhile, Curtis struggles to accept himself as a leader, and when we learn why in a late scene during an equally heart-rending and horrifying monologue by Evans, everything about what came before is enhanced tenfold. In a similar way, Bong’s vivid uses of violence and gristly, unforgiving imagery (both real and imagined)—specifically those concerning cannibalism and a number of shocking deaths—take far more risks than a Hollywood production would have. But the death and violence serve a very specific purpose once all is revealed and we meet the man behind the curtain. Those familiar with Bong’s earlier films, or those of Snowpiercer ‘s co-producer (director Park Chan-wook of Oldboy infamy), will anticipate a particularly merciless, nihilistic attitude toward death, whereas a major studio would’ve never allowed so many notable characters and familiar faces to lose their lives. Bong also injects pitch-black humor into the proceedings with a pointedly S. Korean finesse that will challenge some viewers; the style compares to something like the expressive, ultra-violent works of Paul Verhoeven ( RoboCop , Total Recall ).

In spite of the bloodshed, Bong evokes Terry Gilliam’s Brazil and 12 Monkeys through Snowpiercer ‘s broad post-apocalyptic imagination and mischievous aesthetic details, which have been labored over and leave everything onscreen completely engrossing. The train itself, built on a series of rotating soundstages, deserves the highest regard as an accomplishment in production design by Ondrej Nekvasil ( The Illusionist , 2006). Each car has a distinct look and believable space, such as the most grisly sequence in the film when security doors open to reveal dozens of Wilford’s soldiers armed with axes and blunt instruments, leading to a bloody battle that soon goes dark when the train enters a tunnel. A later car was evidently modeled after The Shining ‘s Overlook Hotel, complete with the posh upper-crust looking ghostlike and Al Bowlly singing “Midnight the Stars and You” on the soundtrack. But the most frightening car must be the elementary school, overseen by Alison Pill’s eerily enthusiastic schoolmarm, a sharp and cheery contrast to what came before, and invariably touched with an undercurrent of something sinister.

Like every Gilliam film, Snowpiercer should be seen at least twice: once to absorb the film’s intricate details and grow accustomed to the director’s wonderfully outlandish style, and another to consider the sometimes unsubtle ways in which the film seeks to subvert various authorities (politics, gods, and even nature) through the course of the narrative. It’s a disturbing and fascinating world that Bong has created, realized through impeccable craftsmanship and verisimilitude, and always nuanced character-building. High-concept science-fiction outside of the Hollywood studio system has rarely, if ever, been so visionary and accomplished. Had Snowpiercer been released in a larger format, the film could have been a major breakthrough for Bong; instead, its following will surely develop over time as the right audiences discover it and spread positive word-of-mouth. And a few years from now, everyone will wonder why The Weinstein Co. resolved to sweep the film under the carpet, as it becomes a cult hit and hopefully more. Thoughtful, provocative, and far more enjoyable than your average blockbuster, Snowpiercer ‘s pure entertainment value is outmatched only by its sobering commentary on the continual inhumanity of the human race.

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‘Snowpiercer’ review: take a train ride to the apocalypse

Director bong joon-ho turns chris evans into a new kind of avenger.

By Tim Grierson on June 25, 2014 02:55 pm 73 Comments

With the possible exception of Mike Judge’s Idiocracy , just about any post-apocalyptic movie worth its salt will bum you out. In fact, it’s part of the genre’s perverse appeal: the bleaker a film’s vision of a future dystopia, the more rousing and life-affirming it seems. (There’s nothing like slipping into the cinematic hellscapes of The Road Warrior or Children of Men to get the blood pumping.)

Maybe that’s why Snowpiercer is both oddly comforting and joltingly strange. The English-language debut of acclaimed Korean director Bong Joon-ho ( The Host , Mother ), it chronicles the plight of Earth’s few remaining survivors, who are all huddled on a train that’s been traversing the planet for the last 17 years. Significantly dark, this sci-fi film is also lyrical, funny, and occasionally self-indulgent. It’s a bumpy ride, but one well worth taking.

Based on the 1982 French comic book Le Transperceneige , Snowpiercer stars Chris Evans (Captain America from The Avengers ) as Curtis, the reluctant leader of those who live in the caboose section of this lengthy locomotive. It’s the year 2031: back in 2014, a new ice age devastated the planet. Those left alive boarded what’s known simply as "The Train," where society quickly fell into a class system of haves and have-nots. Those in power are at the front, have the guns, and rule over the unwashed, unarmed masses in the back.

As the film begins, Curtis is planning to launch an insurgency against his people’s upper- class captors. He’s joined by Edgar (Jamie Bell, Turn ), who idolizes Curtis, and Tanya ( The Help ’s Octavia Spencer), whose son was taken by the storm troopers who police the train. Their coalition plans to move, car by car, toward the front, until they can take out the engineer, a mysterious genius known as Wilford (Ed Harris).

Part action movie and part political parable, Snowpiercer is akin to Bong’s earlier films in that it starts in one genre but quickly expands its scope. ( The Host was that rare monster movie that doubled as a family comedy and ecological treatise.) If Snowpiercer isn’t completely successful, it’s because the movie can’t fully transcend the familiarity of its story. With shades of Brazil and The Matrix , Snowpiercer shifts between social satire, superb action sequences, and a vaguely philosophical "The train is, like, a metaphor for civilization , man" bent. The film’s dorm-room deep thinking, however, isn’t as compelling as its gut-punch intensity and sly sick streak. (Punishment for disobedience is meted out in a creative, albeit horrifying way — and you may not want to know what the train’s leaders put in the protein bars they feed to the lower class.)

But because Bong keeps coloring outside the lines, the film is spiked with a constant sense of unpredictable dread. Assisted by cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo and production designer Ondřej Nekvasil, the director has crafted a claustrophobic environment that goes from grungy to beautiful, the dank quarters of the lower class slowly giving way to swankier cars devoted to classrooms, nightclubs, and spas. Thankfully, though, Bong doesn’t have much interest in the whimsical fantasia of overblown stylists like Tim Burton. As a result, Snowpiercer feels lived-in rather than antiseptically, "imaginatively" rendered.

To suggest the universality of his melting-pot characters, Bong has cast from different nationalities and races, including veteran Korean star Song Kang-ho as a drug-addicted safecracker, acclaimed Romanian actor Vlad Ivanov as a relentless killer, and Tilda Swinton as a cartoonishly ineffectual authority figure dressed up in Coke-bottle glasses and fake teeth. She’s an acquired taste in Snowpiercer : mildly amusing and strange, without ever really being astoundingly bizarre.

Snowpiercer’s true engine is Evans, though. In some ways, his turn as the haunted, determined Curtis is a companion to his work in the underrated 2007 Danny Boyle drama Sunshine , another sci-fi thriller about men and women trapped in a life-and-death struggle inside a steely beast. Evans has become a superstar thanks to the Captain America and Avengers films, and he’s winningly wholesome as Steve Rogers. But Snowpiercer reveals a more intriguing side to the actor in which his all-American earnestness is supplemented by a raw hunger, producing a flawed character who must claw his way to heroism.

Curtis’s journey to confront Wilfred results in an ironic twist that isn’t quite as ironic, or satisfying, as one might hope. (Again, if you’ve seen these sorts of films, you can generally guess where this narrative train is heading.) But Evans brings such instant authenticity to the part that he cuts through some of the genre clichés. Snowpiercer may not always be as inventive as its visual flourishes, or as emotionally engaging as its best performances. Nonetheless, Bong and Evans are so committed to their vision of a world so depraved it needs to be destroyed to be saved that the film gets under your skin anyway.

Snowpiercer opens in the US on June 27th in limited release. All images courtesy of Radius–TWC.

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Review: ‘Snowpiercer’ on a New Track

TNT’s dystopian class-warfare thriller, set on a giant train endlessly circling a frozen earth, runs the sensibility of Bong Joon Ho through the switchyard of basic cable.

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By Mike Hale

It took seven years, and some stops and starts, for the 2013 South Korean film “Snowpiercer” to get remade as an American television series. It was just long enough for the film’s director, Bong Joon Ho, to give the show a publicity boost by winning multiple Oscars this year for “Parasite,” his latest violent allegory about the haves and have-nots.

There was never any question, though, that the series (premiering Sunday on TNT) would have the brutal, bloody single-mindedness of Bong’s “Snowpiercer” ironed out of it for commercial TV. That the show’s connection to the movie doesn’t go beyond the premise — a slave-labor rebellion on a train that circles a frozen earth carrying humanity’s 3,000 survivors — was probably a given.

What comes as a slight surprise is that something as singular as Bong’s film would be turned into something as familiar as TNT’s “Snowpiercer”: a standard basic-cable science-fiction thriller, with the look, atmosphere, staging and much of the Canada-based supporting cast you’ve already seen in any number of shows on TNT, Syfy and the CW (basic cable’s cousin). Or maybe it’s not a surprise, given that the “Snowpiercer” showrunner, Graeme Manson, was a creator of one of those series, BBC America’s “Orphan Black.”

As different as it is, though, this “Snowpiercer” is weighed down by the freight of the film’s premise (which originated in a French graphic novel series, “Le Transperceneige”). The train as a microcosm for a striated society — with its rigid procession of “classes,” luxurious front to prisonlike back — is a particularly on-the-nose metaphor, and the longer you spend with it, the more reductive and limiting it gets.

Manson and his colleagues, lacking either the dollars-per-minute or the visual imagination that Bong brought to bear, try various strategies to stretch the film’s simple thesis over 10 hourlong episodes (with a second season already ordered). One — and you have to give them credit for audacity — is to turn the protagonist, a steerage passenger named Andre Layton (Daveed Diggs), into a former police detective. In the first of a series of contrivances that drive the plot, Layton, who’s about to lead an armed revolt of the oppressed stowaways known as tailies (for their position at the train’s tail) is summoned to the front of the train to investigate a murder.

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Snowpiercer

Crime , Drama , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Daveed Diggs as Andre Layton; Jennifer Connelly as Melanie Cavill; Mickey Sumner as Bess Till; Alison Wright as Ruth Wardell; Lena Hall as Miss Audrey; Rowan Blanchard as Alex Cavill; Iddo Goldberg as Ben; Katie McGuinness as Josie Wellstead; Sam Otto as Oz; Sheila Vand as Zarah; Roberto Urbina as Javi; Mike O’Malley as Sam Roche; Annalise Basso as LJ; Jaylin Fletcher as Miles; Steven Ogg as Pike; Sean Bean as Wilford; Clark Gregg as Admiral Anton Milius

TV Series Review

Global warming? If only.

Back in 2014, worried scientists tried to reverse rising temperatures … and boy were they successful. The Earth experienced a different sort of climate change, with temperatures plummeting to obscenely cold and, frankly, unlivable levels. The globe is now a gigantic ball of ice, and everything that once called it home is more thoroughly frozen than that forgotten TV dinner in your icebox.

Well, except for those riding the Snowpiercer.

The train is all that’s left of humanity—of, in fact, life itself. The creation of a reclusive tycoon named Mr. Wilford, the Snowpiercer is a rail-bound ark and on-the-move social experiment—now 879 cars filled with society’s former elite and the downtrodden.

But while the world itself has chilled, humanity hasn’t changed. Stuff thousands of men and women in one train, no matter how long, and there’s bound to be trouble.

POLAR DISTRESS

First, the “tailies” (the poor who lived for years in the train’s slum-like tail) revolted against their oppressors. They won, but then Wilford—who’d actually been tossed from the train years before by the indomitable Melanie Cavill—came back, having retrofitted an old supply train (Big Alice) that then anchored itself to the Snowpiercer.

Wilford claimed he just wanted what was best for humanity. But after Melanie discovered that the earth might be thawing—meaning they could leave the trains and set up a permanent colony—Wilford did everything in his power to stop her and her cohorts from revealing the truth.

Speaking of those cohorts, leading the resistance against Wilford is former homicide detective Andre Layton. He helped stage the original Tailies’ rebellion against Melanie. But after learning that she only did what she did to preserve humanity, he joined forces with her against Wilford.

Several power struggles later—during which Melanie was kicked off the train, found her way back and then managed to kick Wilford off yet again—the residents of Snowpiercer were given a choice:

Follow Layton on Big Alice to explore a thawed region of Africa and set up a colony called New Eden. Or stick with Melanie on the Snowpiercer and continue on as they always have.

It’s been nine months since that split, and the residents of New Eden are doing pretty well for themselves. But as they prepare for the return of Snowpiercer (the first time the train has come back into radio range since they left), things begin to go amiss.

Someone sabotages the power grid and radio towers of New Eden. A hermit begins hearing voices on the wind. And another person from the Snowpiercer shows up on the tracks half comatose.

“They’re coming,” the survivor warns Layton. But before he can interpret the meaning, his infant daughter is kidnapped, and her mother is slain by a soldier of the International Peacekeeping Forces.

Now, the residents of New Eden have another choice to make: help Layton rescue his daughter and their friends on the Snowpiercer from the IPF or cut their losses and continue on as they always have.

OFF THE RAILS

AMC’s Snowpiercer has a long lineage. It was first conceived by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette for the graphic novel Le Transperceneige in the early 1980s. (More graphic novels followed.) In 2013, South Korean director Bon Joon-ho (who, you might recall, directed a little Oscar-winning movie called Parasite ) took that first book and made a movie out of it.

The TV version (formerly produced by TNT) is characterized as a “ reboot of the film’s continuity ,” and may serve as a prequel of sorts. While the 2013 movie takes place in 2031, AMC’s timeline starts a decade earlier: in 2021, fewer than seven years after the Earth descended into its current deep freeze.

It’s an odd sort of story, though—part family drama, part Hunger Games -like dystopian sociological statement, part apocalyptic horror show. The plot (at least at first) is set up like a whodunit, a post-apocalyptic version of Murder on the Orient Express , if you will. But the tension between the Snowpiercer’s multiple factions is what really powers this train. The show, like its forerunners, has plenty it wants to say about social inequality. And that dual track leaves the story feeling a little unfocused.

But Plugged In’ s conclusion is more definitive.

Sure, the premise is fascinating. Parts of the story are compelling. And AMC certainly didn’t scrimp on creating a believable world, both inside and out of the train.

But Snowpiercer is rated TV-MA for basically every reason you can imagine. Violence can be extreme, with blood flying everywhere and sometimes whole limbs getting chopped or even ripped off. Cannibalism becomes a prominent plot point. Viewers might be exposed to nudity, too, and relationships—including those of the same-sex variety—can abound. Sometimes, the plot manages to combine both violence and nudity together: A murder victim’s own privates were, um, removed —which viewers can confirm for themselves in the very first episode.

Steamy sexuality (including polyamorous relationships) seems fairly common. You’d not think that drug use would be a problem, given the very contained environs … but guess what? It is. And language? Well, in the cloudy, gloomy, snow-covered world of Snowpiercer , it’s about the only thing that’s blue.

(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at [email protected] , or contact us via Facebook or Instagram , and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)

Episode Reviews

July 20, 2024 – s4, e1: “snakes in the garden”.

As New Eden prepares for the return of Snowpiercer, someone sabotages the community’s power grid and radio tower. Then, one of their own betrays them, kidnapping Layton’s infant daughter, Liana.

Layton is not married to the mother of his child. But they co-parent peacefully, aided by his new girlfriend. He and his girlfriend kiss passionately in bed in a prelude to sex (we don’t see the act, but it’s implied). Layton removes his shirt just before the camera cuts away. There’s a joke about sex.

A mother fights a soldier in an attempt to get her daughter back. She ignores directions from the soldier’s companion to stand down, and she’s thrown off a cliff (offscreen). We see her bleeding and crippled as she dies.

A soldier hits a resident of New Eden over the head, knocking him unconscious and causing him to bleed heavily. (He survives but won’t wake up.) Armed soldiers seize control of the Snowpiercer, threatening several residents with guns to the head. A woman, injured by these soldiers, is later found in a rail cart just before she passes out. Two men get into a fistfight, and one guy’s hand is cut badly. Later, his hand is stitched and bandaged by a doctor. New Eden residents arm themselves against the threat of the soldiers. Layton promises to kill whoever kidnapped his daughter. A woman gets a nosebleed from the altitude.

People drink in several scenes. One man is accused of being drunk. When he claims to be sober, he’s treated as if he’s crazy, since he talks about hearing voices. However, it turns out he’s correct: He’s actually hearing the voices of intruders echoing in the mountains long before folks in the valley become aware of them.

Although New Eden is doing well under the circumstances, many residents complain it’s not the “paradise” they were promised. Public property is damaged in sabotage attempts.

Three uses of the s-word. We also hear instances of “h—” and the British profanity “bloody.” God’s name is abused three times.

Jan. 24, 2022 – S3, E1: “The Tortoise and the Hare”

Layton and his crew race to find evidence that the world is thawing while Wilford devotes limited resources to hunting them down.

While delivering a message, a child takes a shortcut through a strip club where women are scantily clad and adults drink and smoke. Couples kiss. Several women wear revealing outfits. A woman pulls a cigarette out of her brassiere. We see a woman in a bath from the shoulders up. A man mentions his husband.

A man attacks Layton with a bat, but Layton fights back and overpowers him. A woman hits a man in the head with a wrench. Another woman kicks a trapdoor shut on another woman’s head and threatens to shock several people with a taser. A man falls through the roof of a building (he is OK but nearly runs out of oxygen before being rescued). We see blood on the wall of a nuclear facility. A man has several cuts on his face from a dog attack. Someone wants to “cull” the population to conserve resources.

We learn that Wilford is forcing people to work in freezing conditions to make the train move faster as he hunts for Layton. He decommissions the first-class cars to help conserve energy but refuses to get rid of the cars (even though the action would speed things along) because he still wants to return society to its class system.

When two people are caught taking hot baths, they are subjected to a public “defiling” as punishment for stealing resources. (Passengers throw buckets of feces on them.)

Several people plot mutiny. A black-market trade delivers medicine to workers to keep them alive. We hear uses of the s-word, “h—,” “bloody” and “p-ss.” God’s and Christ’s names are also abused.

Jan. 25, 2021 – S2, E1: “The Time of Two Engines”

Mr. Wilford has hooked his retrofitted supply train, Big Alice, to the tail of Snowpiercer in an effort to regain control. See, if either train stops for long, it’ll quickly freeze in place, with everyone inside freezing, too. Big Alice can act as an anchor: If Wilford doesn’t get his way, he’ll stop Snowpiercer, kill the passengers, take a few spins around the track and re-hook Big Alice to the 994-car train in due time. But Melanie (who wrested control of Snowpiercer from Wilford in the first place) and Layton (who leads Snowpiercer’s population) have ideas of their own.

Snowpiercer residents attack part of Big Alice (which has 40 cars itself). People are stabbed and hacked and shot with crossbow bolts, sometimes accompanied by little sprays of blood. Melanie, working on part of the stopped train from the outside, suffers frostbite when her protective suit rips. (The injury looks pretty gross, and doctors fiddle with the dead, sticky skin with tweezers.) People suffer from sudden cold (we see one man’s arm freeze and wither). A man dies in battle and falls on top of another combatant: We see the dead man’s blood drizzle over her.

A couple of guys jostle Zarah, Layton’s pregnant girlfriend. (And it’s subtly implied that the child’s patrimony is in question.) Ruth, Snowpiercer’s head of hospitality, whisks Layton and Zarah off to a plush luxury apartment on the train, noting that the previous owners committed suicide shortly before. We hear that Melanie’s parents died in the cold. As mentioned, Wilford plans to kill everyone aboard the Snowpiercer in order to get his train back.

Melanie suffers a disinfecting shower. (We see her from the shoulders up.) Train inhabitants trade fruit for a bag of marijuana: A man smokes a blunt—his first, he tells us, in seven years. (There’s also talk of negotiating for other drugs, too.) We learn that the Snowpiercer’s supply of morphine is all gone, but that the train manufactures its own aspirin.

Characters say the s-word seven times. We also hear “a–,” “h—” and the British profanity “bloody,” as well as seven misuses of God’s name. Someone makes an obscene gesture.

July 12, 2020 – S1, E9: “The Train Demanded Blood”

In the first season’s penultimate episode, the revolution nearly ends before it begins. Melanie, who’s revealed as “Mr. Wilford” after lo these many years, is imprisoned and about to be executed. Nolan Grey is set to gas both the rebels and the innocent in the back part of the train. And the rebel leader Layton is given a choice: Give yourself up for execution, and the back end of the train will be saved; or keep fighting, and everyone will die. Layton’s inclined to keep fighting until he learns that a woman named Zarah is carrying his child.

The aftermath of the rebellion’s first push (which we hear killed at least 37 people) is pretty evident. Lots of the survivors are left bloodied, and some of the captured are being executed by the “lung of ice.” We see one suffer such a fate: A mask is strapped to the condemned man’s face and air from the outside is pumped in—freezing his lungs (and part of his face) in the process. A fracas takes place between several combatants, leaving many severely bloodied. (One nearly unconscious man seems to have had his nose broken.) Layton is beaten by vengeful security men. A man threatens (by way of hyperbole) to cut a boy “into little pieces and put you in the composting toilet.” Someone cuts open their hand or wrist—painfully and bloodily—to extract a device of some kind.

A man says he’ll pray for one of the condemned. Someone vomits. A couple kisses passionately as they plot their own train takeover. Characters say the s-word twice, the British profanity “bloody” twice, as well as using the word “h—” and the f-word stand-in “freaking.” God’s name is misused twice (once with the word “d–n”), and Jesus’ name is abused once.

[Spoiler Warning] Seven cars at the center of the train are decoupled from the rest and sent down another track, dooming all of those aboard to an icy death.

May 17, 2020 – S1, E1: “First, the Weather Changed”

The Tail’s plans to take over several cars in Snowpiercer are derailed when one of the community’s leaders, Andre Layton, is called forward. He’s given a grilled cheese sandwich and some tomato soup—treasures he thought were long-distant memories—and learns that Mr. Wilford, the train’s mysterious creator, wants him to find out who murdered one of the passengers. But the revolt, while postponed momentarily, won’t be stopped. Other leaders, assuming that Andre has turned his back on them, argue for an attack.

The suicide of a Tailer becomes the catalyst. An elderly resident of the Tail hangs himself with an electrical cord on his birthday. Tailers attack the security team after it enters to remove the body. The frenetic, close-quarter battle leaves several people dead (one of whom had an arm literally ripped off by a strong Tailer, and whose hand was used to open another car door) and a host of others injured and bleeding. Andre is also viciously beaten when he seems reluctant to take the case.

In flashback, we see how Tailers came to board the train originally (despite not having tickets). They invaded the end of the train in, again, another bloody, vicious battle. People are clubbed and kicked repeatedly. Elsewhere, Andre inspects the corpse of a murder victim: the man’s nude (we see portions of the corpse briefly), and there’s a black spot/hole where his genitals should be.

Andre questions suspects in a section of the train essentially taken over by, in the words of the brakebman escorting Andre, “young people, living and screwing in groups. Bunch of freaks, if you ask me.” One was apparently a former lover of Andre’s, and she kisses her female lover goodbye (and simply says goodbye to her male lover) before being questioned. Back in the Tail, Andre’s current lover is propositioned/threatened by another male resident. The insinuation is that without Andre there to protect her, she needs to find a new lover/protector to keep her and her children safe.

A woman swims naked in what would seem to be an aquarium car. (We see her rear clearly, and most of the rest of her body as well.) Andre is given a shower, where we briefly see a part of his buttocks. A same-sex couple chats with officials in a posh dining car. There’s some banter about a “conjugal” visit. A doctor, who supervises a car wherein convicted criminals are kept in drawers asleep, creepily grooms a female inhabitant before hastily putting her away. (He admits to “taking special care” of a suspected female murderer.) A guest complains that “Europeans” are using the sauna naked and singing boisterous songs.

People utter Christian prayers—and one holds what appears to be a Rosary—before what they assume will be a big battle. Characters drink wine, beer and other alcoholic beverages. We hear at least five uses of the s-word, along with “h—,” “a–” and “d–n.” God’s and Jesus’ names are both abused a couple of times.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

Emily Tsiao

Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.

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Snowpiercer.

Common Sense Says
Parents Say 5 Reviews
Kids Say 8 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Decent sci-fi action series explores class, has violence.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 15+?

Violent acts range from someone getting beat up to a riot with guns and knives.

"F--k," "s--t," "damn."

Characters drink alcohol and use (fictional) drugs recreationally.

Expect some romance and kissing.

One story thread features fictional consumerism: A corporation created and runs

Any Positive Content?

The cast reflects diversity in age, gender, and race, and while they don't alway

Show's themes mostly have to do with class, and it takes a blunt view of class s

Violence & Scariness

Violent acts range from someone getting beat up to a riot with guns and knives. Deaths are shown, and there's a lot of blood.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

One story thread features fictional consumerism: A corporation created and runs the train, and money, wealth, and status are frequent motivators for the characters.

Positive Role Models

The cast reflects diversity in age, gender, and race, and while they don't always use healthy means, characters try to find justice and peace in an unfair microcosm of a world.

Positive Messages

Show's themes mostly have to do with class, and it takes a blunt view of class struggles, showing rich exploiting poor and depicting violent revolution from the lower class. That said, the revolutionaries try to fight for equality and human rights.

Parents need to know that Snowpiercer is a sci-fi action series about the challenges of a group of people living on a futuristic high-speed train. Following the same premise as Bong Joon-ho 's 2013 film but with new characters, the show focuses on the disparity between the privileged class living large at the train's front and those struggling for life in the back. Expect frequent violence: One of the major storylines involves a group of people who attempt to violently overthrow the train's hierarchy. Violent acts range from someone getting beat up to a riot with guns and knives. Deaths are shown, and there's lots of blood. Profanity includes "f--k," "s--t," and "damn," and characters drink and use (fictional) recreational drugs. Jennifer Connelly and Daveed Diggs co-star.

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

Parents say (5)
Kids say (8)

Based on 5 parent reviews

Lots of Nudity Not for kids

Nudity,violence, what's the story.

In SNOWPIERCER, the earth has been covered in frozen tundra, and humanity's few survivors live inside the Great Ark, a high-tech train that circles the globe. The wealthy live at the front of the train; the poor at the back. Civil unrest is a fact of everyday life, but the corporation that runs the train has so far managed to keep the third class citizens under control in the tail cars, even as they continue to plot revolution. When a grisly murder with political implications takes place, the train's director of hospitality, Melanie Cavill ( Jennifer Connelly ), recruits Layton Well ( Daveed Diggs ), a former homicide detective who is now one of the "tailies," to solve it -- though the investigation and its results threaten to rip the Great Ark's society apart.

Is It Any Good?

It's hard to imagine how this series would be judged if it didn't come on the heels of its beloved, singular movie predecessor. Much like his 2019 Best Picture winner Parasite , Bong Joon-ho's 2013 film Snowpiercer is a fairly straightforward allegory about class warfare. It succeeds on the back of its elegant structure: Revolutionaries make their way from the back of the train to the front, fighting compartment by compartment through the lower classes in order to overthrow the rich. The premise is so simple, but it's easy to see how a TV adaptation could expand upon it beautifully. The longer run time could mean more character development, richer backstory, or even an episode dedicated to each section of the train.

Unfortunately, this series chooses a different track, needlessly complicating the setup by making the central character (the woefully miscast Daveed Diggs) into a homicide detective in search of a serial killer in an attempt to steer the wild plot more toward a standard mystery. It's the type of focus-tested plot you'd see parodied on Bojack Horseman or 30 Rock (they actually use the phrase "train detective!"). Things only get more chaotic and muddled from there, and without the benefit of compelling characters, great dialogue, or a richly developed setting, Snowpiercer the show turns a fascinating premise into a bit of a muddle.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about shows set in the future. How does science fiction explore issues that humans deal with in the present? What does this show try to say about climate change? Class struggles? Do you think a train like the one in Snowpiercer could be a reality someday?

What's life like for the people on the Great Ark train? How is society divided? How do different classes interact with one another? How do they treat each other? Who is in charge? Are there ways in which the society in Snowpiercer reminds you of everyday life? How?

Trains are often the setting for mystery stories. Why do you think this is? How does the setting of a show or movie affect what happens in it?

Premiere date : May 17, 2020
Cast : Daveed Diggs , Jennifer Connelly
Network : TNT
Genre : Drama
TV rating : TV-MA
Last updated : March 5, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘His & Hers’ on the Hallmark Channel Is A Wry Comedy About Married Lawyers Representing A Vapid Reality TV Couple Who’s Seeking A Divorce

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The new Hallmark Channel rom-com His & Hers stars network fan faves Lacey Chabert and Brennan Elliott as married lawyers hired to represent a divorcing reality TV couple. But rather than testing their own marriage, the case solidifies their relationship and ultimately makes them realize how lucky they are to have one another.

HIS & HERS : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Establishing shots of New York City. A woman (Lacey Chabert) in a red power dress walks into a conference room of her office and declares, “Let’s get started.” A man in a suit (Brennan Elliott) walks into a different conference room and says, “Alright, are you ready to get started?”

The Gist: His & Hers stars Chabert and Elliott as married lawyers Dana and Mark Chernich; they are both peppy and perky (a la Rob Lowe’s character Chris Traeger from Parks & Recreation ), always positive and looking for the bright side of things. They converse using lawyer-speak, as when they bring up their pet peeves by referring to them as items on a docket that need clearing. They’re basically just good-natured cornballs who are also very good lawyers.

One day they are each hired, separately, by Tabby and Brett Noble (Stephanie Bennett and Clayton James), a famous couple known for the reality TV shows that have chronicled their lives since they were teens, who are in the midst of a bitter, public divorce. If Dana and Mark represent some kind of schmoopy couple stereotype, Tabby and Brett are caricatures of vacant 21st century pseudo-celebrities. They only care about things like green juice and LED light therapy and leg day. And they both want to take each other DOWN.

Since Mark and Dana are consummate professionals, they don’t reveal their new clients to one another until eventually it becomes inevitable. But just because they’re happily married and each of their clients wants to rip the other’s throat out and take them for all their worth doesn’t mean things need to get contentious with their legal counsel, right?

As they two legal teams work against each other, Dana and Mark start to learn things about one another that they never knew thanks to background checks and being forced to discuss personal subjects that have never come up before. While it seems at first like heir case might throw into question their own relationship and whether their perfect-seeming relationship has all been a facade, things never get too dire. Because when it comes down to it, working with these reality stars makes them realize how lucky they are to have each other.

Our Take: His & Hers is, it turns out, the exact kind of comfort comedy many of us are looking for at the end of a long day when you want to turn your brain off. And I mean that in the very best way. While it seems at first like the two leads are going to be suffocatingly sweet and cutesy for the whole movie, it turns out they’re both actually really funny and are the perfect foils for the over-the-top reality couple they’re paired with. In one scene, Lacey Chabert even gets the chance to make a very funny prank phone call that gives shades of Gretchen Weiners in Mean Girls during the famous four-way phone call.

Just when you think there’s going to be actual relationship drama between Mark and Dana when their secrets start spilling out, that friction doesn’t last long and the actors clearly seem to relish getting to play up the absurdity of their situation. The movie doesn’t only focus on the relationship between Mark and Dana though, there’s also a clever twist when we learn that Brett and Tabby made up their entire divorce to sell their latest reality show.

With so many legal dramas out there in the world, this movie is making me wonder why we don’t have more legal comedies. The movie has the cozy charm that’s baked into most Hallmark movies, but an elevated sense of humor – something that can elude many Hallmark movies – filled with jokes that Elliott and Chabert execute perfectly.

Parting Shot: It’s one year later. Mark and Dana have both quit their law firms and started a new firm together. Partners for life. We see what it’s like inside their new office and when Dana stands, we see that she’s pregnant. Mark puts his hand over Dana’s belly and declares, “You feel that? It’s a prosecutor!”

Performance Worth Watching: Clayton James, who plays Brett, is exceptionally good as the vapid, seemingly empty-headed reality doofus who actually is (slightly) more substantive than he seems. But his take on the “bi-coastal bro” archetype adds a genuinely funny element to the film.

Memorable Dialogue: “We’re on a hiatus. We’re just looking for the right fit for us in the current, flailing, content environment,” reality star Tabby tells Dana, describing her life with Brett.

Our Call: STREAM IT. I OBJECT to anyone who doesn’t think this movie is an absolute delight. Is the premise of two lovey-dovey lawyers who constantly speak in legalese to one another pretty stupid? Totally. Is it played here with a wink and complete self-awareness that makes the movie a smarter-than-you’d-expect comedy? For sure. More than just a charming romance, the film is a comedy that delivers real laughs.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction .

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Snowpiercer Season 4, Episode 7 Review: Melanie's Return Comes at the Perfect Time

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The following contains major spoilers for Snowpiercer Season 4, Episode 7, "A Moth to a Flame," which debuted Sunday, Sept. 1 on AMC.

Snowpiercer Season 4, Episode 7, "A Moth to a Flame" features the long overdue return of Melanie Cavill -- and when Jennifer Connelly is back on screen, it's clear how much the AMC show has missed her. The episode takes a big step up dramatically with the presence of Connelly, who also starred in Apple's sci-fi drama Dark Matter , but is used much better here. On Snowpiercer , Melanie is the boss, but needing to catch her up on everything that's happened also results in a few important emotional beats.

"A Moth to a Flame" also takes several steps forward, solidfying the show's plot knowing that there are only a handful of installments left. The episode has to get Andre Layton and company off the third floor of the Silo and deal with the questions surrounding other missing characters. It also makes the bold decision to kill off not one, but two major players in Season 4. Whether or not that winds up being for the better will play out over the rest of the story, but Snowpiercer is definitely going for broke.

Snowpiercer Tries To Explain Milius - And Then Kills Him

Clark gregg's character meets a deserved end.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Star Clark Gregg Addresses Possible MCU Return

Gregg recently discussed the potential for Agent Phil Coulson's return to the MCU despite the character's demise.

This episode is bad news for Clark Gregg fans, because it features his last appearance on Snowpiercer . "A Moth to a Flame" starts out with Admiral Anton Milius as the narrator, and includes a flashback from his past. This is all well and good, because it seems like the show might finally give some depth to Milius and explain how he became a psychopath. Unfortunately, the flashback only gives some minor details about him as an individual, such as that he was once married and keeps his wife's picture on his desk to remind him of her "betrayal." The rest is just showing how he became Admiral -- by killing his predecessor when she objected to his experiments on fellow soldiers.

Admiral Anton Milius: The most painful betrayal is the one you don't see coming.

This is a missed opportunity, because TV episodes or even movies focused on villains can provide perspective. Gregg is possibly one of the most bankable actors working today, but Milius has never been more than another ruthless, "anything for the greater good" antagonist. Being able to hear from him -- literally -- and learn about his history would have been an interesting exploration and it would have helped if he was going to continue on. But instead, he dies in an underwhelming final scene.

Trying to freeze Joseph Wilford to death, Milius is caught off guard when he turns his back on Wilford and the other man yanks out the hose on his armor. Wilford then gloats before yanking Milius' helmet off. The choice to keep the helmet on until that moment, though, means audiences don't get to see Gregg's performance. Even at the moment when Milius dies, the camera never shows his face. It's a strange choice not to give him a full sendoff, but given how much he's tormented other people, there is at least something satisfying about seeing someone else put Milius in his place. And the decision to get rid of him means that Snowpiercer Season 4 needs another character for audiences to root against.

Melanie Shines Throughout Snowpiercer Season 4, Episode 7

Jennifer connelly is a counterpoint to all the suffering.

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While all the Milius drama is going on, Snowpiercer gets everything it can out of Melanie's return. Jennifer Connelly has been missing from the show since Season 4, Episode 3, "Life Source," and that has had a big impact. Mathematically speaking, it means that the show's female lead will only be in half of the final season. But plot-wise, Melanie's absence has been felt as the story has to work around the fact that she's been out collecting climate data. "A Moth to a Flame" does a great job of incorporating all the things that Melanie has to catch up on without dragging the pace of the episode down, and providing the scenes for her character that the audience wants to see.

Melanie Cavill: I don't know what's happening here, but I don't like it. It's good to see you, though.

Melanie is quickly able to deduce that her daughter Alex is in the Silo, and almost as quickly able to find her. The reunion of the two characters is as emotional as it should be, without going into melodrama, even when Alex has to tell Melanie about the death of Bennett Knox . Connelly's performance when Melanie realizes the man she loves is dead is spot-on; it's heartwrenching but also there's still a dignity to it. Melanie doesn't fall completely apart. And there's a sweetness as Alex comforts her mother with a hug. In another scene, Melanie and Layton share an embrace before Melanie talks about finding "our people," which shows just how far the relationship between those two characters has come.

Most importantly, Melanie provides a spark that Snowpiercer Season 4 needs, both in the sense of what Connelly brings as an actor and in the energy her character interjects into the show. There have been multiple villains to root against, but not always a clear hero to root for; "Life Source" was also the episode in which Layton became insufferable as his story became more about him than the group or the world. Then the audience got behind Iddo Goldberg as Ben, but then Ben sacrificed himself. Melanie arrives and quickly asserts her presence and shows that her heart is in the right place. Hopefully, the three episodes after this will make up for all the screen time she didn't have in the middle of the season. The series certainly can't afford to sideline her again.

Did Snowpiercer Kill Wilford Too Soon?

Season 4, episode 7 also writes out sean bean.

Wilford (actor Sean Bean) in a suit and tie looking off-camera in Snowpiercer Season 4

Snowpiercer's Lena Hall Responds to Co-Star Sean Bean's Intimacy Coordinator Criticism

Snowpiercer star Lena Hall addresses comments by her co-star Sean Bean that were critical of the TNT show's use of an intimacy coordinator.

"A Moth to a Flame" ups the ante even further by making Sean Bean's return to Snowpiercer a short one. After being reintroduced in "The Engineer," Bean's nefarious Wilford exits stage right two episodes later -- dying by suicide as he smokes a poisoned blunt in front of his old enemy Layton. The fact that Wilford dies isn't shocking; Sean Bean is infamous for his characters perishing , and there was no way that this TV series would end with Wilford still alive. He's too much of a villain to be redeemed and it would be unsatisfying for him to escape. Even his last scenes are the epitome of supervillainy, delivering a whole spiel to Layton before dying on the train he was insistent on reclaiming. Like Milius, Wilford's demise could be so much bigger than it actually is.

Joseph Wilford (to Milius): Your mission is merely a talking point in your dreadfully insignificant life.

Credit is due to Sean Bean for relishing every remaining moment as Wilford; he's living it up until the very end. But Snowpiercer also awkwardly uses Wilford's dying breaths to throw in an utterly out of left field fact: Dr. Nima Rousseau is the man who caused the Freeze, and the Gemini rocket launches are his attempt to fix what he started. With both Milius and Wilford gone, Nima becomes Snowpiercer 's main villain -- and he's not intimidating or compelling enough to fill that void. Michael Aronov has been wonderful in other shows, but this is not his best work, and Nima has little presence, even when he goes full bad guy by turning on Melanie. Add in the quick cuts at the end of Javi trying to disarm a bomb on New Eden's bridge and the soldiers stranding Layton, Josie and Liana by uncoupling their train car, and the last few minutes of "A Moth to a Flame" feel like the writers just lobbing in story grenades for the sake of excitement.

But that awkwardness only mildly undercuts what is overall a relatively strong Snowpiercer episode. Melanie's return allows for emotional beats that give the TV show its heart back, while the moment in which Dr. Headwood abruptly surrenders Liana back to Layton means that the story can refocus on the bigger picture of humanity's fate. Wilford meets the end that was always coming for him, even if it's not in the way anyone other than him would have wanted. The series may very well regret getting rid of Bean and Gregg this quickly, as either Wilford or Milius would have been a stronger choice for the final confrontation there has to be in the series finale. But at least "A Moth to a Flame" answers some big questions and features entertaining performances that make its flaws easy to overlook.

Snowpiercer airs Sundays at 9:00 p.m. on AMC .

Snowpiercer Season 4, Episode 7

Seven years after the world has become a frozen wasteland, the remnants of humanity inhabit a perpetually-moving train that circles the globe, where class warfare, social injustice and the politics of survival play out.

Jennifer Connelly's return bolsters the episode considerably.
Several strong emotional beats that other episodes have been missing.
Cleans up the storyline for the rest of the season.
The death of Milius is rather anticlimactic.
Wilford's passing could be a pro or a con depending on the viewer.

COMMENTS

Snowpiercer Movie Review
Parents need to know that Snowpiercer is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie with frequent brutal fighting and violence: There's shooting, spurting blood, guns, knives, axes, and a scene of torture in which a character's arm is frozen and shattered. The body count is very high and includes important/key characters. Strong language includes a few uses of "f--k" and "s--t" (once uttered by a little ...
SNOWPIERCER
Find out only at Movieguide. The Family and Christian Guide to Movie Reviews and Entertainment News. Reviews. Movies; Series; Streaming. Filters; Articles. Uplift; Parenting; Now Streaming; Videos. Movie Reviews; Red Carpet; Interviews; Top 10. ... SNOWPIERCER is a unique, provocative science fiction thriller. In 2014, the world's governments ...
Snowpiercer movie review & film summary (2014)
June 27, 2014. 4 min read. Based on the French graphic novel "La Transperceneige," Bong Joon-ho's "Snowpiercer" begins in the extremely not-too-distant future as mankind launches a final attempt to halt the spread of global warming once and for all. Needless to say, the plan backfires spectacularly and plunges the world into a new ice ...
Kid reviews for Snowpiercer
Kid reviews for Snowpiercer
Parent reviews for Snowpiercer
Deep and intriguing. This movie is truly beautiful. It at its core is about the disaster that is modern capitalism. It is important that after watching this movie, you understand this. Many of the other comments I have seen dismiss this as a gory sci fi movie when at its heart it is a simple allegory.
Snowpiercer
Rated: 4/5 Aug 4, 2024 Full Review Brendan Cassidy InSession Film Snowpiercer is one of the most unique post-apocalyptic film's I've ever seen, and my pick for the best science fiction film ...
Movie Review: 'Snowpiercer' : NPR
Movie Review: 'Snowpiercer' Bong Joon-ho's post-apocalyptic tale of the last remnants of humankind trapped on a train to nowhere is the kind of idea-driven science fiction that deserves to be seen.
Snowpiercer
It's a visual delight. Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 25, 2022. Thoughtful, provocative, and far more enjoyable than your average blockbuster, Snowpiercer's pure entertainment value ...
Snowpiercer (2013)
Snowpiercer: Directed by Bong Joon Ho. With Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, Ed Harris, John Hurt. In a future where a failed climate change experiment has killed all life except for the survivors who boarded the Snowpiercer (a train that travels around the globe), a new class system emerges.
Snowpiercer Review
Posted: Jun 17, 2014 4:03 pm. Bong Joon-ho's post-apocalyptic drama cranks like a colossal cog, rage-like momentum ripping through its intended motion, flakes of rust and oil left in its wake ...
'Snowpiercer' Movie Review
June 26, 2014. I felt lip-smacking anticipation about seeing Snowpiercer, the first English-language film from South Korean menace maestro Bong Joon-ho ( The Host, Mother ). Just imagine: It's ...
Snowpiercer: Film Review
Snowpiercer: Film Review. South Korean director Bong Joon-ho's first English-language production, an adaptation of a French comic book series starring Chris Evans and Tilda Swinton, centers on a ...
Snowpiercer Parents Guide
Snowpiercer is rated R by the MPAA for violence, language and drug content. - Frequent non-graphic violence. - Brief explicit violence. - Violent acts shown in a realistic manner with detail, blood and tissue damage. - Depictions of fighting, beating, stabbing, shooting, burning, impalement and explosion.
Snowpiercer Review
It's a cold, grim world, and yet the fire and fury of his characters and their story keep this unique vision burning bright. Rating: A-. Matt's Snowpiercer review; Bong Joon ho's Snowpiercer stars ...
Snowpiercer
Rated. R. Runtime. 126 min. Release Date. 06/27/2014. Inside a mobile dystopia running across the icy wasteland of Earth, the inhabitants of the "Rattling Train" or Snowpiercer live in a class-segmented microcosm of human society. The planet has been frozen and uninhabitable ever since a plan to prevent further global warming went horribly ...
'Snowpiercer' review: take a train ride to the apocalypse
Snowpiercer's true engine is Evans, though. In some ways, his turn as the haunted, determined Curtis is a companion to his work in the underrated 2007 Danny Boyle drama Sunshine, another sci-fi ...
Movie Review: 'Snowpiercer'
new video loaded: Movie Review: 'Snowpiercer' Movie Review: 'Snowpiercer' Robin Lindsay • June 27, 2014
Snowpiercer movie review & film summary (2014)
Speaking of simultaneous triumph and terror, the mere act of seeing "Snowpiercer" may prove to be a bit difficult. As some of you may have heard, the film has been at the center of a feud between its director and Harvey Weinstein, the film's distributor.According to reports, Weinstein disliked Bong's 126-minute cut and allegedly demanded the removal of 20 minutes before he would release it.
Review: 'Snowpiercer' on a New Track
By Mike Hale. May 14, 2020. It took seven years, and some stops and starts, for the 2013 South Korean film "Snowpiercer" to get remade as an American television series. It was just long enough ...
Snowpiercer review: The perfect TV show for right now
Despite its minor lapses, though, Snowpiercer is both a diverting and, as it happens, timely entertainment. A passenger in the tail is driven mad by the lack of privacy in his confined space. A ...
Snowpiercer
OFF THE RAILS. AMC's Snowpiercer has a long lineage.It was first conceived by Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette for the graphic novel Le Transperceneige in the early 1980s. (More graphic novels followed.) In 2013, South Korean director Bon Joon-ho (who, you might recall, directed a little Oscar-winning movie called Parasite) took that first book and made a movie out of it.
Sean Bean Is the Best Part of This TNT Sci-Fi Series
Snowpiercer Season 1 stood short against Bong's film. The movie adaptation had a solid beginning, middle and end. Snowpiercer the series has a strong beginning, a so-so middle and no ending in sight. What the TV series needs is an endgame. What do the passengers hope to achieve from all this fighting and excessive slander with strong prejudiced undertones?
Snowpiercer TV Review
Our review: Parents say (5 ): Kids say (8 ): It's hard to imagine how this series would be judged if it didn't come on the heels of its beloved, singular movie predecessor. Much like his 2019 Best Picture winner Parasite, Bong Joon-ho's 2013 film Snowpiercer is a fairly straightforward allegory about class warfare.
'His & Hers' Hallmark Channel Movie Review: Stream It Or Skip It?
The new Hallmark Channel rom-com His & Hers stars network fan faves Lacey Chabert and Brennan Elliott as married lawyers hired to represent a divorcing reality TV couple. But rather than testing ...
Snowpiercer Kills Off Its Newest Villain
Notable Movies. Iron Man, The Avengers, Captain Marvel. Notable TV Shows. The New Adventures of Old Christine, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Clark Gregg's Admiral Milius is the IPF's leader. Flashbacks in Episode 7, "A Moth to a Flame," show how he launched his coup. ... RETRO REVIEW: Snowpiercer Season 1 Is a Fine Downgrade From Bong Joon-ho's Film
Snowpiercer Season 4, Episode 7 Review: Melanie's Return is Perfect
Snowpiercer Season 4, Episode 7, "A Moth to a Flame" features the long overdue return of Melanie Cavill -- and when Jennifer Connelly is back on screen, it's clear how much the AMC show has missed her. The episode takes a big step up dramatically with the presence of Connelly, who also starred in Apple's sci-fi drama Dark Matter, but is used much better here.

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Jan. 24, 2022 – S3, E1: “The Tortoise and the Hare”

Jan. 25, 2021 – S2, E1: “The Time of Two Engines”

July 12, 2020 – S1, E9: “The Train Demanded Blood”

May 17, 2020 – S1, E1: “First, the Weather Changed”

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