Snowpiercer (2013): Post Apocalyptic Fun. And Trains.

[wlk68]

Has anyone else seen Snowpiercer? I saw it earlier today and thought it was excellent. Great cast and a fascinating premise. It was dark, gritty, claustrophobic, shocking and disturbing. I'm dying to discuss it with someone else. 

 

Summary: In a future where a failed global-warming experiment kills off all life on the planet except for a lucky few that boarded the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe, where a class system evolves.

 

Link to Snowpiercer's IMDB page.

Edited July 4, 2014 by wlk68

[weightyghost]

I saw it awhile back and it devastated me. I stupidly watched it late at night and couldn't sleep for a really long time. Chris Evans was really great, Tilda was insanely insane and wonderful, Kang-ho Song and Ah-sung Ko were fantastic. There were parts of the script/dialogue that I felt were really stilted, but the visuals were really mindblowing and I loved the overall premise. I really hope it comes to the theatre here so I can drag some friends to see it, but I live in a relatively small city so we'll see. 

[AimingforYoko]

I didn't appreciate the weight of Curtis' "How can I be leader when I have both arms?" until he told Nam the story of the first few months in the tail. That story, and the reveal of who the players were really made the whole movie. And then Wilford pulled the rug out when he revealed that Gilliam was part of the whole game.

I really hope it comes to the theatre here so I can drag some friends to see it, but I live in a relatively small city so we'll see.

Snowpiercer theaters.

[weightyghost]

AimingforYoko, I've seen the screenings list many times. I live in Canada and it's not playing in a single theatre in the country. If it does spread, it'll hit the bigger cities first. We rarely get indie movies at our theatre so unless it does really well and opens up across the board, it likely won't come.

[calliope1975]

I saw it this morning and loved it. I've always liked Song Kang-ho and I believe he and Ko Ah-sung were father/daughter in The Host as well. It's a shame it's not getting a wider release. I have no idea what the Weinsteins are thinking. I also wonder what 20 minutes they wanted to cut out. I didn't find it too long or too complicated to understand. 

[JayKay]

I saw this a while back and it lingered. It was devastating watching the cast get cut down. Not knowing what happened to the children added a sickening tension and then watching the kid who decided to stay was almost worse than the worst case scenarios that I'd been imagining. I watched it for Chris Evans, not knowing what I was getting into. And I loved The Host. But this was too depressing for me to say that I enjoyed it. I don't want to watch it again.

[wlk68]

Yes to pretty much all of this. It was dark and depressing and the blows just kept coming. The final reveals (Curtis's and Wilford's) were gut wrenching. There was no happy ending. So much social commentary that I can't even articulate. 

 

In regards to Weinstein, I think he's an idiot. He pulled the same crap with The Immigrant and that was another movie that I wish had a wider audience. But unlike The Immigrant, I think this one will gain traction because the theater I saw it in was filled to capacity whereas I was only one of maybe 20 people in the theater for The Immigrant.   

[jellysalmon]

I was skeptical because I really didn't care for The Host, but I really enjoyed this. There were some awkward line readings but any movie where I can't get a handle on what's going to happen next is a winner in my book.

[Screenkicker Mikey]

Does anyone know what Weinstein has cut from the american version? I heard rumours it was stuff featuring the two Korean characters. That would be disastrous though. Excellent film

[wlk68]

I read somewhere that yes, Weinstein tried to cut the film but that he was unsuccessful and the US version is untouched. Someone else will have to confirm.  

 

ETA: Confirmation here -

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/02/08/snowpiercer-to-receive-uncut-limited-release-in-America

 

and here -

http://comicbook.com/blog/2014/02/07/snowpiercer-to-be-released-uncut-in-the-u-s/

Edited July 9, 2014 by wlk68

[ribboninthesky1]

I just watched this, and bleak as it was, I thought the ending offered a small glimmer of hope.  I got the impression that it was assumed all life on Earth outside of the train was dead.  Seeing the bear meant that something survived, and there was a chance that humans could as well.  The world was not just the train, though people like Wilford and Gilliam apparently believed so.  But that's just my interpretation, without reading reactions outside of this thread.  I was prepared for it to be totally hopeless, as I suspected about halfway in that it wouldn't end well for the insurgency, even Curtis. 

 

In any case, I'm usually not a fan of post-apocalyptic films, but I think I want to watch this again.  I feel like there were things I missed because I kept waiting to see what would happen next. 

 

I've liked Chris Evans as an actor for awhile, and I think he chooses very interesting projects.  He's more versatile than he seems, and good on him for choosing roles to keep from being completely typecast, thought I suspect this will be the first atypical role that most people will see him in. 

 

I'm glad that Joon-ho Bong fought to keep the original cut.  We have enough mainstream films that pander to the lowest common denominator, but let people make up their own minds about what they see. It was hard to watch, but I'm glad I saw it.    

 

Yes, the social commentary about class is so interesting, especially since American films are often so pat about it, if it's acknowledged at all.  I really liked the blurred lines aspects of the class system, all in the name of "survival."

[catrox14]

Just watched this on demand with my cable provider.  HOLY MOLY. Pretty great.  Right in the tradition of Soylent Green for great post-apocalyptic story telling. 

[ChelseaNH]

I saw this over the weekend.  It was good and I'm glad I saw it, but I couldn't really sink into it.  The train felt like too much of a constructed exercise, which is why I wasn't surprised that Wilford offered to make Curtis his replacement.  But why did he believe that Curtis would buy into the world he created?

 

The biggest sticking point was that the train made sense as an expression of one person's philosophy, but it was an incredibly stupid response to the survival of mankind.  For one thing, why would a closed ecosystem have room for a bunch of self-indulgent hedonists?  What did they contribute to compensate for all they consumed?  In a closed ecosystem, why let things get so out of balance that a 74% adjustment is required?  Why was it necessary to travel, instead of staying close to the equator?  And if travel is required, why choose something that is tied to tracks and stops moving if tracks aren't available?

 

I think my sense of "this is no way to sustain humanity" was helped along by the fact that we didn't really see the third or second class passengers.  That exaggerates the stratification, which just emphasizes the whole thought-experiment aspect of it.

[ketchuplover]

Best movie I'll probably never see!

[NoWillToResist]

 

I just watched this, and bleak as it was, I thought the ending offered a small glimmer of hope.  I got the impression that it was assumed all life on Earth outside of the train was dead.  Seeing the bear meant that something survived, and there was a chance that humans could as well.

 

Bears can hibernate, humans can't. :) I didn't feel any glimmer of hope because how in the heck will the two humans survive? What will they eat? That one bear? No plant life exists, so unless the train has enough supplies to last until the earth warms up enough for bodies of water to exist and plants to grow, I think they're fucked. ;)

 

This movie reminded me, strangely enough, of The Purge. Wait...hear me out. :D  I find the concept and the questions it raises to be fascinating. But I find that the closer I look at the central concept, it's riddled with implausibilities. That said, I don't really CARE that I think the concept itself is bunk because I really enjoyed the movie anyway.

[JayKay]

The idea of an eccentric filthy rich guy being allowed to indulge his bizarre, nonsensical obsession even at the end of the world and to the betterment of no one is oddly one of the more plausible plot points in this movie to me.

I also believe the survivors are dead meat. They found one other living creature, and it's a predator. It's like the universe is designed for them to be consumed one way or another. The train pierced through snow and any delusions about the place of the meek and disadvantaged in the cold, cold world. I'm bummed out all over again just thinking about it.

[TVSpectator]

I just saw this movie over Netflix, and I can't but help get the feeling that Yona and Timmy are the last two humans alive, and that they are basically going to die from the cold/elements or that the polar bear, that they spotted on the mountain, is going to eat them. That being said I believed that Yona's father did say that he saw something outside of the train to Curtis before they went into the engine room of the train (which wasn't the plane or the Seven) and I liked to think that he saw evidence that more people did survive outside of the train. I did like it, but it was bleak as hell to watch. 

 

That being said maybe we can get a sequel to this movie by showing us what happened to Yona and Timmy after they climb out of the wreckage of the train. Maybe there are more survivors from the train or more people survived by going underground or something and they run into the wreckage and go, "WTF". 

Edited February 14, 2015 by TVSpectator

[NoWillToResist]

The idea of an eccentric filthy rich guy being allowed to indulge his bizarre, nonsensical obsession even at the end of the world and to the betterment of no one is oddly one of the more plausible plot points in this movie to me.

 

I was referring more to the actual day-to-day existence of the train. Ignoring how it's powered, I still had issues with many of their daily activities. Where did they find the bugs to make the protein bars every day? How did they keep cows for 17 years? What did they feed them? Ditto for the aquarium.

 

And 17 years without sunlight...wouldn't that be lethal? Isn't vitamin D or whatever essential to live?

Edited February 16, 2015 by NoWillToResist

[raven]

Well I'll just sit here by myself and not love it I guess.  Maybe I'm burned out on post-apocalyptic.  The reaction to finding out they were eating bugs, for example - well it's gross and slimy, did they think it was chicken?  The gross, disparate lifestyles between the back and the front of the train weren't unexpected to me so there was no shock effect, other than "how do they maintain that on the train"?  "Do these people really spend their time in light booths, hair dressers, partying, who's running this thing?"  Plus I kept thinking that if the people from the back of the train were fed on bugs, granted mostly protein, they were pretty strong and nimble.

 

I get that the point of the unique environment wasn't really to examine it too closely, but if I'm distracted then the story isn't pulling me in.  I didn't hate it, I thought the visuals were outstanding as was Kang-ho Song.  I liked that he had his own plan for the train and was the real voice of hope.  It's good that Chris Evans took a character out of type and I thought he did a fine job; it was also nice to see Jamie Bell and Ah-sung Ko's matter-of-fact performance worked as well.

 

Tilda Swinton was awful I thought - that sort of over the top caricature doesn't work for me, I get the black humor they were going for but I think it would have worked better with a less cartoonish character.  The school room scene went on wayyyy too long for me for that reason as well.  I just wanted everyone to shut up.

 

 

Bears can hibernate, humans can't.

Polar bears don't hibernate as other bears do and need several pounds of meat to survive each day, so that bear was eating something.  I took the ending as hopeful; there was Song's observation about snow melting from the airplane as well.  I suppose they could have shown us a reindeer or something rather than a predator, but the sunlight and the music steered me personally towards "hopeful", though when your supposed hero admits to eating babies, the movie appears to be making the point that we're not really worth keeping around anyway.  Or at least that starting from scratch may not be a bad thing.  The part of that about people cutting of their own limbs was (unintentionally?) hilarious to me, as I imagined body parts flying around and people passing out.

 

The point was made at the beginning that "all" life was extinguished, so seeing some form of life led me to believe that nature was coming back.  If they've just been on the train with no other contact, circling the same area, who knows what else is out there.

 

Here's what Bong Joon-ho has to say.

 

FWIW, I loved The Host.

Edited February 22, 2015 by raven

[Wynterwolf]

This is amazing.  A 15 minute video detailing how Snowpiercer is the sequel to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  It's brilliant!

[Kel Varnsen]

On 9/18/2014 at 4:18 AM, JayKay said:

I also believe the survivors are dead meat. They found one other living creature, and it's a predator. It's like the universe is designed for them to be consumed one way or another. The train pierced through snow and any delusions about the place of the meek and disadvantaged in the cold, cold world. I'm bummed out all over again just thinking about it.

I watched this movie last night on Netflixand while it really grabbed my attention at first the ending made me think "wow there is other life out there". Not just the polar bear but whatever else it is eating. But immediately my second thought was "that polar bear is going to hunt the survivors down and eat them".