Review of Snowpiercer (2013) by Richard B — 03 Jan 2015

Take one part cautionary tale, one part metaphorical allegory, and add one big dash of ridiculousness, and you get Snowpiercer (2014). To 'solve' global warming/climate change, humanity accidentally plunges the world into a New Ice Age that (mostly) kills life on Planet Earth.

It is a powerful idea rooted in human arrogance/stupidity that rings a little too true for comfort. However, the premise that what is left of a humanity rides a socially-stratified train in a continuous circle around the planet to survive while waiting for the planet to warm up is completely is ridiculous.

How can this train continuously ride unmaintained tracks for 17 years? In any case, the 'meat' of the story is the social strata metaphor associated with the cars (the lower class at the rear, higher class at the front).

It is economy/business class/first class travel taken to its logical extreme. In fairness, it becomes abundantly clear about the halfway point that the filmmakers are aware of how ridiculous the premise is when we visit the 'Aquarium' car featuring it's own sushi bar (how do they grow the rice?).

It's a nod to the audience to 'just go with it'. What's interesting about Snowpiercer is the social strata of the train and its characters (Chris Evans is good, a brilliant Tilda Swinton plays one of the most bizarre characters ever filmed, I dare you to take your eyes off her).

What does it say about society that the second highest train in the social strata features a disco with pretty young things dancing the Apocalypse away (something about our worship of youth, sexual energy, beauty and bad music, I imagine).

There are intriguing layers to uncover in Snowpiercer even if the whole is patently ridiculous. Mark's Grade: B-.