If you enjoyed Bong Joon-ho's Oscar-winning movie Parasite, you may have been making your way through the Korean director's other films.
Netflix and production company TNT have been doing the same, because they've rebooted his critically acclaimed 2013 film Snowpiercer, based on a French graphic novel of the same name, as a TV show.
Curious? Here's your shortcut guide.
Give me the basic pitch:
In 2014, humans try to reverse climate change by injecting a chemical called CW-7 into the atmosphere.
The chemical is way too powerful — so powerful that it instead causes a man-made ice age, where it's impossible to go outside without being frozen to death.
Everyone on earth is either killed immediately or killed over the ensuing seven years as food runs out and societies collapse.
Everyone except the inhabitants of a 1,001-carriage heated train called Snowpiercer, which has been circumnavigating the earth for those seven years, powered by an engine in perpetual motion run by a reclusive figure called Mr Wilford.
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Rigid class structures immediately form on the train, based largely on the class of ticket the passenger purchased.
The front of the train has opulent dining rooms, a lush greenhouse, hairdressers, beauty salons and even a nightclub.
Un-ticketed stowaways, however, have been segregated to overcrowded, disease-ridden living quarters at the back of the train — which they call the Tail — and are summarily sterilised for population control.
Prequel, sequel, or reboot?
Reboot. Well, sort of.
The TV show plot begins at the same point the movie does, with a group of Tail passengers — who call themselves Tailies — planning to overthrow the train, but deviates somewhat from there.
The 2013 movie mainly focuses on character Curtis Everett and his advance toward the engine and its mysterious creator Mr Wilford.
The movie also takes place further in the future — 17 years since the start of the ice age, not seven.
The TV show adds in a murder mystery plot featuring Tailie Andre Layton (Daveed Diggs), who was a homicide detective in his 'off-train' life.
But what's it really about?
It won't come as a surprise that like Parasite, Snowpiercer is packed full of references to class and social mobility.
Clearly, the references to class are overt — the train is literally separated into them — but it's fascinating to see how class structures continue to be entrenched as the train journey continues.
Who's in it?
- Jennifer Connelly (Labyrinth, Requiem for a Dream)
- Daveed Diggs (Hamilton, Black-ish)
- Mickey Sumner (Frances Ha, Low Winter Sun)
- Steven Ogg (Westworld, The Walking Dead)
How many episodes?
Ten in season 1, with three available right now.
Episodes are released every week on Mondays (US time) so look for it here on late Monday or early Tuesday.
Is the premise realistic?
In some ways, absolutely.
Fiction focused on the dire consequences of climate change has been a genre for decades — and is becoming more prevalent, given we're now seeing the effects of climate change play out in reality.
Geoengineering — the active and intentional modification of the climate to halt or reduce climate change — is not a dystopian concept. It's being looked into right now.
Could mankind inadvertently start a deadly ice age by injecting too many chemicals into the atmosphere? Honestly, by suspending my disbelief only slightly, I can absolutely buy this.
But there's one question I had on my mind throughout the first episode that might also occur to you...
Why are they on a train?
Ok, so, you're the lone group of survivors to the deadliest mass extinction event in human history.
The earth's temperature is lethally unfit for human habitation.
You can't go outside, you can't even stick an arm outside without it being frozen solid — which we unfortunately witness in episode 2.
The train regularly sets off avalanches, has significant engineering and maintenance issues, and is run on the whims of an eccentric and unpredictable benefactor who nobody's ever seen.
Why did the survivors of such an event decide to ride out their new reality on a train? Couldn't they build some kind of a bunker instead?
Why can't the train stop, at the very least — perhaps at the lowest altitude possible?
The answer we're given is that there was simply no time. The global deep freeze happened immediately and unexpectedly.
The train was already set up to be self-sufficient by Mr Wilford, who apparently not only foresaw the upcoming ice age, but also just really loved trains and wanted to circumnavigate the globe.
The passengers just happened to be the lucky ones who were in the right place at the right time and could jump aboard and make do with what they had.
The train has to be perpetually in motion for the electricity to work. No electricity equals no heating, equals frozen passengers.
And, of course, the train — with its carriages and classes — is an incredibly apt metaphor for the central point about class warfare.
Should I watch the movie or TV show?
They're both on Netflix, so it really depends how spoiler-averse you are.
There are only three episodes of the TV series currently available, so if you don't want to know the potential ending, hold off on watching the movie.
However, the TV show has already significantly deviated from the movie plotline, so it's hard to say how much the movie's ending will mirror its story.
The movie is overwhelmingly acclaimed, so definitely watch it at some point — especially if you liked Parasite.
In my view, the movie is exceptionally good — with an unsettling scene in a classroom, Ed Harris's performance as Mr Wilford, and the revelations in the ending as definite highlights.
It will be hard for the Netflix show to match this — but I'm so fascinated by the premise now that I'm going to keep watching.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA2LTAzL3Nub3dwaWVyY2VyLWJvbmctam9vbi1oby1uZXRmbGl4LXR2LXNlcmllcy1maWxtLXNob3J0Y3V0LWd1aWRlLzEyMzA2NDA00gEnaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuYWJjLm5ldC5hdS9hcnRpY2xlLzEyMzA2NDA0?oc=5
2020-06-03 05:09:14Z
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