Crazy Train: Tracking the apocalypse
On paper there's a whiff of the ludicrous about the premise for Korean director Bong Joon-ho's dystopian action allegory, Snowpiercer.
The nations of the world join in an effort to stop global warming and release a substance known as CW7 into the atmosphere. Instead of fixing the problem, the chemical destroys the world and the only survivors are the passengers of a continuously moving bullet train who are divided according to class.
Those closer to the front have access to schools, fine dining and decadent nightclubs. Those in the back are kept in line by brute force, surviving on gelatinous protein bars whose ingredients they dare not investigate.
Eighteen years later, the bedraggled, harassed, back-coach riders finally decide enough is enough and push for social revolution, led by the stoic Curtis (Chris Evans).
Based on a 1980s French graphic novel, Snowpiercer in the imaginative and bold hands of Joon-ho becomes a gripping, innovative and intelligent piece of action that draws you in despite its initial strangeness.
It is nihilistic at times and its conclusion somewhat predictable, but the director's use of the train premise to create artistically impressive worlds within a world and the handling of seemingly impossible set pieces in narrow spaces make it impossible to brush off as just another piece of popcorn summer blockbuster fare.
With a supporting cast that includes Ed Harris as the enigmatic controller Wilford, John Hurt, a delightfully strange and almost unrecognisable Tilda Swinton and the mumbling but compelling Korean actor Kang-ho Song, the film ends up as a unique, postmodern rework of Dante's Inferno via Terry Gilliam's Brazil and the cyberpunk movement of the 1980s.
It's perhaps a little long and Joon-ho was reportedly furious at the cuts made to the US version by producer Harvey Weinstein, but it remains one of the most rewarding and entertaining films of the year.
What others say
Its lessons about human nature are thought-provoking, but perhaps not as memorable as its motley, eccentric display of humanity in extremis.
AO Scott, The New York Times
Full of vivid characters, dark humour, awe-inspiring revelations and surreal imagery.
Anne Billson, The Telegraph
A tonal mishmash that can never decide between thoughtful political metaphor, lightheartedness and pulverising violence.
Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post
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