A class system evolves and survivors of Earth's second Ice Age live out their days on a luxury train that ploughs through snow and ice. Meanwhile the poor residents of the train attempt to take the engine room.
That rare experience you don't get to have much in the summer anymore, a loud, clanging, original action flick that's grabbing you by the lapels and yelling in your ears.
Once Mr. Bong sets his monorail in motion the movie assumes an irresistible momentum, accelerated by nonstop mayhem, gallows humor and an immersive visual style that possesses a heady sense of the steam-punk Apocalypse.
The film's something of a mess, trading swerve and style for cohesion and coherence. No matter: Nothing else at the multiplex right now is half as entertaining.
Fueled by implausibility, and for a good portion of the ride much better for it, Bong-Joon Ho's Snowpiercer posits a nonstop, Earth-encircling train containing the microcosmic survivors of a society killed off by a global warming-induced deep freeze.
Every once in a while I see a movie that leaves me vibrating with energy as I leave the theater, knowing that what I just saw will stick with me probably for the rest of my life... Snowpiercer is one of those.