Snowpiercer Footage Gives Us A Violent First Look At Bong Joon-Ho’s Dystopian Sci-Fi Flick

By Brent McKnight | Updated

This article is more than 2 years old

Even though we don’t have a set release date for The Host director Bong Joon-ho’s apocalyptic English-language debut, Snowpiercer, a steady flow of promotion from the film seems to indicate that it isn’t too far off in the distance. We’ve seen concept art, and images of the mussed-up cast, but not until today have we laid eyes on honest-to-god footage in the form of an international featurette.

Snowpiercer tells the story of a future where experiments to reverse global warming have kicked off a new ice age that kills off nearly all life on Earth. The only survivors endlessly circle the frozen wastes in a train powered by a perpetual motion engine. Inside the metal confines, a rigid caste system has developed among the passengers. This discrepancy between the wealthy and the poor, especially given the cramped, confined circumstances, boils over into full-blown revolutions, which we get our first glimpse of in this behind-the-scenes footage.

We get a good look at some of the exteriors that we’ve so far only seen rendered in paintings, and the interiors of the train look just as grubby and roughed up as in photos, as do the characters. They’re appropriately dirty for living in a moving sardine can, piled on top of each other, with no hope of escape.

The most important element to this video, however, is that we finally get to see what the actual rebellion looks like. A violent uprising contained in such a small space creates a lot of pressure, and the brutal scenes of the seething crowd, as star Chris Evans attempts to push his way through, gives you a good feel for that. Are those welded barrels being used for a battering ram? That’s the impression you walk away with.

You also get to see most of the star-studded international cast, including Evans, John Hurt, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Song Kang-ho, and more. The credits also include Ed Harris, Octavia Spencer, Alison Pill, Ko Asung, and Ewen Bremner, who don’t really pop up here.

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