Snowpiercer (Korean: 설국열차; Hanja: 雪國列車; RR: Seolgungnyeolcha) is a 2013 post-apocalyptic action thriller film based on the French climate fiction graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand and Jean-Marc Rochette.

[13][14] The film stars Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, Go Ah-sung, John Hurt, and Ed Harris.

It takes place aboard the Snowpiercer train as it travels a globe-encircling track, carrying the last remnants of humanity after a failed attempt at climate engineering to stop global warming has created a new Snowball Earth.

In 2014, an attempt to stop climate change via stratospheric aerosol injection catastrophically backfires, creating a new ice age that destroys much of life on Earth.

The tail mob stays back, holding the guards captive, while Curtis takes Mason, Namgoong, Yona, skilled fighter Grey, and Tanya and Andrew (two parents who had their children taken from them) towards the front of the train.

In desperation, she pulls open a floorboard to reveal Tanya's son, Timmy, working the engine as a replacement for a broken machine part, taken from his mother to be a slave.

[89][90] On 18 January 2012, Kelly Masterson was hired to rewrite the script before it went into production due to Bong seeing his screenplay work on Before the Devil Knows You're Dead and being impressed with the tonality of darkness and acuity in the story.

[93] On 8 October 2013, at the Busan International Film Festival, Bong acknowledged the challenges in adapting such a story to fit the apparent constraints of cinema, to which had to omit certain scenes from the graphic novel, "...

[22] Stating, "Today, I feel I have overcome a terrible disease, like cancer cells had occupied my body during that time," as well as expressing an interest in making smaller films in the future.

[109][110][111] During the period of November 2011 to April 2012, the key members of the crew were secured and confirmed, those being: Ondřej Nekvasil, Eric Durst, Julian Spencer and Marco Beltrami.

The preparatory production began in Tyrol, Austria during mid-March for one day to shoot some snowy scenery on the Hintertux Glacier, which made for excellent conditions and perfect weather.

[120] Flash SFX, the team involved in the construction of the gimbal stated, "The main challenge of physical effects work was that of inventing and developing a system that would perfectly simulate movements of train in motion.

"[121] On 14 July 2012, principal photography officially wrapped in the Barrandov Studios after a 72-day shoot,[122][123] with post-production carried out in South Korea, and Bong started editing the film for its release.

"[125] Visual effects designer Eric Durst spoke of the Aquarium Car being an intriguing challenge of lighting, with the differentiation of a water-based environment on one side and a frozen-based landscape at the other.

"[127] George also designed Minister Mason's suit to look "a typical conservative politician shape and style" with the purple adding a royal quality to the attire.

The design was difficult as George had to conceal Evans's muscular physique and muscle mass thus, "We had to cut out the sleeves of his under layers to help him look leaner.

[144] On 9 November 2012, The Weinstein Company acquired the distribution rights to Snowpiercer from CJ Entertainment based on the script and some completed footage, with a plan for wide release in North America, as well as throughout the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

[151][152] The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in various countries, including France and Korea, over Q3 and Q4 first, before the movie was finally debuted in North American theaters.

[160] Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly gave the piece an "A" rating, stating, "Snowpiercer sucks you into its strange, brave new world so completely, it leaves you with the all-too-rare sensation that you've just witnessed something you've never seen before ... and need to see again.

"[162] Andrew Pulver of The Guardian scored the film most positively, writing, "Snowpiercer works brilliantly, the sum of extremely disparate parts that adds up to cinematic excellence.

"[163] Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out New York scored the film five out of five stars, writing, "Sprung from a 1982 French graphic novel and bearing its era's trickle-down tensions, Snowpiercer is a headlong rush into conceptual lunacy—but you'll love it anyway."

"[164] Lou Lumenick of The New York Post gave the film high acclaim, writing, "Don't miss it—this is enormously fun visionary filmmaking, with a witty script and a great international cast."

He added, "The beautifully designed train is one of the most memorable in screen history ..."[165] David Denby of The New Yorker spoke highly of the piece, stating it to be, "Violent, often absurd, but full of brilliant surprises, while Bong keeps the center of the action moving toward the front of the train, a considerable feat of camera placement, choreographed mayhem, and cohesive editing", and praising Nekvasil's production design, "Bong and [Nekvasil], provide them with a series of sybaritic astonishments.

"[166] Clarence Tsui of The Hollywood Reporter wrote a highly positive review, commenting, "Snowpiercer is still an intellectually and artistically superior vehicle to many of the end-of-days futuristic action thrillers out there."

"[1] David Thomson of The New Republic remarked that "The most bracing and liberating thing about Joon-ho Bong's Snowpiercer is not just its lyrical forward motion, but the exuberance with which the film revels in its plot predicament."

He furthers praises Nekvasil's "progression of design set-pieces" and Tilda Swinton's performance, saying "She is the life and soul of this riotous party, and you will be sad to see her disposed of, no matter that Mason's ghastly manner has earned it.

"[167] Scott Foundas of Variety wrote, "An enormously ambitious, visually stunning and richly satisfying futuristic epic from the gifted Korean genre director Bong Joon-ho."

"[170] Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post found otherwise potentially good acting to be "virtually lost in a tonal mishmash that can never decide between thoughtful political metaphor, lightheartedness and pulverizing violence" and went on to describe the director's "tiresome, slow-motion fetishism, mixing costumes and weaponry in an effort to distract from the scenes' sheer repetitiveness.

The film, along with the original French graphic novel, was adapted into an American television show by Tomorrow Studios, and premiered on TNT on May 17, 2020, in the United States.

[214][215] The show stars Jennifer Connelly and Daveed Diggs, among others, and takes place in a rebooted narrative of the film, with events on the train starting about seven years after the global catastrophe.