Snowpiercer

Action Sci-Fi

18+

Czech Republic, South Korea

English, Korean

August 1, 2013

2hr 6min

Status: released

Trailer, Teaser & Videos

Snowpiercer Movie Details:

Based on	Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand & Jean-Marc Rochette
Countries	South Korea Czech Republic
Languages	English Korean
Genre	Sci-Fi, Action
Release dates	July 29, 2013 (Times Square) August 1, 2013 (South Korea) April 27, 2016 (Czech Republic)
Running time	2hr 6min
Age rating	18+
Starring	Chris Evans Song Kang-ho Tilda Swinton Jamie Bell Octavia Spencer Ewen Bremner Go Ah-sung
Directed by	Bong Joon-ho
Written by	Screenplay: Bong Joon-ho Kelly Masterson Story: Bong Joon-ho
Produced by	Jeong Tae-sung Steven Nam Park Chan-wook Lee Tae-hun
Cinematography by	Hong Kyung-pyo
Edited by	Steve M. Choe Kim Chang-ju
Music by	Marco Beltrami
Production Companies	Moho Film Opus Pictures Union Investment Partners Stillking Films
Distributor	CJ Entertainment (South Korea) Bontonfilm (Czech Republic)

Snowpiercer Movie Cast & Characters:

Chris Evans as Curtis Everett, the leader of the revolution.
Song Kang-ho as Namgoong Minsoo, the specialist who designed the security features on the train.
Ed Harris as Wilford, the creator and caretaker of the engine.
John Hurt as Gilliam, the spiritual leader of the tail section.
Tilda Swinton as Minister Mason, Wilford’s right hand, the second in command on the train and the spokesperson for Wilford for the past 17 years.
Jamie Bell as Edgar, Curtis’s second-in-command.
Octavia Spencer as Tanya, a determined mother who is set on getting her son back.
Ewen Bremner as Andre, a helpless father whose only wish is to protect his son.
Go Ah-sung as Namgoong Yona, the 17-year-old daughter of Namgoong Minsoo.
Alison Pill as Teacher, found teaching a classroom of young students, towards the front of the Snowpiercer.
Vlad Ivanov as Franco the Elder, a seemingly indestructible henchman working for Minister Mason.
Luke Pasqualino as Grey, Gilliam’s bodyguard, a muscular, agile, fast-moving warrior who is handy with knives.
Paul Lazar as Paul, one of the rebels in Curtis’s army who makes the protein blocks.
Adnan Hasković as Franco the Younger, an executor of the army led by Mason.
Clark Middleton as Painter.
Emma Levie as Claude, Wilford’s assistant.
Jean-Marc Rochette (cameo appearances, creator of the graphic novel)
Benjamin Legrand (cameo appearances, creator of the graphic novel)

Storyline:

Set in a future where a failed climate-change experiment has killed all life on the planet except for a lucky few who boarded the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe, where a class system emerges.

About Snowpiercer Movie:

Snowpiercer (Korean: 설국열차) is a science fiction action film directed by Bong Joon-ho and starring Chris Evans, Song Kang-ho, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, Go Ah-sung, John Hurt, and Ed Harris.

The film is based on the French climate fiction graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand, and Jean-Marc Rochette. It is a South Korean-Czech co-production film that marks Bong’s English-language debut; almost 85% of the film’s dialogue is in English.

In the winter of 2005, Bong discovered Jean-Marc Rochette’s French graphic novel series Le Transperceneige at a comic book shop near Hongik University and read it entirely while standing there. Fascinated by its depiction of people struggling for survival and social stratification on a train, he shared it with friends, director Park Chan-wook and producer Lee Tae-hun, who also loved it. Though he praised the original, Bong realized Snowpiercer needed an original take for the film adaptation. He completed his screenplay in 2010.

After hearing the casting news, Chris Evans personally contacted Bong Joon Ho for the audition.

The film’s principal photography officially began on April 3, 2012, in Prague, Czech Republic, at the Barrandov Studios. Bong filmed Snowpiercer with 35mm film in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. On 14 July 2012, filming was officially completed after a 72-day shoot, with post-production carried out in South Korea, and Bong started editing the film for its release. The visual effects company Scanline VFX worked on Snowpiercer.

Bong Joon-ho says he got the idea from a 1970s nuclear-powered submarine. The train and nuclear-powered submarine in the 1970s had a similar average speed of fifty kilometers (thirty-one miles) per hour. According to some nuclear scientists, it is physically possible to create a nuclear-powered train.

Snowpiercer premiered at Times Square in Seoul, South Korea, on July 29, 2013. It then screened at the Deauville American Film Festival as the closing film on September 7, 2013, the Berlin International Film Festival on February 7, 2014, the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 11, 2014, and the Edinburgh International Film Festival on June 22, 2014.

The film was theatrically released in South Korea on August 1, 2013, and in the Czech Republic on April 27, 2016. The film received critical acclaim and appeared on many film critics’ top ten lists of 2014 after its international release, with praise for its vision, direction, and performances, particularly by Evans and Swinton.

In the United States, the film was initially planned for a limited-screen showing but the critical response prompted The Weinstein Company to expand the showing to more theaters and to digital streaming services. With a budget of $40 million, it remains one of the most expensive South Korean productions ever. The fourth volume of the original Snowpiercer graphic novel series, Snowpiercer: Terminus, published in 2019, serves as a sequel to the film, establishing it as being set in the same continuity as the original graphic novels.

Snowpiercer is one of the highest-grossing domestic films in South Korea with 9.35 million admissions and grossed US$86.7 million worldwide. The film took in $171,000 on its US opening weekend, averaging around $21,400 per theater. The film grossed US$59.8 million in South Korea and its largest international market was China, with $11.1 million.