# Snowpiercer is the best Post Apocalyptic film I've seen in a long time **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 8, 2014, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039 "2014-11-08T02:54:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039/41 "2014-11-12T04:57:39Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > (And by _replace_, they’re not saying “put in a replacement part” they mean “this child will now use his hand to do the job of that broken piston.”) I liked that joke better when Uncle Albert told it in _Mary Poppins_. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039/42 "2014-11-20T15:50:54Z")
Finally got around to watching this (on Netflix). It was fantastic!! Yes, its a silly premise, but once you buy into that (I’ve read a lot of sci-fi when I was a kid and can buy quite a bit of silly premises), the film is good stuff and a ton of fun. I would enthusiastically recommend it myself. ---
**Author:** ![sachertorte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sachertorte/32/3727_2.png) [@sachertorte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sachertorte)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039/43 "2014-12-08T18:07:03Z")
I watched this last night on Netflix. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t like it so much either. I was willing to ignore the ridiculousness of the train concept, but everything else was ridiculous too. So, Ed Harris orchestrates periodic revolts to control the population? A population that somehow explodes in less than 17 years? WHAT!? ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039/44 "2014-12-08T23:19:06Z")
It went off-the-rails stupid and incoherent during the gun battle across the ‘great circle’ gap between the train cars. Somehow at a distance of over 100 meters, you can target and shoot out windows on another train car, having them shatter like plate glass. Then you can have deadly sniper aim with single shots from your pistol. That is, until your foe gives you a clear perfect shot, then your bullets which previously shattered windows easily just stick in the broken glass without penetrating. And a luxury themed yacht-train also carries 40 pairs of night vision goggles? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039/45 "2014-12-08T23:22:16Z")
You’re bothered that they had forty pairs of night-vision goggles, given everything else they had on board? (Not to mention that the whole thing was powered by some sort of perpetual motion machine.) ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039/46 "2014-12-08T23:30:08Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > It went off-the-rails stupid and incoherent during the gun battle across the ‘great circle’ gap between the train cars. Somehow at a distance of over 100 meters, you can target and shoot out windows on another train car, having them shatter like plate glass. Then you can have deadly sniper aim with single shots from your pistol. That is, until your foe gives you a clear perfect shot, then your bullets which previously shattered windows easily just stick in the broken glass without penetrating. > > And a luxury themed yacht-train also carries 40 pairs of night vision goggles? Hahaha. Off the rails. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039/47 "2015-01-04T17:19:12Z")
Bumping this thread because I just saw that the critic from Entertainment Weekly put this on his year’s best list. This was one of the worst pieces of shit I have ever seen. It was awful from beginning to end. Talk about squandering a good cast. The same guy put Monuments Men on the year’s worst list. Sure it wasn’t great, mediocre at best, but not nearly bad enough to be one of the worst 5 of the year. And I would watch it ten times before I subject myself to the idiocy of Snowpiercer again. Hamfisted dreck. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039/48 "2015-01-04T17:56:49Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Well, they were getting their water through a scoop at the front. I call it an _ice-stabber_. No, a _frost-puncher_. Wait, _rime-spearer_? Dangit, I had this. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039/49 "2015-01-04T18:31:30Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > But it’s an _allegory_. > > There’s something I’ve wondered - does a realistic, believable story somehow diminish the strength of an allegory? Or can a text be well-written at both the explicit and implicit levels? > > My opinion is that a competent writer can write an allegory that also works as a allegory-free story. It takes more work, though, which is why few allegorists bother. I agree. There are plenty of allegorical films that work well even if you don’t “get” the allegory. I think an allegorical film that is so _obviously_ an allegory is an artistic failure. ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039/50 "2015-01-04T18:43:46Z")
It was awful. Really, really awful. Basically the only good part was the cinematography - the transition to the pastel-themed teaching carriage, the color schemes, the costumes - but that doesn’t make a film. As others have pointed out, the whole idea was completely contrived and built solely to be a really, really obvious analogy. And the scripts were awful. (_I know that babie . . . taste the best!_ I mean, why on Earth is eating flies so bad? What did they _think_ those bars were made from? I was completely prepared to find they been grinding up the kids they took and feeding it to their parents; in comparison that that, flies are gourmet. And why keep the back carriages around at all? Having a boiling-over pot of revolutionaries seems like a heavy price to pay for one kid every couple of years to be part of the machine. And _why a train_? The whole thing was just . . . dumb. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039/51 "2015-01-04T20:20:57Z")
I haven’t posted around these parts in a long ass time, but I do still lurk from time to time, and this thread may be the only one that could have brought me out of hiding. I hate hate HATED Snowpiercer with a fury that I haven’t had for a movie since Moulin Rouge. Snowpiercer was one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. Full stop. The acting was horrible and hammy. The premise was ridiculous. Everyone in the movie was playing sterotype, with no nuance whatsoever. The main woman was perhaps the worst offender. I hated her performance so much it’s hard to put it into words. For those of you saying the movie is an allegory, I take issue with that. The fucking train guy at the end _literally_ says “This train is the world, and the people are humanity.” It’s not an allegory if you flat out explain it. At that point it just becomes a massive insult, insinuating that anyone in the audience hadn’t already figured it out. This is a movie that actively hates and despises its audience. It requires the most massive amount of suspension of disbelief that if anyone could possibly muster, it would create a black hole the size of a galaxy. It sets up a transparent “allegory” with stereotyped characters and a plot that has been done 1 hundred billion times before… and it’s fine to tell a story that’s been told before (there’s nothing new under the sun after all), if you have something interesting to add or a unique way to retell it. This was not unique, and it added nothing. Rich people bad, poor people good. Poor people have no control, rich people control everything, kids make great free labor. Blah blah blah. Wow I really fucking hated this movie. What boggles the mind is that it got a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes (the only reason I even ended up seeing this dreck). I’m normally all for a “live and let live” mentality, and I recognize that everyone has their own opinions and we should all just agree to disagree. But there are other times when that general rule needs to be broken, and with Snowpiercer, this is one of those times. I don’t want to earn a warning/note on the one post I’ll probably be making for a very long time (if ever again), so I’ll stop there, but if this were in the pit I’d have some very choice words for anyone who liked this movie. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039/52 "2015-01-04T22:22:40Z")
Yes, a terrible movie. > [@GargoyleWB](#): > > And a luxury themed yacht-train also carries 40 pairs of night vision goggles? And, NVGs do not work in the absolute darkness of a very long tunnel. ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039/53 "2015-01-05T04:35:31Z")
Hey, I brought **drew** outta hiding! ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039/54 "2015-01-05T05:14:02Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > I haven’t posted around these parts in a long ass time, but I do still lurk from time to time, and this thread may be the only one that could have brought me out of hiding. > > I hate hate HATED Snowpiercer with a fury that I haven’t had for a movie since Moulin Rouge. > > Snowpiercer was one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. Full stop. The acting was horrible and hammy. The premise was ridiculous. Everyone in the movie was playing sterotype, with no nuance whatsoever. The main woman was perhaps the worst offender. I hated her performance so much it’s hard to put it into words. > > For those of you saying the movie is an allegory, I take issue with that. The fucking train guy at the end _literally_ says “This train is the world, and the people are humanity.” It’s not an allegory if you flat out explain it. At that point it just becomes a massive insult, insinuating that anyone in the audience hadn’t already figured it out. This is a movie that actively hates and despises its audience. It requires the most massive amount of suspension of disbelief that if anyone could possibly muster, it would create a black hole the size of a galaxy. It sets up a transparent “allegory” with stereotyped characters and a plot that has been done 1 hundred billion times before… and it’s fine to tell a story that’s been told before (there’s nothing new under the sun after all), if you have something interesting to add or a unique way to retell it. This was not unique, and it added nothing. Rich people bad, poor people good. Poor people have no control, rich people control everything, kids make great free labor. Blah blah blah. > > Wow I really fucking hated this movie. What boggles the mind is that it got a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes (the only reason I even ended up seeing this dreck). I’m normally all for a “live and let live” mentality, and I recognize that everyone has their own opinions and we should all just agree to disagree. But there are other times when that general rule needs to be broken, and with Snowpiercer, this is one of those times. I don’t want to earn a warning/note on the one post I’ll probably be making for a very long time (if ever again), so I’ll stop there, but if this were in the pit I’d have some very choice words for anyone who liked this movie. I’m with you on this. It was so bad that I am angered by the positive reviews. It makes me think that we are all the butt of some prank and no one has told us. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039/55 "2015-01-05T05:17:33Z")
This was the stupidest movie plot of all time. I regret the time spent viewing it and would like the 2 hours of my life back. Truly hated this movie. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039/56 "2015-01-05T06:23:56Z")
Awwww, come on guys… Yeah it completely falls apart if you think about it. Even if you were on board with the premise, even inside the logic of the movie some stuff was didn’t work, but I still thought is was enjoyable. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039/57 "2015-01-05T07:25:11Z")
YEah, about as enjoyable as sticking a fork in my eye. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039/58 "2015-01-05T08:05:55Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I’m with you on this. It was so bad that I am angered by the positive reviews. It makes me think that we are all the butt of some prank and no one has told us. It’s because most critics aren’t familiar with science fiction, and are thus under the misapprehension that SF demands less logical rigor, when in fact it requires more. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039/59 "2015-01-05T08:10:47Z")
My belief couldn’t be less suspended if one of the actors crowed like a rooster and flew about the train by flapping his arms. ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039/60 "2015-01-05T11:52:48Z")
I’m glad to see I’m not alone. Some things I hated about it: It kept repeating the thing about “poor people should know their place” thing, over and over again. It was too muddled with the different characters, little focus or consistency. They used an Ayn Rand - looking character to hold a viewpoint that was pretty much the opposite of what Ayn Rand thought. (You should use state sponsored violence to keep the masses down.) The faux philosophical ending was just terrible. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snowpiercer-is-the-best-post-apocalyptic-film-ive-seen-in-a-long-time/704039.md?page=4)