{"id":241687,"date":"2026-01-20T01:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T01:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/241687\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T01:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T01:07:09","slug":"the-r-rated-dark-sci-fi-thriller-with-a-marvel-superstar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/241687\/","title":{"rendered":"The R-Rated, Dark Sci-Fi Thriller With A Marvel Superstar"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Zack Zagranis<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t | Published 56 seconds ago\t\t<\/p>\n

\"snowpiercer\"<\/p>\n

Before Parasite, director Bong Joon Ho took on classism with the help of Captain America and Thomas the Tank Engine. Snowpiercer is the best R-rated dystopian train thriller ever made, not that there\u2019s much competition, but even if it were a popular genre, Snowpiercer would still stand out. The 2013 Chris Evans<\/a> vehicle, pun definitely intended, took swings at everything from the 1% to climate change without ever feeling overly preachy.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve somehow never taken a ride on Snowpiercer\u2018s futuristic locomotive, you owe it to yourself to buy a ticket and hop on board. <\/p>\n

A Future Destroyed Not By Climate Change, But By Attempts To Stop It<\/p>\n

\"chris<\/p>\n

Snowpiercer<\/a> tells the tale of a world where the powers that be overshot the mark when trying to reverse climate change and accidentally freeze the Earth. <\/p>\n

This new ice age kills off all life on the planet except for those aboard a high-tech train called the Snowpiercer. What\u2019s left of society quickly forms a new class system where the poor and disabled are confined to the back of the train, and the rich and privileged reside at the front.<\/p>\n

\"best<\/p>\n

After 17 years of traveling the same loop, the disenfranchised lower-class passengers on Snowpiercer start a revolution. The rebels force their way car, by car to the front of the train in an effort to topple the 1% and redistribute the train\u2019s resources fairly.<\/p>\n

Snowpiercer Was Adapted From A 1982 French Novel<\/p>\n

Snowpiercer is a melting pot of sorts. The concept began life in 1982 as a French graphic novel, Le Transperceneige, before being adapted into a movie starring an American and co-produced by Korea and The Czech Republic. The movie also marks Bong Joon-ho\u2019s first English-language film.<\/p>\n

Bong directed the movie based on a screenplay he co-wrote with Kelly Masterson. Along with Marvel mainstay Chris Evans<\/a>, Snowpiercer stars Bong Joon-ho favorite, Song Kang-ho (Parasite), and fellow Marvel alum Tilda Swinton (Dr. Strange). <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bong got the idea to make Snowpiercer after stumbling across Le Transperceneige at a comic book shop. Bong liked the graphic novel\u2019s concept but quickly realized he needed his own take if he was going to adapt it into a film. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had to come up with a completely new story and new characters in order to create a new, dynamic Snowpiercer that was packed with cinematic exhilaration.\u201d the director was once quoted as saying.<\/p>\n

In 2007, fellow director Park Chan-wook\u2019s production company Moho Film acquired the rights to adapt Snowpiercer for Bong. The screenplay for the movie wouldn\u2019t be completed until years later, in 2010. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Chris Evans would join the project in 2012, with Tilda Swinton<\/a> following close behind. The majority of the film was shot in Prague at Barrandov Studios over the course of 72 days.<\/p>\n

Snowpiercer had a reported budget of $42 million, the largest budget of all time for a film with Korean investors.<\/p>\n

The Weinstein Company acquired the distribution rights to the film for North America, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. The infamous Harvey Weinstein butted heads with Bong over the length of the movie, demanding that the director cut roughly half an hour out of the film.<\/p>\n

\"snowpiercer\"<\/p>\n

Bong was reluctant to hack up his baby, and eventually, Weinstein relented. The notoriously petty film mogul made sure to get the last laugh, however, when he switched the movie\u2019s distribution to Radius-TWC, a boutique indie label that fell under The Weinstein Company banner. <\/p>\n

This would limit the film to a small release, mostly in art house cinemas.<\/p>\n

Snowpiercer Succeeded Against The Odds<\/p>\n

Despite Weinstein\u2019s efforts to handicap the film, Snowpiercer grossed almost $87 million worldwide, more than double its budget. Meanwhile, critics loved the film, which has a 94% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The movie is now regarded as one of the best dystopian sci-fi<\/a> films of the new millennium and spawned a 2020 Television series. The TV version of Snowpiercer again follows its own narrative separate from the film and the graphic novel.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re looking for a movie with an environmental message that also boasts an \u201ceat the rich\u201d aesthetic and plenty of fun action, you can\u2019t go wrong with Snowpiercer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Zack Zagranis | Published 56 seconds ago Before Parasite, director Bong Joon Ho took on classism with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[76945,11007,156,1016,409,111,139,69,22827,76948,3291,35038],"class_list":{"0":"post-241687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-bong-joon-ho","9":"tag-chris-evans","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-entertainment-news","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-sci-fi","17":"tag-snowpiercer","18":"tag-streaming","19":"tag-tilda-swinton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}