After a decade, you’re used to the smells, the sweat, the bodies that slide against you as you go about living. It’s the sounds you’ll never get used to, the rumble of the train as it crosses tracks is second nature, but the crash of ice against the train, the constant cries of children in the darkness, and the press of humanity all around you never give you a moment of peace. Then there are the guards. They give you blocks of jello made of who knows what, while they get to eat steak. They come and take the young. You will make them pay, but the only way to do that is to get to the front of the train.

If you ignore some of the plot holes, the story of Snowpiercer, a train that carries the last remnants of humanity, is an allegory that speaks at the ills of society and is a warning to those that insist on perpetuating a system that opresses the weak.

One of the things I enjoyed most about the movie was the scene design. Although the entire movie takes place on a train, the scenes include a botanical garden, an aquarium, and, my personal favorite, a kindergarten class room. As the movie begins, it starts out in an industrialized setting, but as the characters progress through the train, the movie takes on an almost dream-like quality. They progress through vistas they haven’t experienced in decades, and even get a glimpse of the sun!

One of my least favorite parts are the plot holes, which I won’t go into due to spoilers. I could also see people having a problem with the progression of the main character, Curtis; although I didn’t find it strange or inconsistent.

I enjoyed this movie, and I think you will too, if you are a fan of thinly veiled dystopian works about class struggle, or a fan of kind of strange Korean movies with lots of blood like Old Boy.