Is there a non-spoily way to explain why they're all on a train rather than hunkered down somewhere, why the snow and ice never blocks the tracks, where they're going, that kind of thing?

Animal Kingdom was so goddamn good, I've got high hopes for The Rover.

@1 Seen the film. I think I can do so.

The creator of the train has made this perpetual motion engine to keep it going. His money so his decision to make it a train instead of a static location. Snow and ice on the tracks gets dealt with in the film.

As to where they are going, the track circumnavigates the globe. There is no destination in mind, just continual movement to stay alive.

The snow and ice *does* block the tracks, and the design of the train makes that an advantage. We don't know there aren't hunkerers somewhere, but we're shown that it's probably too cold for hunkerers. Getting on the train was a priority, one can assume.

It's also a compelling way to present a microcosm of society, kind of like in Das Boot or The Poseidon Adventure where the crew and/or passengers are stuck in close quarters surrounded by water.

Did Weinstein end up chopping off ~30 minutes of Snowpiercer for the American release?

Oh. N/m, I guess not.

@7 Not the version playing in the US. Bong confirmed this at the SIFF screening. He compromised by way of a limited release. TWC was going to open the film wider if he agreed to cuts.

I saw Snowpiercer when I was on vacation in Thailand last Dec. It's as bad as it's description: the last of humanity is on a moving train. The ruling class is in the front and the worker class is in the rear. The workers rebel and fight their way to the front of the train. Why the train is running is never explained, nor is why the last humans need to be on a moving train. Yeah, this is as bad as it sounds. I can only plead it was really hot in the afternoons in Thailand and I was trying to escape the humidity and heat

@10 You must have missed some of the film then because everything you claim was never explained is right there in the film. As for being "bad" that is purely subjective because I found it to be a beautiful piece of dystopian scifi told as parable to the world we currently live in.

@3 thank you! That helps.

I believe that it's possible to imagine the the end of Snowpiercer as optimistic; however, that interpretation is much more difficult with a zoology degree.

@13 Yeah, I definitely didn't take it literally! The Rover has a surprisingly similar ending, but I didn't want to spoil the film by saying how it's similar.