From Graphic Novel to Movie to TV, the World of Snowpiercer, Explained

One of the great, under-the-radar, sci-fi gems of the last decade remains directora href="https://www.peacocktv.com/stream/movies/sci-fi-fantasy"Bong Joon-ho's emSnowpiercer/em/a (now a href="http://www.peacocktv.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"streaming on Peacock/a). The gripping dystopian thriller features a who's who of major acting talent, including a href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/topic/chris-evans"Chris Evans/a (emCaptain America/em),Song Kang-ho (emParasite/em),Tilda Swinton (emAsteroid City/em),Octavia Spencer(emThe Shape of Water/em), and many more. Adapted from a graphic novel, emSnowpiercer/em the film (2013) was critically lauded, leading to more print stories set in the universe, and even a streaming series reimagining the cinematic mythology./p pemSnowpiercer/em the film marked a lot of firsts and lasts for filmmaker a href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/robert-pattinson-in-first-look-at-bong-joon-hos-mickey-17"Joon-ho/a. It washis first film in English, and the first film he didn't shoot in South Korea, but rather the massive Barrandov Studios in Prague so as to accommodate his practical train car sets. It was also the last Korean film he shot in 35mm and, to date, his last hugely scaled film, because he found it far too stressful./p pThe very definition of a "sleeper" hit, emSnowpiercer/em had a staggered release around the world, and gained wider theater counts based on the positive critical and audience word of mouth. In 2014, the film was released on streaming services, which then gaveemSnowpiercer/emthe much bigger audience that it deserved. So let's take a look at how the IP developed along the way, from the proverbial locomotive to the caboose./p pstrongFor More on Snowpiercer:bra href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/titan-comics-new-snowpiercer-extinction-prequel-graphic-novel"Ride the rails of Titan Comics' new Snowpiercer: Extinction prequel graphic novel/abra data-entity-href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/how-bong-joon-ho-revolutionized-comic-book-adaptations-with-snowpiercer" data-entity-title="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/how-bong-joon-ho-revolutionized-comic-book-adaptations-with-snowpiercer" href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/how-bong-joon-ho-revolutionized-comic-book-adaptations-with-snowpiercer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"How Bong Joon-ho revolutionized comic book adaptations with Snowpiercer/abra href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/scientists-propose-plan-to-cool-the-poles-with-microscopic-particles" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"Snowpiercer's climate engineering could help us to refreeze Earth's poles in real life/a/strong/p h2strongThe History of the iSnowpiercer/iMythology/strong/h2 hrh2emSnowpiecer/em started as a French graphic novel series/h2 div data-embed-button="media" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.embed" data-entity-embed-display-settings="[]" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="d90d4b95-096a-45a1-8727-a9c9d0712936" data-langcode="en" class="embedded-entity"div class="media__image" style="max-width:438px" div class="media__image-wrapper" div div img loading="lazy" decoding="async" fetchpriority="low" src="https://www.syfy.com/sites/syfy/files/styles/scale_600/public/2020/03/snowpiercer_escape.jpg" width="438" height="600" alt="SnowPiercer_Escape" typeof="foaf:Image" /div /div /div div class="media__metadata" div class="media__metadata-wrapper" span class="media__caption" pTitan Publishing/p /span /div /div /div /div pThe emSnowpiercer/em mythology was created in 1982 with the publishing of the original a href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/topic/graphic-novels"graphic novel/a,iLe Transperceneige /i(or iThe Escape/i)i,/ibyJacques Lob andJean-Marc Rochette. The next two installments, emThe Explorers/em (1999) and emThe Crossin/emg (2000), were written by Benjamin Legrand./p pThe narrative arc tells the story of an environmental cataclysm that renders the Earth into an uninhabitable frozen wasteland, which inflicts the next great Ice Age. The humans who survived live within the1,001 cars of theem Snowpiercer/em train. A massive beast of a machine, it continuously rides the rails with no destination. And in keeping with the socio-economic class system established outside the train before the disaster, the poorest people reside in the last cars, providing physical labor for the train's operation. Meanwhile, those with the most money and status reside comfortably in the front cars, closest to the engine that powers the train forward into the icy landscape. Shifting from the back to the front is almost impossible, unless someone escapes./p pIn the first graphic novel, two who exist in the rear train are summoned by the leadership who tell them that the train is slowing and they need to cast off the end cars for the health of the whole train. One is willing, while the other is not; the choice turns into a moral quandary about self-preservation versus the value of all life. Add in a virus that travels through the people in all the cars, andiLe Transperceneige /ibecomes quite a tragedy about existence./p pWhile the first graphic novel has an ending,emThe Explorers /emintroduces another trainem,Icebreaker, /emwhich runs on the same tracks and could spell catastrophe for both trains. The story eventually folds in a character from the first story, and again creates a life or death scenario for the train riders. emThe Crossin/emg offers the potential of hope, with a distant opportunity for a new living situation for the people barely existing aboard the train./p pIn 2015, two years after the release of the film,iSnowpiercer: Terminus/iwas written byOlivier Bocquet, which concluded the established storyline of theemIcebreaker/em and its inhabitantsintroduced in the graphic novels. The story is the most hopeful of the four published./p pIn 2019,emExtinction/em, the first issue of an intended three-volume prequel series written byMatz with art by Jean-Marc Rochette,was released, followed byemApocalypse/emin 2020. The third volume,iAnnihilation, /ihas yet to be published./p h2HowBong Joon-ho's emSnowpiercer/emdiffers from the books/h2 div data-embed-button="media" data-entity-embed-display="view_mode:media.embed" data-entity-embed-display-settings="[]" data-entity-type="media" data-entity-uuid="05a65ade-9bf0-47bf-939a-5a8f5f563dad" data-langcode="en" class="embedded-entity"div class="media__image" style="max-width:862px" div class="media__image-wrapper" div div img loading="lazy" decoding="async" fetchpriority="low" src="https://www.syfy.com/sites/syfy/files/styles/scale_862/public/2024/03/mcdsnow_ec027.jpg" width="862" height="575" alt="Gilliam (John Hurt),Curtis (Chris Evans), and Edgar (Jamie Bell) appear dirty and disheveled in Snowpiercer (2013)." typeof="foaf:Image" /div /div /div div class="media__metadata" div class="media__metadata-wrapper" span class="media__caption" Gilliam (John Hurt),Curtis (Chris Evans), and Edgar (Jamie Bell) appear in Snowpiercer (2013). /span span class="media__credit"Photo: Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection /span /div /div /div /div pWhile the film adaptation retains the core conceit from the graphic novels — a dystopian Ice Age future where the last remnants of humanity live aboard a class stratified train — Joon-ho and his co-screenwriterKelly Masterson crafted an almost original cast of characters, includingCurtis Everett (Evans) as the revolution leader from the rear of the train, and his adversary, Minister Mason (Swinton), the brutal second in command of the train who demands separation between the cars./p pThe closest film character to one in the graphic novels is Wilford (Ed Harris), the loner who created and maintains the train's engine. In the book, the character is Alec Forrester, who is the lead engineer behind the Snowpiercer train and eventually appoints a successor to care for "Olga," the engine./p pConcept-wise, the details of the frigid, desolate outside environment are similar in both mediums, as is the eventual train car ascension of revolutionaries, from squalor in the rear cars to those with more wealth and power in the front. The details are very different, but the end of the film is tonally aligned with the ending ofiSnowpiercer: Terminus./i/p pIn2020, a reboot of the emSnowpiercer/em mythology was adapted into a href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/snowpiercer-ice-age-tnt-series-pauses-production-for-heat-wave" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"a television series/a starringJennifer Connellyanda href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/snowpiercer-daveed-diggs-tv-show-bong-joon-ho-movie"Daveed Diggs/a as the adversaries representing the classes. The series featured a reimagined version of the film's Wilford character,Joseph Wilford, played by Sean Bean. Three seasons of the series aired, with a href="https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/snowpiercers-finished-season-4-wont-air-on-tnt" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"a fourth completed but never aired/a./p pstrongemWatch Snowpiercer and a href="https://www.peacocktv.com/stream/movies/sci-fi-fantasy"other sci-fi films/a on Peacock now./em/strong/p