Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Religious Music & Entertainment
‘Snowpiercer’ Travels Far From Graphic Novel to Film to TNT Series, Launching Sunday

‘Snowpiercer’ Travels Far From Graphic Novel to Film to TNT Series, Launching Sunday

Last updated on: June 18, 2020 at 9:11 am by Kate O'Hare

‘Snowpiercer’ Travels Far From Graphic Novel to Film to TNT Series, Launching Sunday 2020-06-18T09:11:08-08:00 Kate O'Hare

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

(L-R, foreground) Jennifer Connelly, Daveed Diggs, in ‘Snowpiercer’/TNT

In this post, I welcome guest blogger Father Vince Kuna, C.S.C., a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a 2016 USC film-school graduate, and a lover of all things comic-books and cinema. Here, I’ve asked him to watch some TV instead — but it helped that it’s TV based on a movie that’s based on a graphic novel.

All aboard Snowpiercer, premiering Sunday, May 17, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on TNT:

Snowpiercer (official site here), A TNT series based on the 2013 Bong Joon Ho film (Rated-R) of the same title, which was originally based on the 1982 French graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob. As of yet, no rating on the TV show. Scenes of violence and sexuality.

(Spoilers)

One of recent Oscar-winner Bong Joon Ho’s films receives the small-screen treatment on TNT. Currently streaming on Netflix, Ho’s Snowpiercer adaptation lands squarely in his preference for telling economic-class dramas.

The sci-fi premise darkly envisions an ice age where a globe-spanning high-end train carries planet Earth’s handful of survivors. Leader of first-class security Mason (Tilda Swinton) stratifies the vessel into first, second and third classes.

From the tail car, a level below even third class, Curtis (Chris Evans) leads a revolt. A violent Dantesque journey proceeds: from the hellish tail car to the purifying middle cars (showers, pools, saunas) and ending in the supposedly “heavenly” luxury cars.

Except, at the end, this subtext becomes the falsifying text. The “Sacred Engine” preached throughout the film is revealed as a merely crude, cramped engine room operated by ignorant children. Ho delivers a not-so-original, but nevertheless biting, critique of religion … it keeps people in a literal darkness, so better to blow the door off the comforts of the train (and with it the social order, and technical and economic progress, that the filmmaker probably deep down knows religion offers) and live in the radical freedom of a thawing Mother Nature.

It’s not a Marxist message I agree with, but similar to what he did with Parasite, the director executes it well.

The Snowpiercer TV series (Ho listed as one of the executive producers), unlike the movie, pays homage to the graphic novel in an animated opening scene of exposition. More importantly, the show later fills in the logic gaps of the movie.

Showrunner Graeme Manson displays a better command of economics. Ho’s possible socialist leanings only function in the literal vacuum of the movie version of the train. In the TV version, the constraints of the train force the inhabitants into economic reset, and a more mutually beneficial arrangement of feudalism settles in.

How can the potential gifts of the lower-class benefit everyone else on board? They find an immediate subject. A murder occurs in first class. No one among the paying customers nor crew claims experience in forensics. Andre Layton (Hamilton Tony- and Grammy-winner Daveed Diggs), a police detective in the life before the big freeze, volunteers for the task. He also mediates between the various classes after two violent revolts — sequences depicted as horrific and rightly so.

In the same scene from the movie version, the filmmakers can’t resist glorifying the bloodshed, necessary, I suppose, if one also paints their political philosophy in red. (Pun intended.)

From there the two approaches diverge, marked notably by their disparate considerations of faith, both implicitly and explicitly.

Ho and his film, a largely godless story, is already long forgotten. The TV show led off by Diggs’ soulful traditional hymn leaves the viewer desiring the next movement of this satisfying train opera.

Image: TNT

Click here to visit Father Vince Kuna’s IMDB page.

Don’t miss a thing: Subscribe to all that I write at Authory.com/KateOHare

About Kate O'Hare

Based in Los Angeles, Kate O'Hare is a veteran entertainment journalist, Social Media Manager for Family Theater Productions and a rookie screenwriter. You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

May 13, 2020

'Belgravia'/'Downton Abbey' Creator Julian Fellowes Will 'Think About' a Story on English Catholicism

Next Post

May 26, 2020 'Grant': A Necessary Corrective to a Civil War History Not Written by the Winners

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category books breaking news digital media Faith practice food interview jane the virgin media movies music NFL Pope Francis Showbiz 101 social media sports technology television Uncategorized video

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz