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Snowpiercer | 2014 | R | - 1.7.8

After a cataclysmic environmental event Earth is left a frozen wasteland and the surviving humans live on a train that circles the planet. Class distinctions keep many passengers near starvation in the back of the train while the elite enjoy luxuries in their own compartments. With Chris Evans, Kang-ho Song, Ed Harris, John Hurt, Tilda Swinton, Jamie Bell, Octavia Spencer, Ewen Bremner and Ah-sung Ko. Directed by Joon-ho Bong. [2:06]

SEX/NUDITY 1 - Men and women are shown dancing in a club setting (please see the Substance Use category for more details) and several of the men are bare-chested.
 Women in a club setting are shown wearing low-cut tops that reveal cleavage and short skirts that show their legs to the thighs.

VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - A man's arm is held through a hole in the wall of the train to the outside world where it is freezing temperatures and he screams; when the man brings his arm back inside another man with a hammer breaks the frozen appendage off and we see it shatter as the man screams in pain (we see chunks of the shattered arm on the ground around him).
 Many men using axes, spears and clubs fight with guards and we see them hacking each other, cutting each other and pounding on each other as blood sprays from wounds and we hear crunching and squishing; one man slips on fish guts on the floor and another man brings a blade down nearly striking him. Two men fight: one man punches the other in the head, and one man forces the other's arm into a turning cog and blood pours from his broken and mangled arm. Many people fight in the dark (the train they are on moves through a tunnel) and some of the people are equipped with night-vision goggles while others are not; we see many people being stabbed with spears and slashed with blades unable to see their attackers (blood sprays and splatters). Many people charge armed guards and beat them using sticks and kicks until a large man swings a heavy piece of metal toward the attackers and one of them jumps on top of him, and then stabs him in the chest (we hear a crunch and see blood at the wound), felling him. A man cuts another man's throat and then throws the knife to hit a woman in the leg (she falls screaming); a man holds a knife to another man's throat, a man stabs another man in the back, a man holds an ax to a woman's throat, she runs and is stabbed with a spear (she falls dead). People with guns shoot many other people and a man throws a knife that strikes one of the shooters in the neck and she falls dead; a man shoots another man in the head and we see him fall dead (a bit of blood at the wound), and a man shoots a woman in the head and blood sprays from the wound. A man is stabbed in the back and then beaten by another man until a woman jumps on the man doing the beating and he shoots her (blood sprays). A man tries to stab another man but another man puts out his hand and catches the blade (we see his bloody hand). Armed guards round up children for a "medical inspection" and a woman takes two of the children away with her as their parents protest and plead for the children to be returned to them; the father of one child throws a shoe at a woman and we see blood trickle down her forehead while the mother of the other child is beaten with a stick (no wounds are evident). A man beats another man using a crow bar and another man stabs him in the side (we see blood on his face). A man shoots another man and he falls moaning; another man is held at gunpoint. A man with a knife in his side and blood on his clothing gets up and pulls the knife out.
 Two men shoot at each other through the window of a train car, one man shoots into a room behind a door (presumably killing someone that we do not see) and then shoots an armed guard. People scream in the distance and we hear gunfire. Several men fight with punches and kicks in a couple of scenes. Two men fight and one is kicked down (the fight stops). An armed guard hits a woman in the face with his gun and then steps on her fingers (breaking them) when she falls to the ground (we see her with a bloody face and a gash across her nose). An armed guard puts a gun to a man's head and pulls the trigger (there's no discharge).
 An explosion on a train causes an avalanche on a mountain outside the train that throws heavy snow onto the train and breaks it apart; we see cars tumbling down a hillside and two people emerge from the wreckage to face a polar bear in the distance. A large train crashes through ice dams across the tracks a couple of times and wavers a bit nearly tipping off the tracks.
 A man is shown with a bloody gash on his hand. A man has bloody cuts on his head and chest after a beating. A woman's eye is badly bruised and swollen shut in a few scenes (after a beating).
 A man talks about 1000 people in an iron box and that after a month, "We ate the weak"; he goes on to say, "I know what people taste like and I know that babies taste best." A man tells a story about another man killing a woman and taking her baby to eat it but that an elderly man cut off his own arm and gave it to the man to eat in order to save the baby. A man tells another man, "We are going to rip you into little pieces." People yell violent threats at several people walking through a club car where one of the group is seen to be taking handfuls of a drug. A man makes a gun to the head gesture.
 A morgue-like drawer is pulled out to reveal a man sleeping and we hear that he is unconscious from a drug made from industrial waste that is highly flammable and that this is how addicts hallucinate; another drawer is opened to reveal a young woman in the same state as the man. A man chases a boy through a train car and threatens him with a spanking. We see a small boy in a compartment under the floor of a train where he is presumably doing something to keep the train going.
 In several scenes armed guards take a head count of people in a train car while holding them at gunpoint. Several men make a plan to take over a train. Many people are crowded into train cars and we see them dirty and disheveled in several scenes. We see drawings of many people lying on the ground (presumably dead).
 Many bugs are shown skittering in a large barrel before being ground up and processed into a food product. A man cuts a whole fish open and we see guts and blood pour from the creature while blood drips from the blade. People walk through a meat locker and we see carcasses hanging. We hear that a substance was dispersed in the upper levels of the atmosphere and caused the world to freeze killing all life except a train full of humans.
 People eat a gelatin-type substance called protein blocks in several scenes. We learn that food is made of crushed bugs. A woman burps loudly. A woman removes her upper teeth (we see a bit of saliva).

LANGUAGE 8 - About 32 F-words and its derivatives, 1 sexual reference, 15 scatological terms, 2 anatomical terms, 13 mild obscenities, name-calling (skinny, filthy ingrates, hooligans, scum, stupid tail-sectioners, crazy, tail-section pig, liar, jerk, morons, idiot, spaced-out), 1 religious profanity (GD), 3 religious exclamations (Oh God, God, Jesus).

SUBSTANCE USE - We hear that an unconscious man has used a drug made from industrial waste that is highly flammable and that this is how addicts hallucinate, several people in a club setting appear to be under the influence of a drug, and a comment is made about a drug frying your brain. People drink alcohol in a bar car, and men and women are seen dancing in a club setting and we see several holding bottles of champagne (presumably drinking). A man lights and smokes a cigarette and other people tell him that "cigarettes have been extinct for more than 10 years."

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Environmental disasters, climate change, revolutions, class systems, survival, murder, patience, addiction, drug use, loneliness.

MESSAGE - Class distinctions persist under any circumstances.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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