Action film Snowpiercer delivers utterly brilliant combo of the high-concept and the high-octane

SNOWPIERCER: 10,000 survivors travel the globe by train after a man-made Ice Age, but this is still a world of haves and have-nots and not everyone is prepared to stay in their place.

An utterly brilliant train of thought

THIS utterly brilliant, slyly innovative action picture issues a barrage of future shocks in a pressing present tense.

Snowpiercer opens right now in July 2014, but don’t go getting too comfy. We won’t be staying here long. Some climate scientists have had the bright idea that global warming can be stopped by coating the earth’s atmosphere in a heat-resistant chemical vapour.

End result: a new and irreversible Ice Age, killing everyone on the planet. Well, just about everyone. The only survivors are those aboard a luxury train that seems to have been designed with this exact cataclysm in mind.

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A decade later, the locomotive is still hauling what’s left of mankind from one permafrosted continent to the next. Hundreds of carriages long — and technologically self-sufficient enough to stay moving and keep its 10,000 passengers alive — the train has evolved into a microcosm of the way the world used to be.

There are haves and have-nots. Fitness freaks and drug addicts. Religious zealots and social anarchists. The educated and the uninformed. True believers and open dissenters. Followers and leaders.

Each carriage is almost a nation unto itself. An interior security system — an unofficial set of borders, if you like — keeps everyone in their place.

Whoa! I think you will agree this is heady stuff for anything hailing from the action genre. Nevertheless, Snowpiercer is only getting started with its ambitious combo of the high-concept and the high-octane.

Without delving into too much detail — this is an experience best seen (almost literally) cold — there will be a rebellion against the status quo.

The occupants of the trailing carriages have had enough, and intend to move up in the world to make some changes.

To do so, they will have to make their way towards the front of the train.

Sometimes it will take nothing but brute force. On other occasions, deep thought and definitive diplomacy must come into play.

Chris Evans has the leading role of Curtis, the one man with both the brains and brawn to make the uprising stick where others have failed.

His is a nuanced and compelling performance, an effort all the more stunning if you’re only familiar with his work as Captain America.

Other cast members come and go as dictated by a brusque and uncompromising storyline.

Most make a similar impact to Evans.

The undisputed star of the show, however, is Korean director Boon Jong-Ho. Rarely does a vision so ambitious and raw hit the screen with such clarity and force.

Snowpiercer (MA15+)

Director: Bong Joon-Ho (The Host)

Starring: Chris Evans, Jamie Bell, Tilda Swinton, Octavia Spencer, Kang-ho Song

Verdict: Four and a half stars. After the big chill, it’s the thaw that counts

Originally published as Action film Snowpiercer delivers utterly brilliant combo of the high-concept and the high-octane