Snowpiercer is a 2014 release with an excellent international cast, with Ed Harris as a disturbingly pragmatic Oz. There is a pretty cool science-fiction premise: 79 tree-hugging nations buy into the global warming panic and put a bunch of coolant in the atmosphere, precipitating an ice-age. The movie picks up in 2031 with the remains of humanity enclosed in a twenty car super train that recycles the snow it runs into.

Chris Evans plays a revolutionary who leads the lower class from the back of the train toward the front. Just as the science begins to get pretty thin, it becomes apparent that this is a social allegory. The quality of the effects, acting and action are all very good. I would have to say that my favorite part is played by Tilda Swinton as the Minister of the train.

This is a truly international effort in filmmaking that comes down very hard on society as a perpetual oppression machine without the screenwriter grinding an ideological ax. We even have two drug addicts cast in a proactive role. I got the sense that this story could have been a collaboration by Charles Dickens and Phillip K. Dick with Joseph Campbell advising. Don’t let the deep story scare you off though. A bunch of Koreans put this thing together, with such blood spattering results as a 12-minute gang fight with axes and crowbars!

I’m no film critic, but if you have a strong stomach I’ll think you’ll find Snowpiercer to be 137 minutes well spent.