Anyone that’s seen the movie Snowpiercer knows that eventually things have to devolve to the level of keeping people in the tail section and reminding them every now and then that they are the poor, wretched refuse that has their own place on the train, but so far there’s still a revolution coming and it’s bound to happen at some point. What it looks like is that the train will be stopped for a period of time, and likely this will be due to the fact that Big Alice has entered the picture and Mr. Wilford is coming to upset the new status quo. Layton’s revolution was a success obviously, but as one can imagine it’s going to end poorly since Wilford is likely to shake things up once again and remind the Tailies just where they’re supposed to be on the train. The trailer makes it clear that Mr. Wilford isn’t going to be treated as a myth any longer and will be joining the cast, which would make the belief that Layton isn’t going to be lasting forever a reality since the movie makes it pretty clear that things on Snowpiercer have gone back to the order that people expected and that Wilford did manage to quell the rebellion and keep people sufficiently cowed for a while until yet another revolutionary decided to take his chance in challenging the status quo.
Snowpiercer is the kind of story that brings up a lot of questions about society and how people are viewed depending on what they have and what they can offer. If anyone watched the movie, and even the show, they might see similarities and differences that created a couple of different perspectives that could better explain why the status quo was the way it was. After all, those in the forward cars didn’t all have the necessary skills that would keep them in the lap of luxury, and to be fair, the Tailies had more going for them in terms of their survival skills and cunning than anyone else did. To be certain, those that live in the lower reaches of any given society have to learn how to survive on very little and as a result, some perish and some find a way to thrive and continue forward. But a funny thing happens as the people make their way through the train in both the movie and the show since morality is far more important to the Tailies while it’s a concept that becomes hidden as they make their way to the front of the train, as though it sticks to the social strata and is then buried beneath the various lifestyles of those on the train with each new car that is viewed. In other words, humanity is stripped away in the face of luxury as the appealing nature of vanity and indulgence becomes more important than the needs of others.
Layton and his people no doubt wanted to change all that and to make things a bit more equal, but the unfortunate part of this is that any revolution is going to suffer setbacks, it’s going to come under attack, and it’s going to be threatened the moment it happens, whether it succeeds or not. The status quo is going to push back and more often than not they’ll push back harder since they tend to have the resources, the materials, and the needed manpower that will allow them to simply roll over any resistance that might be brought to bear. That might not be the case in the show since the fight will need to go on for a bit longer since it won’t catch up to the movie for a while, but then again one has to remember that the events in the movie had been happening for a while and it was evident that the Tailies had been planning their attack for a while as well. Right now the idea is to survive the aftermath of the rebellion and make certain that the train can be held, and with Mr. Wilford on the way it doesn’t feel as though this is going to happen since the future of this particular story is already written and it doesn’t feel as though there’s any hope that it might be retconned without a lot of pushback.
One way or another the Snowpiercer story is going to end in tragedy and another eventual revolution, but for now, it’s interesting to take note of how the early story of the train is shaping up and how things finally came to a head concerning Mr. Wilford and the rest of the characters on the train since the movie kind of shoves the audience forward and forces them to play catch-up the whole way through. The next season should be interesting.
