The train of the Apocalypse is always in motion. This statement, in times of Conoravirus takes us straight to the heart of hell, not just cinematic and science fiction. The global threat, the terror of something mysterious, unpredictable, dark and uncontrollable has always accompanied the history of humanity and cinema has done nothing but give it a visual form. This is the theme of the next branded product Netflix with the title Snowpiercer which will start with the first two episodes on May 25th. To better understand what it is and why we report it, however, it is first necessary to take a small step back.
Last year's movie Parasite, signed by the Korean Bong Joon-ho brought home a nice nest egg of results with the Palme d'Or in Cannes and then with four Oscars. All sacrosanct: a valuable, accurate and absolutely contemporary work of which we wrote on FirstOnLine (https://www.firstonline.info/parasite-la-lotta-di-classe-secondo-il-coreano-joon-ho/ ). We have defined it as almost a masterpiece by a director who has made an excellent apprenticeship. In 2013 Bong made his debut with The Snowpiercer, a feature film inspired by a French graphic novel, which has not received the attention it deserved. The plot is simple: a train travels aimlessly around the planet earth in the darkness of a post-ice age due to global warming. On board is a sort of human Noah's Ark divided into classes. The rich live in the front carriages, comfortable and equipped with food, while the poor, reduced to slavery, live in the rear. At a certain point the revolt breaks out and he heads towards the locomotive where… we'll spare you the conclusion. The film is easily found at Amazon Prime and for those who have missed it we highly recommend it.
What is the difference between the two versions compared to over 15 years ago? In the script, in the plot, apparently none, in substance it changes a lot. The past period is not irrelevant and the moment we are in is dramatically topical. What could only be imagined then could only be intuited as a possible future if all of humanity had not realized the atrocities of which it itself was and is the author and responsible (see precisely global warming, deforestation, etc.) today instead it is all in front of our eyes, in front of our individual and collective conscience. We have gone from a moment of formal (only formal) "global well-being" albeit with a thousand difficulties equally scattered all over the world, to an immediately catastrophic one as only the imagination is sometimes able to invent. The pandemic hit us like a train that suddenly appeared, it knocked us out with scientific "weaknesses of certainties" crumbled and buried by an avalanche of snow. On this train that hit us in the face, we were forced to board, by hook or by crook, knowingly or not. Now that the train has left (and with our hope it seems to be slowing down) we just have to travel, in truth we are forced to travel, towards a destination that we do not yet know exactly where it is and when it can be reached.
The train of Snowpiercer therefore it is proposed as a great metaphor of these days and it is not accidental to remember that the images that marked the first years of cinema (1896) were precisely the frames of a train launched towards the terrified public. At a time when cinemas with big screens are destined to remain empty, unfortunately, we have to be satisfied with what we can see in streaming. In this case, we have a double advantage: seeing the original 2013 film first and then the Netflix serial. It could be a useful exercise to reflect, to observe closely, with whom we travel on the train of fear, to which destination we are headed and when, but above all how, we will get off.
