Set six years into the train’s journey, the series occupies its own universe, with different characters from the film’s. But its premise is the same. A plan to reverse global warming by cooling the atmosphere backfired, leaving the Earth’s temperature at a lethal -120F (-84C). The culprit is not climate change itself, but the wrong-headed choices humans make. “To be human is to be self-involved,” a first-class character says, and the difference between the selfish and the selfless drives much of the show’s intrigue.
The heroes are the passengers in the tail of the train, the so-called tailies. Their world is so visually full of shadows that even their food is dark, as they survive on daily rations of gelatinous black bars. Daveed Diggs plays Layton, the leader of the resistance. His role echoes Chris Evans’ in the film, but Diggs’s swagger and intensity make Layton more charismatic. Before the freeze, he was a homicide detective, and when the authorities call on him to solve a murder uptrain, as they say in Snowpiercer, he sees it as the perfect cover for gathering information helpful in the rebellion he’s plotting.
Carriage-based class war
Further ahead in the train is a gleaming schoolroom for privileged children, greenhouse cars, and a posh dining room where light shines through windows. Overseeing it all is the self-possessed Melanie (Jennifer Connelly, ideally cast). Nominally the head of the hospitality service, she is in fact the uber administrator who conveys messages from the mysterious Mr Wilford, who created the train and now stays hidden away in the front. Melanie is all disguise, looking like a prim flight attendant in her blue skirt-suit uniform. Her cool voice carries over the train’s sound system, in announcements meant to keep the hierarchy intact. But behind the scenes, her boss’s commands include grim punishments for out-of-line tailies. Alison Wright is effectively wild-eyed as Ruth, Melanie’s second-in-command, a true believer in Wilford’s “sacred engine” as she calls it, and his mission to keep everyone in his or her place. (Melanie and Ruth essentially split the role Tilda Swinton played in the film.)
As Layton and Melanie tussle for power and influence, the plot moves swiftly. A huge revelation about Wilford at the end of the first instalment only ramps up the questions about him. When the murder plot is resolved, it leads to more issues around inequality. Even on the train, is justice skewed by class? Spies and informants are everywhere. One of the series’ best devices is to let us see more than any single character does. We are with Melanie and the train’s engineers, and also among the rebels, privy to secrets on both sides. Mickey Sumner is tough and convincing as Bess Till, a security officer called in to help Leyton with his investigation. She and her girlfriend, from different classes, don’t even realise that they have secrets from each other.