Holding a 94% Rotten Tomatoes score, the film was directed by a future Oscar-winner and inspired a TV reboot.
Our TV movie pick for tonight (Wednesday, 21 August) is Snowpiercer, the incredible 2013 sci-fi action thriller from co-writer and director Bong Joon-ho – who won several Oscars for his work on Parasite.
Based on a French graphic novel, the film takes place in an Earth that has been ravaged by a new ice age and where humanity’s last survivors shelter in a state-of-the-art, self-sustaining, globe-spanning supertrain.
The passengers on the train are segregated, however, with the elite in the extravagant front cars and the poor crammed into squalid tail compartments overseen by armed guards.
The constant mistreatment of these “tailies” leads one of them named Curtis (played by Chris Evans) to lead an ambitious revolt for “control of the engine and the future of the world”.
Featuring a great ensemble cast – Ed Harris, Ewen Bremmer, Jamie Bell, John Hurt, Octavia Spencer, Song Kang-ho, an unrecogniable Tilda Swinton – Snowpiercer’s initial cinema release was delayed and scaled-back due to Harvey Weinstein demanding 25 minutes be cut from the movie, something which thankfully this did not come to pass.
Despite these distribution issues, the film has become a real cult-classic – earning a huge amount of acclaim for its unique setting, its hard-hitting action-set pieces, its angry social commentary and its ingeniously propulsive plot of Curtis and co fighting their way through the train compartments.
Holding a 94% Rotten Tomatoes score, Snowpiercer even got a TV reboot starring Jennifer Connelly that ran for four seasons.
The original movie is airing on TV tonight on ITV4 at 9pm. It is also available to rent on Apple, Curzon, Microsoft and the Sky Store.
Here are the other movies on TV tonight:
Oblivion – Film4 – 9pm
In this solid, stylish post-apocalyptic action sci-fi, Tom Cruise plays a drone repairman stationed on a war-torn, unoccupied Earth who starts to suspect his life is a lie.
Parallel – Sky Sci-Fi – 9pm
This Canadian sci-fi thriller from 2018 has an 82% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Standoff – Legend Xtra – 9pm
In this thriller, a troubled veteran (Thomas Jane) gets a chance at redemption by protecting a young girl from an assassin (Laurence Fishburne) after she witnesses a murder.
Spring – Legend Xtra – 10.45pm
This sadly underseen indie centres on a young American man (Lou Taylor Pucci) who travels to Italy and falls in love with a woman (Nadia Hilker) he meets there. Unbeknownst to him, however, she harbours a dark secret.
An oddly compelling mix of Lovecraftian horror and a Before Sunrise-esque love story, we have recommended Spring many times before.
Barb Wire – Legend – 11pm
Pamela Anderson headlines this ’90s comic book adaptation that was a commercial and critical flop.
The Sum of All Tears – Film4 – 11.25pm
Ben Affleck is CIA man Jack Ryan in this Tom Clancy adaptation.
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