Just how cold is it outside in Snowpiercer?

I watched Snowpiercer last night, and I was struck by the seeming contradiction between two scenes.

In the first, a character is forced to stick his bare arm outside of the Snowpiercer. After exactly seven minutes, his arm is withdrawn from the outside. His arm is so frozen over, that it can be completely shattered into pieces with a sledgehammer.

However, at the end of the film: (SPOILERS)

It's revealed that the Earth has warmed enough that life outside the Snowpiercer is possible. Two characters walk outside with no winter protection except for parkas. While it is intentionally ambiguous whether they DO survive, the underlying assumption is that the cold is at least survivable.

So just how cold is it? Cold enough for a man's arm to be completely frozen after just seven minutes exposure? Or cold enough for the ending to hold any meaning?

Answer

In a 2008 interview for YonHapNews, the film's Director (Bong Joon-Ho) referred to the world being approximately minus 80 degrees Celcius, more than sufficient to freeze an exposed limb.

"I remember it was around the end of 2004,” the director said in an interview published by the Yonhap News Agency in 2008. “ It was when I finished 'Memories of Murder' and was working on 'The Host.' I went to a comic book store near Hong-ik University. I go there once or twice a month when I am stressed out. 'Le Transperceneige' suddenly came into my sight, and I read the whole trilogy standing there. I could not wait until I got home to read.

"This train has enraptured me,” he continued. “I believe everyone has a fantasy about trains giving off chugs and puffs, and landscapes viewed from the window. What you can see from the window in this story, however, is only the world icebound, with minus 80 degrees outside. Survivors live in the train, but they can't stay in harmony even at a time of adversity.

Comments

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