Prompt: “I watched [insert title of screenwork here], and it got me thinking about…”

Confined and restrictive settings in cinema have always fascinated me. In fact when I gave an (admittedly small) amount of thought to what sort of story I would want to do for the final project of ‘Another World’, a story set in a small world was the first thing that came to mind. It just so happened that these worlds were discussed heavily in our week 1 tutorial. So, that film I watched that got me thinking was Snowpiercer (2013), a sci-fi action-thriller directed by South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho. The movie takes place in on a train that loops around the world indefinitely using a self-sustaining power source, after the world has frozen over due to a failed attempt to counter global warming.

Chris Evans (left) and Go Ah-sung (right) in Snowpiercer (2013). Source: http://www.themarysue.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Curtis-Yona.jpg

What Snowpiercer got me thinking about in particular was worlds within worlds, particularly the perception characters have of their surroundings and the effect that has on the narrative. Snowpiercer takes place in 2031, 17 years after the world has frozen over, meaning there are children that have been born on the train and only ever lived there. Characters that have never seen the ‘outside world’ are ingenuous in this film, curiously asking questions about what came before them. The setting of Snowpiercer is both a claustrophobic world, and a world within a world. This poses the question, is the world actually tight and constrained if that is all a particular character has ever known? In these situations, the setting in a narrative has very different effects on different characters.

The protagonist of Snowpiercer Curtis (Chris Evans) views the train as a prison; he has been forced to live there to survive since he was a teenager and has resided at the back end of the train for the entirety of it, where those who are least privileged are required to stay. Comparing Curtis’ perception of the world around him to a child who has been born and raised near the front of the train with many prerogatives that Curtis doesn’t have, this child would view the train has their home – especially as the children are influenced by adults at the front of the train to thank Wilford (the creator of the train) every day for what he has given them. This example from Snowpiercer provides an insight into how small worlds can be perceived by different characters due to their experiences and how that can shape characters and a narrative.

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