In a future world completely frozen over by ice and snow, a train powered by a perpetual motion machine circles the planet with Earth’s only surviving humans aboard. Divided into sections and classes, from the poor to the wealthy, the people either barely survive or live in extravagance until a violent uprising derails the trains and “frees” the passengers.

The film, which gets its name from the train, “Snowpiercer,” is meant to symbolize and reflect the world system that exists in our known reality. Chris Evans (think Captain America or the Human Torch) leads the poor in an uprising against the violent police guards. Making their way from the back section of the train to the front, they discover just how messed up the train’s “society” really is. From eating protein blocks made of bugs and human waste to using drugs made of biohazardous materials, the system feeds off the evils of the world.

Ed Harris plays the maniacal train engineer/conductor. He’s the man who designed the train’s miraculous engine and saved the people, but he’s also the man kidnapping children from the poor, using them as slave labor and eating them. Overall, the film is sickening. But it’s the visually stunning harsh representation of the real world that I think needs to be told. And this film tells it well.

Contact Matthew Merchant at [email protected].