Characters / Snowpiercer (2020): Engine

Snowpiercer Main Character Index
The Engine | First Class | Second Class | Third Class | The Tail | Staff of Snowpiercer | Big Alice

The Engine Eternal

The operating staff of the Engine, the Engineers are the most important workers on the train, charged with piloting Snowpiercer and making sure the parts and software of the Engine (and more broadly the entire train) keep working.

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Shared Tropes

• Neutral No Longer:
  • Layton's rebellion sees them divided between Bennett (who remains loyal to Melanie), and Javi (who favours the new regime). Javi defects when he realises the Folgers and Grey have no idea how to run the train without mass murder, and saves Melanie from execution.
  • The aftermath of Melanie outing the New Eden lie sees Javi side with her out of outrage at being lied to, while Ben still tries to help Layton get the train there.
• Secret-Keeper: All of them are in on the fact Melanie's impersonating Wilford to keep the train united.
• Sole Surviving Scientist: The three main Engineers are arguably the smartest people on the train, and the only ones that know the intricacies of the Engine.

Melanie

Melanie Cavill

Portrayed By: Jennifer Connelly

Snowpiercer's head of Hospitality and the Voice of the Train, who makes the PA system's daily announcements and relays Mr. Wilford's wishes to the populace. Though many of her peers are dismissive of the lower-class passengers, Melanie is curiously fascinated by them.

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• Anti-Villain: In season 1. Her goal is nothing less than the survival of what's left of humanity on the train, and we always see sympathetic edges to her with Jinju, Ben, Miles and even Layton, as well as some of her reasoning for her choices. But there's no getting away from the fact she ruthlessly enforces Wilford's class system, treats the Tailies like slaves, crushes Third's hopes for better treatment and maims those that rebel. It's telling the show treats her like the Big Good in scenes from her perspective and the Big Bad in those from Layton's.
  • Best seen in the sequence where Jinju is teaching her yoga; she switches from vowing to crush the Third strike in a harsh tone of voice, then in the same sentence warmly asks Jinju about how her date with Till went. It's a testament to Jennifer Connelly's performance that both seem totally in-character for her.
• Becoming the Mask: While she never becomes as bad as the real thing, by the time we meet her years of posing as Mr. Wilford have hardened her considerably. She harshly enforces the class system (threatening to send numerous random members of Third to the Tail if they go on a relatively minor strike), has no qualms about shattering the arms of various rebelling Tailies and nearly kills Josie in cold blood. To be fair, she's never shown as happy about any of it.
• Being Evil Sucks: She had hoped to gradually wean the train off of its fanatical worship of Mr. Wilford, but found that the First-Class passengers were far more loyal to him than she anticipated, and thus she was forced to keep many of his cruel policies in place. As the first season goes on, she gets increasingly disillusioned with the things she's forced to do to keep control of the train, and after helping defeat the Folger coup, seems to view it as a relief that it's Layton and not her having to keep control.
• Berserk Button: When isolated at the polar station, she fends off the spectral Wilford's insults and sneering - but when he insists she should be thanking him for saving her daughter it causes Melanie to explode and actually throw something at the hallucination. All the more telling given that this is all in her own head, and her abandonment of her daughter when Snowpiercer left clearly weighs heavily on her.
• Bread and Circuses: She believes in keeping the populace distracted from their real problems with hedonistic entertainment, like Fight Night and casino days in First.
• …But He Sounds Handsome: She talks to Layton about the sheer work, effort and 21-hour days that Wilford puts in just to keep them all safe. Her getting a bit emotional about it is one of the things that clues him into her secret.
• The Chains of Commanding: She's pretty much the only one smart and politically savvy enough to lead the train after they leave Wilford to die. But due to the circumstances of getting rid of her former boss, she's stuck posing as his Mouth of Sauron in case someone like Grey tried to take over. Consequently, she's got nothing but problems in series 1 as elitist pricks like the Folgers, Audrey and an increasingly disenchanted Third and a rebellious Tail all conspire against her as she ends up increasingly consumed with keeping her secret.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: She freezes and shatters one of Josie's fingers when the latter proves unwilling to snitch on the Tail's plans. That said, she has to leave the room and vomit before she can go for a second, so it's clearly not something she's used to doing.
• Commuting on a Bus: Her trip to the research station leaves her absent from much of season 2. While the focus is on Snowpiercer and the Layton/Wilford power struggle, we do look in on her in episode 6 as she tries to survive.
• Cult of Personality: Encourages the populace to buy into the idea of an all-powerful Wilford doing his best to maintain the Engine in order to give them something to believe in. Come back to bite her when Layton and L.J. expose her, as the ones like Ruth that really bought into it turn irrevocably against her. Doubly so the following season; if she hadn't kept the illusion of an all-powerful Wilford going so long, the real thing wouldn't have so many supporters on board when he makes his return.
• Decomposite Character: Most of Wilford's traits from the film were split between Melanie and the real Wilford. Melanie inherited his cold utilitarianism and obsession with order, while Joseph Wilford got his friendly and persuasive facade.
• Decoy Antagonist: The first person Layton opposes and has to take down, but the Final Bosses for his revolution are the army of jackboots led by the Folgers and Nolan Grey.
• Determinator: She does not give up. When Wilford left her to die, she survived by finding a track repair machine and trying to find Snowpiercer in it for over six months with no food or water, staying alive using only a potentially lethal cocktail of suspension drugs and faith she'd find Alex again.
• Easily Forgiven: Played with: Layton lets her exile herself to the Engine after the revolution to show he's serious about doing things a different way, but Ruth remains implacably furious at her.
• Face Death with Dignity: Her notes to Alex at the end indicate she was at peace with her fate, knowing that it could lead to her daughter's survival.
• First-Episode Twist: It's revealed at the end of the first episode that Melanie is actually posing as Mr. Wilford, the creator of the titular train.
• Heel–Face Turn: With her ruse exposed and First trying to take over, Melanie allies herself with the rebels because they're more likely to administer the train in a way that keeps it running and humanity alive, whereas those in First would bring the whole thing down in a year out of stupidity.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Knowing Wilford had somehow sabotaged the attempt to pick her up, he leaves her data behind to be found by the crew and seemingly goes out in the cold to die.
• Hypocrite: Smugly tells Audrey to read the room after an engineering failure allows "Wilford" to save them all and get Third cheering for him. Her failing to "read" the growing resentment towards her in First and Third while she gets obsessed with Layton's escape ends with both trying to overthrow and kill her.
• Irony:
  • In season 1 she has a pre-arranged trick of using the phones to fake conversations with Wilford (a.k.a Ben). In season 2 Alex tries the same method speaking to Ben, and is caught out by LJ recognising it as one of her mother's tricks - leading to Melanie herself being left to die trackside after Wilford realises what's going on.
  • Layton ends her rule over Snowpiercer by exposing her lie that Wilford is still in charge in the Engine. In season 3 she effectively does the same thing to him by exposing his New Eden deception to the entire train.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Becomes increasingly obsessed with finding Layton in order to keep her secret and stop the Taillies from revolting, and commits her worst act of season 1 in torturing and then killing Josie (albeit the last in self-defence). It's his grief over Josie's death that makes him sell out her secret to LJ, and her facade and hold on the train crumble anyway.
  • Out of horror at what he could do to the remnants of humanity, she leaves Wilford to die in the cold outside the train as it departs. Come the season 2 finale, he returns the favour, speeding the train past and marooning her to die in the snow as she desperately tries to get back on board with her precious climate data. Both even have a similar thunderstruck look as the train sails past them without stopping.
• A Lighter Shade of Black:
  • How she ends up siding with Layton's rebellion. While he might hate her, she wants to stop the Folgers and Grey (who share none of her principles and are happy to practice mass murder on the lower classes) from taking over every bit as much as he does, allowing them to grudgingly cooperate to take down the larger threat.
  • She's undoubtedly ruthless, maintains the grim class system and even kills Josie in trying to find Layton - but compared to the lengths Grey, the Folgers and Ruth go to in the final episodes she's practically a saint. Later, her conversations with the returned Wilford make clear that she thought her ruthless acts were for the good of the train, unlike his obsession with control.
• Moral Pragmatist: A particularly fine example. For all the horrors she enforces, her goal is genuinely to keep the last remains of humankind safe for as long as possible. When presented with the opportunity, she will make concessions towards a fairer system (such as taking LJ Folger's trial seriously, handing the train over to Layton, or trying to find out if it's possible to safely leave the train), but will as quickly backpedal if things get out of hand (like commuting LJ's sentence to keep her quiet, or revealing the truth about the uncertainty of New Eden rather than risking taking the train on a bad stretch of tracks). If conflict arises and she's not in a position of power, she'll align herself with whichever part will make the least damage (namely Layton over the Folgers first and Wilford then), but will change her allegiances if her chosen party will prove to risky ( like when she made an uneasy alliance with Wilford to wrestle control away from Layton and avoid the trip to New Eden). Ultimately, she will try the least evil route, but only so far as it complies with her idea of keeping humankind safe.
• Morton's Fork: She's well and truly stuck with the result of LJ's trial; either have LJ sent to the drawers and risk First actively trying to remove her, or let her off and have Third - who do the dirty work keeping the train going - rebel. She goes with the former out of moral outrage at LJ's actions, even redrawing the jury to stop favouring First - but then (as Wilford) commutes her sentence after LJ implies she knows the secret of the drawers, leaving both groups irrevocably outraged at her.
• Mouth of Sauron: In her public persona, she's known as the voice of the train. A unique example in which she's both the mouth and Sauron himself.
• Necessarily Evil: She's ruthless, utilitarian and believes in order above all, having enforced the rigid class system that sees Third class and the Tail oppressed for years. However, her own viewpoint indicates that she sincerely wanted to change things, but couldn't due to the power Wilford's system gave the First passengers. In conversation with Layton she indicates that for all the train's faults it's letting 3000 people live in a system that works, albeit very problematically - a far cry from the Lethally Stupid way the Folgers would have done things.
• The Needs of the Many: While she never dips into the pointless atocities of Grey and the Folgers, she still believes that her more ruthless actions are wholly necessary for the survival of Snowpiercer and its 3000+ inhabitants.
• Never My Fault: When Josie asks why she's doing things she must know are immoral, Melanie insists she's only perpetuating a system she inherited and wouldn't have designed it that way were she in charge from the beginning. When the disbelieving Tailie notes that as the one in charge she can change things, she counters that as leader she's beholden to everyone. Subverted after the revolution, when she admits her many failings to the train and lets Layton take over.
• No One Sees the Boss: Subverted. Everybody does see Melanie day-to-day - but with the fiction Wilford is constantly working on the Engine, only a few select people are aware that they're one and the same. Actually revealed to have been unknowingly helped along by Wilford; by minimising her contributions and casting himself as the train's main creator, virtually nobody in season one aside from the Engineers and Jinju seems to know she's Snowpiercer's main Engineer and greatest expert.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Her daughter died in the freeze, having failed to make it to the train in time. Or so she thinks; the first-season finale reveals that Alexandra is alive.
• Poor Communication Kills: She might have been under a lot of stress due to Layton's disappearance from the Drawers, followed by killing Josie, but assuming Ruth was going to tell her about the Folger's elitist whingeing and brushing her off when Ruth was actually telling her about their planned rebellion leads to spiralling disaster down the line.
• Redemption Quest: Her mission to stay one month at a research station to find out if Earth will be ready to recolonization anytime soon has all the makings of this. Everyone, including her, expects it to be a Suicide Mission.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: She isn't just a calming figure and secretly the leader, but a talented engineer who personally repairs the train when it's under threat of derailing.
• Sadistic Choice: Melaine was forced to make one of these in the 2x06 flashback. After witnessing Wilford ordering a group of geneticists and their families to be killed, both she and Ben realize that he's a monster. Melanie has two choices: wait for her family (whose whereabouts she didn't know) but let Wilford board the train and be in charge of what's left of humanity. Or leave early and leave Wilford behind, but leave her family too; she chose the latter and has regretted it since then.
• Scylla and Charybdis: From LJ's trial onwards she's continually caught between the needs of First Class - who are increasingly unhappy with her for giving too much heed to the lower classes - and Third, who are equally pissed off with her for continually overlooking their rights compared to the wealthy Firsties. Really gets prominent during the twin Layton/First revolutions, where both sides want her dead.
• Secret Test of Character: A really cruel one; she neglects to tell Layton that his uncoupling Grey and the Folgers from the rest of the train will also kill a carload of Third and Tail prisoners he has no time to save, clearly looking on his doing so as comparable to the hard choices she had to make for the good of the train. That he actually does it seems to confirm to her that he's fit to lead.
• Sole Surviving Scientist: Alongside Ben and Javi, she's one of the train's creators and is one of the most knowledgeable about the problems it faces. Only Wilford himself proves her equal in Engineering skill and knowledge of the train.
• Stepford Smiler: Her gracious Hospitality persona and hard-edged ruler of the train personas both mask a woman deeply traumatized by the sacrifices she's had to make to allow the train's society to work - particularly leaving her daughter Alexandra behind when the train left.
• Take a Third Option: She's a living one; until her unexpected defection to Layton's side, he has two choices; surrender, or Grey gasses the train, causing mass casualties. She, on the other hand, is able to bring Ben onside for an engineering fix that leaves the Folgers and Grey stranded on isolated carriages.
• Totalitarian Utilitarian: Shows shades of this, prioritizing the survival of humanity as a whole on Snowpiercer over individual rights and freedoms.
• Two Aliases, One Character: She is both Melanie Cavill and Mr. Wilford. Until first she's outed as Wilford, then he turns out to not be dead in the finale.
• Uncertain Doom: Seemingly goes out in the cold to die after making sure her data proving hot zones in the world could be found by the crew, but we never see a body. She's discovered alive in season 3, having made it to a cache of suspension drugs and a small maintenance vehicle, keeping herself alive despite having no food or water.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: 2x08 reveals during the fifth revolution, Melanie retrofitted the bogey motor circuits. This ends up almost dooming the entire train when Wilford's God Module isn't compatible with it, creating a hydrogen crisis that requires Wilford's help to solve (even if he's initially as in the dark as everyone else). This, combined with Wilford's improvising on the fly, means Melanie unintentionally helps Wilford take back Snowpiercer.
• Villainous Breakdown: She's caught unprepared with being exposed to First Class, and visibly cracks when L.J. confronts her with a photo of her thought-dead daughter.
• Villainous Friendship: Melanie might be the quietly authoritarian ruler of the train, but she has numerous friendly relationships with Bennett, Javi, Ruth Wardell and Jinju.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • She seems to genuinely believe that everything she does, no matter how cruel or ruthless, is essential to the continued survival of humanity. After things fall apart in the final few episodes, she seems to have grown past this, admitting to the train she made major mistakes as leader, and voluntarily ensuring peaceful transition of power to Layton.
  Melanie: I make choices not because I want to but because everyone demands it. The train demands it.
  • She outs Layton's lie about New Eden out of a genuine belief that the risk of even getting there, much less finding it frozen over on arrival, outweighs the chaos she's causing by crushing the hope for a better future.
• The World Is Just Awesome: Chats with Bennett about missing fresh air during one of her lower moments.
• Would Hurt a Child: A grey area considering the various beliefs and laws regarding when exactly a fetus becomes a child, but she's perfectly willing to threaten to abort Zarah's pregnancy to force her to cooperate finding Layton. Later, she appoints Miles as an engineer as least partly as a hostage against Layton.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: She doesn't kill him, but still betrays Layton and consigns him to the Drawers indefinitely almost the moment he solves the Third murders. Though his rumbling she was actually posing as Wilford likely influenced the severity of her reaction.

Bennett

Bennett Knox

Portrayed By: Iddo Goldberg

One of the original engineers who helped design the train, making him one of the few who knows the deepest secrets of Snowpiercer. He's also Melanie's lover and staunchest ally.

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• The Confidant: Serves as this for Melanie (as well as being her lover). Given Javi's skepticism over her secret, he's the only one she can confide in regarding the pressures of leading the train and dealing with its many, many problems.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Poor Ben was on the receiving end of a nasty beatdown in the Season 2 finale by Sykes during his attempt to seize control of the engine. The only reason he survived was that she lost her balance when the train switched tracks, and he smacks her over the head with a metal case before she could recover.
• The Heart: Was originally the one that convinced Melanie to abandon Wilford in order to save the last remnants of humanity from his tyranny. Later, he's Melanie's lover and sometime-moral compass, often being the one to question the ethics of her actions in private.
• The Needs of the Many: He seems to favor some level of rights for The Tail (or at least not killing them if they have to ditch the last cars of the train) but also assists in Melanie's deceptions and seems to feel that there is a need to let First Class have the most privileges in order to preserve the train. After the revolution he also risks the new system by slowing the train to link up with the pursuing prototype to gain access to whatever supplies it has.
• Number Two: To Melanie and later, in her absence, to Layton.
• Secret-Keeper: He is aware of and assists in Melanie's deception. But at the end it turns out he's been keeping the secret of Big Alice's survival from even her.
• Sole Surviving Scientist: He supposedly helped build the train and is the one to keep it running and update Melanie on its workings. His scenes indicate he has more to do with the train's engineering needs.
• The Starscream: Keeps the return of Big Alice - and by extension Wilford - a secret from Melanie because in the wake of the revolution the need for its supplies is so great he's willing to chance Wilford getting back in control.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His keeping Big Alice being after them secret so that Snowpiercer can get access to their supplies comes back to bite him in a big way when it allows the real Wilford, who hates him specifically, to get his claws back into the train.
• The World Is Just Awesome: He admits to missing the sound of rain.

Javi

Javier "Javi" de La Torre

Portrayed By: Roberto Urbina

An engineer in Snowpiercer's engine room, and one of the few with inside knowledge of Melanie's identity as Mr. Wilford, he's nevertheless more skeptical of Melanie's ability to keep everything under control. He uses advanced algorithms to predict the environment surrounding Snowpiercer at all times.

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• Berserk Button: Sides wth Melanie as she takes over the Engine once more because he's furious Ben lied to him about New Eden. When Melanie tries to reassure him by saying her decision was based on the evidence, he responds that for him it's very much about the lie.
• Big Damn Heroes: He rescues Melanie as she's seconds from execution by the Jackboots.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Rather horribly, he thought he was subject to this, reasoning that even after a brutal beating for participating in the plan to save Melanie, Wilford couldn't afford to dispose of trained Engineers. While he apparently survived, see The Punishment entry for how well that worked out for him. Six months later he's still injured enough to be hooked up to an IV, and is near-catatonic with fear of Wilford and Jupiter.
• The Dog Bites Back: In season 3, he undermines Wilford in a small but crucial way by opening an exterior airlock, allowing Layton to infiltrate Big Alice while Wilford is distracted, thus ending Wilford's reign.
• Easily Forgiven: Despite his supporting the Folgers' coup (and getting punched in the face by Bennett for it), he's back at his post in the first-season finale with no ill-effects. Rescuing Melanie from execution probably helped.
• Good with Numbers: He uses mathematical algorithms to calculate weather conditions outside of the train.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Helps in the attempt to rescue Melanie despite knowing the consequences. Played quite realistically, as he's visibly terrified as Wilford's men try to break through the door.
• Ignored Expert: He warns Melanie they should slow the train before hitting some debris. She refuses as the resulting power outages would worsen the mounting social discontent. As a result a breach wipes out the cattle car and socially things get even worse.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: With Layton on the loose and aware of their secret, he suggests just confessing to the train that there is no Mr. Wilford, but Melanie and Bennett shoot down the idea. During the revolt when Gray tries to breach the door to the engine car, Avi surrenders to him and confirms the (now-open) truth about Wilford. Bennett shoves him out of the control room and seals it to keep Gray from taking over completely.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Javi was the only Engineer that didn't know that Melanie and Ben were stealing Snowpiercer from Wilford; it took him until two days later to figure it out.
• Only Sane Man:
  • In addition to the events mentioned in the Ignored Expert entry, he's also the only one to recognise how disastrously Melanie's decision to commute L.J.'s sentence will play out, only to be be overruled by Bennett.
  • When the Engine car goes into lockdown a few days after Miles' arrival he's quick to suspect (rightfully) the connection between the two events.
  • When he points out that gassing the rest of the train will kill the workforce they need to keep Snowpiercer running, he's horrified when Lilah callously says they'll just find more - something blatantly impossible given the limited population aboard the train. The stupidity of this is what causes him to go rescue Melanie.
  • When he hears Layton's martial law declariation, he's the first to vocalise how incredibly poorly it'll go down with the people that have follwed Andre up to that point.
• The Punishment: After being brutally beaten by Wilford's guards for his part in trying to rescue Melanie, he's savaged by Wilford's pet dog. While Wilford has him saved due to his need for an Engineer, he's still on an IV drip six months later and is a mentally broken shell due to his fear of the dog.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: A talented, somewhat insightful bespectacled engineer.
• Sole Surviving Scientist: Most of his scenes have him dealing with the computer side of running Snowpiercer.
• Sour Supporter: He goes along with Melanie's posing as Wilford in season 1, but is far less happy about it than Ben, being more far-sighted about the problems it'll cause if it ever gets out.
• Third Wheel: To his fellow engineers Melanie and Bennett, who are lovers.
• Token Good Teammate: To the Folgers' coup attempt; as their only Engineer, he's the only one in their loose power structure who speaks out against the mass casualties Grey's gassing the rest of the train will cause. Their refusal to see sense is what prompts him to go rescue Melanie.

Miles

A young prodigy from the Tail who Melanie elevates to Engineer midway through season 1. See his entry in The Tail for tropes concerning him.

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