History Awesome / Snowpiercer

* The appearance of the Polar Bear at the very end is a MomentOfAwesome for the planet Earth. That creature didn't just manifest out of thin air, it's fully grown so it's at least 10 years old and appears to be well fed. That means that the planet has been habitable for the entirety of the 18 years mankind has been locked up on that train due to our own stupidity of freezing our biosphere. Earth itself is just fine. Who knows, there might even be more humans somewhere living in the wild, surviving the 2nd Ice Age.

* In a more meta example: the film itself was actually adopted into {{Canon}} in the third volume of ''Le Transperceneige''. When the survivors of the second train make their way to a sanctuary, who shows up but Timmy and Yona? Yona reveals they survived the polar bear and made their way to the sanctuary after a ''different'' train derailed.

* Minsoo revealing that he's not just a drug-addicted InsufferableGenius, but is a ScienceHero who has been slowly accumulating all the Kronol he's been given to form an improvised plastic explosive. Why? So he can blow off the door on the side of the train and escape, because he believes the ice age is going to end soon.

* Layton’s perceived enemies are smart: the supposed thug Grey actually recognized Wilford’s speech quoting from Winston Churchill, while Melanie and Roche both knew Layton tried to communicate with the tail. Of course, he outplays them both when he reveals the "new" drug Kronol isn’t new, and in fact a brakeman has been trading them for blowjobs.

* Curtis believes that Wilford's guards have used up all their ammo, and that their guns are just for show. It's a logical assumption (as he can look at clues like empty witness holes in their magazines), but it's still ultimately an educated guess; there's no way Curtis can know for sure if he's right. Curtis decides to find out the hard way when he races to the front of the crowd during count, grabs a guard's assault rifle, puts the barrel to his own forehead, and pulls the trigger. ''Click.'' It's empty. Cue another passenger shouting ''"They've got no bullets!"'' and rushing the guards, starting a revolution.
* The plan to stop the four security doors from closing, with the tail-section hauling a chain of interconnected barrels through each door and allowing all of their fighters to overwhelm the security force in the tail.
** A GiantMook is the last man standing and the rebels can't get past him. Grey then races across the chain of barrels, parkours his way over and around the man, and kills him so fast that the man can hardly react.

** The Axe Gang uses the darkness of a tunnel and night vision to their advantage. To combat this, the tail-section fighters use a match and light several torches to make the fight considerably less one-sided. It creates a very hellish, chaotic atmosphere for the battle.
* Yona [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice kicking a spear into Franco the Younger's path]] as he tries to escape and attack Curtis. And her father sweeping him away from her with a vicious kick to the face. Especially satisfying since Franco the Younger [[HeroKiller had just killed Edgar]].

* The Egghead's NonchalantDodge of an axe while walking and dispatching people with an SMG at the same time.
** Leading up to this, the villains get one as the eggs are shown to be hiding loaded firearms.
* Grey displaying his ImprobableAimingSkills when he hurls a knife into the teacher's chest as she sprayed the room with bullets. Could also count as a {{Tearjerker}} since she was very pregnant at the time.
* Curtis coldly executing Mason with a bullet to the head in revenge for Gilliam's death. Then proclaiming, "[[TheDeterminator We go forward]]."
* The long-distance shootout between Curtis and Franco the Elder. It's a cool moment when they've reloaded and are standing solidly as they both fire a single shot, only to lower their guns when they realize the train's movement is preventing them from actually hitting each other.
** The very quick (but very significant) ActionFilmQuietDramaScene that occurs when Curtis and Franco are reloading their weapons. There is a silent close-up of a beautiful snowflake floating through one of the bullet holes in the window and slowly melting in the air, which Minsoo focuses on. [[ChekhovsGun And it's not just for the show]].

* Minsoo revealing that he's not just a drug addicted InsufferableGenius, but is a ScienceHero who has been slowly accumulating all the Kronol he's been given to form an improvised plastic explosive. Why? So he can blow off the door on the side of the train and escape, because he believes the ice age is going to end soon.

* In their last moments, Curtis and Minsoo [[HeroicSacrifice use themselves as shields to protect Yona and Timothy from the explosion]].

* In a more meta example: The film itself was actually adopted into {{Canon}} by the third volume of ''Le Transpierge''. When the survivors of the second train make their way into a sanctuary, who shows up but Timothy and Yona. Yona reveals they survived the polar bear and made their way to the sanctuary after a ''different'' train derailed.

* The scene in which Timothy appears. Some viewers might not even realise that it's Timothy since it's hard to tell... but then who shows up? ''Yona''. Yona is prompted to explain that she survived a different train that derailed ''and'' the polar bear that was coming after her and Tim.
* The climax in which most of the passengers choose an uncertain future. They manage to live out an existence not unlike that of the real world Inuits due to the gradually warming planet. But the final image in ''Terminus''? A small green shoot amongst the DeliberatelyMonochrome look of the comics. The world is not fully doomed. EsotericHappyEnding? Yes, but the characters ''truly earned'' it.

* The Tailles' revolution almost goes off without a hitch. If it hadn't been for extra guards, they may have made it past the door.
* The reveal that Hospitality host Melanie is actually Mr. Wilford.

* Josie's opening narrative: “The only reason we’re here is we refused to die in the first place. We’re as persistent as the cold, forever trapped in ice, we keep our eyes on the floor, dig our nails in and prepare to brace…They can take out limbs, our children, our leaders, they keep trying to take our dignity. But any survivor will tell you they checked their dignity at death’s door. The more they steal from us, the more human we become.”

* While the same words have been used to justify the authoritarian nature of train, Melanie's belief is almost pro-humanity. “I see three thousand souls surviving on a planet that’s determined to freeze all life in place. We’re still in motion, alive and kicking, and it’s not thanks to chance, or fate, or God! It is thanks to order!”

* Layton’s perceived enemies are smart: The supposed thug Grey actually recognized Wilford’s speech from Winston Churchill’s, while Melanie and Roche both knew Layton tried to communicate with the Tail. Of course, he outbalances them both when he reveals the ‘new’ drug Kronole isn’t new, and in fact a Brakeman has been trading them for blowjobs.
* Layton getting the better of Osweiller twice in one day, first with Roche, later because of Terrance the janitor, much to the Brakeman’s dismay.
* When he sees Miles' hair in the Drawer room, Layton jumps into PapaWolf mode and demands to know where the boy is.

* Melanie and Layton plays good cop/bad cop to the First Class passengers. When the Folgers refuse to let Layton proceed with his investigation and demand to speak to Mr. Wilford, Melanie pretends to call him, and Lilah backs off.
* Josie successfully getting out of the Tail and meeting with Astrid.

* Miss Audrey sending a platter of cockroaches to First.
* The victorious applause as a Third Class passenger is allowed on the tribunal for the trial.
* All three members of the Tribunal finding LJ guilty. Sadly this doesn't last due to a message from "Mr Wilford" communing the sentence due to her being underage, but even then this is met with disapproval.

* After their near death experience, Till loudly proclaims she's not going to let Osweiller blackmail her anymore.

* Miss Gillies helping Dr. Pelton arrange a secret meeting for Miles and Josie.

* In retaliation to Josie death, Layton arranges for LJ to learn the truth about Mr. Wilford, knowing that she tell everyone.

* The Tailles entire plan. Using the chaos happening in First over Mr. Wilford's identity, they're able to take advantage of the less amount of guards present and leave the Tail, cutting communication lines and freeing a few of their allies from the Drawers. Then there's the huge fight in the Night Car, where they manage to force Grey and the Jackboots to retreat.

* Melanie manages to exploit a design flaw in Big Alice to prevent Wilford from detaching the larger train from Snowpiercer. While it leaves Snowpiercer at the mercy of Wilford's forces, it also means that Wilford has no choice but to keep Snowpiercer running or else Big Alice will freeze.

* Faced with a mob that demands Tail blood for the death of the breachmen, Layton offers to let the mob shove his arm out the port until it freezes - but is saved at the last minute by Ruth, who angrily shames the mob into dispersing.

* After a whole season of barely outmaneuvering Wilford and his fanatics, Layton and the other resistance deliver an utterly crushing blow to his cult by stealing the engine away from him. It's gonna be very hard for him to keep promoting himself as the Eternal Engineer when Snowpiercer is limping.

* With Layton realizing that he can't overthrow Melanie and Wilford again without significant casualties, and Melanie realizing that she can't compete with Layton unless she has Wilford's backing, they both realize that the common denominator in their problems is Wilford and thus TakeAThirdOption, ambushing him and shoving him into Melanie's capsule to spend some time in exile. They then come up with a compromise to prevent another war between them - dividing the train in half, with Layton's faction travelling on to the rumored warm spot while Melanie's faction continues on the regular track in order to collect more data.

[[AC:1 - The Last to Go]]
* The entirety of the Resistance destroying Wilford's EMP device. ** Pike and Lights successfully throwing it out the back of the train after accidentally activating it.

[[folder:Season 3]]
[[AC:1 - The Tortoise and the Hare]]
* With Layton, Till, Alex and Josie all gone, the resistance aboard Snowpiercer could have easily fallen apart, but Ruth and Pike have managed to keep it going.
[[/folder]]

* All three members of the Tribunal finding LJ guilty. [[spoiler: Sadly this doesn't last due to a message from "Mr Wilford" communing the sentence due to her being underage, but even then this is met with disapproval.]]

* Curtis believes that Wilford's people have used up all their ammunition, and that the guns the tail-section guards carry are just for show. It's a logical assumption (as he can look at clues like empty witness holes in their magazines), but there's no way he could know that for sure. Curtis decides to find out for himself when he races to the front of the crowd during count, grabs a guard's assault rifle, puts the barrel to his own forehead, and pulls the trigger himself. ''Click.'' It's empty. Cue another passenger shouting ''"They've got no bullets!"'' and rushing the guards, starting a revolution.

* Curtis believes that Wilford's people have used up all their ammunition, and that the guns the tail-section guards carry are just for show. It's a logical assumption (as he can look at clues like empty witness holes in their magazines), but there's no way he could know that for sure. Curtis decides to find out for himself when he races to the front of the crowd during count, grabs a guard's assault rifle, puts the barrel to his own forehead, and pulls the trigger himself. ''Click.'' It's empty.
** "They've got no bullets!"