What happened to Melanie in Snowpiercer? Explained

Snowpiercer, the dystopian series will be back with its fourth and final season on July 21, 2024. The series is a continuation of the 2013 climate fiction film Snowpiercer, directed by Bong Joon-ho and starring Chris Evans. It first premiered on May 17, 2020, with the story post-apocalyptic in 2026, following the lives of passengers, who are traveling on an endless train journey across the globe. The entire Earth has been frozen due to massive climate change, leaving only a handful of survivors.

Snowpiercer revolves around the politics that happen inside the train, with everyone waging a war for survival, with the limited resources that are yet left. The train becomes an imitation of Earth, with all its senses involving corruption, social injustice, and abuse of wealth and power.

Snowpiercer includes a cast of Daveed Diggs, Alison Wright, Mickey Summer, Susan Park, Iddo Goldberg, Rowan Blanchard, Archie Panjabi, Chelsea Harris, and finally Jennifer Connelly across its seasons.

Melanie and Layton in Snowpiercer (Image via CJ Entertainment)

Jennifer Connelly plays the role of Melanie Cavill, the protagonist of the series. She is the head of the hospitality section, which is responsible for maintaining smooth relations among the passengers on the train. Additionally, she acts as the voice of Snowpiercer, who makes the daily public announcements for the passengers across the train.

What is the story of Melanie in Snowpiercer?

Melanie in Snowpiercer, grew up in a lower-class family on a dirt farm in eastern Pennsylvania. She ended up graduating from MIT and became an engineer. Melanie was one of the engineers who were behind the creation of the train, working for Wilford Industries.

When the apocalypse arrived, Melanie lost her parents and her daughter Alexandra who couldn't board the train. When the journey began on the train, Melanie secretly took the role of Mr. Wilford, whom she abandoned to die in Chicago, when Earth began to freeze.

Through her secret identity, she succeeded in maintaining among the passengers on the train, but slowly began to get crushed beneath the pressure of wearing the mask. The train Snowpiecer, when first boarded was just a group of survivors, trying to keep the last bit of humanity.

But as the journey started status differentiations, and class conflicts began to take place among the passengers making it increasingly hard for Melanie, to keep everyone under control, amidst the limited resources, and looming threats.

An uprising begins to take place in the Tail, which was meant for the lower classes and Melanie soon meets one of its members, Andre Layton an ex-homicide detective trying to look into the case. Melanie soon starts to build a formal relationship with Layton, coming on negotiations revolving around, providing enough resources to the Tallies, who are dying there for its poor conditions.

But in the meantime, Layton begins to gather more information about the train, so it would be easier for Tallie to conquer it. Lyton discovers that the victim was the boyfriend of his ex Sarah, who had left him when she was allowed a chance to move to the third class section.

Layton soon finds out that the murderer was committed by a girl from the first class named LJ, assisted by a bodyguard named Eric. Though Eric is killed LJ is soon freed by Melanie, when she blackmails to expose her true identity.

Melaine has kept dual identities (Image via CJ Entertainment)

Layton while investigating the murder, begins to find out a lot of Melaine's secrets. He eventually comes to know that Mr. Wilford is not even on the train, and Melaine is running everything.

Though Melaine tries to drug him and send him to a hibernation prison, he succeeds in exposing Melaine, which leads to her arrest. But at the end of its first season, Mr. Wilford arrives, and the viewers realize that he had survived and was boarding a second train named Big Alice.

Mr. Wilford soon his dominance on the snowpiercer, and begins to exercise his strict authority. While Melanie is kept in prison, she devises a plan to leave the train and go into the outside world to gather data that could potentially reverse the apocalypse. While Melaine ventures out of Snowpiercer, she discovers that some part of the planet has begun to warm up, which could potentially be a safe place for civilization.

Melanie sets a journey on the frozen planet (Image via CJ Entertainment)

By the end of the second season, there is a presumption that Melanie couldn't survive the harsh freezing environment outside the train, but leaves it on an open note. It is also revealed that Melanie's daughter Alexandra had survived the catastrophe and was raised by Mr. Wilford.

At the beginning of the third season, the viewers see that Melanie's daughter who was raised by Wilford is a crucial part i the engineering department, who strives on her mission to find life on earth back again.

Whereas, Layton and Wilford still have hallucinations of Melanie being still around. Then it is revealed that Melanie had survived on Earth, staying on a research station, and hibernating herself with the suspension drug.

Eventually upon her arrival, and reuniting with her daughter, the team successfully discovers that the planet has been warming up, and they name it New Eden. After successfully exiling Wilford, the third season ends with a split between Melanie and Layton.

Melanie and Layton go separate ways (Image via CJ Entertainment)

The passengers are given a choice to stay on Snowpiercer under Melanie in the existing safety, or go to New Eden leaving on Big Alice towards a new possibility of civilization, but has its risks. We see Layton and Melanie bidding goodbye to each other, while her daughter Alex comes with Layton, separating from her mother.

Season 4, will finally end the story of Snowpiercer, answering if they could, finally put an end to the apocalypse, and make Earth a habitat again. And also what was the thing, that Melanie saw three months after the separation, shooting up into the sky and exploding.

Who plays Melanie Cavill in Snowpiercer?

The role of Melanie Cavill is played by the American actress Jennifer Connelly. Connelly started her journey as a child actress and made her debut in Sergio Leone's 1984 film Once Upon a Time in America, starring alongside well-renowned actors such as Robert De Niro and James Woods.

Connelly next made her appearance in a 1984 episode of the British horror anthology TV series Tales of the Unexpected. She went on to receive a leading role in Dario Argento's 1985 Italian horror film Phenomena. After this, Connelly began to make numerous appearances in films during the late eighties and nineties including Labyrinth (1986), The Rocketeer (1991), and The Hot Spot (1990).

Her most notable works include Requiem for a Dream (2000), Career Opportunities (1991), Hulk (2003), and the biopic A Beautiful Mind (2001), for which she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She recently appeared in Tom Cruise's 2022 reprise Top Gun: Maverick.

Edited by Pradyot Hegde