| “ | Resistance is never futile, but Wilford's train is a fortress to class. Maybe it is perpetual. | ” |
| — Old Ivan to Layton, the night before planned rebellion. | ||
Old Ivan is a recurring character in TNT's Snowpiercer. He is portrayed by Mark Margolis.
He was the oldest person on Snowpiercer and a longstanding, respected member of the Tail.
History
Background
Old Ivan had boarded Snowpiercer when he was 78 and that he had a wife before he boarded. During his 3rd year aboard the train the tail revolted but was defeated and he, along with 12 others later, had one of their arms lost as punishment. At some point he was also brought up past the Night Car to tune a piano.
Old Ivan have a decent mathematics knowledge despite his age. He would occasionally tutor Miles. He taught Miles sines, cosines and tangents on the last day of his life. He’s also a decent chess player.
He is also Andre Layton’s mentor. As mentioned in The Time of Two Engines.
Throughout The Series
Death
He is shown to be one of the leading members of the Tail, and was a member of the small group in charge of planning the rebellion. During his birthday, he requested an hour alone with the only phone in the Tail so he could listen to a Rachmaninoff recording. His request was accepted by the other Tailies, and he played music whilst looking at old photographs of his wife. Shortly after, he hanged himself with the phone's electrical cord.
He was found shortly after, and his death was a catalyst for Pike's reaction and enactment of the rebellion.[1]
Personality
Appearances
| Appearance | EP1 | EP2 | EP3 | EP4 | EP5 | EP6 | EP7 | EP8 | EP9 | EP10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | ✔ | |||||||||
| Season 2 | M | |||||||||
| Season 3 | M | |||||||||
| Season 4 | ||||||||||
| Appeared | Did Not Appeared | H = Hallucinations | ||||||||
| V = Voiced | M = Mentioned | F = Flashback | ||||||||
Memorable Quotes
- Old Ivan: "I will never be too old to remember the day they pulled me uptrain to tune a piano. It played beautifully except for one dead key... middle C. I guess no one remembered to bring some..."
- Pike: "To bring piano wire, yeah. With all due respect, we heard it before, and this doesn't exactly fill the belly."
- ― Ivan talking about the day he got out of The Tail.
| “ | Here. [Hands Layton a knife] You will do better with this than me. Resistance is never futile, but Wilford’s train is a fortress to class. Maybe it is perpetual. (...) Good luck my boy. | ” |
| — Old Ivan to Layton as tomorrow The Tail plans to fight. | ||
.jpg)