| “ | She's low-torqued. We can outrun her. | ” |
| — Melanie Cavill | ||
Big Alice is a prototype[1] of the Eternal Engine used as the locomotive for a secondary supply train. It carries a 40-carriage long train containing supplies and parts for Snowpiercer. It was built by Wilford Industries.
History
Very little is known about Big Alice, other than that it was a prototype. It served as a testbed for the "Perpetual Motion Engine" used by Snowpiercer. Before The Freeze, it was connected to a 40-car long supply train, that was intended to carry out supply runs to Snowpiercer should it need them along its journey.
When Melanie Cavill carried out her coup against Mr. Wilford, she abandoned him at boarding. Leaving Mr. Wilford no other alternative than retrofitting Big Alice and boarding her in order to survive. Mr. Wilford also appears to have gathered many Wilford Industries staff to crew Big Alice. Alexandra Cavill was with her grandparents and was meant to arrive at Snowpiercer at boarding, but did not arrive, she then somehow found her way to Big Alice and survived.
Population
Unknown, at least several dozen.
- Mr. Joseph Wilford - CEO of Wilford Industries.
- Alexandra Cavill - Melanie's daughter, and second in command.
- Kevin - in hospitality uniform
- Doctors Headwoods
- Sykes
- "Bob" - The Giant
Cargo
According to Bennett Knox, Snowpiercer is coming apart, there are no perpetual motion parts and Big Alice is packed with parts, such as bogie-motors, bovine cultures, a full genetics lab, enough to keep them going. It is unknown exactly how much Wilford retrofitted Big Alice and how different it is from its original form.
Technology
Despite having only 40 cars, Melanie believed Snowpiercer could outrun the prototype if all power was pushed to the motors. Eventually, though, Big Alice chased Snowpiercer down and managed to attach itself to the Docking Car of Snowpiercer using a massive connection mechanism concealed within its own car. This mechanism also possesses some form of welder, as it almost immediately begins cutting through the Tail hatch once connected. Wilford, however, overbuilt the mechanism which Melanie warned him about. By blowing up the central lock, Melanie ensured that Wilford could never disconnect the two trains, forever linking Big Alice and Snowpiercer.
Big Alice also has some form of 'jack' system, which is used to connect to Snowpiercer and began shutting down individual systems before finally gaining control of the Engine, and engaging the emergency brakes, bringing the train to a screeching halt. Melanie managed to cut the uplink with a small axe.
Exterior
While built on the same rail gauge as Snowpiercer, Big Alice is much larger and taller than Snowpiercer itself. It is also significantly darker in coloration, and adorned with bright orange caution stripes, in contrast with Snowpiercer's shiny all-chrome finish. She has two cockpits, one facing the front of the Engine, the other facing the back.
Its cars seem to be similar in design to Snowpiercer's albeit more utilitarian rather than designed for form. However, unlike Snowpiercer, Big Alice's locomotive is large and boxy, more similar to a modern diesel locomotive, and is still extremely powerful while pushing the train to connect with Snowpiercer. It is also ridiculously large compared to its own train cars, rather than being flush to the profile like Snowpiercer. Like Snowpiercer, she is also adorned with the large 'W' logo of Wilford Industries in various places.
Based on the concept art by Alex Nice, the train is even larger than Snowpiercer, being 10.8 meters wide, 13.3 meters tall (18.1 at the engine), and 88.2 meters long per car (70.8 meters at the engine). This would make the 40 car train exceed a length of 2.2 miles or 3.5 km. This is probably the closest to the actual dimensions however, the scale used during the set is downscaled.
Appearances
- Season One
Trivia
- Big Alice may be analogous to Icebreaker from the graphic novels, though this is unconfirmed.
- The Engineers seemed aware of Big Alice's existence but were surprised to see it moving.
- Carrying 40 carriages, Big Alice has 954 fewer carriages than Snowpiercer.
- Big Alice was retrofitted by Mr. Wilford sometime during Snowpiercer's first revolution.
- Unlike Snowpiercer, Big Alice appears to run in reverse with the Engine car being on the end of the train and the front, the part facing forward, being the Docking Car.
Gallery
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The Docking Car of Big Alice reveals itself
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All 40 cars
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Catching up
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Prepering to Connect
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Chicago
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True size
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Comicbook Version
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