Dr. Nima Rousseau is a main character in the fourth season of Snowpiercer. He is portrayed by Michael Aronov. He is a brilliant chemist and researcher working with the International Peacekeeping Forces to bring an end to the Freeze which Nima caused with CW-7. Nima is the hidden antagonist of the fourth season and the catalysator for the events of the series, due to CW-7 freezing the world.
History[]
Not much is known about Nima's past, but he had a fellowship at MIT and knows Melanie Cavill from there. At some point during this time, he acted as a sperm donor, allowing Melanie to conceive Alexandra Cavill.
For six years before the Freeze, Nima works on the compound known as CW-7 which is used in an attempt to stop global warming, but instead freezes the planet, killing nearly all life on it. According to Joseph Wilford, it was Nima's fault, possibly because he was too prideful to listen to warnings that CW-7 wasn't safe. Nima himself states that he was the leader of 100 scientists and that it was their mistake, not his, and that they wouldn't listen to him.
When the Freeze begins, Nima is flown to the International Peacekeeping Forces bunker known as the Silo in Djibouti to lead a team of international scientists in an attempt to find a way to stop the Freeze. They eventually succeed in using Gemini to cause CW-7 to denature in the upper atmosphere and fall from the sky, launching missiles carrying it from a single location. Nima and his team's efforts create six warm spots in Sulawesi, Gujarati, Managua, Atacama, Korea and the Horn of Africa. The latter location eventually becomes the New Eden colony after Snowpiercer detects Nima's work and realizes that the Earth is warming, although the other survivors are unaware that CW-7 breaking up is anything but a natural occurrence. However, Nima's ability to counteract the Freeze is limited by the single location that the International Peacekeeping Forces can launch from, requiring Snowpiercer to launch the missiles from the other side of the planet and cover the entire globe.
Throughout The Series[]
Season 4[]
In The Sting of Survival, Nima boards Snowpiercer after the hijacked train docks at the International Peacekeeping Forces bunker. Melanie is surprised to see her old friend again and he explains how he came to be at the bunker, defending Admiral Anton Milius' actions as necessary. Nima reveals that his research team's efforts are responsible for the breakup of CW-7 in the atmosphere and the six warm spots, including the one where New Eden is located. Nima explains that they need to retrofit Snowpiercer to spread his team's compound across the globe and he shows Melanie satellite footage of the thriving New Eden as proof of what their efforts can accomplish. Although Melanie doesn't trust Milius, she ultimately agrees to cooperate and help Nima's plan to end the Freeze in the hopes of a better future for what's left of mankind. Leaving Bennett Knox in charge of Snowpiercer, Melanie leaves the train to join Nima's team in the bunker.
Killed Victims[]
- Most of all life on Earth (died in the Freeze caused by Nima's CW-7)
- 1 Animal Squad member (poisoned by Nima Rousseau)
- Himself (frozen to death after exposing himself to the Freeze in the Rocket Car)
Personality[]
Relationships[]
Appearances[]
| Appearance | EP1 | EP2 | EP3 | EP4 | EP5 | EP6 | EP7 | EP8 | EP9 | EP10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | ||||||||||
| Season 2 | ||||||||||
| Season 3 | ||||||||||
| Season 4 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Appeared | Did Not Appear | H = Hallucinations | ||||||||
| V = Voice | M = Mentioned | F = Flashback | ||||||||
Memorable Quotes[]
- Nima: "My research team developed a compound that triggers CW-7 to denature in the upper atmosphere and fall from the sky. We've only launched missiles from a single location, but our compound has followed weather patterns across half the equator, creating six warm spots. Sulawesi, Gujarati..."
- Nima and Melanie: "...Managua, Atacama..."
- Nima: "-- Korea and the Horn."
- Melanie: "That was you?"
- Nima: "It was my team. But now, we -- we hit a barrier. These warm spots, they need to grow and -- and mix and feed off one another into a web that extends across the globe. But with half the equator still in deep freeze, there's no point. It's six candles in a blizzard. It's why we need Snowpiercer to help launch our compound from the opposite side of the planet."
- Melanie: "On the chance it'll work."
- ― Nima and Melanie discuss his work, the effect it has had and why Snowpiercer is needed in The Sting of Survival
- Melanie: "They're living outside."
- Nima: "Well, this is every trial, every test we've run. Go through it. We're on the verge of a breakthrough. This colony living in the Horn, what if we could make it like that everywhere?"
- ― Nima and Melanie discuss New Eden and the possibilities that Nima's research represents in The Sting of Survival
- Melanie: "Do you remember when you wouldn't work for an energy company that was dumping chemicals into the Atlantic? Do you? Because I do. And now you've made this poison. And you wanna launch it into the atmosphere."
- Nima: "A poison that created New Eden."
- Melanie: "At what cost? And how do you know it'll work any different than it did with CW-7? You weren't working on Gemini 15 years ago. That was CW-7. That was you."
- Nima: "My team. It wasn't just me. It was my team. It was a hundred voices, small minds, incapable of seeing -- but now it's up to me to fix their mistake -- us. You're wrong, Mel. You hear me? You're -- you're wrong. I'm -- I'm nothing like those polluters who only concern themselves with their bottom line. That's not me. And it's not poison we're launching into the sky, it's hope. It's hope. You'll realize it soon enough. Gather whatever you need to finish the retrofit. We'll be leaving soon."
- ― Melanie confronts Nima who refuses to accept and learn from his mistakes in Dominant Traits.
- Alex: "I also thought that we could discuss the whole that you are my dad."
- Nima: "Melanie wouldn't use that term."
- Alex: "Well, neither would you, apparently."
- Nima: "Well, we have a few minutes."
- ― Alex seeks answers from her father as a distraction in Dominant Traits.
- Alex: "I wanna hear both sides of the story, so this your chance to tell me yours."
- Nima: "I'm sure it lines up with your mother's."
- Alex: "Ok, then. Then why did you do it?"
- Nima: "Melanie was a friend, and she asked."
- Alex: "So it was a transaction?"
- Nima: "Don't be so reductive. You know you're more than that. Look. The conditions in which we're raised play an important role in shaping us. But the influence of our genetics holds the stronger sway. You've had fatherly influences on -- on both sides. The -- the nurture part, that you got from Joseph Wilford, but the nature -- that, you inherited from me."
- Alex: "Both such sane people."
- Nima: "You -- you know the difference between dominant and recessive genes?"
- Alex: "One overrules the other."
- Nima: "Mm-hmm. Whether advantageous or detrimental, and the other gene can't compensate for it."
- Alex: "Is this your weird way of telling me that I have your eyes?"
- Nima: "It's my way of telling you that you need to stop explaining yourself to lesser people when standing right across from you is a partner who will never know you better."
- Alex: "We've had like five conversations. So how do you really know me?"
- Nima: "Because even if it's through sheer genetics, I am irrefutably your father, and unlike the twisted nurturing influences of Joseph Wilford, you can never overcome your own blood."
- ― Nima gives a purely scientific explanation as to how he's Alex's father in Dominant Traits.
Trivia[]
- He has the opening monologue in Dominant Traits, albeit it is through a letter that he writes to Melanie Cavill, where his voice is heard verbalizing its content while she reads it.
- Melanie Cavill and Nima are revealed to know each other from MIT which Melanie is known to have attended, suggesting that Nima was either a former colleague or professor of hers.
- The revelation that Nima caused the Freeze means that Nima was one of the "men of science" that Layton mentions froze the world in the monologue for the series premiere First, the Weather Changed.
- In Dominant Traits, it's revealed that the men of science were Nima and his research team which he states were a hundred other people.