| “ | 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[]
Old Ivan had boarded Snowpiercer when he was 78 and 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 had 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 was also a decent chess player.
Throughout The Series[]
Death[]
He was shown to be one of the leading members of the Tail, and was a member of the Tailie War Council which planned the insurrection. He would stand in the front line, ready to fight in the planned day (which didn't succeed because Layton was taken uptrain forcibly)
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]
Legacy[]
In Smolder to Life, Layton mentioned Old Ivan again when talking to Melanie in The Engine, discussing about Wilford and his plan.
In Born to Bleed, Layton reminded Pike how sorry he is for Old Ivan's death. With Pike wanting Layton dead, the two men use a Tailie ritual called Old Ivan's Way to solve their differences.
In Life Source, the Old Ivan Library in New Eden is named in his honor.
Personality[]
Appearances[]
| Appearance | EP1 | EP2 | EP3 | EP4 | EP5 | EP6 | EP7 | EP8 | EP9 | EP10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | ✔ | |||||||||
| Season 2 | M | |||||||||
| Season 3 | M | |||||||||
| Season 4 | M | |||||||||
| Appeared | Did Not Appear | H = Hallucinations | ||||||||
| V = Voice | 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. | ||
Trivia[]
- He hung himself on his birthday.
- He is likely a Russian due to his name.
- He owned a tuning fork, that he held in his hand when hung himself and it dropped.
- He listened to Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No 2.
- His character seems similar to Gilliam from the film.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Snowpiercer Promo Photos (4).jpg (148 KB)")