| “ | I BUILT THE WORLD! It's the only one left, and it's mine! I run it! | „ |
| ~ Wilford's breakdown and most famous quote. |
Joseph Wilford is the main antagonist of the TV series Snowpiercer. He is a genius inventor and the founder of Wilford Industries.
He was portrayed by Sean Bean, who also played Sean Miller in Patriot Games, Alec Trevelyan in GoldenEye, Patrick Koster in Don't Say a Word, Dr. Merrick in The Island, John Ryder in The Hitcher, and Ian Howe in National Treasure.
Biography[]
Background[]
For decades, Wilford runs Wilford Industries, building bridges and tracks around the world. Bojan "Boki" Boscovic notes that he had worked for Wilford since he was 14 years old. He also recruits promising young engineers such as Melanie Cavill as his protegees. Wilford eventually builds Snowpiercer, a 1,001 car long luxury train for the rich funded by Wilford and his wealthy investors which runs on a Perpetual Motion Engine. Melanie later claims that the train is mostly of her own design while Wilford just sold tickets.
The Freeze[]
However, an attempt to correct global warming with a compound called CW-7 leads to a global apocalypse known as the Freeze where the planet freezes over, killing all life on it. When the Freeze happens, Wilford transforms his luxury liner into a Great Ark Train for the remnants of humanity. However, due to Wilford's power hungry nature, Melanie becomes convinced that what's left of humanity will be doomed under Wilford's control. As a result, Melanie plots to steal Snowpiercer and leave Wilford behind to die. Melanie enacts her plan after Wilford has his Jackboots murder some of her scientists and their families so that he will have room for more of his own troops. When Wilford goes to personally oversee the Jackboots keeping unticketed passengers from boarding, Melanie seizes her chance and pushes up Snowpiercer's departure, leaving Wilford behind to die. Over the next seven years, Wilford is presumed to be dead by Melanie who poses as him to control the train.
Big Alice[]
Unbeknownst to Melanie, Wilford survives and instead manages to make his way to the Big Alice supply train along with Melanie's daughter Alex who had failed to show up in time to board Snowpiercer and was thus presumed dead by her mother. Wilford is able to get Big Alice, which operates on a prototype of the Perpetual Motion Engine, running and spends the next several years chasing Snowpiercer across the globe. During this time, Wilford disconnects three of Big Alice's cars, culling half of the train's population to save resources, and training Alex as an engineer, brainwashing the young girl against her mother.
During his seven years on Big Alice, Wilford rules as a tyrant. He also has his scientists Mr. and Mrs. Headwood perform experiments into developing a cold treatment that makes people highly resistant to the cold temperatures outside of the train. They use a man known as Icy Bob as their test subject who gains a resistance to the cold, but at the same time becomes hideously scarred. Wilford also recruits a woman known as Sykes to be his Head of Security. However, Sykes is implied to have been forced into this role as she would later state that her violent instincts were forced upon her by Wilford. At one point, Sykes does something that she can't even remember to anger Wilford who responds by having Sykes mauled by his dog Jupiter.
Fight for Control[]
Seven years into the Freeze, Big Alice finally catches up with Snowpiercer in Chicago, ironically where the Great Ark Train's journey had started. Catching the other train by surprise with his smaller and nimbler train Wilford catches up and latches onto the rear of Snowpiercer, hacking into the train's systems and bringing it to a halt in the middle of Chicago. Wilford sends Alex with a list of demands, threatening to leave Snowpiercer's passengers to freeze otherwise. Melanie manages to sever Wilford's uplink, restoring computer control to Snowpiercer's engine, but the trains remain connected with Snowpiercer being too low on power to resume movement on its own again.
Boarding Big Alice, Melanie meets Wilford again for the first time in years. Although Wilford demands that she surrender the train, Melanie reveals that she has recently lost control to Andre Layton who begins organizing Snowpiercer's passengers against Wilford, leading an attempted invasion of Big Alice that is repelled by Icy Bob. Furious, Wilford orders Alex to disconnect from Snowpiercer and leave the other train to freeze, planning to come back once everyone is dead against Melanie's objections. Although Alex reluctantly complies, Wilford inadvertently plays right into Melanie's hands as she had placed a bomb on part of Big Alice's connecting mechanism which results in the two trains being permanently stuck together. Ironically, Melanie had once warned Wilford that he had overbuilt the mechanism and that such a thing would happen if something ever went wrong. Wilford reluctantly concedes, and resumes course.
After learning that his Head of Hospitality Kevin has been taken captive on Snowpiercer, Wilford trades Melanie for him and then brings Kevin into his bathtub to interrogate the other man. Once Kevin confesses what he had revealed to Layton and Sam Roche, Wilford compels Kevin to cut his own wrists, apparently killing him. Amidst growing pro-Wilford violence, Layton and Melanie later invite Wilford aboard Snowpiercer for a scientific conference about Melanie's belief that CW-7 is breaking up in the atmosphere and falling from the sky, leading to the planet warming. Wilford attempts to have Alex assassinate her mother, but Alex is unable to go through with it and the Headwoods confirm that Melanie's hypothesis could in fact be true. Wilford reluctantly agrees to support the attempt to find a New Eden, but it quickly becomes clear that he has a great deal of support aboard Snowpiercer.
Snowpiercer and Big Alice embark upon a dangerous journey to drop Melanie off at a research station for month during which time Melanie and Alex bond with each other, much to Wilford's frustration. Layton makes a deal with Wilford for trade between the two trains while having one of his men, Pike, set up his own illicit trade network. The departure of Melanie and the danger from Wilford causes Layton and Snowpiercer's engineers, Bennett Knox in particular, to form a closer relationship as they work to protect their train from Wilford. Bennett, who has been in Wilford's employment for over a decade, tells Layton from personal experience just how dangerous the Great Engineer can be. In exchange for Wilford having the Headwoods treat Snowpiercer's frostbite patients, Layton invites him and some of his people for a night out on Snowpiercer. During this time, Wilford reconnects with his old girlfriend Audrey who runs the Nightcar.
Over the course of the following month, Wilford manipulates events from behind the scenes on Big Alice, using his loyalists -- collectively referred to as the Wilfordites -- to stir up trouble for Layton, assaulting his friend Lights and cutting off some of her fingers so that the remaining fingers form Wilford's signature W salute. The attack is then blamed on the Breachmen, some of Wilford's most loyal followers, although the Breachmen deny being responsible for the attack and it's never completely clear if it was them or not. Either way, this just inflames tensions between Layton's people and Wilford's. Wilford also successfully entices Audrey to his side, and he uses her particular talents to brainwash Kevin -- who's "suicide" was only a part of one of Wilford's sick and twisted games -- into being a fanatically loyal follower of his. With Layton's girlfriend Josie Wellstead needing more dedicated care, Wilford has her brought aboard Big Alice where he has the Headwoods experiment upon her with their cold treatment.
With tensions beginning to boil over, Wilford has the Breachmen assassinated, making people believe that it was Layton's Tailies retaliating for the attack on Lights, although head Breachman Boki survives. Train Detective Bess Till uncovers the fact that Wilford is operating through Pastor Logan and arrests Eugenia, a First Class passenger who was one of the killers, but it makes little difference. Pro-Wilford riots break out all over Snowpiercer and while crossing a multi-layered bridge, most of the passengers' light lanterns calling for Wilford, having lost faith in Layton's leadership.
With all of the pieces of his master plan in place, Wilford sends Icy Bob to sabotage Snowpiercer's water intake, although the temperatures prove to be too severe for even Icy Bob to survive unprotected and he dies shortly after returning to Big Alice. While fixing the intake, Boki discovers evidence that Wilford was behind the sabotage and switches his loyalties to Layton, disgusted that the man whom he had spent most of his life working for had betrayed him and murdered the people that Boki had considered his family. As per Wilford's plan, the damage results in the train's God Module -- in essence the computer brain -- shorting out with only Wilford having a replacement part. Layton is forced to allow Wilford into Snowpiercer's engine for repairs where Wilford taunts Layton over his lack of knowledge on the train's workings, stating that Layton isn't fit to lead because unlike Wilford, he is not an engineer and thus does not understand the train that he's leading. However, due to Melanie's modifications to the engine, Wilford's sabotage has the unexpected side effect of putting the train into real danger that even he hadn't anticipated. In order to fix it, the crew is forced to perform a manual restart of the Eternal Engine, resulting in everyone learning that Wilford is onboard and saving the train. With Wilford's supporters gathering to keep him in the engine and support for Wilford throughout the train, Layton is forced to surrender control of Snowpiercer to Wilford.
Taking Control[]
Wilford quickly moves to consolidate his power, imprisoning Layton in Sanitation on Big Alice, moving engineer Javier "Javi" De la Torre to Big Alice, placing Head Brakeman Sam Roche and his family in the stasis Drawers, and reestablishing the Jackboots militia which had been disbanded by Layton after most of the Jackboots were killed in the revolution. Wilford also declares that they will not be returning for Melanie and sets up a carnival making fun of her in order to destroy her legacy.
Wilford invites Snowpiercer's remaining higher ups to a tense dinner where he confronts LJ Folger and John "Oz" Osweiler who have recently taken control of Janitorial over their role on the train. He also invites Ruth Wardell to take the place by his side that she has always wanted if Ruth will swear loyalty to him. However, having originally been one of the people most loyal to Wilford over the years, Ruth's loyalty lies with Snowpiercer and the passengers and, having finally seen her boss for the monster that he is, she refuses. The dinner ends when Alex, having also lost her loyalty to Wilford, explosively reveals that he had culled half of Big Alice's population and that he plans to do the exact same thing with Snowpiercer. Wilford subsequently imprisons Ruth in Sanitation.
Wilford later tries to get Bess Till to be his advisor, supposedly to act as his conscience. To this end, Wilford offers Till justice for the Breachmen's murders through the execution of the people whom he had ordered to carry out the murders. Wanting to put them on trial for their crimes instead, Till refuses, but Wilford carries out the execution of his own loyalists just to tie up loose ends.
After receiving a message from Melanie, Javi signals Layton who forms an alliance with Ruth to escape and take the trains back for Melanie and her data. Leaving Javi to run Big Alice's engine, Layton and Ruth escape to Snowpiercer with the help of their remaining allies and coordinate the plan to seize control of both trains. However, Wilford manages to break into the helm at the last minute and has his dog Jupiter maul Javi, apparently killing him. Retaking control of his engine, Wilford forces both trains past Melanie who is waiting for them trackside. Enraged, Alex tries and fails to Wilford before managing to escape to Snowpiercer.
Unable to defeat Wilford, Alex and Boki suggest an alternative plan: steal the first ten cars of Snowpiercer and turn it into a pirate train. With that, they can remain outside of Wilford's control and go back for Melanie and her data. Big Alice has enough power to keep both trains alive while they're gone, although Big Alice will be hobbled. Layton takes Audrey hostage in order to force Wilford to behave himself, demanding that Wilford not slaughter the passengers while they're gone or commit other atrocities. Wilford forces Josie to head to Snowpiercer's engine and breach it, intending to kill everyone inside, but Bennett contacts Josie and has her destroy the Aquarium Car instead when Boki can't disconnect it in time. This separates the trains, apparently at the cost of killing Boki. Layton escapes with the first ten cars of Snowpiercer, Bennett, Josie, Till, Audrey, the imprisoned Sykes, and inadvertent stowaway Martin Colvin. However, Layton's pregnant ex-wife Zarah decides to stay behind while Ruth is inadvertently left behind when she takes too long getting to the front of the train. When the pirate train returns for Melanie, they find her gone and only her data left behind. Having run out of resources, Melanie had left her data protected by the last of her power and walked out into the Freeze to die. Melanie's data reveals that the planet really is warming, providing hope for a new life outside of the train.
Wilford's Rolling Gulag[]
Over the next six months, Layton's crew searches for an inhabitable warm spot to settle in based on Melanie's data while Wilford obsessively chases after them in the rest of the train. During this time, the conditions aboard the train rapidly deteriorate from the loss of power provided by Snowpiercer's engine and it becomes a rolling gulag ruled by Wilford. Wilford decommissions First Class and puts all of the passengers to work in sub-zero temperatures, even those who had once lived in luxury. However, Wilford keeps his deal with Layton, and he refuses to order any massacres to reduce the population. Nevertheless, the train suffers losses under Wilford's leadership from the harsh conditions, resulting in people freezing to death and an influenza outbreak that claims a number of passengers, including Mr. Headwood. Having survived Jupiter's attack, a physically and emotionally scarred Javi is forced to serve as Wilford's engineer. Wilford also keeps Zarah close at hand and she consents to having the cold treatment performed upon her and Layton's unborn daughter Liana.
With Layton gone, his remaining allies and those increasingly dissatisfied with Wilford's rule form a resistance under the leadership of Ruth Wardell whom Wilford is unaware is still aboard the train. Wilford prepares for the pirate train's inevitable return, forcing Javi to assemble an EMP weapon. The resistance manages to throw the weapon off of the train where it detonates harmlessly, but Ruth allows herself to be captured in order to buy them time. Before Wilford can freeze her arm off in punishment, the pirate train finally returns, having tracked the signature from the EMP.
In an abandoned train yard located somewhere in China, the two trains engage in battle with each other. While Layton's train is smaller, faster, and far more maneuverable, Wilford's is better armed and manages to damage one of the cars with a harpoon, forcing Layton to eject six cars. Using the Hospitality Car's fireworks, Layton's friend Pike signals their position, allowing Layton to cut Wilford off as he tries to make a mistake. His already low power reserves completely depleted by the escape attempt, Wilford is brought to a halt and faces off with Layton who lets him see Audrey before knocking the train back into the train yard. Anchoring the train to the tracks, Wilford threatens to allow everyone on board to freeze to death if the pirate train doesn't reconnect and surrender which Bennett reluctantly agrees to.
However, unbeknownst to Wilford, he plays right into Layton's hands by doing so. As the pirate train moves to reconnect and Wilford sends his entire army to seize it, Layton sneaks off with Josie clad in environmental suits. Bennett discreetly signals Javi in Spanish, and he opens the cold lock on Big Alice's engine for Layton. While Wilford is distracted by Josie pretending to break out the window, Layton sneaks aboard the engine and confronts Wilford who is impressed at being tricked. Undefended and cornered, Wilford proves to be no match for Layton who stabs Wilford through the hand and forces him to call off his troops and officially surrender control of both Snowpiercer and Big Alice to Layton.
Imprisoned[]
After the trains reconnect, Wilford is imprisoned aboard Big Alice while Layton takes full control of both of the trains. Layton exiles Audrey to Third Class, but Sykes defects to Layton's side during her time on the pirate train and becomes one of his people instead of Wilford's. Shortly after Snowpiercer encounters the three disconnected Big Alice cars containing the people that Wilford had culled, Sam Roche, having lost his wife while they were imprisoned in the Drawers, attempts to kill Wilford by injecting him in the heart with the Drawers' stasis drug. However, Wilford survives the assassination attempt, although it does leave him comatose and then catatonic for a time.
In an effort to stimulate his mind, Alex has Wilford moved to the Library Car on Snowpiercer where she puts on cartoons for him. Wilford eventually recovers, but he is allowed to continue to live in the Library Car under guard rather than being returned to his cell on Big Alice. Having been forced to confront his mortality, Wilford studies Layton's plan of building New Eden in the Horn of Africa and contemplates building a future there with Audrey. However, disgusted by what he's become, Audrey rejects Wilford and the idea and she instead begins working on rebuilding her life which had been ruined by Audrey's decision to join with Wilford, eventually forming a romantic relationship with Bess Till.
While Layton is unconscious following an assassination attempt by Pike, Wilford enlists Alex's help map out the course of the pirate train across the globe. Wilford then reveals that during those six months, he had picked up a track signal from what he had originally believed to be the other train, but it wasn't as the train was on a completely different continent at the time. Wilford has come to the shocking conclusion that the signal is from Melanie and that she is somehow still alive. Wilford proves to be right with Snowpiercer finding and rescuing Melanie in a small track scaler maintenance vehicle which she has survived in by using the stasis drugs. Zarah suspects that Wilford wanted Melanie rescued because she tends to be a disruptive force that Wilford can use to his advantage.
Near Civil War[]
Following Melanie's rescue, Wilford -- having resumed his old ways -- confronts her with the dangers of traveling to Layton's New Eden, compounding her own doubts. Melanie publicly reveals the truth to the passengers, causing a major split and putting Snowpiercer on the brink of civil war. Satisfied with the chaos that he has sown, Wilford poisons his guards and escapes with the help of his loyalists.
Wilford and his followers seize control of the Nightcar where Wilford reveals that Boki had survived the destruction of the Aquarium Car and, under Headwood's care, has been made cold resistant, impervious to pain, and brainwashed to be completely loyal to him. As the situation continues to devolve, Wilford offers Melanie his help, knowing that only with the support of the forces that he has at his disposal does Melanie have any chance of forcing Layton to stand down without any major bloodshed.
However, Wilford underestimates Layton and Melanie who, instead of going to war with each other, let cooler heads prevail. During a phone conversation with each other, the two realize that they don't want to go back to the lies, fear and blood that ruled Snowpiercer in the past and that no matter the outcome of the conflict, Wilford will be the true victor which neither of them want. Playing up the schism between them, Layton and Melanie work together to lure Wilford into a trap, overpowering Boki and capturing the Great Engineer. Unwilling to either kill Wilford or put up with the constant danger of him onboard the trains anymore, Layton and Melanie exile Wilford onboard the track scaler along with a supply of the stasis drugs. Having completely broken free of Wilford's hold on her, Audrey simply says goodbye to him. Set on the tracks in the tiny vehicle, Wilford places himself into stasis.
Once he's gone, Layton and Melanie publicly release their solution to the dilemma: those who wish to stay on Snowpiercer with Melanie may do so while those who wish to go to New Eden will leave with Layton on Big Alice. Either way, the two promise that the tyrannical rule started by Wilford on Snowpiercer and followed by Melanie in his place is over and Snowpiercer will now be led through science, truth and equality.
The Silo[]
About a month later, Wilford is found and rescued by the International Peacekeeping Forces led by Admiral Anton Milius. Wilford agrees to join their efforts to end the Freeze using the compound Gemini in exchange for the return of his trains. When Milius decides to invade New Eden for Big Alice a year after the settlement was created, Wilford instead suggests kidnapping Layton's daughter Liana, something that he later insists was so that Milius wouldn't just slaughter everyone in order to get the train. Wilford knew that by taking Layton's daughter, he would incite Layton to take Big Alice to rescue her. However, one of Milius' men kills Zarah when she tries to stop the kidnapping, something that Wilford had never intended to happen.
Layton's pursuit of Liana eventually leads him to the Silo after making a deal with Milius to trade Big Alice for being taken to Liana, just like Wilford had predicted. After gathering Layton, Bennett, Till, Ruth, and Alex, Milius reveals an amused Wilford to them, instantly causing them to realize that Wilford was behind Liana's kidnapping. They also realize that Melanie, who has been working in the Silo ever since Snowpiercer was hijacked, also knew and that it was the reason for communication between the train and Melanie being cut off. Wilford successfully entices Alex into working with him and retrieves some of his belongings from Big Alice's engine. However, Layton's friends stage a breakout with Bennett even punching Wilford in the face at one point. Alex decides to remain behind in the hopes of getting some answers from Melanie about New Eden's seemingly unstable warm spot and, despite Wilford triggering the alarm, Big Alice manages to escape with a number of Snowpiercer passengers at the cost of Bennett sacrificing himself in order to separate the trains. Milius later calls upon Wilford to repair the damage done to Snowpiercer by Bennett's sabotage.
During this time, Wilford undergoes Headwood's cold treatment using Josie and Liana's blood and attempts to subvert Milius' forces for himself. Sick of Wilford and his power games, Milius traps Wilford and Layton together on Level 3 in the hopes that Layton will kill Wilford and remove the problem for him. Level 3 turns out to be a sealed off level where Milius had purposefully exposed the residents to Gemini in order to seize power for himself and uses the survivors as his test subjects. Instead, Wilford convinces a reluctant Layton to form an alliance so that they can take down Milius together and reclaim Snowpiercer. Wilford explains his role in Liana's kidnapping, pointing out that he had never actually harmed her and that he had genuinely cared for both the baby and Zarah and how far Milius is willing to go as justification for his most recent actions. Comparing his trains to his children, Wilford points out Layton's own hypocrisy and how similar the two of them are.
Layton and Wilford's escape attempt via the elevator shaft is inadvertently foiled by Alex's rescue attempt for them. As Layton holds off the soldiers, the two engineers construct a sonic weapon together. Wilford urges Alex to escape via the ventilation shafts and find her mother as she's the only one small enough to fit. Wilford states that Snowpiercer and Big Alice are Alex's legacy to protect, not her mother's, and convinces her to escape. Using his sonic weapon, Wilford incapacitates the soldiers long enough for Layton to blow open a stairwell door, allowing the mortal enemies to escape. The two encounter Melanie who is unaware of the recent events. In a rare unselfish moment, Wilford tells Layton how to find Josie and Liana even though he can't get Layton to agree to hold the trains for him in return, and departs to confront Milius on his own.
Heading to the control room, Wilford is captured by Milius and he is taken to a frozen over level where Milius intends to have Wilford freeze to death. However, Wilford instead quickly thaws due to his now having the cold resistance which allows Wilford to overpower Milius and breach his protective suit, killing him. Wilford's attempt to take control of the Silo and Snowpiercer is foiled by Doctor Nima Rousseau, upon learning of the Admiral's death, instead taking control of the train for himself to continue with the mission to launch Gemini.
Death[]
Using his new cold resistance, Wilford boards the last car of Snowpiercer where he's confronted by Layton who has learned of the experiments that Wilford had performed upon Josie and deduces that Wilford had used the woman that he loves and his daughter to get his cold resistance. Utterly finished with Wilford, Layton takes Milius' gun from him and prepares to finally kill his mortal enemy for his many crimes. Cornered with no allies and no chance of escape, Wilford tries and fails to talk down Layton who is willing to commit cold-blooded murder if it means bringing a final end to the threat that Wilford poses to his family.
Realizing that he is well and truly finished, Wilford asks Layton for the indulgence of smoking a final blunt, something that Layton grants. Wilford then reveals that the blunt is laced with one of Mrs. Headwood's poisons and Wilford has decided to end his own life rather than let Layton do it. Dying, Wilford warns Layton that Doctor Nima Rousseau is the true danger that Layton needs to watch out for. Nima is the man who had launched CW-7 and froze the world in the first place and his plan to launch Gemini threatens to end the world again. Wilford dies of the poison and Layton checks his pulse to make sure that Wilford is finally truly gone.
Personality[]
Wilford is shown in the show to be ruthless and relentless, with little regard to the lives of others, as well as not showing a sense of right or wrong; from what has been seen, he values the ideology of power above all else and was willing to leave Snowpiercer and its population to die when he could not get his way. He sees himself as a king of men, a champion of the apocalypse and deems all those that disagree with him as disloyal, ungrateful, and traitorous.
He is not without his charms though; his natural charisma and almost-intoxicatingly-suave personality allow him to win-over and influence many people. The crew of Big Alice seemed to be entirely under his spell, and regarded him in an almost evangelic fashion; as less man and more a god-like savior.
Although Melanie is the true mastermind behind designing Snowpiercer, Wilford is in fact a truly brilliant Engineer in his own right, having created the God Module and then being the only one to be able to come up with a way to fix the damage that his sabotage had caused to the train, albeit some of it having been an inadvertent side effect of the sabotage rather than an intended effect on Wilford's part. As shown with his training of Alex as a young child, Wilford is able to determine the source of a problem simply by spotting the very subtle differences that it causes, something that other Engineers such as Bennett Knox couldn't do without it being pointed out to them.
One of the quirkier sides of Wilford's personality is his love of cannabis. Owning several bongs (as seen in the background of his quarters), and frequently seen smoking long joints or spliffs, Wilford appears to be quite dependent on the substance — prioritizing the production of the cannabis even over that of food for his crew.
Despite his ruthlessness, Wilford is apparently not entirely remorseless or unsympathetic. After realizing that Alex will have to see the dead body of her friend Shilo, someone that Wilford had killed in his cull of Big Alice, he apologizes to a hallucination of Melanie, knowing that no one should ever have to experience that.
Following Sam Roche's attempt to kill him with the suspension drug, Wilford was left a broken man due to being haunted by his sins while under the drug's influence. Wilford (for a time) no longer had any immediate desire for power and instead saw the possibilities in Layton and Melanie's dream of New Eden, something that greatly frustrated Miss Audrey.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Master Engineer and Inventor: Wilford is a genius Engineer who invented the Snowpiercer and Big Alice trains and many of their components, as well as training other brilliant Engineers such as Melanie Cavill, Bennett Knox, and Alexandra Cavill. In a flashback, Wilford is shown teaching Alex how to determine the source of problems on Big Alice by observing its pulse and breathing. Although Melanie states that Snowpiercer was mainly of her design while Wilford only "sold tickets," he has a better understanding of its systems than almost anyone, allowing him to pinpoint how to sabotage and repair the train and anticipate various issues.
- Master Manipulator: As seen in many characters, Wilford is considered a near-mythical being -- albeit while he's not actually on the train and the myth that he is is being maintained -- who is seen as a savior and a great man. In reality, Wilford shows little care for the majority of his followers, manipulating them to do his bidding and discarding them if necessary. Despite the Breachmen being some of his most fanatical followers, Wilford has them murdered in order to sow discord and then, once he has control of the train, personally executes the people who had carried out the murders for him. During the war for control of the train, Wilford primarily operated through those that he successfully manipulated into doing his bidding which weakened Andre Layton's leadership so much that Wilford was able to take control without a fight in the end. After witnessing Wilford's cruelty for themselves during the war for control of Snowpiercer, Ruth Wardell and Bojan "Boki" Boscovic, originally two of Wilford's greatest supporters, switched sides. Sykes, Wilford's own Head of Security, joined Layton during her six months as a prisoner of war on the pirate train. One of Wilford's favorite tactics has been shown to take someone into the bathtub with him and make them slit their own wrists, although he doesn't allow them to actually die. This is a part of a ritual where the person effectively dies and is reborn into Wilford's service. In the case of Kevin McMahon, this turns him from a rather meek person into a sadistic fanatic willing to torture and murder in Wilford's name.
- Cold Resistance: By taking Mrs. Headwood's genetic cold treatment, Wilford gains a resistance to extreme cold temperatures. When Wilford is taken to a frozen floor by Admiral Anton Milius, Wilford begins freezing over before suddenly thawing out. Wilford is able to breach Milius' suit and leave him to die in the cold temperatures while being completely unharmed himself. Subsequently, Wilford boards Snowpiercer unprotected from the outside in fatally freezing temperatures, suffering no ill effects from it.
Killed Victims[]
- 6 geneticists and their families: Shot by Jackboots on Wilford's orders
- Many people trying to board Snowpiercer at departure: Shot by Jackboots on Wilford's orders
- 100 Big Alice crew: Frozen to death in The First Year Cull of Big Alice
- Shilo
- 8 Breachmen: Killed by Eugenia and seven other Wilford supporters on Wilford's orders through Pastor Logan
- Cherry Sherry: Stabbed several times by Eugenia
- Male Breachmen: Strangled
- Female Breachmen: Head bashed in
- Male Breachmen: Stabbed
- Male Breachmen: Stabbed in the throat
- Male Breachmen: Head bashed in
- Male Breachmen: Stabbed
- Female Breachmen: Unknown, likely stabbed
- Icy Bob: Died of injuries from going into the Freeze unprotected on Wilford's orders
- 8 people, the Breachmen's killers: Executed with Lung of Ice by Wilford
- Eugenia
- ND Prisoner
- 3 people: Poisoned with the help of his supporters
- Jackboot Tyson
- Brakeman Henry
- Brakeman Brendan
- Anton Milius: Froze to death after Wilford tore open his protective suit on Level 30
- Himself: Committed suicide by smoking a poison blunt after being cornered by Andre Layton
Trivia[]
- Joseph Wilford's counterpart in the Snowpiercer movie is Wilford.
- Wilford acts as the narrator of the animated short Twas the Train Before Christmas where he tells the story of Snowpiercer season 1 in the form of the Twas the Night Before Christmas poem.
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 villains
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