"It's one of the last real remote train journeys lik that on the planet. When I took it back in 1988, that kind of became the inspiration for this movie.

And what struck me most of all is that you are basically in one of the most remote places you can get to .. or can't get to. And when you combine the kind of claustrophobia of a train with the vast open wilderness of the tundra you're going through, it's just a great visual metaphor ..... and even if you could get off the train to escape what is after you, there's nowhere to go"