Final Destination (series)

Final Destination is a horror film series created by James Wong. Wong is the director of Final Destination (2000) and Final Destination 3 (2006) with David R. Ellis directing Final Destination 2 (2003) and The Final Destination (2009). Steven Quale directed the fifth and most recent installment of the franchise Final Destination 5 (2011) which has garnered the most favorable reviews from critics. All five films revolve around a group of people who cause a rift in Deaths design by avoiding near death. Death itself tries to set things right by killing all of those who have disturbed the balance of life and death. 

 

Final Destination

Main article: Final Destination

Final Destination

Final Destination is the first entry in the series. It follows a high school student named Alex Browning who foresees a plane explosion that kills hundreds. He panics and is thrown off the plane along with six others including his best friend Tod Waggner, his arch rival Carter Horton, Carter's girlfriend Terry Chaney, and two fellow classmates Clear Rivers and Billy Hitchcock. His teacher Valerie Lewton volunteers to stay behind and look after the students. Initially everyone believes Alex is nuts but are stunned to witness the plane explode in mid air upon take-off. Months after the incident Tod is found strangled to death in his bathtub. His death is deemed a suicide but Alex is convinced this isn't just a coincidence and believes that death is claiming the lives of those who were meant to die on the plane. This is confirmed when he witnesses Terry being hit by a bus first-hand. He also finds out that death is killing them in the order they were to die if they were to stay on the plane and deduces that his teacher Mrs. Lewton will be next. He rushes to her house but looks very suspicious and is taken into custody. Meanwhile, Mrs. Lewton's coffee mug leaks into her computer monitor causing it to explode. A shard slits her throat, she stumbles into the kitchen and her stove ignites causing her to tumble to the ground. She reaches for a rag to stop the bleeding which is sitting on a rack of knives on the counter causing it to tip over and sending a knife into her chest. Another explosion causes a chair to topple over driving the knife deeper into her chest. Alex is released and finds Lewton bleeding out on the floor near death. By the time he pulls the knife from her chest she has already bleed to death. He flees the scene realizing it will look like he is responsible for her death. He goes into hiding but is found by Clear. He explains to Carter and Billy that death is after them and Carter stops his car on train tracks wanting to die on his own terms. At the last moment he changes his mind but can not get out of the car. Alex saves him and a shard from the wreckage is sent flying through the air decapitating Billy. This leads Alex to believe that because he saved Carter, death has skipped him and went to the next person on its list, Billy. Alex realizes he is next and distances himself from Clear. He then remembers that Clear was meant to die before him in the plane explosion. He rushes to save her and finds her trapped in a car that is seconds away from exploding with an electric power cable flipping around outside. He grabs the cable electrocuting himself and allowing her to leave the car before it explodes. Six months later it is revealed he has survived and is now in Paris along with Clear and Carter the three celebrate there victory over some drinks. Just then Alex says that he has saved Carter and Clear skipping them but, in his case he has never been skipped. Just then he begins having a weird feeling and leaves the table he walks into the street and a bus swerves to avoid hitting him driving into a sign which swings off its hinges. Carter wrestles Alex to the ground saving him from being hit by the falling sign. Alex tells Carter that death has skipped him just then the sign comes swinging back down killing Carter. This means that once death has skipped everyone on its list it will go write back to the top of the list and start over again.

Final Destination 2

Main article: Final Destination 2

Final Destination 2

Final Destination 2 starts exactly one year from the first film. Kimberly Corman his headed to Daytona beach, Florida with her friends for spring break but she has a vision just like Alex had of a car pile up on route 23 killing her and her friends. She stalls the on ramp and is saved by officer Thomas Burke from being hit by a large truck which kills her friends. Everyone is taken in for questioning and after hearing of the events of the first film they all storm off. Following these events two survivors are killed in freak accidents just like in the first film and Kimberly seeks help from Flight 180 survivor Clear Rivers who is now a willing inmate at an insane asylum. She is the only remaining survivor after Alex was killed by a falling brick. Initially she refuses to help Kimberly but eventually agrees. Clear, Kimberly, and Thomas all visit William Bludworth a mortician who tells them the only way to defeat death is via new life. This leads them to believe that by Isabella Hudson, a survivor of the pile up having her baby they will all be scratched off deaths list. That night they call a meeting so all the survivors can look after one another. Nora Carpenter storms off to plan her sons funeral but is alarmed by a man with hooks who is standing behind her. Her hair is caught by a hook and as she tries to leave the elevator her head is crushed by the sliding doors and she is decapitated. The next day they all leave to find Isabella who has just gone into labor. They learn that death is working in reverse because all of them are all somehow alive because of survivors of flight 180. For example: Kimberly should have been killed by car jackers along with her mother although she was caught up watching a news report on Todd Waggners death. Thomas should have been killed in a shoot out with his partner but was called to the scene of Billy Hitchcock's death. Rory would have been killed in a theater collapse in France but was to shaken up after witnessing Carter being crushed by the fallen sign. Eugene was given a job as a substitute teacher after Mrs. Lewton's death avoiding being killed by a student at his old job. And Kat would have been killed by a gas leak in her hotel but her bus was delayed after hitting Terry Chaney. Just then they get in an accident and Eugene's lung is punctured by a pipe. The Gibbons family who witnessed the accident try to help out by calling firefighters to the scene. A firefighter tries to help Kat out who is trapped in the van. He sets off the air bag which pushes her back into a pipe protruding from the head rest. She drops her cigarette which ignites causing an explosion that sends a barb wired fence flying through the sky which trisects Rory. Kimberly, Clear, and Thomas follow Eugene to the hospital and witness the birth of Isabella's child. Just then Kimberly realizes Isabella was never supposed to die in the pile up and Eugene and Clear are killed in an explosion. Kimberly drives a van into a lake to end it but, she is revived thus granting her new life. Months later they join the Gibbons for a barbeque where they are told that their son Brian was saved from near death by Rory just then the grill malfunctions and Brian explodes with his arm landing on his mothers plate who screams in horror.

Final Destination 3

Main article: Final Destination 3

Final Destination 3

It has been five years since the second film. Wendy and her graduating class have attended an amusement park for grad night. With her is her boyfriend Jason, her best friend Carrie and Carrie's obnoxious boyfriend Kevin who also happens to be Jason's best friend. They are about to board a roller coaster called Devil's Flight when Wendy has a vision of the Roller coaster derailing. She demands to be let off along with Kevin and several others. Unfortunately, Jason and Carrie are killed in the accident. Days later Ashley and Ashlyn two survivors are incinerated while tanning. During their funeral, Wendy and Kevin find that death is claiming those who were meant to die on the roller coaster meaning that Frankie is next. They deduce that there are hints as to how the next person will die hidden in photos that she took the night of the accident. They go through a drive through trying to find clues in Frankie's picture. Suddenly a man loses control of his truck and it is headed in there direction. They are trapped in the drive through and break through the wind shield escaping near death. The truck causes the engine in Kevin's truck to fly out killing the man in front of them who they later find out was Frankie. Next they try to warn Lewis Romero convinced that a weight will come crushing down on his head. Sure enough they find him at a gym. He fails to believe them and weights crush his head as they predicted. Next they try to warn Ian and Erin who don't believe them as well. Kevin saves Ian from being impaled by fallen planks of wood skipping him. Death moves onto Erin and she is shot multiple times through the face by a nail gun. Later on Wendy views a picture taken on the roller coaster realizing her sister Julie was on the ride as well and is next. She rushes to a tricentennial celebration were she finds Julie being dragged by a horse. Kevin cuts the rope saving her. Wendy demands to know who was sitting beside her on the roller coaster as they are next. Julie's friend Perry backs up in fear and is impaled by a flag pole. Kevin is next and is almost killed when a fire ignites in his face but is saved just in time by Wendy only suffering minor burns. Ian blaming Wendy for Erin's death tries to kill her but Wendy, Kevin, and Julie dodge a set of Fireworks that go off causing a cherry picker to tip over and crush Ian. Months later, Wendy meets Kevin and Julie on a train which crashes causing a tire to fly through mid air killing Julie, Kevin to be grounded between the train and the tunnel wall and Wendy to be run over by a second train. Wendy realizes this was just another vision and they try to stop the train but to no avail. The screen fades to black and the train can be heared crashing presuming all three dead.

The Final Destination

Main article: The Final Destination

The Final Destination

Four years after Final Destination 3, Nick O'Bannon and his friends visit a speed way. Nick has a premonition of a car crash sending cars into the the stands and causing the stadium to collapse on him his girlfriend Lori, and friends Hunt, Janet and several innocent by standers. He panics and pushes past several people to escape the imitate accident. Several people leave the stadium seconds before it collapse as her foresaw. Days later Carter Daniels blaming George Lanter for the death of his wife attempts to burn a cross on his lawn. But his plan back fires and he ends up being dragged down the street on fire before the truck finally explodes. The next day, another survivor Samantha Lane has a rock propelled through her eye. Nick, after hearing of the three previous incidences, returns to the race track to try to remember who was next to die in his premonition. George shows him several security tapes of the accident helping him refresh his memory and he deduces that a man named Andy Kewzer will be next. They find him working in a mechanic shop. As they try to talk to him a Co2 tank is sent in his path knocking him into a grid linked fence. Lori and George go to find Janet while Nick tries to find Hunt. George and Lori find Janet at a car wash saving her from near death. Nick is not as successful and Hunt has his intestines sucked out of his body by a drain while visiting a public pool. George realizing he is next tries to commit suicide but, all his attempts fail. This leads them to believe they must have cheated death. Nick then realizes that in his premonition he switched seats with a man who was killed in the accident. But because he fled the stadium before switching seats with the man the man survived the accident. They find him at a hospital but he is killed when an overflown bath tub in the floor above him comes crashing down on him. George is then hit by an ambulance and Nick rushes to save Lori and Janet. He gets to the mall in time to save Lori but Janet refuses to come with them and is killed when the screen to a movie they are watching explodes. Lori and Nick are also killed by a faulty escalator. Nick realizes this was just another vision and after George is killed he rushes to save Lori and Janet, successfully stopping the fire that would have caused the initial explosion. Weeks go by and they all celebrate there survival at a coffee shop. Nick suddenly realizes that death has actually been manipulating them the whole time and they were meant to have survived all of that just then a truck crashes through the window crushing Janet's spine, twisting Lori's neck and throwing Nick into the wall breaking his jaw and killing him.

Final Destination 5

Main article: Final Destination 5

Final Destination 5

The film opens up with co-workers gathering together for a company retreat. Sam Lawton has prepared the breakfast before the bus ride. His best friend, Peter, is awaiting everyone else's arrival for the trip. Molly Harper, Sam's girlfriend arrives and she then breaks up with him, due to his dreams of going to Paris to be an apprentice for his mentor. Meanwhile Peter's girlfriend, Candice, an intern for the company and a gymnast comes along with rival Olivia Castle. Molly is hit on by Isaac Palmer, a co-worker and womanizer. Sam then goes to the construction wing of the building to find his other friend, Nathan Gregory, a supervisor who has a hard time dealing with construction worker, Roy. Nathan and Sam regroup and head on the bus to their destination. As the bus heads up on the bridge, Sam notices the roads construction is rather suspicious, and he begins to have weird feelings while on the bus. The bus is stopped by a traffic operator, and then the bridge starts to crack. Sam watches as each of the co-workers dies, excluding Molly, who reaches safety. Sam then comes to, realizing that the incident has yet to occur. He and Molly leave the bus, and Peter, Candice, Olivia, Nathan, Isaac, and Dennis follow. The bridge collapses and Sam rushes all of his friends to safety. During the company funeral, William Bludworth, a local coroner is present and he warns the group that Death is after them. They all ignore his warnings and move on with their lives. Sam and Molly reconcile later that night. The next day, Candice is with Peter at her gymnastics practice. While she does work on the balance beam, a nail from a malfunctioning fan falls on the beam, nail side up. Candice then goes to do some vault work, and while she is flipping, another girl on the beam does a routine and she falls on the nail, causing her to knock over a pit full of powder. The powder is blown into the area and Candice loses her sight, and she flips, accidentally letting go, causing her death. The next day, Isaac goes through the dead co-workers desks and comes across a Chinese massage parlor. He goes there and flirts with many of the women, but is forced into acupuncture by a woman disgusted with his sexist attitude. After the procedure, as Isaac rolls over on his bed, the leg of it caves in sending him on the ground, pushing the needles into his body. He staggeringly gets up, but a bottle of alcohol causes a fire from a candle falling. Isaac avoids the fire, but as he leans against the wall, a shelved Buddha, falls and crushes his head. Bludworth, who has been present for all of the deaths so far, tells the remaining survivors that there is another way to avoid Death. They would have to kill someone to gain their remaining days on Earth. Meanwhile Agent Jim Block is covering the case of Sam and his friends, but he finds all of the deaths hard to believe. Olivia goes to get eye surgery the same day, and the doctor straps her head into place. Olivia, fearful, holds a teddy bear, and as the doctor put in tools to keep her eyes open, she rips off an eye from the bear. The doctor leaves the room for a moment, but the machine begins to malfunction, overheating, and the button to begin surgery is dropped as she reaches for it in panic. The laser severely burns her eye and hand, but she manages to escape. As Sam, Molly and the doctor run in to her but she trips on the teddy bears eye, and falls through the window onto a parked car, her eye then rolls away to be run over by a passing car. Later Nathan is working in construction and talking to Roy. Suddenly Nathan sees a beam moving closer to him with a lifting hook under it. He urges Roy to move, but accidentally pushes him backwards as the hook falls, which results in Roy being impaled by the hook, through the head. As the group comes together, Peter learns that Nathan accidentally killed Roy, taking his days, skipping him in Death's design. Meanwhile, as Dennis grills them all, a wrench that Roy placed on a belt-driven machine is launched into Dennis's face. Later that night, Sam's mentor allows him to become an apprentice in Paris, along with letting Sam have the restaurant for the night to spend it with Molly. Peter crashes the dinner, and he tells of how he tried to push a woman in front of a truck to steal her life. He admits that he couldn't go through with it, deciding that while he can't take the life of someone who doesn't deserve to die, he can take the life of someone who deserves to live, referencing an earlier conversation about Molly. Peter then attempts to kill Molly, with Sam stopping him. Molly then takes refuge in the kitchen and Sam fights off Peter before Agent Block is shot by Peter, taking his years. The struggle leads to a gun being placed on the burning stove, but as Peter is about to kill Molly, Sam stabs him in the back with a large skewer. Sam then realizes, that he stole Agent Block's life from Peter. Two weeks later, Sam and Molly are boarding a plane to Paris. As they are taking their seats, they notice a group of high school students fighting and being removed from the flight. After the plane takes off, Sam looks at his plane ticket, and it is revealed that he and Molly are on board Volée Airlines Flight 180. Sam then overhears a stewardess mention that one of the students removed from the flight claimed to have had a vision that the plane was going to explode. Suddenly, the jet engine bursts into flames. Molly is sucked out the side and cut in half by the wing, and as the rest of plane explodes, Sam is incinerated. As the plane goes down in flames, a flame engulfed engine detaches from the aircraft. Meanwhile, Nathan is at a local bar mourning Roy's death and is approached by a factory employee who tells him that Roy had an enlarged blood vessel in his brain and had only a short time to live anyway. After realizing that the life he took from Roy was going to end shortly in any case, Nathan is suddenly crushed by Flight 180's landing gear as it crashes through the ceiling of the bar.

Trivia

• The Final Destination films alternate between the time of day that the opening cataclysm takes place. The Flight 180 plane crash happened at night, the Route 23 pile-up happened at daytime, the Devil's Flight derailment happened at night, and the McKinley Speedway crash happened at daytime. Final Destination 5 seems to break from this tradition as the bridge accident also occurs during the daytime, but it is revealed that the events in Final Destination 5 happen chronologically before to the Flight 180 plane crash.
• Each film follows the same format:

1. Someone foresees a catastrophe, and manages to avoid their impending fate and the fate of others
2. Death re-claims those who were meant to die in the accident
3. The last of the survivors come together in the climax were the protagonist believes they have finally cheated Death

(Clear's Home, Lakeview Hospital, McKinley Tricentennial, Tagert Cinema, Le Cafe Miro 81)
4. The last 2 or 3 survivors learn they haven't changed anything and that death is inevitable
(Paris, France, the Gibbons barbeque, Train 081, Death by Caffeine, Flight 180)

• There are currently no survivors in the Final Destination series. Alex and Clear were the survivors of the first film but in between the course of the first and second film Alex had died. Clear dies in the second film and it is revealed in Final Destination 3 in a newspaper article that Final Destination 2 survivors Kimberly and Thomas had died as well. And as for the third, fourth and fifth film every one dies in the end (although the deaths of Wendy, Kevin and Julie can only be seen in premonition).
• It appears that the first death in every movie is solo. No one is present to witness the death of the first victim, although this slighty changes in Final Destination 5.
  • Another theory related to this is that every 4th survivor/pair (Carter, Brian, Ian, Janet, Nathan) appears to be skipped, and the 5th survivor/pair dies almost instantly afterwards (Billy, Kat and Rory, Erin, Hunt, Roy and Dennis).