In the year 2003 the second installment of Final Destination was released. Final Destination 2 was accompanied with the tag line "Death is like a boomerang, it keeps coming back". It did have a better reception, claiming that it had better special effects and more inventive deaths than the first. But on the other hand it also got said that it was "an average sequel to an average movie". All the same, fans of the first film were happy to see a sequel.

Plot

One year after the explosion of Flight 180, Kimberly Corman was going on vacation to Daytona with three of her friends. While waiting on the entrance ramp to Route 23, she has a horrifying vision of a deadly pile-up, caused by a Truck carrying Logs. She stalls her car to block the road and prevents a number of intended victims from entering on the highway. Officer Thomas Burke comes and asks Kimberly to get out of the car due to her erratic behaviour. As the people being blocked get out of their cars to complain, the pile-up occurs. An 18-wheeler truck drives into Kimberly's SUV killing her three friends, but Thomas manages to save Kimberly from being killed as well. Back at the police station when Officer Burke is talking to them, Thomas mentions the Flight 180 explosion, which Eugene Dix tells the group about. The other survivors of the pile up don't believe it and all leave. Later that day lottery winner and pile up survivor Evan Lewis dies after being impaled by the fire escape ladder on his building after an attempt to escape his apartment fire. Kimberly then realizes that the next to die is Tim Carpenter, and pigeons will cause his death. They arrive at the Scene, but are too late when Tim chases some pigeons, which causes a construction worker to drop a glass panel on Tim, crushing him. Once this happens, Kimberly and Thomas call a meeting with the rest of the survivors. Kimberly goes to contact Clear Rivers at the mental asylum where she was voluntarily in, Kimberly eventually convinces Clear to come and help them cheat death, they go off to see William Bludworth who informs them that "only new life can defeat death", giving them a quest to find Isabella Hudson, who was at the scene of the pile up and pregnant. The grieving Nora Carpenter leaves the meeting Kimberly called. Once she has left Rory Peters sees a shadow that looks like a man with hooks. As Nora leaves to prepare for her son's funeral, she gets her hair caught in hooks carried by a man, but when she attempts to leave the Elevator, she gets her head caught in the malfunctioning doors. Eugene, Kat Jennings, Clear, and the man try to save her, but she is decapitated. This causes Eugene and Kat to believe. On the way to the hospital to find Isabella as she has gone into labor, Kimberly mentions how death is working backwards, Eugene, Kat, Rory, Thomas and Kimberly all mention how they have already avoided death once, and because of the reports of the deaths of the Flight 180 survivors, Clear realizes that death is trying to "seal the rift", as they should have been dead anyway if it wasn't for the late deaths of the Flight 180 survivors. There is suddenly a van coming up quick, Kat
Clear, Thomas, Kimberly and Rory helps Eugene get into the hospital.
swerved and so did the van (which had Isabella in), Kat's car swerves off the road a log impales the car trapping Kat, the car spins backward and a large sharp pipe narrowly misses Kat's head. Kat and the pipe that missed her head.
Eugene although has had his lung punctured, and is rushed to hospital. Its at this point where Rory saves young man Brian Gibbons from being hit by a news van traveling at high speed. When the news van stops it puts a hole in its petrol tank, causing the petrol to run down a pipe past Kat's car. Fire men work on getting Kat out of the car, but when a fireman attempts to remove the log with the jaws of life, the airbag is released, forcing Kat's head into the large sharp pipe, instantly impaling her. Dropping the cigarette she was holding , it blew into the pipe where the petrol was, causing it to ignite, and blowing up the news van. The explosion from the van sent some barbed wire in Rory's direction, cutting him into three. Thomas, Kimberly and Clear all go to the hospital, where Isabella's baby is born, thinki
Burke and Kimberly after Eugene's room blows up.
ng they have defeated death, but Kimberly has another vision, and then realizes Isabella was never supposed to die in the pile-up. Clear then runs to find Eugene, and finds him in a hospital room. She opens the door, which pulls the plug out of an outlet, causing a spark, and an explosion, which expands through the hallway. The explosion nearly kills Burke when a shelf flies in his direction, but is skipped when Kimberly pulls him down. Kimberly turns around to see the dead corpses of Clear and Eugene. Working off an earlier vision, Kimberly gets in a van and drives it into a lake, when she believes that she is the "New life". In the lake, she drowns, thus skipping Burke as she is the last in line. Doctor Ellen Kalarjian resuscitates hers, thus making her cheat death. Making her and Thomas the only survivors of deaths design as Kimberly cheated it. Invited by the Gibbons' to their house for dinner, they talk about how they are returning to normal life. This is when Mrs. Gibbons mentions how Brian was saved by Rory, Kimberly, and Burke look at each other, then the BBQ with Brian in front explodes, with his arm landing in front of Mrs. Gibbons. Then the credits roll.

Cast

Clear Rivers	Ali Larter
Kimberly Corman	A.J. Cook
Thomas Burke	Michael Landes
Evan Lewis	David Paetkau
Tim Carpenter	James Kirk
Nora Carpenter	Lynda Boyd
Kat	Keegan Connor Tracy
Rory	Jonathan Cherry
Eugene Dix	T.C. Carson
Isabella Hudson	Justina Machado
Mr. Bludworth	Tony Todd
Shaina	Sarah Carter
Dano	Alejandro Rae
Frankie	Shaun Sipos
Mr. Corman	Andrew Airlie
Administrator	Christina Jastrzembska
Anesthesiologist	Eileen Pedde
Anchorwoman	Jill Krop
Anchorman	Marrett Green
Biker	Don Bell
Biker's Girlfriend	Odessa Munroe
Brian Gibbons	Noel Fisher
Dental Receptionist	Benita Ha
Deputy Steve	Aaron Douglas
Detective Suby	Eric Keenleyside
Dr. Kalarjian	Enid-Raye Adams
Doctor Lees	Fred Henderson
ER Nurse	Veena Sood
Guest	David Purvis
Host	Marke Driesschen
Man in Elevator	Darcy Laurie
Man with Hooks	John R. Taylor
Mr. Gibbons	Alf Humphreys
Mrs. Gibbons	Chilton Crane
Nurse in Delivery Room	Sarah Hattingh
Obstetrician	Klodyne Rodney
On-Ramp Lady	Rheta Hutton
Paramedic at Farm	John Stewart
Paramedic at Hospital	Cam Cronin
Physician	Alison Matthews
Rescue Worker	Mark Lukyn
Skate Punk	Lorne Stewart
Young Woman	Jenny Lang

Alternate Ending

The original movie was supposed to end with Kimberly and Officer Burke embracing in the hospital after Kimberly is revived.

Posters

There are 2 different posters, one featured the cast's face, and the other one is a cast poster.

The first poster featured 6 characters, from left to right: Kimberly, Eugene, Clear, Nora, Kat and Thomas. At the middle of the poster, right under Clear and Nora, there is a car with it's light flashing on a road. The car and its shadow makes it looks like a skull with its eyes flashing. There also a tagline at the top of the poster:"For every beginning there is an end". The movie's name "Final Destination 2" is under the cast, with all capital letters. This poster is mainly in black, except the cast's face are obviously over white.
The second poster is a cast poster, which also featured 6 characters, from left to right: Eugene, Kimberly, Clear, Thomas, Rory and Kat. Nora from the first poster didn't appear in this poster, and Rory replaced her. There is a skull face at the top of the background, and there are lighting too. Several buildings are seen next to Eugene and Kat, and the cast are seen standing on a road. The movie's name "Final Destination 2" is at the middle of the poster, with all capital letters. There also a tagline under the movie name: "You can't cheat death twice". This poster is mainly in dark blue and black, except the cast are in their normal color.

Trivia

The characters in this movie (with the exception of Shaina, Dano, Frankie, Evan, Tim and Nora), are somewhat involved or witnessed, the deaths of the characters in Final Destination.
- The original script to Final Destination 2 revealed that Alex Browning and Clear Rivers both survived, and both decided to help Kimberly Corman save the survivors of the Route 23 pile-up. However, the idea was changed so that only Clear survived and Alex was written out and killed off in between movies.
- Kimberly Corman was originally supposed to die a year before the pile-up outside a mall, where some street thugs carjacked her mother's car. Her mother tried to fight them off but she wound up being shot dead. Kimberly, on the other hand, was too distracted watching the news about Tod Waggner's death when she should have been involved with the shooting.
- Thomas Burke was originally supposed to die via a shootout, however he was called at the last minute to clean up the remains of Billy Hitchcock who was originally meant to die on Flight 180.
- Kat Jennings was originally supposed to die via a gas leak at a hotel she was meant to stay at, however it was postponed due to the fact the bus she was traveling along hit a girl, which was Terry Chaney, a survivor of the Flight 180.
- Eugene Dix was originally meant to die via getting stabbed by a student, however, he was called to replace another teacher, who just died. The teacher he replaced was Valerie Lewton, the teacher who survived Flight 180 and the teacher of the students.
- Rory Peters was originally meant to die when a play he was supposed to attend, collapsed, however he was too distracted by a sign that fell on a guy, the guy was Carter Horton who again, was a survivor of Flight 180.
This movie has the largest amount of explosion numbering five times of explosive scene.
Before Evan dies there are lots of signs showing how he will die, for instance: the doll in the hallway is missing its right eye, the fridge magnets spell out H-E-Y-E, and the H (signifying the ladder) falls off, leaving the word "eye" and lastly he has just bought an 'i' mac computer.
When Kimberly blocks the off ramp she sees a road works sign reading 'Next 180 feet'. The car crash at the farm occurs next to the 180 marker (according to the cop reporting it). These are both references to Flight 180, the plane that crashed in FD1.
In the morgue you can see Tony Todd wearing Evan's diamond studded Rolex.
When the people are on the on-ramp, you can see Eugene turn off his motorcycle and look at his keychain. It is an unlucky thirteen.
When Kimberly leaves the room that Clear is locked up in one shot shows her in the video camera giving Clear the finger, if you look at the rest of the hallway it looks like a road.
At the beginning of the movie, notice when the camera is scanning over all of Kimberly's belongings on her desk, there is a book that says 'Road Trip" with a keychain over the T reading 'Road rip'.
In the beginning, when Kimberley wakes up suddenly, listen carefully. You can hear Tony Todd (the guy at the morgue) saying "Kimberly".
When Tim is about to get crushed by the pane of glass if you'll look the pattern of bricks he is standing on form a giant X that he is ironically standing right in the middle of.
At the beginning, in the scene in Kim's bedroom, the plane on her bed side table is the same one from Alex's bedroom in the first Final Destination.
In the beginning, Kimberly and her friends pass a bus in her car. The people in the bus are yelling 'pile-up,' which foreshadows the imminent car crash.
Just before Nora goes into the elevator, the floor light shows a down arrow and a 3. Unlucky 13.
If you listen to the song playing in the elevator, it is Rocky Mountain High by John Denver, the song from FD1.
The anchorwoman on the news is in real life a news reporter for a Vancouver TV station. (Final Destination 2 was filmed in Vancouver.)
Death only realized Isabella was never going to be in the crash when Kimberly did. Not true, she was never targetted at all, Death just made it look like she was so that Kimberly and the others were off guard and easier to kill.

Glitches

In Kimberly's vision of the pile-up, she turned on the radio to the station 104.9 that mentioned a memorial for the Flight 180 tragedy. After her vision ends, Kimberly turns on the radio to hear the same thing she heard in her vision; except now it's 94.9.
After Kimberly has the vision of the pile-up, she pulls her car across the on-ramp. She is still behind the concrete separator, so how did the truck actually hit her car later on? There was no evidence that the concrete was ever there. The truck got her cleanly.
When Evan is going to die, the beer bottle he takes out of the fridge moves all over the place. It even vanishes a couple of times.
When Rory gets cut into thirds, in the background you can faintly hear someone cheer and say beautiful, perhaps because the stunt went so well.
In the final scene where the gas grill blows up, the arm that falls to the table in front of the mother is not from a teenager - it is nearly twice as large as the young man's arms (as previously seen in multiple scenes). Some people say it's a leg, but if that's so it's a bit odd having fingers on the right side of it...
When Timmy gets killed by the falling plate glass watch carefully and you will see the foam representation spring back up.
When Evan comes into the flat and walks towards the window, pay attention to the sink, there is a red cup or something in it. However when his arm gets stuck in it, there is nothing red in the sink, and there was no time for him to take anything out of the sink.
When the officer is looking at the pictures of the Flight 180 survivors and their deaths afterward, notice that Todd is shown still struggling at the ropes and looking into the camera. Apparently the media thought it would be better to take a picture of Todd as he was committing "suicide". A similar incident occurs with the bus accident picture. The girl is obviously splattered in the first movie, but appears to have mostly leg damage in the pics.
When the camera shows the coffee cup in the cop's car, you can see the ignition is in the off position.
Flight 180 was due on May 13. In FD-2, when the survivors of the car accident are reminiscing how they had managed to cheat death in their past, Kat Jennings says that last May she was supposed to die at some hotel of the gas leak but she didn't get there as the bus she was on hit Terry Chaney. It couldn't happen in May, because Terry was present at the memorial opening which took place 39 days after the air crash. So she couldn't die earlier than in June.
When you see Clear take off her wristband in her padded cell she drops it on the floor. If you look very very closely at the date on the top right of the newspaper, it says Friday March 15. If that were the day before it would have been March 14 which would be the exact year after 180 crashed. In the first film in the opening credits, Alex's flight ticket says 13 May.
When Kat is driving the survivors and they crash into the field, they slow to a stop while spinning - there is no way the car would travel backwards with the speed that it appears to in the next shot.
During the highway pile-up Rory's car barrel rolls in slow motion over an unmanned camera, during this shot you can see the cannon on the bottom of the car used to flip it. Then in the very next shot you see the car barrel roll from a different angle and the unmanned camera from the first shot is visible. It doesn't look like a typical camera, its disguised as debris, but it would not be there had the slow-mo shot not been filmed.
The cop has a badge, but New York state police don't wear badges.
In the pileup scene, Kimberly drives for several minutes for a very long distance. But after the vision, the pileup appears to be only a few miles away. This is because, in Kimberly's premonition, she attempted to pull into the right lane (A cop had been behind her) and she almost rammed into the log truck, so the truck would have a couple of more miles to go before the logs fell out.

ReceptionEdit

Critical response

The film received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reports 47% of critics gave the film positive write-ups based on 107 reviews, with an average rating of 5 out of 10. It's consensus is, "This sequel is a little more than an excuse to stage elaborate, gory scenes of characters getting killed off." While most praised it for its special effects and inventive death sequences, some dismissed it as being 'an average sequel to an average movie'. Nevertheless, this film has received the second highest score amongst the five films in the franchise on Rotten Tomatoes, the first being Final Destination 5 with a score of 61%. In Metacritic website the movie scored an unfavorable 38 based on 25 reviews and the third highest rating of Final Destination series. The First is Final Destination 5 with 50% and Final Destination 3 with 41%.
The film has landed on many "best car crash/accidents" lists including one by New York Magazine which cited the highway pile-up scene as the greatest car crash in movie history, calling it "the new gold standard for car-related chaos in cinema". Even acclaimed director Quentin Tarantino was quoted as saying that the opening scene was "a magnificent car action piece". The highway pile up was nominated for "Best Action Sequence" at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards.