Final Destination 3
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| Final Destination 3 | |
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 Final Destination 3 film poster |
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| Directed by | James Wong |
| Produced by | Craig Perry |
| Written by | Glen Morgan James Wong Jeffrey Reddick (characters) |
| Starring | Mary Elizabeth Winstead Ryan Merriman Texas Battle Alexz Johnson Amanda Crew Kris Lemche Chelan Simmons Crystal Lowe Maggie Ma Sam Easton |
| Music by | Shirley Walker |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
| Release date(s) | February 10th, 2006 |
| Running time | 92 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | ~ US$34,000,000 |
| Preceded by | Final Destination Final Destination 2 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Final Destination 3 is a 2006 horror film, the sequel to Final Destination 2 and the third film in the Final Destination series. It was distributed by New Line Cinema, written by Glen Morgan, and James Wong, produced by Craig Perry and directed by James Wong, who directed the first Final Destination movie. The film was originally scheduled to be released on February 24th, but the date was changed to February 10th, two weeks earlier than the original set release. In addition, on February 8th, in major cities in the United States, early screenings were shown to audiences who applied for online tickets. The DVD (separate full screen and widescreen 2-disc editions) were released on July 25th, 2006.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
It is now six years after the Flight 180 disaster; young photographer Wendy Christensen has a gruesome vision of a derailing on a roller coaster, Devil's Flight, and, as a result, she and several others manage to escape from the ride, just before her vision comes true and the rollercoaster derails with several of her other friends on board. To her horror, Wendy later discovers that the photographs she took before the accident foretell the deaths of the other survivors of the disaster. Now as Death closes in once again, Wendy and Kevin, one of her friends who survived the deadly coaster ride, race against time trying to decipher what each picture means and how the next person is going to die. But as they try to tell the other survivors their theory, the pair quickly finds out that they are all skeptical. It has now become a race to try and save the remaining survivors before Kevin & Wendy's numbers are up.
[edit] Cast & characters
- Wendy Christensen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead): She is the visionary of the film. Although she is the one who has the premonition and warns everyone about the disaster, she is one of the skeptical of the idea that Death is still after the survivors of the crash. Her boyfriend's best friend, Kevin (also a survivor of the disaster), convinces Wendy that they are next on Death's list by using examples from the other films (Flight 180 from the first Final Destination movie) to convince her. She is able to figure out that Julie is also on Death's list, but does not realize that Perry is also on Death's list. Wendy would have been the last person to meet death on the rollercoaster. She is sitting next to Kevin in the second to back carriage.
- Kevin Fischer (Ryan Merriman): Kevin aids Wendy in attempting to intervene the deaths of fellow survivors of the crash. Before the crash, he and Wendy do not have a relationship, but they do develop a romance while fighting Death together. He is the one to convince Wendy that Death is after them. He would have been the fifteenth person to meet death on the roller coaster. He is sitting next to Wendy in the second to back carriage.
- Ian McKinley (Kris Lemche): Ian is of the gothic life style. He is an extremely intelligent young man and is the best friend/boyfriend of Erin. He and Erin aren't completely convinced that Death is after them. He takes advantage of how silly Wendy and Kevin sound and mocks them throughout the movie. Throughout the movie, Ian develops hatred (verging on fear) towards Wendy and threatens to kill her, although ultimately the film reveals that Ian's plan was just to scare her. He is a rather major character, but plays a part in the climactic ending. He would have been the eleventh person to meet death on the roller coaster. He is sitting four rows from the back, sitting next to Erin.
- Erin Ulmer (Alexz Johnson): Erin is of the gothic life style. She is an extremely intelligent young woman and is the best friend/girlfriend of Ian. She and Ian aren't completely convinced that Death is after them. She takes advantage of how silly Wendy and Kevin sound and mocks them throughout the movie. She would have been the twelfth person to meet death on the roller coaster. She is sitting four rows from the back, next to Ian.
- Julie Christensen (Amanda Crew): Julie is not a senior, but joins her two friends (Perry & Amber) at the fair. She is the younger sister of the visionary, Wendy Christensen. She is the "queen-bee" of her little social clique. She is extremely resistant to her older sister and Kevin when they try to save her from Death's list. She and her sister have a distant relationship. Wendy does not know that Julie was on the roller coaster in the vision, but figures it out just in time. She would have been the thirteenth person to meet Death on the roller coaster. She is sitting three rows from the back, next to Perry.
- Perry Malinowski (Maggie Ma): Perry is not a senior, but joins her two friends (Julie & Amber) at the fair. She is only in a couple of scenes with Julie & Amber but plays a part in the climactic ending. Wendy and the other characters don't know that she was on the roller coaster in the vision until a few moments before she is next on Death's list. She would have been the fourteenth person to meet death on the roller coster. She is sitting three rows from the back and was sitting next to Julie.
- Lewis Romero (Texas Battle): Lewis is an African-American jock. He is extremely athletic and has a big ego. He scares lesser people into doing his bidding (as shown in the opening sequence of the movie). In each Final Destination movie, there is always a character who is the biggest skeptic and doesn't believe that Death is coming at all. Lewis is the skeptic of this movie. He would have been the tenth person to meet death on the roller coaster. He is sitting in the first carriage of the back section of the roller coaster and he was not sitting next to anyone.
- Frankie Cheeks (Sam Easton): Frankie graduated from school two years ago, but continues to go to the school fair. He was the stalker of Ashlyn Halperin & Ashley Freud (fellow survivors of the crash). He would have been the ninth person to meet death on the roller coaster and coincidentally was ejected off the roller coaster with Ashley & Ashlyn. He is sitting six rows from the back of the roller coaster.
- Ashlyn Halperin (Crystal Lowe): Ashley is a stereotypical beauty queen. A bit more bright and sensitive than her chum, Ashley, and definitely the brains of the pair. She was voted biggest bitch (according to the official website). She would have been the seventh person to meet death. She is sitting four rows from the front, next to Ashley.
- Ashley Freund (Chelan Simmons): All she cares about is winning, looking great, and getting guys. Ashlyn is a stereotypical head cheerleader. Ashley is with her best & life-long friend, Ashlyn at the fair. She is not the brightest young woman around, but is very nice. She was voted best hair (according to the official website). It is apparent that she is extremely clumsy due to the fact that she causes every action responsible for her and Ashlyn's death. She would have been the eighth person to meet death. She is sitting four rows from the front, next to Ashlyn.
- Jason Wise (Jesse Moss): Jason is Wendy's boyfriend and Kevin's best friend. He doesn't play a big part, because he remains in the roller coaster after Wendy's vision (although he begs the operator to let him out). He is one of the first to die on the roller coaster and is sitting next to Kevin's girlfriend, Carrie, in the front carriage when it derails.
- Carrie Dreyer (Gina Holden): Carrie is Kevin's girlfriend and Wendy's best friend. She doesn't play a big part, because she remains in the roller coaster after Wendy's vision. In Wendy's premonition, Carrie is one of the first to die when the front part of the coaster derails and she is ejected out of her seat. She is sitting next to Wendy's boyfriend Jason in the front carriage.
- Amber Regan (Ecstasia Sanders): Amber is not a senior, but goes to the fair with her two friends (Julie & Perry). Amber is not a major character, but appears in scenes with Julie & Perry. She wasn't on the roller coaster and, therefore, is not on Death's list.
Note: The seven people in carts one and two are not main characters since they remain on the ride not including Jason and Carrie.
[edit] Plot concerns
- One major concern of this movie was the crash of the roller coaster. In the movie, a hydraulic hose loosens when Lewis' harness is forced down and begins, during the first half of the ride, leaking hydraulic fluid in small drips. As the rollercoaster enters the loop, Ashlyn slaps Frankie's hand, causing him to drop his camera. The camera cord whips around the track below, and when the roller coaster rides over it, it sets the coaster slightly off the track and severs the leaking hydraulic hose, causing all of the harnesses to lift back up out of their locked positions. The front half of the coaster then derails due to the upset wheels. However, since Frankie left the coaster after Wendy's premonition, his camera was never able to fall on the tracks, so, while the hydraulic hose may have eventually completely detached itself (later than before), nothing would have been there to upset the wheels enough to detach the front half of the coaster. There are many theories about this, such as the camera only sped the crash up, but it only severed the hydraulics wire faster. It is possible, though, that Wendy failed to see some other possible key factor in the coaster's crash in her premonition.
- Ian McKinley was thought by Wendy to be the reason for her upcoming death, but Ian was supposed to die in the hardware store along with Erin. A possible explanation was that Ian wasn't in fact meant to cause her death, but the fireworks that almost hit her on her way to the first-aid tent. Her clue, as in the book, could have been the fact that Kevin was draped over her like Jason was in her picture, but in her hightened paranoia, she thought of "McKinley" as Ian, when in fact, it could have had anything to do with the town, such as the tri-centennial. Another explanation why Death might have skipped Wendy is that Wendy was supposed to die by the cherry picker but instead, Ian unknowingly intervened which made Ian next on Death's list.
[edit] Clues
- Photos: At the opening sequence of the movie, the visionary of the film Wendy, takes pictures of the fair for the year book. Nothing mysterious about that, until a shocking twist is unveiled. After the vision of the roller coaster disaster, Wendy finds that each picture with the would-to-be-victims of the roller coaster holds clues and keys to their next planned death. Wendy tries to pick the clues up throughout the movie and does so usually in a nick of time.
- Jason Wise: When Wendy takes a photo of Jason out the front of the "Devil's Flight", it is taken on an angle that shows the first three carts lit up and when the accident happens, the first three carts fly off the tracks. In other words, the only people who died were in the first three carts including Jason. Also, Kevin says that he wants to get food before they go on the "Devil's Flight", Jason then says that it will kill him if he eats before the ride, this is correct because if they had not eaten before the ride they would have gone on the ride before Frankie and Lewis who caused the hydraulics to malfunction.
- Carrie Dreyer: In her picture, Carrie is holding two stuffed animals, and due to a disturbance at her right (in the left part of the photo), she seems to have arrived there fast, an allusion to the fact that the cart she will be in is going to speed down to the ground. The stuffed animals she is holding besides her appear to represent a roller coaster harness.
- Ashley Freund & Ashlyn Halperin: Just after winning a water gun game at the opening sequence of the movie at the fair, the girls are given a blow-up palm tree. Wendy takes a picture of the two girls posing with their prize. Due to a flash of light behind the camera when the photo is taken, a wave of red light appears tobe flashing over them when it is covering the bottom third of the picture, making the girls appear as if they are on fire.
- Frankie Cheeks: Kevin attempts to take a picture of a fellow student at the fair, but by mistake, he takes a picture of Frankie. When the picture is loaded on to the computer, it is seen that a fan is on a shelf above Frankie. It looks as if the fan is slicing through the top of Frankie's head.
- Lewis Romero: There are many clues in this photo. Wendy takes a photo of him competing in a Strong-Man game. In the distance, a toy bear can be seen crying, also a Sultan next to Lewis is seen holding two crossed swords. Also, due to the trick of the angle that Lewis is on, it seems that the weight of the Strong-Man game is toppling on his head, but is actually rising.
- Ian McKinley & Erin Ulmer: Wendy takes a picture of a disturbed Ian and a disgruntled Erin. Above Ian & Erin, flags can be seen in a vertical position with the letters "S-K-I-L-L", but due to a shadow, it reads "K-I-L-L". Also, Ian is pointing an air rifle at Erin by mistake due to the confusion of the flash of the camera. Erin is blocking her face with her right hand.
- Julie Christensen & Perry Malinowski: A picture of the two girls show Julie giving the fingers with Perry in the background. What isn't so noticeable is the merry-go-round seat also in the background. The seat is of a Horse and due to an angle, it looks as if the Horse is charging at Julie's head. Also, a flag can be seen above Perry's head.
- Kevin Fischer: After Kevin takes a picture of Frankie by mistake, Wendy takes the camera off Kevin and takes a picture of him a few centimeters away from his face, causing him to scrunch up his face. When the photo is downloaded on the computer, it is shown that Kevin's face is heavily exposed.
- Wendy Christensen: A picture of her and her boyfriend Jason is seen, although Jason's face is extremely blurry due to a sudden movement. Also, the photo gives us the illusion that Jason is in need of desperate help by the way that he is draped over Wendy. Also, the word "McKinley" is visible on her shirt which is the name of the town and the last name of Ian.
- Misc.: Apart from the photos, Wendy also experienced signs in her every-day life.
- The Fair: At the fair, a ride was shown and was called "High Dive" but due to a slight electrical failure, the sign read "High D-I-E".
- The Vision: Wendy has a vision of a roller coaster disaster, but does she save the would-to-be-victims, or does she dig them deeper in to Death's design?
- Wendy's Room: While trying to contact Ashley and Ashlyn via Ashley's cell phone, Wendy's lamp blew just like the bulbs in the tanning beds.
- Drive-Through: While waiting at the drive-through at a fast food restaurant, Wendy encounters two signs. The first one is at the speaker box, where a sign is shown. Due to a "natural electrical failure", the word control flickers. This symbolizes Wendy's loss of control of the situation. The second sign manifests itself by Kevin's radio apparently malfunctioning, causing the song "Turn Around, Look At Me" to tune on by itself. When Wendy is frightened by a beer truck backing up close to her, she looks behind and notices a truck, picking up speed down a hill with no driver. Wendy and Kevin escape from their car just as the truck hits.
- Build It!: Wendy notices that when in death's presence, an eerie breeze seems to sweep through. This breeze sweeps through the hardware store, where she, Kevin and the next victims, Ian and Erin, have met. As the gust passes, Wendy tackles Ian out of harm's way.
- Driving to the Tricentennial: Wendy is trying to figure out her and Kevin's pictures when the car radio tunes itself to "Turn Around, Look At Me" yet again. She does so and sees Ian trailing behind her, looking to avenge Erin's death.
- Subway: It has been 5 months since the Tricentennial incident. While on the subway with her friends, Wendy picks up a strange and eerie feeling while looking at advertisements on the train. Among them are advertisements for the Phoenix Tanning Salon, Andy's Burgers, and Build It!, which, coincidentally, are the places where each death happened following the roller coaster accident. In addition, a busker in the train can be heard playing "Turn Around, Look At Me" with a menacing grin on his face. Wendy decides to get off the train, but is prevented from doing so when she coincidentally meets Julie there.
- The Second Vision: Wendy has a second vision of the subway train on which she, Julie and Kevin "coincidentally" met crashing with horrible and gory circumstances. It's unknown whether she was able to get out in time. But as we heard when the movie ends, the crash does happen.
[edit] Deaths
Another clue to the final deaths in the subway, the carriage that Wendy tries to leave is numbered 081, but in a reflection she sees, it is labled 180, which is also the number on the jacket she wears in her photo.
[edit] DVD
For the page about the DVD release, see Final Destination 3 DVD.
[edit] Rating
Final Destination 3 was rated R for strong horror violence/gore, language, and some nudity.
[edit] Response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film was rated at 45%[1], the original two films received equally poor scores. Besides deriding the film for the high level of violence and the reference to the attacks on the World Trade Center in September 2001, a common complaint directed at the film was that it failed to offer anything new. The BBC awarded a rare 1 star out of 5 [2], after awarding the first installment four stars and the second three.
[edit] Box office
The film was released in the United States on February 10th, 2006 showing across 2,880 screens with an opening weekend slightly under $20 million U.S. dollars. As of April 16th, 2006, FD3 had made $54,098,051 stateside, though the movie continued to screen across the country for another seven weeks after domestic tallies closed. The film grossed even more in foreign markets, raking in over $59 million as of Early August. Worldwide recorded gross has now reached approx. $113,270,000 so far, outperforming both the original and first sequel in the series. As of late October 2006, Japan gross tallies have yet to be calculated. The DVD rentals reached nearly $45 million, making FD3 the longest running video in the top 50 chart of October 29th (boxofficemojo) and the 4th best grosser of the 50 films on the list.
[edit] Figures
- Gross
- U.S.: $54,098,051.00 ($19,173,094.00 opening weekend 35%)
[edit] Trivia
- As in the first two movies in the series, the names of several characters are references to horror film makers. The characters "Wendy and Julie Christensen" are named after Benjamin Christensen. The character "Erin Ulmer" is named after Edgar G. Ulmer. The character "Lewis Romero" is an homage to the horror directors Herschell Gordon Lewis and George A. Romero. The character, "Jason Robert Wise," is a reference to Robert Wise. The character "Carrie Dreyer" is named after Carl Theodor Dreyer. The character "Ashley Freund" is an homage to cinematographer/director Karl Freund. The character "Ashlyn Halperin" is named after Victor Halperin.
- Wednesday 'Wendy' Christensen was originally intended to be a cousin of Kimberly Corman (FD2).
- Flight 180, from Final Destination, exploded on take-off in 2000. In the sequel, Final Destination 2, Route 23's pile-up supposedly happened one year after Flight 180. The movie came out in 2003. Final Destination 3's Devil's Flight crash occurred in 2005 (Jason Robert Wise 1988-2005), but earlier, Kevin stated that Flight 180 happened six years ago, which would have made the year 2006, not 2005.
- Tony Todd, who played the mysterious mortician in the first two films and was not expected to return for the third, had a cameo. Less than a month before release the filmmakers decided to draft Todd in for a voiceover role. The actor’s deep intonations were now heard as the demonic host of the doomed roller coaster as well as the train conductor at the ending of the film. [3]
- The title was previously known as Cheating Death: Final Destination 3 & Final Destination 3-D. 3-D was considered for the film, but it was deemed too expensive and complicated.
- There are references to presidential assassinations in the movie. These include McKinley (Ian's last name, the high school's name, and the town's name), Oswald, Booth (train station stops), and Lincoln.
- The song they play at Ashley and Ashlyn's funeral in the background is the same song from the memorial of Flight 180 in Final Destination.
- The song that plays on the small radio that's turned on during the weight room scene is (Həd) P.E.'s "Killing Time".
- The HICE Pale Ale truck that blocks in Kevin's car at Andy's Burger joint is the same truck that Kimberly notices passing her just before the car pileup happens in FD2.
- When the new ending (the subway train ending) was being filmed, Kimberly and Officer Burke from Final Destination 2 were supposed to be on the subway train that crashes with Wendy, Kevin, and Julie. But due to scheduling problems, A. J. Cook and Michael Landes could not make it. Instead, the audience has the option to read what happened to them in the subway scene on "Choose Their Fate" on the DVD.
- In the original script, some of the characters had different names. Ashley and Ashlyn were originally "Jennifer and Jessica"; Lewis was "Hector"; Ian was "Logan"; Frankie was "Scotty"; Erin was "Phoebe". On IMDb, Perry was listed as "Ling". Frankie's last name originally didn't have an "S", and was changed by Sam Easton in his audition.
- The Devil's Flight rollercoaster featured in the opening sequence is actually the "Corkscrew" at Playland in Vancouver, Canada.
- In the "Choose Your Fate" menu opening in the Final Destination 3 DVD, the voice-over narration is done by Kristen Cloke, the actress who played Valerie Lewton in the first movie.
- While making the movie, Alexz Johnson (Erin) broke her nose while shooting the roller coaster sequence.
- In the original script, Ian McKinley was originally a female character who tried avoiding her boyfriend. Erin was originally a male character. They still dated, but Erin's character wasn't so bright.
- Ian McKinley's (Kris Lemche) and Erin Ulmer's (Alexz Johnson) pet names, Zip and Pip, were also the names of twins (Jennie Lee and Elvira Snow) in an old freak sideshow attraction at Coney Island that suffered from microcephaly, characterized by abnormally small craniums which gave rise at the time to the term "pinhead". This hints at Erin's death as well as provides an ironic statement when she comments about "pinhead customers". The names Zip and Pip are also similarly related to the Zippin' Pippin', a wooden roller coaster (which was to believed to be Elvis' favorite ride) in Memphis, Tennessee.
- In the beginning of the film, some of the deaths are depicted in the carnival pictures, for example, there was a picture with a woman with nails in her face, and a picture that featured "The Electric Sisters".
- In the opening credits, the name Corkscrew is seen up in lights like a ride. Corkscrew is the real name of the roller coaster used for Devil's Flight.
[edit] Sequel
Mary Elizabeth Winstead and her co-star Ryan Merriman have both stated in interviews that Glen Morgan wants to make another film, but they are not sure if they will be in it. The end of the film was so altered that it gave Wendy, Kevin and Julie a small chance of surviving. This is also something that the fans want and have been asking for.
It was recently revealed on www.bloody-disgusting.com that New Line has begun talks for another sequel, pleased with the performance of FD3 at the box office and in DVD sales. If the new movie follows the same production timeline of the first three, it will most likely be released sometime in 2009. Nothing else is known as of this writing.
| The Final Destination Trilogy |
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Films |
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Trailer
- Movie Stills
- Final Destination 3 at the Internet Movie Database
- Discussion board with details on the choices given in the "Choose their fate" DVD option
- Final Destination Gallery
