Final Destination

Final Destination
DVD box set containing all five films
Directed by	Final Destination 1, 3 James Wong Final Destination 2, 4 David R. Ellis Final Destination 5 Steven Quale
Produced by	Glen Morgan Warren Zide Craig Perry Toby Emmerich Jeffrey Reddick James Wong Warren Zide
Starring	Devon Sawa Ali Larter A.J. Cook Michael Landes Mary Elizabeth Winstead Ryan Merriman Bobby Campo Shantel VanSanten Nicholas D'Agosto Emma Bell Tony Todd
Music by	Final Destination 1, 2, 3 Shirley Walker Final Destination 4, 5 Brian Tyler
Distributed by	Final Destination 1, 2, 3, New Line Cinema Final Destination 4, 5 Warner Bros.
Release dates	Final Destination March 17, 2000 Final Destination 2 January 31, 2003 Final Destination 3 February 10, 2006 The Final Destination August 28, 2009 Final Destination 5 August 12, 2011
Running time	Total (5 films) 455 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	Total (5 films) US$154,000,000
Box office	Total (5 films) US$665,080,639

Final Destination is an American horror franchise based on an unproduced spec script written by Jeffrey Reddick he originally submitted to the X-Files television series. Distributed by New Line Cinema, all five films are centered on the themes of fatalism, predestination, and precognition, in relation to death (i.e. how to foresee, avoid or control it). In a less abstract sense, each film features a protagonist having a premonition of a terrible accident that would kill numerous people, including the protagonist. The protagonist and a handful of people then escape from the scene of the accident, before it happens just like in the protagonist's vision. The group of people then start dying in a series of bizarre accidents that frequently resemble Rube Goldberg machines in their complexity.

The series is noteworthy amongst others in the horror genre in that the "villain" of the movies is not the stereotypical slashers, monsters, creatures, beasts, or demons. It is the entity Death itself (very occasionally seen as a fleeting shadow), which manipulates the environment in deadly ways with the intent of "recapturing" those who somehow manage (usually through premonitions) to escape their fates the first time.

In addition to the films, a novel series (which includes the novelizations of the first three films) was published throughout 2005 and 2006 by Black Flame. A one-shot comic book titled Final Destination: Sacrifice was released alongside select DVDs of Final Destination 3 in 2006, and a comic series titled Final Destination: Spring Break was published by Zenescope Entertainment in 2007.

Films

Final Destination (2000)

Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) is going on his high school trip to Paris along with his fellow teenage students and teachers. Before take-off, Alex has a premonition that the plane will explode on take-off, killing everyone on board. When events from his vision begin to repeat themselves in reality, he attempts to stop the flight leading to a handful of passengers being left behind including Clear Rivers (Ali Larter), Carter Horton (Kerr Smith), Billy Hitchcock (Seann William Scott), Valerie Lewton (Kristen Cloke), Terri Chaney (Amanda Detmer), and Tod Waggner (Chad Donella). After Alex and his friends are forced off the plane, the airliner explodes in mid-air, killing everyone left on it. When Tod dies in a bizarre accident only a month later, Alex begins to suspect that they were never meant to get off the plane that night. As the survivors begin to die one-by-one, those that remain struggle to find a way to cheat Death's plan. Six months later, Alex, Clear, and Carter relax in Paris having believing they've finally cheated Death. However, Carter is killed as he attempts to rescue Alex from a falling neon sign.

Final Destination 2 (2003)

One year after the explosion of Flight 180, Kimberly "Kim" Corman (A. J. Cook) has a premonition of a pile-up on Route 23, killing everyone involved. She stalls her SUV on the entrance ramp with her three best friends Shaina, Dano, and Frankie (Sarah Carter, Alex Rae, and Shaun Sipos). This stops police officer Thomas Burke (Michael Landes), Eugene Dix (T.C. Carson), Rory Peters (Jonathan Cherry), Kat Jennings (Keegan Connor Tracy), Nora and Tim Carpenter (Lynda Boyd and James Kirk), Evan Lewis (David Paetkau), and pregnant Isabella Hudson (Justina Machado) from entering the freeway. While Officer Burke questions Kimberly about the inconvenience, her vision becomes a reality and an 18-wheeler truck carrying cut lumber causes the pileup, sending vehicles colliding into the wreckage; another 18-wheeler hauling automobiles, trying to avoid the accident, plows into Kimberly's SUV, killing Shaina, Dano, and Frankie. In the days following the accident, Kimberly learns of the crash of Flight 180 and teams up with the only survivor, Clear, to try to save a new group of people from Death's plan. This time, the survivors are warned that only "new life" can defeat Death and are killed one-by-one as they attempt to protect Isabella as her delivery date draws closer. It is revealed that Isabella was never meant to die in the pile-up, and Kimberly drowns herself into the lake so that she may be resuscitated by emergency staff, and thus be granted "new life". The film ends with Kimberly and Officer Burke witnessing the death of a young boy who was saved by Rory during the course of the film, revealing that Death's plan is still in action.

Final Destination 3 (2006)

Six years after the explosion of Flight 180, Wendy Christensen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), the school photographer at McKinley High School, visits an amusement park along with her friends Kevin Fischer (Ryan Merriman), Jason Wise (Jesse Moss), and Carrie Dreyer (Gina Holden). As Wendy and her friends board the Devil's Flight roller coaster, she has a premonition that it will crash, killing everyone on board. Wendy panics and manages to get off the roller coaster along with Kevin, Wendy's younger sister Julie (Amanda Crew), Ian McKinley (Kris Lemche), Perry Malinowski (Maggie Ma), Erin Ulmer (Alexz Johnson), Lewis Romero (Texas Battle), Frankie Cheeks (Sam Easton), and Ashley Freund and Ashlyn Halperin (Chelan Simmons and Crystal Lowe). Minutes later, the disaster occurs and Jason and Carrie are brutally killed in the resulting accident. A few days after the disaster, Kevin tells Wendy about the crash of Flight 180, and claims that the people who got off of the roller coaster will start dying in the same order they were meant to die in, just as Alex and his friends did. The survivors begin dying in a series of strange accidents, but Wendy, Kevin, and Julie come to believe they have avoided their own fates when Ian dies. Five months later, their attempts to survive later prove fruitless when all three cross paths and die in a bizarre subway accident. l

The Final Destination (2009)

Nick O'Bannon (Bobby Campo) has a premonition in which multiple race cars will pile-up at the McKinley Speedway. Before his vision becomes a reality, Nick immediately persuades his friends Lori Milligan (Shantel VanSanten), Janet Cunningham (Haley Webb), and Hunt Wynorski (Nick Zano), security agent George Lanter (Mykelti Williamson), and spectators Jonathan Groves (Jackson Walker), Andy Kewzer (Andrew Fiscella), Samantha Lane (Krista Allen), Carter Daniels (Justin Welborn), and Nadia Monroy (Stephanie Honoré) to leave the stadium. When Nick hears the deaths of the survivors, he learns about the previous disasters from the first three films and realizes that Death is coming for him. Once again, the other survivors are killed in a series of bizarre accidents except Janet, who is rescued just moments before her death thanks to Nick's visions. This leads other survivors to believe they have beaten by Death until Nick has another premonition of a disastrous explosion at a shopping mall where he eventually rescues Lori and Janet. Although Nick manages to stop this disaster, he, Lori, and Janet are killed by a runaway semi in the cafe two weeks later. This is the first Final Destination film to be shown in 3D.

Final Destination 5 (2011)

Two weeks before the Flight 180 explosion, Sam Lawton (Nicholas D'Agosto) has a premonition that North Bay Bridge in which he is on will collapse, killing everyone on it. As his vision becomes reality, Sam manages to rescue his surviving co-workers Molly Harper (Emma Bell), Nathan Sears (Arlen Escarpeta), Peter Friedkin (Miles Fisher), Dennis Lapman (David Koechner), Olivia Castle (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood), Isaac Palmer (P. J. Byrne), and Candice Hooper (Ellen Wroe). After Issac and Candice die in bizarre accidents, Sam is warned of Death's plans and told that his only means of survival are to kill somebody else and claim their remaining lifespan. Dennis and Olivia are killed before they have a chance to save themselves, but Nathan successfully claims the lifespan of a co-worker when he accidentally causes his death in a warehouse accident. Peter attempts to kill Molly, jealous that she survived instead of Candice. Peter eventually gains the lifespan of an investigating agent, but is killed by Sam while attempting to kill Molly. Sam and Molly later board Flight 180 to Paris when they witness Alex's premonition. Sam and Molly were too late to get off as Flight 180 explodes, killing them and the other passengers. When Flight 180 explodes, the landing gear is sent towards New York City, where it crashes into the Cocktails bar and kills Nathan.

Future

On February 1, 2011, Tony Todd said in an interview with DreadCentral that if Final Destination 5 is a success at the box office, then two sequels would be filmed back-to-back.^[1] On August 23, 2011, when inquired whether he will be directing a sequel, Stephen Quale elaborates, "Who knows. Never say never. I mean, it'll be up to the fans. We'll see how this one performs internationally and if it makes as much money as the fourth one, I'm sure Warner Brothers will want to make another one."^[2] In April 2013, Todd stated that the script was in the works and that he expected filming to begin by the end of 2013 for a 2014 release.

Cast and characters

List indicator(s)

• (v) indicates the actor or actress used only his or her voice for his or her film character
• (f) indicates the actor or actress did not appear in any new footage for the film; footage from an earlier film was used.
• (photo) indicates the actor or actress appeared in a photograph for the film.
• (s) indicates that the actor did not appear, but a CGI skeleton represented that character and their mode of death.
• A dark grey cell indicates the character was not in the film.

Novels

Throughout 2005, publishing company Black Flame released a series of Final Destination books which faithfully follow the premise of the films, with each involving a group of people who find themselves targeted by Death after surviving a catastrophe of some sort due to a character experiencing a precognitive vision.

• The first novel, entitled Dead Reckoning, has punk rocker Jessica Golden saving herself and several others from the collapse of Club Kitty in Los Angeles, earning Death's ire.^{[Novels 1]}

• Destination Zero, also set in LA, has magazine employee Patricia Fuller and few others survive a train bombing and afterward, while being stalked by Death, Patti learns this is not the first time her family has been hunted by the entity.^{[Novels 2]}

• End of the Line has a group of New York subway crash survivors, led by twins Danny and Louise King, trying to escape Death, who uses an unknowing agent to hasten its acquisition of the survivors.^{[Novels 3]}

• In Dead Man's Hand a group meant to die in the crash of a Las Vegas glass elevator are stalked by both Death and the FBI, the latter believing the group's savior Allie Goodwin-Gaines was responsible for the elevator crash.^{[Novels 4]}

• Looks Could Kill has beautiful New York model Stephanie "Sherry" Pulaski stopping her friends from boarding a yacht when she has a vision of it exploding, but is left horribly disfigured and comatose by flying debris moments afterward when her vision comes true; eventually awakening the embittered Stephanie makes a deal with Death, aiding it in claiming her friends in exchange for having her good looks restored.^{[Novels 5]}

• After the run of the original series of books Black Flame released novelizations of the first three films in January 2006.^{[Novels 6][Novels 7][Novels 8]} Black Flame's last Final Destination novel was Death of the Senses released in mid-2006. Taking place in New York the book has a homeless man named Jack Curtis saving policewoman Amy Tom from a maniac after having a vision of Amy's death; Amy's attacker is later revealed to be a serial killer who was meant to murder six other people (representing the first five senses and a sixth) who Death begins targeting as Jack and Amy rush to find and warn the intended victims.^{[Novels 9]} It was, due to a printing error, only available for a short period of time before being recalled, leaving only a few copies in circulation.

• A tenth novel, subtitled Wipeout and written by Alex Johnson, was planned, but cancelled; the book would have featured a pair of surfers and several others, after surviving a plane crash in Hawaii, being hunted by Death and the survivor of another disaster, an unstable soldier who had nearly died in an ambush in Afghanistan.^{[Novels 10]}

Comics

The first Final Destination comic book, entitled Sacrifice, was published by Zenescope Entertainment and came packaged with a limited edition DVD of Final Destination 3 sold exclusively at Circuit City. The premise of the story involves the survivor of a terrible accident, who continually experiences images of other people's deaths, isolating himself from the rest of the world to escape the visions that torment him. Zenescope later released a five issue miniseries, subtitled Spring Break, which involves a group led by Carly Hagan being stalked by Death after surviving a hotel fire and becoming stranded in Cancún, Mexico.^[3] The miniseries was later released in a trade paperback collection, which included the Sacrifice comic as bonus content.^[3]

Reception

Box office performance

Critical reception

Spinoff works bibliography

Comics

Novels

References

External links

• Final Destination series at allmovie