Final Destination (2000)

MY HISTORY WITH FINAL DESTINATION [SKIP]

A little under 20 years ago I was sitting in the house my dad had grown up in sitting in what used to be my aunt’s room with my two older cousins. Prior to this time period I hadn’t watched much horror, thriller or the like seeing as I was only about 10 (my first “horror” movie was What Lies Beneath when I was under 7 but I wouldn’t fall in love with the genre until a few years after this experience). The new Final Destination had come out, Final Destination 3 (2006), and my oldest cousin explained how much she liked the first two when we started up the new one.  Riveted, enthralled and horrified by the time that film had ended my world view had shifted and I was extremely concerned about avoiding death.

I asked my cousin something along the lines of, “This isn’t like real though, right?” and she literally looked at me and said she didn’t know. Now, obviously that is the honest answer but it was the answer that sent my little mind into a spiral of worry. Despite my fears I still went to the local amusement park for a school function and I shit you not the song “Roller Coaster of Love” came on while I awaited riding “The Screamin’ Eagle” the most intense of the rides our small park had to offer. It definitely occurred to me that that could literally be a sign like those the main characters face in the films. I braced myself to get on the ride while weird things started happening around me and then having a premonition of a horrible accident. Luckily, that didn’t happen and instead it was a regular but fun time on a ride that would eventually break over 10 years later, far too long after I’d visited the park to be a coincidence like those faced by the characters in the Final Destination franchise.

I didn’t watch the other films in the franchise until years after watching the 3rd, eventually catching the 2nd on TV and I can confirm that I’m still changing lanes to avoid logging trucks to this day. I commute to my day job and I shit you not I can think of 2 instances this year I was on the highway behind a logging truck and quickly thought of the famous car crash scene. While a director has claimed they regret not making Death, the antagonist of the franchise, have a physical and therefore marketable form I do think there’s something to be said about living rent free in an extremely large amount of North American driver’s heads.

FINAL DESTINATION BACKGROUND

Despite the spiral Final Destination 3, the best one IMO, gave me as a child I really love this franchise and once I’d reached teenage-hood and beyond I readily watched every new installment. An easy franchise to fill a weekend horror marathon with at this point the franchise is comprised of 5 released films and 1 unreleased film set to come out later this month titled Final Destination: Bloodlines. The first 5 films followed the original’s 2000 release with subsequent releases in 2003, 2006, 2009, and 2011, about 2-3 years between each one. The first follows a group of teenagers who get off of a plane right before it crashes and are then chased by an invisible force, Death, seeking to restore balance by ending the survivors in order of when they would have died on the plane. Obviously not all of that is known when you go into it but at this point the movie came out 25 years ago and if you don’t know the premise by now that is a miracle I need to stop.

The second film, following in 2003, is the same premise with the same antagonist but the accident is a multi-car pileup on a highway. The following films in the franchise also copy the format of a different accident with the same premise but only 1 and 2 have cross over main characters. The 3rd film, my personal favorite, is a roller coaster accident, the 4th is annoyingly titled The Final Destination instead of Final Destination 4 and I recall it being advertised as the last installment that would be made (as proven by I Know What You Did Last Summer’s upcoming reboot, no horror franchise truly dies). Not only was it titled differently it also leaned very heavily into the 3D being forced upon audiences in the late aughts. It didn’t pay off and it is the least liked of the movies, centered around a NASCAR accident with deaths that were way too far fetched, even for Final Destination.

The 5th and most recent film came out 2 years after the mess of The Final Destination and returned to the franchise’s roots, simply titled Final Destination 5 as well as swinging back around to earlier concepts in more ways than one. Now, 14 years later a new film is being added to the franchise, Final Destination: Bloodlines. Coming out later this month it follows a family matriarch and grandmother who survived an accident at the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington when she was a young woman. We can discern that her accident will be very similar to those of other Final Destination films, a realistic premonition followed by a group of people leaving right before shit hits the fan, thus surviving the accident.

Interestingly enough this woman is able to live a full life, growing old (looking forward to maybe seeing what that was like) and has grown children with children of their own that are teenagers. Unfortunately for both her and them however they have inherited her escape from Death and now are imbalances in the universe, not supposed to exist and chased by Death itself. We get a glimpse of Tony Todd in the trailer (RIP and I hope that this elevates him to his rightful position) as the mortician and most recognizable Final Destination character, William Bludworth. I’m also looking forward to seeing if they expand on Bludworth’s character, a missed opportunity of previous films, but this would be bittersweet as it is Todd’s last performance in the franchise.

SPOILER FREE-ISH SECTION

The first film and focus of this post that released on St. Patrick's Day in 2000 and cost an estimated $23 million to make. Originally intended to be an X Files episode the story, written by Jeffrey Reddick, was inspired by something he read with Death as an unseen, evil force as the antagonist. Following the success of Scream in 1996 New Line Cinema swapped the characters from adults to teenagers in hopes of repeating that success. James Wong and Glen Morgan turned it into a full scipt and Wong directed the film. Both felt that the feeling of the heebie jeebies the circumstances inspire was relatable and interesting for a horror film, something bad happening when someone had a feeling something bad would happen.

At the time it was notable that slasher movies followed a formula that kept audiences on the edge of their seats wondering who might make it until the end but the writers wanted to confirm those fears that every character will die and the suspense is how they will die. Rather than a never-dying slasher with a Halloween costume they wanted Death, the antagonist, to be an unseen force-something they came to regret once it became a franchise due to the lack of obvious Halloween merch. Craig Perry and Warren Zide reportedly wanted to help with the film's budget because they were fascinated with the concept of death as an unseen force. Not only is death a force in Final Destination but something that is interacting with the physical world with intent.

Built around subtleties and an accumulation of elements to create tension the entire movie feels off like everything seems normal but something is really wrong. John Millet has said he "skewed the sets" or designed them to be a "bit unnatural" and create unease around the environment. I can attest that everytime I watch the films I notice a new unsettling detail or something that was clearly intentional in the background of a scene, like in the first film when the teacher, Valerie Lewton, played by Kristen Clark, opens her closet to investigate and the camera angle switches to from inside of the closet with her in the forefront. In the background of that shot the way that the items are blurred in and out of the foreground looks like a man standing over her right shoulder. It's extremely spooky and almost moves like a shadow of a man would, freaky and ominous as Death literally stalks her like prey around her house.

Another element of note used to influence audience perception is the color saturation. Earlier in the film before Devon Sawa playing Alex Browning has his premonition on Flight 180 the film is notably more color saturated, things aren't as skewed and the world is for lack of a better word: right. The film opens with those early 2000's slice through the screen white font that states production credits and building music. Lightning crackles as the first shot and quickly the camera is through a bedroom window where we eventually get to a shot of an oscillating fan that we will see throughout the film. Items are used to inform background details like Alex's passport, a plane ticket to France. and school books about France. Alex and his fellow peers are high school students traveling to Paris, France on a class trip taking off from New York.

Other classmates are introduced including Clear Rivers, the quiet but observant girl played by Ali Larter, and the class jock, Carter Horton played by Kerr Smith who is really attached to his girlfriend, Terry Chaney played by Amanda Detmer. Alex's friend Tod Waggner played by Chad Donella and his father George Waggner played by Brendan Fehr are also introduced as the father says goodbye to Tod and his other son, both on the class trip. Skip ahead to right as the plane is about to take off Alex is asked to switch seats with 2 popular girls in his class which he agrees to, placing him next to Tod. The flight takes off seemingly normal but all of a sudden they start to jerk and rock in the sky, bouncing rather than gliding in ascent.

In what can only be described as an actual hell scape of a nightmare scenario the plane rips apart in the sky and section by section the passengers are killed or pulled out of the flight. Stuck to his chair in horror and terror Alex witnesses this happen and is some of the last to die when the whole plane explodes in the sky, killing him and the remaining passengers. As the flames engulf his seat Alex is zooted back to pre-take off still sitting in his original seat right as the girls ask him to switch. He immediately freaks out and announces that the plane is going to crash and everyone is going to die.

Alex is obviously very panicked and jumps ahead to Tod's row where he went in his premonition and confirms that an anomalous broken chair tray is exactly where he expects to find it. He tries to warn everyone on the plane about his vision but they are appalled and Carter, incensed, physically confronts him. Due to this altercation and Alex's protests the crew and some airport staff carry a group of passengers off the plane while the rest stay seated. This group includes Alex and Carter, both high school teachers, Carter's girlfriend, Tod at his brother's request to help Alex, and at the last minute, Clear too, get off the plane.

Once the group is off the plane and back at the airport gate the staff informs the teachers that only 1 of them can rejoin the flight with the students through to Paris. Miss Newton demands she be the one to stay over the other teacher, who is more so involved in the French program, and reassures him that they will follow on the next flight out. He reboards the plane as the boys keep fighting at the gate about Alex's proclaimations. Unfortuneately Alex isn't lying and the plane explodes in the sky while it is taking off, the blast smashing the airport windows and leaving no survivors.

Now, in another film franchise this would've been the horror and it is horrifying; for Final Destination however this is simply the stage setting and the set up. Now that Alex has stopped an entire group from dying in the plane crash they would've died in Death, an unseen force often characterized by gusts of wind and character's subtle reactions, is after them in an attempt to fix this. The tagline for the film, "Most people have dreams. For Alex, this is real." packs the punch that the true danger lurks somewhere off of Flight 180 that calls the character's individual fates into question.

SPOILER FILLED SECTION

Following the explosion the group pulled off the plane are justifiably questioned by FBI agents Weine played by Daniel Roebuck, and Shreck played by Roger Guenveur. Cut together to show the passage of time and how the explosion is sinking in with each survivor while talking with the agents. Alex is honest and straight to the point with them, clearly trying to make sense of things himself, but the agents think this is part of an act and believe he's involved. The group is let go to their family members and it becomes clear from Tod's dad that he blames Alex for one of his son's dying.

We then time jump to a memorial that's a reveal of an eagle statue with the names of the victims engraved on a plaque. By this memorial for the crash victims everyone in the community seems to be wary of Alex except Billy Hitchcock played by Seann William. He wants to use Alex like a magic 8 ball, believing him to be psychic but Tod comes over and says they need to get out of town when everything is over. The memorial they're at is a reveal of an eagle statue with the names of the victims who were students engraved on a plaque. Alex tries to comfort Miss Newton but she also rejects him, which has always confused me. Clear approaches Alex at the memorial and thanks him because she believes he is the only reason she is alive and a picture is taken of them by a school photographer. Tod reads something he wrote in class about the brevity of life and unpredictability of death which he previously told Alex is how he is feeling. This turns from him giving the speech at the memorial to a voiceover and a shot of the outside of Tod's house that switches to him going into his bathroom.

It's revealed in cut away scenes that Alex has spent the time jump post-crash to memorial researching planes and trying to understand what he experienced. We see his desk is covered in materials and he's mapped where the group was sitting when the crash happened. Tod is the first person that Death visits and in his bathroom is one of the most egregiously direct ways that Death comes for someone. Blue toilet water begins leaking from the bottom of the toilet and puddling next to it on the tile floor and the liquid moves slowly in a direct line towards Tod. As the liquid slowly approaches Tod does everything suspense inducing like him cutting his dry face with a dry razor (because of course that wouldn't work) or putting scissors up his nostril. It's set up to seem like Tod will slip in the liquid with scissors in his nose or a blade on his neck which would cause some gruesome death. The real danger however is revealed when he opens the shower curtain and inside is a wire clothes line with stockings and underwear drying on it, regular household items.

While this bathroom scene is happening there are cut away scenes to Alex conducting more research into plane crashes and the model of the Flight 180 plane, specifically the seating chart. An unsettling chill comes over the room Alex is in that causes him to decide to take a break from the flight stuff and look at a Penthouse magazine. A nosey owl comes up to the window and Alex throws his magazine at the window to scare it away because it is clearly freaking him out and the magazine is shredded into pieces by the metal oscelating fan. The pieces flutter around the rom and one lands on Alex's leg perfectly, almost intentionally, and it says "Tod" in large, bold font. Immediately he's spooked and runs to get to Tod, afraid that something is going to happen to him and wanting to warn him. All of this is intercut with scenes of Tod in the bathroom and fake outs to build suspense and urgency for Alex making it to Tod's house.

Tod slips in the blue liquid that followed him to the tub's edge and falls into the clothes line in such a way it pulls out of one side of the wall and wraps around his throat, hanging him in the tub while his feet slip in the blue liquid, unable to catch footing to lift himself. A brutal effect is used to show the blood vessels in Tod's eyes bursting and they make a point to show the brutality of this death with the deep set wire still around his neck. He's been strangled and it appears like a suicide in part because the trail of liquid sucks back into the base of the toilet without a trace. Alex gets to Tod's house just as the ambulance and FBI agents are on the scene. Tod's dad blames Alex for his death, believing he had been guilt ridden after surviving when his brother didn't and thus Alex's fault for saving one brother and not both brothers. He tries to get Mr. Waggner to listen to him but understandably he's distraught and leaves Alex outside. Alex doesn't believe that Tod would commit suicide so he goes to see Clear and she confronts him that something is still with him from that night. After this him and Clear decide to sneak into the funeral home to see his body for themselves.

At that funeral home they're caught by the mortician, William Bludworth played by the famous Tony Todd. He shows them that Tod has marks consistent with clawing at the wire which they believe means he didn't want to die or commit suicide. Bludworth says there are no accidents in death and is spooky and ominous when he informs the pair that they have disrupted death's plan by surviving. He also informs them that death has an intricate design that includes every action we do or don't take like a butterfly effect leading us to the grave. Basically he says that their friend's unusual demise is part of Death repairing that disruption with a new design since they cheated death the first time around by getting off the plane. Bludworth warns Alex that cheating death could insight, "a fury," that Alex wouldn't want to deal with.

Tod gives a haunting performance as he peers up at Alex and then stops him on his way out to say that he'll see Alex soon. Things pick up significantly timing wise after this when everyone is in the same spot in town and Carter confronts Alex again. Terry gets upset and as she's declaring she won't let the circumstances ruin her life anymore she walks into the road and is struck by a bus, killing her in front of the group. This cuts away to Clear trying to get ahold of Alex, both taking Alka Seltzer implying the connection Clear told Alex about between the two still exists and that she could feel him. He won't talk to her though and gets distracted by a breaking news report about the crash.

Alex hears a news report about the flight announcing a cause has ben determined. It's reported that Flight 180 blew up due to mechanical failure that caused an explosion and that explosion had a direct path through the cabin, beginning under Tod's seat. Alex maps the explosion through the rest of the cabin over the seating chart to determine what he believes is the design Death originally had for them which is the path of the explosion. Already this design has predicted Tod would be first then Terry and now this design reveals that Miss Lewton will be next.

The scene cuts to Miss Lewton's house, she's on the phone with someone explaining her lasting guilt for telling the other teacher to get back on the plane. She is packing up her things and planning to move away because everything reminds her of the accident. As she walks over to the window she explains over the phone that looking at her yard fills her with fear and as she looks out the window she sees Alex snooping around in her darkened yard.

In a panic hiding behind the curtains Miss Lewton calls the police office to get ahold of Agent Schreck and tell him about Alex showing up at her home. While this happens Alex is snooping around her car, checking the tires as well as the undercarriage and it's clear he's checking for Miss Lewton's safety within the context of the movie but to the agents he's further raising suspicion that he's involved with the deaths of his classmates. The agents quickly show up and take Alex into custody to speak with them as Miss Lewton watches on from inside. A gust of foreboding wind comes in through the open window causing Miss Lewton to stop but she doesn't take this as the warning it is.

At the police station the agents interrogate Alex and want to know why he was at Miss Lewton's to which he readily explains his theory. Alex explains that he thinks that Death has a pattern that they have disrupted by not dying in the plane crash and that now the survivors are dying in the order they were meant to die in in the crash-what the audience knows to be the premise of the film. Intercut with the interrogation is Miss Lewton continuing to pack up her things, finding an old record in the closet and setting up a previously mentioned shot that looks like a man in a coat or a grim reaper is right over her shoulder to the right. It looks like Death is stalking her and just behind her every move waiting for opportunity to strike.

Valerie Lewton puts the record she called "mom's favorite" on and it's revealed to be John Denver, the song used as a motif in the film signaling that she's in danger. Alex explains to the agents back at the station that he believes he saved 6 lives but is only a freak to his peers irregardless of the outcome of their investigation. Alex says he's "not going Dahmer" on the agents which would make me feel like he could have an obsession with serial killers under different circumstances which would make me more suspicious of him and not less.

Alex informs the agents that every person has a pattern, not just those involved in the Flight 180 explosion. Despite acknowledging the design Alex is steadfast in his belief that he can beat the design, almost like using a cheat code in a video game. Back at Valerie's she's still listening to John Denver and decides to boil water in a tea kettle that does a trippy visual effect when she wipes water off of it, making her think a presence is behind her. She tosses the towel she used to wipe the water onto a knife block, which is truly wild in my opinion but doesn't seem to phase her.

Valerie's gas stove doesn't light so she pulls out a match box and goes to light it, an ordinarily mundane task made tense via the viewer waiting for death to befall her. She lights the stove without incident though and the agents reveal to Alex they don't think that he had anything to do with the plane crash. They explain they planned to leave shortly after drawing that conclusion but once everyone started dying under bizarre circumstances they grew suspicious of him. The agents want Alex is promise no one else will die, assuming that the only forces capable of giving or taking life are other humans but he says he can't promise that. Not only that but that as long as he's in custody who dies is out of his control.

They release Alex because they have no real evidence to hold him on and agent not-Schreck says that he almost believed Alex at one point. Schreck says he gives him the creeps and is dismissive about his claims. Valerie pours the water into her mug and sees it's a high school and immediately throws the boiling water out while screaming, startled and disturbed by the reminder. Instead of refilling it with water she opts for freezer stored vodka on ice but the quick change in temperature cracks the ceramic mug. She sets the now cracked and leaking mug onto her desktop computer, which is also wild and just another careless action.

The water drips down into the mechanics of the computer and cause it to short circuit and catch fire. This short circuit causes an explosion and the glass from the computer monitor shoots out and hits Valerie's neck. She pulls it out immediately which is a mistake and blood starts gushing from her neck, a door with a dagger made of stained glass as the background as she rushes across the room, blood spilling everywhere. She knocks the record player when she slips in her blood which causes the track to screech and skip. Alex is walking along the road and a man is burning leaves, embers and burning leaves rushing him like the sign he got for Tod, something he cannot ignore.

Valerie's house is lit on fire when the computer sparks and those sparks ignite the Vodka she previously dripped across the apartment. In an almost cartoonish fashion the lit line of Vodka travels up the stove and the fire ignites the Vodka bottle next to it, sending more glass flying at Valerie as she's propelled backwards. Alex happens upon the house as this is happening and Valerie reaches for the towel she threw earlier with a blood soaked hand. As she grabs it she accidentally pulls the knif block down with it, sending the knives flying out. One of those knives stabs her right through the abdomen, also cartoonishly.

Seeing something is wrong Alex rushes in and happens upon the wild scene, Valerie stabbed on the ground in her kitchen as the fire spreads around them. A chair falls when another mini explosion happens around the stove and lands on the knife that's stabbed Valerie, pushing it all the way through to the floor and effectively killing her. Alex in a panic having been thrown back by the same explosion grabs the knife from her in an attempt to help but ends up standing over a dead Valerie with the kitchen knife in his hand, fingerprints all over it. He looks at the knife and realizes this, drops it and then runs, leaving behind a shoe print in Valerie's blood.

As Alex runs outside Billy happens by on his bike, sees him and stops with confusion as to why Alex would be at their teacher's home. Miss Lewton's home explodes just as Alex is making it across the front yard and it sends both Alex and Billy off their feet to the ground. He looks back at the house then takes off past Billy and down the street into the night, fleeing the scene in a murderer like fashion. Cut to the next day and the agents are asking Clear questions, trying to find Alex. She informs them that Alex cut her off because she said she didn't believe him. They give Clear a card and call her work interesting.

That night Billy, Carter, and Clear arrive at the memorial site around the same time. Carter gets out of his car and tries to carve Terry's name into the wall but is unsuccessful and instead asks Clear why she wanted them to meet her there. Clear informs them that she's being watched and needs their help getting to Alex. When Carter asks why she tells them that Alex knows which one of them dies next and in what order they die. Cut to a highway and Carter's car driving by a sign that indicates New York City is 105 miles ahead.

During the car ride Billy wants them to be careful, drive the speed limit and take caution while passing but Carter is angry and threatening, not taking things as seriously. They arrive at Jones Beach State Park, still ropped off with a sign about the accident. Clear tells them that Alex could be anywhere between there and a mile down, telling them to drive down and then come back to look for him along the way with her starting at the entrance. Clear finds Alex on the beach and they sit with eachother on the shore. She tells him her heartbreaking backstory that culminates in losing both of her parents at a young age.

Clear tells Alex they can't give up and the scene quickly cuts to back in Carter's car on the highway but this time Alex is next to Billy in the backseat. He expresses concern about the agents looking for him following Newton's death. Clear says they're taking Alex to her dad's cabin that is a couple of miles from her house and Carter inquires if Alex heard about Miss Lewton. Alex is shook because he thinks it's obvious that Billy told the FBI he saw Alex at Miss Lewton's house. Clear confirms Billy was an eye witness for them, Billy counters though that he saw valid evidence for Alex's involvement like his shoe print and that she'd melted into the floor.

Carter clears up however that he cares if Alex knew she was next somehow rather than his involvement with the deaths. Clear gives him a look to not lie to them and he confirms he knew, Carter then asks who's next and Billy hopes he gets to see the Jets win a Super Bowl. Alex protests that it doesn't matter who's next because they are all in the same boat together. It starts to sink in for Carter and he asks what's the point and why they should wait any longer before he slams his foot on the gas sending the car flying forward.

Carter is driving eradicly and blowing through stop signs and everyone is screaming for him to stop. Alex realizes his seatbelt is cut only to look back down and see it fixed. They rush into an intersection as the light turns red and everyone is justifiably freaking out. Carter starts screaming that he's in control of his life and that he alone controls his death, which is never what you want the driver of your car to say. Billy reaches for the steering wheel and tells Carter he doesn't have to prove to them how big his balls are right now and Carter elbows him in the nose then takes his hands off the wheel entirely as they barrel towards a semi just barely missing it and another car.

Alex looks out the window and sees a hazy train that looks like it's coming at them then disappears, freaking him out and causing him to go into overdrive fear when Carter stops the car on the tracks. Clear panics and tells Carter to open the car and Alex screams for Billy to open his door so they can get out of the back as a train in the distance appears on the tracks, horn blaring. Billy is petrified but can't open the door so they just continue to panic in the back until he's finally able to open it and run out. Carter decides to stay in the car, Alex asking him to get out with them and not kill himself.

In a douchey fashion Carter goes to turn his car on and says it isn't his time but the car won't start, he looks towards the incoming train and says, "oh shit," and tries to free himself from the car and thus the tracks. Alex rushes back onto the tracks to try and save him from the car and the train smashes into the car splitting it in 2, making it appear like both boys were killed by the crash.

A cut away from the tracks however reveals Alex was able to save Carter from the crash and Clear runs up to check on Alex, thankful he survived. While the threesome is still on the ground Billy is standing with his back to the tracks as the train passes over them, barely deterred by the car. A triangular jagged piece of metal is under the train between the tracks which the camera notably focuses on. Billy is panicking, feeling that Alex’s predictions have been proven true because Carter almost died and Alex saved him after seeing the vision of the seatbelt. Billy yells at Carter over the sound of the train passing that Carter needs to stay away from him because he’s next up to die.

He tells Alex and Clear to get away from Carter too because he’s dead but Carter screams at him that he’s not, still on the ground. Billy screams, “You’re dead! You’re dead!” over and over again, telling Carter he won’t be going with him. The shot snaps back to the piece of metal under the tracks, rattling due to the motion from above. It catches on the wheels and shoots out from under the train right towards the group as Billy turns around. The piece of metal slices Billy’s head in half like a really messed up Fruit Ninja situation and his body collapses off the side of the road. Alex is trying to make sense of things and screams that Carter was meant to be next, confused why he is alive and Billy is not dead.

Alex is now relieved to know with his visions he can intervene in their deaths and save them but Clear is more concerned about the incoming police force to the crash. Alex connects that the saving of Carter made the design skip him and get the next person in the path which was Billy. Clear tries to reason with Alex calling him baby and saying that he’s lost his marbles but Alex thinks he’s next up now and then Clear will be after him. He grabs her face on either side and tells her he won’t let Death get her. Carter interrupts their embrace and tells them to get the fuck to Clear’s cabin before the police show up, him staying behind to talk to meet them at the scene.

At the creepy cabin in the woods Alex is taping, covering, roping, and essentially attempting to safe-proof the area from Rube Goldberg machine like deaths being set into motion. Alex grabs a lamp and a can of mush after putting gloves on to protect against the sharp edges. A gust of wind comes under the door and knocks over a paper bag of trash that causes a chain of events leading to a knife through the door. Alex finds rusted fish hooks in the cabin and thinks Death might come for him in the form of an illness like tetanus. He challenges Death to get him in his rigged cabin, confident that he can cheat the force after him.

The agents loose sight of Clear and she pops up next to the car surprising them and offers to take them to Alex as long as she can come with them. They tell her they will get him and bring him into protective  custody and she can wait at home. Alex reads the paper at the cabin and sees an article about the fire at Miss Newton’s and then further down he sees a blurb about the parents of the 2 girls that asked Alex to move at the start of the film and died in the crash setting up a college scholarship in their names. This sparks Alex to recall he never moved because his vision occurred before he moved so he never switched seats with the girl, thus changing the actual Death order that he disrupted.

This is a cool use of the butterfly effect and a detail that almost goes unnoticed unless you’re looking for it at the start. The order he’s been working off of is the order from his vision which put him dying second to last and then Clear dying after him. Since he didn’t move that order is wrong and he’s actually the last to die so when Carter was skipped and then Billy died it’s actually Clear who’s up next and not Alex like they believe at that point in the film. This revelation means Clear is in huge danger and Alex is perfectly fine, wasting time by being in the cabin basically if he wants to save Clear.

Just as Alex realizes the real order and danger the scene cuts to Clear looking outside her bedroom window as the thunder and lightning continue outside. Suddenly her nearby power pole is hit by a lightning bolt that causes it to explode, causing mayhem outside with the open and raging electrical wires. The power goes out because of this and Clear discovers that the power line is downed in her front yard. The police show up to the cabin just as this is happening but Alex takes off across a body of water in a canoe on shore. They get back in their cars to go back to Clear’s area while she looks for candles to light in the dark. Her dog is outside going crazy at the downed wire and she rushes out, a candle being blown out by a sudden gust of ominous wind that stops her in her tracks.

Alex takes off through the woods, running from multiple cars worth of police and FBI agents and Clear goes outside to save her dog who’s chained up and unable to escape. Alex falls down a hill in the forest as Clear’s dog punctures the above ground pool, leaving water spilling into the yard and a live wire landing in it just as Clear and her dog are able to jump out. While Alex runs through the woods a tree is hit by a bolt and is downed right on top of him, his face stuck in a puddle drowning him. The police are sucking at finding him and Clear is climbing onto her roof to get back into her house, getting into her bedroom window just as her TV and other electronics burst from power surge. She makes it to her car but can’t get the garage to open since the power is out and it falls on her car, trapping her in the garage and unable to escape.

Alex finally gets to Clear’s and sees the situation building including lighter fluid now spilling out under her car amongst the swinging live wire. He uses a shovel to knock the wire away from the hood of the car but this causes a canister of air to shoot under Clear’s car just as the train of fluid ignites and sets the under carriage of her car ablaze. Alex explains to her that he plans to save her so that Death skips her and that he’ll always be with her. He grabs the live wire so Clear can get out of the car and she’s able to as Alex is blown back from the explosion and electrocution. A panicked Clear begs Alex to be okay and the paramedics say he isn’t breathing but the scene cuts away to white.

The white screen fades into the light at the end of a boarding tunnel at the airport. The camera moves down the tunnel and shows an airplane door opening as the words, “SIX MONTHS LATER,” come onto the screen. Guests are getting off the plane safely and it’s revealed that Carter, Alex, and a blonde Clear are on board and happy to have safely landed. Shocked they made it onto a plane again a pan down from a sign shows that they are in Paris, at a cafe together. They are in awe of the city and they all cheers to Terry, Carter feeling her absence is felt. Carter tells them he’s shocked they’re sitting in Paris having a drink and that the group are the only people that get what they’re going through.

Carter says they won and Clear says they won a full chance at life. Alex all of a sudden tells them there’s something he can’t figure out about the design and goes to grab the seating chart from his pocket, having brought it on the trip. Clear is less than pleased and wants him to let it go, both tired of hearing him talk about this. He points out that his intervention saving Carter sent Death to Billy which then in turn sent it to Clear but he intervened again which sent it to him but no one actually intervened in his death to save him. He notes that the power line explosion threw him but Clear throws out it’s possible everything was meant to happen exactly as it has and they were always meant to be sitting right there.

She obviously means it in a optimistic way, that they survived against all odds and don’t need to worry about this stuff anymore. Carter points in agreement with her, siding with moving on with their lives rather than obsessing over Death’s design. Carter then says Alex could be next and that they proved 3 times you can skip someone by saving them and tells him that he’s still next. Suddenly that wind comes on again and Alex notices all of the dangers around them until his red wine spills on the map and colors him blood red. He tells the pair to stay at the cafe away from him since he’s next and Clear sees a vision of a bus, yelling to save Alex at the last minute.

Rather than hit Alex the bus hits the curb trying to miss him and this crash causes a lighted sign above this cafe to be hit. It blows up and then comes swinging down and looks like it will go right into Alex until Carter tackles him onto the ground and out of the way, saving him. Alex gets up and says that it has skipped him and as Carter asks who’s next the sign that went swinging past them comes swinging back behind Carter as Alex still lays on the ground out of the way. Carter looks like he realizes he’s next just as the sign is about to hit him and ultimately kill him and just as that is about to happen it cuts to black and credits.

Hindsight is 20/20 and it is easy to judge the harsh critique this movie inspired from some at the time of its release. I think that the subsequent films like Final Destination 2 and Final Destination 3 in particular have made the first film more famous. The world is clearly not as flushed out as it is today with only that movie as the material that the audience bases the concept of Death’s Design on. In this movie Alex has ”visions” but they are more so him seeing objects or items that indicate something like double-takes that aren’t totally real feeling. In subsequent films the visions change and are full on play outs of the next death or in one case random object like a Clue envelope to give hints.

Watching the film back it is clear how much attention to detail this one includes that other movies in the series sometimes lack. Tiny details are added to each scene to build suspense or provide fake-outs for the viewer while they attempt to guess what the cause of death will or won’t be. Misdirects are a Final Destination favorite, present in all of the movies in at least one of the character’s deaths. In this one we have the fake out with Tod in the bathroom early on, multiple misdirects during Valerie’s death, and the crash as a fake-out before Billy is taken out by the rogue piece of metal.

All 3 of them surviving up until that last scene did leave some lack of finality to the movie but I think that was the intention based on the second film following just 3 years later. Subsequently the franchise became somewhat of a plug and play formula, 1 part freak accident, 4-7 parts characters in archetype form, motifs like songs, themes like the brevity of life, and a twist on the premonitions to predict deaths specific with each film. The first isn’t my favorite but I do hold it in high regard as the first of it’s kind and the use of an unseen force with the plot subversion off rip. Starting with all of your main characters dying might seem nonchalant today but I could imagine it was quite unique at the time this movie came out.