Final Destination

Final Destination is an American horror franchise owned by Warner Bros. Entertainment through New Line Cinema. It includes six films, nine novels, and two comic books. It is based on an unused spec script by Jeffrey Reddick, originally written for the television series The X-Files. The plots involve a group of people who escape death after a visionary has a premonition of an impending disaster. After avoiding their foretold fate, the survivors are later killed one by one in a series of bizarre accidents caused by an unseen force, often identified as Death itself, which sets off intricate chains of events resembling Rube Goldberg machines. The visionary then interprets omens in an effort to prevent further deaths.

In addition to the films, a novel series consisting of six original stories and 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 book series titled Final Destination: Spring Break was published by Zenescope Entertainment in 2007.

The franchise has been praised for its innovative premise, with Death itself being a villain instead of the usual slasher figure, and the creativity of the convoluted yet tense death sequences.

Background

Final Destination was written by Jeffrey Reddick after having "read a story about a woman who was on vacation and her mom called her and said, 'Don't take the flight tomorrow, I have a really bad feeling about it'". The woman switched flights, and the plane she was originally supposed to take crashed. Originally having written the script as an episode of The X-Files, Reddick decided to turn the script into a feature-length film at the behest of one of his New Line Cinema colleagues. After developing the feature idea, New Line Cinema hired Reddick to write a screenplay; James Wong and Glen Morgan were later brought on board to write the shooting script, making alterations to comply with their standards. Jeffrey Reddick has sole story credit and shares screenplay credit with James Wong and Glen Morgan.

Films

Final Destination (2000)

Final Destination features high school student Alex Browning (Devon Sawa), who boards Volée Airlines Flight 180 with his classmates for a field trip to Paris. Before take-off, Alex has a premonition that the plane will explode in mid-air, killing everyone on board. When the events from his vision begin to repeat themselves in reality, he panics, and a fight breaks out, which leads to several passengers being left behind, including Clear Rivers (Ali Larter), Carter Horton (Kerr Smith), Billy Hitchcock (Seann William Scott), Valerie Lewton (Kristen Cloke), Terry Chaney (Amanda Detmer), and Tod Waggner (Chad Donella), who witness the plane explode moments later. However, their survival caused them to cheat Death itself, who also designed the Flight 180 explosion. As a result, Death created a new design to kill them one by one in bizarre accidents. Eventually, Alex, Clear and Carter travel to Paris to celebrate their survival, but when Alex suddenly witnesses Carter being crushed by a giant neon sign, they realize that Death is not finished with them.

Final Destination 2 (2003)

Final Destination 2, picking up one year after the first film, features college student Kimberly Corman (A. J. Cook) heading to Daytona Beach for spring break with her friends Shaina, Dano, and Frankie (Sarah Carter, Alex Rae, and Shaun Sipos). En route, Kimberly has a premonition of a huge pile-up on Route 23, killing everyone involved. She stops her SUV on the entrance ramp, preventing several people from entering the highway, including 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). While Officer Burke questions Kimberly, the pile-up occurs as she predicted. Like the previous film, the survivors have cheated Death by escaping their intended fate. However, this time, Death targets them in reverse order, as their survival disrupted the pattern set by the deaths of the Flight 180 victims, creating "loose ends" that Death is now determined to correct. Kimberly also teams up with Clear Rivers, the remaining survivor of Flight 180, to save the rest and eventually realizes that "only new life can defeat Death". This involves trying to kill oneself and being revived afterwards, which Kimberly does, saving her and Officer Burke, who was next on Death's list.

Final Destination 3 (2006)

Final Destination 3 has high school student Wendy Christensen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) visiting an amusement park for grad night 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, Wendy has a premonition that the ride will crash, killing everyone on board. When Wendy panics a fight breaks out and several people leave or are forced off the ride before the accident occurs, including Kevin, Wendy's younger sister Julie (Amanda Crew), and students Ian McKinley (Kris Lemche), Erin Ulmer (Alexz Johnson), Lewis Romero (Texas Battle), Frankie Cheeks (Sam Easton), Ashley Freund (Chelan Simmons), Ashlyn Halperin (Crystal Lowe), and Perry Malinowski (Maggie Ma). When the survivors start to die one by one in a series of strange accidents, Wendy and Kevin set out to save those who remain after they learn of the events of the first two films. They also figure out that the photographs they took at the park have hints of their deaths. Most of their attempts are futile, with the exception of Julie and themselves, leading them to believe they have cheated Death. However, the three "coincidentally" cross paths five months later and are caught in a horrifying subway accident.

The Final Destination (2009)

In The Final Destination, college student Nick O'Bannon (Bobby Campo) visits the McKinley Speedway for a study break with his friends Lori Milligan (Shantel VanSanten), Janet Cunningham (Haley Webb), and Hunt Wynorski (Nick Zano). While watching the race, Nick has a premonition that a crash will send debris into the grandstand, causing the stadium to collapse on the spectators. As he panics, a fight breaks out, prompting several people to leave before the disaster occurs. Among them are his friends Lori, Janet, and Hunt, security guard George Lanter (Mykelti Williamson), and fellow spectators Andy Kewzer (Andrew Fiscella), Samantha Lane (Krista Allen), Jonathan Groves (Jackson Walker), Carter Daniels (Justin Welborn), and Nadia Monroy (Stephanie Honoré). Once again, the survivors begin to die in a series of strange accidents until Janet is rescued moments before her death. Janet's survival leads the remaining survivors to believe that they have cheated Death until Nick has another premonition of a disastrous explosion at a shopping mall, which he manages to prevent, saving himself, Lori, and Janet. Two weeks later, Nick realizes that the mall disaster vision was merely a distraction, intended to lead them to the place where Death truly planned to strike, and all three are killed when a runaway semi crashes into them.

Final Destination 5 (2011)

In Final Destination 5, Sam Lawton (Nicholas D'Agosto) is on his way to a corporate retreat with his colleagues. While they cross the North Bay Bridge, Sam has a premonition that the bridge will collapse, killing everyone on it. Sam manages to persuade several of his co-workers to get off the bridge before the accident occurs, including 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 Candice and Isaac die in bizarre accidents, Sam learns that Death is targeting them for surviving the bridge collapse. He is also told that survival is possible by claiming the remaining lifespan of another person. Olivia and Dennis are killed before they can act, but Nathan unintentionally claims a co-worker's lifespan during a workplace argument. Peter, jealous that Molly survived instead of Candice, tries to kill her. He ends up taking the life of an investigating agent, gaining his lifespan, but Sam kills him before he can harm Molly. Later, Sam and Molly board a flight to Paris, which is revealed to be Flight 180 from the first film. When the engine explodes and the fuselage is torn apart, Molly is sucked out of the plane, and Sam dies in the explosion. Meanwhile, the landing gear crashes into a cocktail bar in New York City, killing Nathan, as the co-worker whose lifespan he claimed had a terminal illness and was expected to die "any day now".