Grading Each Death in the Final Destination Franchise
Last year, I did a deep dive into the depraved world of death traps from the Saw series. It’s by far the most personally satisfying and intensive piece I’ve ever written, and when brainstorming ideas for a follow up article, I knew I needed a series with an equal amount of crazy and creative deaths, and only one name came to mind: Final Destination. Across five films, Death is presented as a whiny, Rube Goldberg machine obsessed nerd who goes to great lengths to fix his own mistakes (and show off). There’s a mountain of twisted sights and gory messes to dive into.
Final Destination
The Cheat: Final Flight
A college class is taking a class trip to Paris. Just before the plane is off the ground, one of the students, Alex (Devon Sawa), receives a harrowing vision that shows the plane exploding just after takeoff, killing everybody on board. Freaked out by the vision, Alex causes a scene, and ends up getting himself and seven others tossed off the plane. From the ground, the students watch as the plane explodes, just as it did in Alex’s vision.
Gore Level: The vision of the explosion from the inside is fairly explicit. Bodies are burned to bits and people are violently tossed out of a breach in the hull. Things will get much more grisly as the series goes on, but it’s an early shocker.
Conclusion: As the event that sets the tone for the entire series, the plane crash works perfectly. It’s a nightmare that nearly everybody can vividly imagine themselves in, and watching the pained reactions from the surviving students on the ground is heartbreaking.
Grade: A
Paying Dues: Slip
Tod (Chad Donella) is in the bathroom getting ready for bed. His toilet springs a small leak and the water spreads across the floor, unbeknownst to Tod. As he pulls down his clothes off the drying wire above his bathtub, he slips on the water and the wire gets wrapped around his neck, suffocating him. After he’s dead, the water recedes back to where it came from.
Gore Level: The sight of the wire wrapped around Tod’s neck is disturbing and very upsetting. His eyes bulge and turn purple.
Conclusion: Tod’s death is one of the most disturbing in the series, and it happens right off the bat. Once again, death finds a way to turn an unassuming situation sinister and the effect is great. I really don’t know how they pulled this off so well.
Grade: B+
Catch the Bus
The remaining survivors convene after Tod’s funeral to check up on each other. A fight breaks out and Terry (Amanda Detmer) steps out into the street. She is hit by a speeding bus and dies immediately.
Gore Level: It’s over in a flash. You don’t see anything too graphic.
Conclusion: It’s unsatisfying; lightning-quick, out-of-nowhere deaths happen often throughout the Final Destination series. Sometimes it can feel like they’ve run out of ideas, but this being the first does serve as another important tone-setter.
Grade: B
Heating Up
Valerie Lewton (Kristen Cloke), the teacher of the class that was meant to travel on Flight 180, is home alone making tea and listening to John Denver. She pours herself a mug of vodka and the mug cracks. She walks near the computer and some of the vodka drips out onto the computer, which shorts out and explodes. Shrapnel is sent into Valerie’s neck and lights the vodka trail that she left behind, eventually catching the stove. She stumbles and falls over in front of the stove and reaches for a towel hanging above her. The towel is attached to a block of knives that tumble and one stabs into her stomach. In comes Alex, who attempts to pull the knife out, but the stove explodes and sends a nearby chair flying. The chair ends up pushing the knife deeper into Valerie, which kills her.
Gore Level: Here we go, the first very bloody death of the series. There’s roaring fire and heaps of blood.
Conclusion: This is more like it. The most fun Final Destination deaths are the unbelievably complicated ones that practically require minutes of rambling and red yarn on a cork board to accurately describe. It’s the right mix of brutal and silly, and a ton of fun to watch the ridiculous series of events unfold.
Grade: A
Topped Off
Carter (Kerr Smith) gathers the few remaining survivors in his car and drives recklessly, saying that he would rather die on his own terms. He eventually stops the car, but he does so on some train tracks and a train’s on the way. Everybody else leaves the car but his door is jammed and the engine won’t turn on. At the last second, Alex pulls him out. Billy (Seann William Scott) freaks out thinking that he’s next (he’s right) and a jagged piece of metal from the smashed car gets flung by the train’s wheels straight through his head.
Gore Level: Billy’s head comes clean off. The decapitated head doesn’t exactly resemble Seann William Scott, but it’s good enough.
Conclusion: It’s over too quickly and the effect isn’t great, but the drama that leads up to it is solid.
Grade: C+
No Survivors: Paris
Alex, Carter, and Clear (Ali Larter) think that they have successfully beaten death by avoiding it for as long as they have. They finally go to Paris and are having dinner outside a restaurant. They get some signs that maybe things aren’t alright, and Alex steps into the street, narrowly missing a bus. The bus rams into a pole, which flips around and knocks a marquee off a building. The last thing we see is the swinging sign heading straight for Carter.
Gore Level: We don’t see the aftermath, but it’s pretty gruesome to imagine.
Conclusion: A great surprise and an exciting rush at the end of the journey. The cut to credits is one of the best to be found in horror.
Grade: A
Final Destination 2
The Cheat: Driven to Death
A highway becomes the scene of a gigantic crash when a bunch of large logs fall off the back of a truck. The logs smash into cars, which smash into more cars, creating a terribly chaotic scene. Kimberly (A. J. Cook) receives this vision and ends up saving around ten cars full of people just before the accident happens.
Gore Level: This one’s a beast. Tons and tons of metal violently thrown around, logs being jammed through bodies, entire vehicles being reduced to rubble in seconds. It’s intense, as are most of the deaths in this film, so strap in.
Conclusion: This might be the best opening tragedy of the series. Once again, a relatable situation that preys on everybody’s fears that everything could go wrong in an instant. It’s brutal and terrifying, and brought to life with stunning effects. I’ve never been able to look at a log carrying truck without thinking of this movie.
Grade: A
Spaghetti Magnet Ladder
Evan (David Paetkau) gets home and tosses last night’s spaghetti out the window and starts to cook something on the stove, accidentally spilling some cooking oil. He places a takeout container, that unbeknownst to him had a magnet fall into it, into in the microwave. The microwave starts sparking and he is startled into dropping a ring he was holding down the garbage disposal. He reaches in but his arm gets stuck as the rest of the apartment catches fire. He gets his hand out and narrowly escapes just before the apartment explodes and makes his way down the escape ladder, which jams. He jumps the rest of the way down and slips on the spaghetti, falling flat on his back. Suddenly, the ladder that was jammed extends all on its own and goes straight through Evan’s eyeball.
Gore Level: Lots of fire, and the shot of the ladder going through the eye is just plain gross.
Conclusion: Another silly Rube Goldbergian contraption that strings you along only to end in a way you could never see coming. The creativity is wonderful.
Grade: A-
Window Pain
Teenager Tim (James Kirk) goes to a dentist appointment with his mom Nora (Lynda Boyd). While Tim’s in the chair, a fish in the fishtank in the waiting room gets caught in an air tube, which sends water spilling onto an electrical outlet. Pigeons repeatedly fly into one of the windows until it breaks, distracting the dentist. The shorted-out electrical equipment turns on the nitrous gas and Tim is immobilized right before a plastic fish falls from the mobile hanging above into his mouth. A nurse catches it before he chokes. After the dentist trip, the two walk outside and Tim angrily chases after some pigeons into a nearby construction site; the birds distract a crane operator and a huge window pane falls and crushes Tim.
Gore Level: The crushing is excruciatingly detailed, reducing Tim to nothing more than a pair of shoes in one second flat. It is over quick, though.
Conclusion: The end of this one is dirty and mean, but the buildup ends up being entirely circumstantial. A long and tensionless scene ends up being pointless, even if the end result is quite nasty.
Grade: C
Between the Ceiling and the Floor
The survivors realize they are being killed in the order that they died in Rebecca’s vision and meet up at one of their apartments. After they leave, Nora is in the elevator with a man carrying a box of hook hands. Nora goes to tie her shoe and her hair gets caught on one of the hooks. She panics and runs out as soon as the elevator doors open. They quickly shut and she is dragged up until she is decapitated.
Gore Level: The decapitated head is lifelike and the whole scene is really icky.
Conclusion: This decapitation is much better than the one featured in the first movie. The effect is better and the anticipation is almost too much to handle.
Grade: B
Lots of Poles
Believing Isabella (Justina Machado) to be the next to die, the remaining survivors head off in a speeding car driven by Kat (Keegan Connor Tracy) to save her. The car gets run off the road and into a farm’s field. They crash into a stack of poles which get jammed through the car. One badly wounds Eugene (Terrence C. Carson), and Kat gets stuck behind the wheel with a pole right next to her head. Firefighters are using the jaws of life to cut Kat free and the airbag goes off, pushing her head through the pole.
Gore Level: A lot of blood and gore in this one. Once again, the effects are great.
Conclusion: It’s not the most creative, but it’s another good shocker.
Grade: B
Crimson and Cloves
Kat was smoking a clove cigarette just before she died, and she drops it into a pipe that her vehicle has been leaking gas into since the crash. The line of gasoline ignites and leads to another vehicle parked near a barbed wire fence. The vehicle explodes and sends the fence flying straight through Rory (Jonathon Cherry).
Gore Level: Rory is cut to bits, his entire body turned into a few cleanly cut chunks. This is one that won’t leave your head for a long while.
Conclusion: One of the highlights of the entire series. Captures the imagination and is hilariously brutal. The most satisfying quick death in the series, proving they could be done right.
Grade: A
On Borrowed Time
Eugene is on life support in the hospital from the accident. Clear (Ali Larter) realizes that he’s next in line to die and rushes to save him. An errant cart in Eugene’s room rolls away and unplugs his oxygen machine. Flammable gas escapes from another canister and the outlet sparks. As soon as Clear opens the door, the oxygen rush causes a massive explosion that takes both her and Eugene out.
Gore Level: One fiery explosion and Clear’s charred body is all that is seen. Eugene’s pained expressions are more tough to watch.
Conclusion: The events that set this one off are not all too clear, and it’s yet another one that relies on shorted-out electricity, a rather boring running theme throughout the series. Also, it’s an unsatisfactory death for the returning Clear, an unforgivable sin.
Grade: D
No Survivors: Backyard Barbecue
Rebecca and Thomas (Michael Landes) are at a barbecue with Rebecca’s parents celebrating the fact that they still aren’t dead. While her brother is in the background cooking, her parents tell the story of how her brother narrowly missed being hit by a truck, and both Rebecca and Thomas scream at him to get away from the grill. The grill explodes and his body parts are thrown all around.
Gore Level: The disembodied arm that lands near Thomas and Rebecca is played for humor.
Conclusion: It’s a funny little coda, but Thomas and Rebecca live, and if all you’ve done is watched the rest of the movies, you would be lead to believe that they are the only survivors of the entire series. But we can’t have that, and I’ll get to that later.
Grade: B
Final Destination 3
The Cheat: Rollercoaster of Love
Just before graduation, a senior class trip to the carnival ends in tragedy when the rollercoaster that many of them were riding malfunctions, killing everybody on board. Just before it can happen, though, Wendy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) receives a vision and ends up getting herself and a few other classmates tossed off the ride before it can kill them.
Gore Level: The students are torn apart in graphic ways. Violently tossed off the side, cut in half by flying metal, and gored by stray poles. It’s gruesome.
Conclusion: Final Destination 3’s effects range from great to... questionable. A disappointing amount of the blood and gore is made with CGI that didn’t even look good back in 2006 and filmed to take advantage of 3D, so often the not-so-good effects are shoved right in your face. The rollercoaster is the most egregious example, but the event is strong enough to make up for it. It’s scary and once again an easily recalled scene every time you get on a rollercoaster from then on.
Grade: B+
Paying Dues: Tanning Coffins
Ashley and Ashlyn (Chelan Simmons and Crystal Lowe, respectively) take a trip to the tanning beds just before summer. Ashley sets down her slushee and the two climb into their adjacent beds. The condensation from the slushee drips into the thermostat, causing it to short out and heat up. At the same time, a coat rack is knocked over onto a shelf by a blasting air vent. The shelf falls down so that it blocks both of the women’s tanning beds. The two cook inside.
Gore Level: Maybe the most upsetting fire deaths in the series. Excruciating to watch.
Conclusion: Nasty, and it leads into a clever shot, cutting from an overhead of the beds to two identical coffins. And it’s all set to “Rollercoaster of Love” (this series loves ironic song choices, and in this one it’s taken into overdrive).
Grade: B+
Drive-Thru
Wendy and Kevin (Ryan Merriman) decide to go through the drive-thru. They’re boxed in by a fancy car in front and a dump truck to the side. In their rear view mirror they see an unmanned moving truck rolling down a hill headed their way. They escape in time, but the truck crashes into their car and sends the motor into the car in front, killing the driver who turns out to be Frankie (Sam Easton).
Gore Level: The fan blade on the engine cutting chunks out of Frankie’s head is crazy graphic.
Conclusion: Frankie’s death in appropriately violent for as much as a slimeball that he is, but it’s the one death in the entire series that is optional. I’ll get to how later, but it’s disappointing.
Grade: C-
Dead Weight
Wendy and Kevin go to warn Lewis (Texas Battle) at the gym that he’s next on the list. Lewis doesn’t want to hear it, and while he’s arguing, two swords hanging directly above the machine he’s using fall down, missing him but cutting the cables of the machine. The next time he tries to lift the weights, they clap together on his head.
Gore Level: Lewis’s head explodes to bits. Lots of blood.
Conclusion: Another quick and simple one that’s done very well. A good misdirection and a wickedly cruel death
Grade: B+
Nailed It
Once again, Wendy and Kevin attempt to warn the next victims who, once again, don’t want to hear it. Erin (Alexz Johnson) and Ian (Kris Lemche) are working their overnight jobs at the Definitely Not Home Depot. Across the course of conversation, pigeons, along with Ian’s forklift accidentally knock boxes, poles, and jugs over. The forklift rolls forward, pushing a shelf full of wooden spikes right near Ian, but he is saved at the last second by Kevin and Erin falls backwards right onto a nail gun, which shoots right through her head.
Gore Level: The nails go straight through Erin’s head and hands. It’s gnarly, and is lingered on for a long time.
Conclusion: The more sickening the better, and Johnson sells the moment perfectly. This is Ian’s turning point and the start of the film’s real emotional drama, and it’s not hard to understand why.
Grade: B+
Hold Your Horses
It’s the day of a large celebration in town, and after a series of mishaps that I’ll detail in the next entry, a few horses get spooked by fireworks and they run wild. One of them is attached to a flag pole, and it jerks it out of the ground, sending it flying straight through Julie’s (Amanda Crew) friend’s back, who we didn’t know was on the fated rollercoaster ride.
Gore Level: The flag nails her to the ground. There’s some blood but it’s over quick.
Conclusion: Like I said, it’s over quick and it’s a character that hasn’t been seen previously for more than a few seconds. There’s no stakes and it’s over in a flash.
Grade: D+
Left Behind
Ian has shown up to the fair to get revenge on Wendy for, as he sees it, killing Erin and causing all of this to happen. In the background, a stack of cannonballs rocked and one ball rolls over, knocking out of place a piece of wood that was balancing a trailer carrying fireworks. Ian has Wendy and Kevin pinned, but the fireworks go off straight into a cherry picker overhead, which falls down and crushes Ian.
Gore Level: Ian gets completely smashed and leaves behind a lot of blood and body parts.
Conclusion: I had to trim down a few events here, but they are pretty exciting to watch. This is a chaotic scene and the pay off is equal parts humorous and sadistic.
Grade: B
No Survivors
Months later, Wendy, Kevin and Julie have a chance encounter when they all discover that they’re riding the same subway. Wendy receives a vision of the subway running off the rails and killing everybody on board, but her vision comes too late and she’s forced to live it out.
Gore Level: Kevin’s body being dragged out the window and smeared all over the wall is horrific, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Conclusion: This may be better than the opening rollercoaster crash, and it’s a great way to end the film. The buildup is superb and Tony Todd’s cameo is icing on the cake. The first time there is no questions as to whether somebody survived or not. Or is there?
Grade: A
Bonus Round: Choose Their Fate
Included on the DVD extras of Final Destination 3 is the special feature “Choose Their Fate”, which occasionally stops time and allows you to manipulate certain things throughout the film. It’s a very neat idea, but most of these options aren’t worthwhile. Will Ian successfully shoot the birds with his nail gun? Will a coin land heads or tails? There are only two outcomes that can meaningfully change the film, and neither are savory, but thankfully they are non-canonical.
Frankie Cheeks’ Redemption? (No)
There are a lot of morally-questionable characters throughout the Final Destination franchise, but Frankie Cheeks is not one of them. He’s a weird pervert and maybe the most easily hateable character in the series, but that doesn’t stop him from being the only character in the series who possibly survives, outside of Kim and Thomas who we’ll get to later. When Wendy realizes the truck is careening towards them in the drive-thru, you can choose to have her honk her horn a few more times. If she does, Frankie will turn around and Kevin will save him. Later in the film, after Lewis’s death, you’ll encounter Frankie again being hauled away by police. You can then choose to be treated to a nearly ten-minute-long video showing Frankie’s exploits since surviving. At first he seems like a new man, but quickly he’s back to his old ways of hitting on every girl he sees and taking covert creepshots. Eventually, his ways get him caught by an undercover policewoman and he is taken to jail.
Gore Level: None, but that doesn’t mean it’s any easier to watch.
Conclusion: This is a cruel series, and perhaps the cruelest irony of all would be that the slimiest guy in the whole thing is the only one to survive. It’s no sweet comeuppance that he goes to jail for, what? A few days? Weeks? The video that unlocks is in desperate need of an edit and I’m going to just keep thinking that his end in the theatrical film is really the end.
Grade: F
Actually No Survivors
In a newspaper article that you have a chance to read if you see the alternate subway sequence at the end of the film, it is revealed Kimberly and Thomas actually died some years after the barbecue where we last saw them. They didn’t stick together and had a chance encounter at a hardware store. A parking brake failed uphill and a car went headed towards the shop. They both escaped out the back, only to get pulled into a running woodchipper.
Gore Level: It’s only read, never seen, but a gory picture is painted.
Conclusion: As a flippant non-canonical joke, this works. It’s a nice easter egg for those that happen to choose the right options.
Grade: B
The Final Destination
The Cheat: A Bad Day at the Races
A group of friends are hanging out at the racetrack when one of them, Nick (Bobby Campo), receives a vision of a horrific crash that sends debris into the stands, killing dozens. Nick freaks out and escapes just before his vision happens for real, as do his friends and a handful of others.
Gore Level: People are crushed and impaled by flying car parts and bits of the scenery. It’s all a little too silly to be taken seriously, though.
Conclusion: Maybe the least exciting and least relatable opening of the series, but that doesn’t mean it’s still not a lot of fun.
Grade: B
Paying Dues: Dragging Racists
Carter (Justin Welborn) goes to burn a cross in the lawn of the black security guard who he blames for the death of his wife because the guard wouldn’t let him back into the track. The cross gets lit prematurely, and the truck starts to roll away after the parking brake fails. Carter gets wrapped up in a chain and lit on fire and dragged behind the truck down the street until it explodes.
Gore Level: The guy burns good, and watching him get dragged across the concrete is pretty gruesome.
Conclusion: It’s ironic and satisfying to watch, and while it might be too on the nose, “Why Can’t We Be Friends” by War scores the moment well.
Grade: B
Rockeye
Samantha (Krista Allen) takes her kids along to her hair appointment. While in the chair, a number of things go wrong. The ceiling fan falls near her, lotion spills on the floor, an aerosol can explodes. She doesn’t get hit by any of it, but as soon as she steps outside, one of the rocks that her kids were throwing earlier gets shot out of a lawnmower and straight through her eye.
Gore Level: There’s some blood but the event is over in a flash.
Conclusion: This one plays on your expectations and delivers a quick surprise twist much in the same way that the dentist scene did in Final Destination 2. It’s more successful here.
Grade: B
Diamonds
Nick and Lori go to warn the mechanic, Andy (Andrew Fiscella), who they believe may be next to go. He’s talking to them through a chain link fence, and a van rolls downhill towards him. Just before the van hits Andy a winch stops it. The winch comes unhinged from its post and bangs into a canister, knocking off the top and sending it flying right into Andy and picking him up and pressing his body through the fence.
Gore Level: Andy’s back meat is cubed up by the fence. It’s an extremely nasty effect.
Conclusion: Very gross and unlike anything else in the series. The first of three standout deaths that makes The Final Destination one of my personal favorites of the franchise.
Grade: B+
Too Much Pressure
Hunt (Nick Zano) is completely unfazed by the probable threat that he is going to die soon so he hits the pool. A kid shoots him with a water gun and he takes the toy and tosses it over a fence, hitting a lever and turning on the drain. As he’s lounging later on, somebody hits a golf ball his way, knocking the drink out of his hands and sending a quarter rolling into the pool. Hunt dives in after it and gets sucked into the drain. The pressure builds up enough that it sucks his entire body through.
Gore Level: Blood fills up the pressure thingy and explodes like a geyser into the air. Eyeballs and miscellaneous viscera are sprayed everywhere.
Conclusion: This might be Final Destination’s peak, one of the first deaths that any fan of the series will jump to when asked about their favorites. It’s hilarious, unexpected, and gloriously bloody.
Grade: A
Taking a Bath
A newly discovered survivor, Jonathon (Jackson Walker) is located at the hospital. Just as Nick and George (Mykelti Williamson) arrive to warn him of the situation, an overflowing therapy pool on the floor above crashes through the ceiling and crushes Jonathon.
Gore Level: Nothing more than a small amount of blood is actually seen.
Conclusion: It’s almost not worth mentioning. It’s somebody we hadn’t seen up to this point and it’s a meaningless and uninspired death. Plus, the old man in the therapy pool had a sad look on his face and it’s… sad.
Grade: D-
Wham
As Nick and George are exiting the hospital, George gets hit by an ambulance.
Gore Level: You see an obscured look at the aftermath and a blood stain, but it’s nothing too explicit.
Conclusion: George is a good character and one of the few genuinely nice people in the series. Nobody needed his death to be painful or crazy, this was just right.
Grade: B-
Good Movie
Lori (Shantel VanSanten) and Janet (Haley Webb) are at the movies. Nick knows that they’re next and shows up only to be treated to another vision. This time, a big fire starts behind the screen of the movie theater followed by an explosion, killing everybody inside. Lori leaves with him but Janet stays behind. The explosion happens and a large pole flies into her stomach. In the chaotic scene, Lori and Nick try to go down an escalator but it falls apart and Lori is pulled into the gears.
Gore Level: Lots of fire and lots of gore. Janet’s death is tough, but Lori’s is downright excruciating to watch.
Conclusion: So far this series has ruined rollercoasters, highways, pools, ladders, and airplanes, why not toss in escalators as well. This is a beautiful set piece, even better than the raceway.
Grade: A
No Survivors: X-Ray
After surviving the movie theater explosion, Nick, Lori, and Janet meet for some coffee. They start to see the signs that maybe they aren’t totally free when suddenly a semi crashes through the window.
Gore Level: When the truck crashes, the scene changes to an X-ray view and every detail is on display. Every single bone breaking is visible.
Conclusion: The slow motion sequence is exquisite and iconic. Without it, this wouldn’t be much, but with it, this is an all-time great scene.
Grade: A
Final Destination 5
The Cheat: Falling
An office work retreat goes wrong when en route Sam (Nicholas D’Agosto) receives a vision of the bridge their bus is traveling on suddenly collapses. High winds knock cables loose and the concrete crumbles into the water below. In the chaos, Sam manages to get his girlfriend, Molly (Emma Bell), across safely, but he and everybody else on the bridge perishes. When Sam’s vision ends, he makes the bus stop before it can get too far on the bridge and most of them get off safely before the collapse.
Gore Level: People are cut in half by cables and falling sheets of metal. One woman falls back first onto the mast of a passing boat. A man gets covered in boiling tar. This is a grim and grisly scene.
Conclusion: This may be the best inciting event of the series. It’s epic, scary, and the deaths are brutal. This franchise went out with a bang.
Grade: A
Unbalanced
Candice (Ellen Wroe) warms up at the gym for her gymnastics routine. While she’s on the balance beam, a screw falls loose from a ceiling fan and lands perfectly upright on the beam. She moves on to the uneven bars, and as she’s flipping around, another girl on the balance beams steps on the screw. She falls off and upsets a bag of chalk. The powder gets caught up in the fan and blown into Candice’s face. Candice flies off the bar, landing right onto her neck.
Gore Level: Candice’s contorted body and blood and pieces of bone stick out.
Conclusion: Another highlight of the whole series. Almost all of the deaths in this one are, and that’s why this is my favorite entry in the series.
Grade: A-
Acupuncture
Isaac is getting an acupuncture treatment and a painful massage. The therapist leaves the room and while she’s gone, a small fire is started because of burning incense. Isaac freaks out and falls off of the broken table, pushing the needles deeper into him. The alcohol that the massage therapist used earlier to clean the needles has spilled and soaks him. In an attempt to avoid the fire, Isaac falls backwards into the wall, knocking a giant Buddha statue loose, which falls and crushes his head.
Gore Level: The needles being bent and pushed through Isaac is painful to watch, and the head crushing leaves behind a lot of bloody bits.
Conclusion: It’s a little too pathetic and tough to watch, but the setup is great.
Grade: B
Squish
It ultimately doesn’t matter because death will get you anywhere, but it always amazes me that characters in these movies immediately put themselves in dangerous positions after surviving a traumatic event. LASIK surgeries aren’t really that dangerous, but still, the potential is there. Which is what Olivia (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) decides to do. She’s nervous and clutching a teddy bear, whose eye pops out, while in the chair. The doctor leaves for a moment (they have to stop doing that) and the water cooler starts leaking onto the outlet. The laser malfunctions and starts firing wildly, burning her badly. She gets away from it but after she stands she slips on the bear’s eyeball and falls through the window.
Gore Level: The laser singing Olivia’s skin is sickening, and after she falls out the window, her popped out eyeball is run over by a passing car.
Conclusion: Another complicated setup that plays out wonderfully with no red herrings. The best type of FD death and one that I don’t think I would ever have thought of.
Grade: A
Zero Days Without an Accident
Sam and Molly think that Nathan (Arlen Escarpeta) is next and go to warn him at the factory he manages. Before they get to him, Nathan gets in a fight on a catwalk with one of the workers. While they’re bickering, Nathan notices a giant hook falling down over the worker and pushes him out of the way. The hook misses them both but it crashes through the catwalk, taking the worker with it and impaling his head.
Gore Level: Yep, the hook goes straight through that guy’s head, alright.
Conclusion: The worker that dies here was not on the bus going across the bridge. This might be the only time in the series where somebody uninvolved gets killed, so it was unexpected. This is the setup to the newly introduced idea that somebody can take your place in death, an intriguing new element in the franchise.
Grade: B
If You Can Dodge a Wrench...
Immediately after the previous altercation, the boss, Dennis (David Koechner), comes down to inspect the body. Suddenly, a wrench falls into a fan belt and gets ejected right into Dennis’s head.
Gore Level: The wrench sticks into Dennis’s head sideways and gets lodged in there. It’s arguably grosser than a decapitation.
Conclusion: A quick and fun one.
Grade: B-
Le Café Miro 81
Peter (Miles Fisher) meets up with Molly and Sam at the restaurant where Sam works after hours. Still distraught over Candice’s death and jealous that Molly lives in Sam’s vision, he’s convinced that he can kill Molly to ultimately skip his own death. He knocks out Sam and hunts down Molly. The FBI officer (Courtney B. Vance) shows up and Peter shoots him dead, but he isn’t done. Just as he gets Molly pinned, Sam wakes up and stabs him with a giant skewer.
Gore Level: If you’ve made it through the series up to this point, nothing here will shock you.
Conclusion: It’s a tense and dramatic scene that ends somewhat abruptly, and I never bought Peter’s descent into madness. It all feels a little forced.
Grade: C
No Survivors: Full Circle Part I
Sam agrees to take the job as apprentice under a chef in Paris, and Molly comes with him. It is revealed now that this was a prequel, and Sam and Molly board flight 180.
Gore Level: You’ve seen this before.
Conclusion: This is an all time great reveal and the perfect way to cap off this crazy series.
Grade: A
No Survivors: Full Circle Part II
While at the wake for the worker that he had a hand in the death of earlier, Nathan gets crushed by a gigantic piece of the flight 180.
Gore Level: Nathan is probably in there somewhere, but no violence is actually seen.
Conclusion: A funny coda at the end of the movie, nothing more.
Grade: B
It’s been 7 years since the last Final Destination film released, and I’m surprised and impressed that so far they have left well enough alone. Final Destination 5 really felt like it took things full circle and delivered a satisfying end. I’m sure that it’s only a matter of time before an FD6 is announced, and I hope that with it’s brilliantly masterminded, overly convoluted, with silly deaths.
