Final Destination (film Series)

''Final Destination'' is an American horror franchise that includes six films, ten novels, and two comic books. It is based on an unproduced spec script by Jeffrey Reddick, originally written for the television series ''The X-Files''. All of its films' plots are based on the premise of a small group of people who escape impending death after one visionary individual has a sudden premonition and warns them about a major disaster that is about to occur. After avoiding their foretold deaths seen in the visions, the survivors are later killed one by one in bizarre accidents caused by an unseen force, described as Death itself, that creates complicated chains of cause and effect, resembling Rube Goldberg machines. The visionary then reads omens in an attempt to again avert the deaths of the survivors.

In addition to the films, a novel series 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 Alex suddenly sees Carter being crushed by a giant neon sign, making them 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 are killed in a series of strange accidents except for Janet, who is rescued just moments before her death. This 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".

''Final Destination Bloodlines'' (2025)

In 2011, Tony Todd said that if ''Final Destination 5'' was a success at the box office, then two sequels would be filmed back-to-back. On August 23, when asked whether he would be directing a sequel, Steven Quale elaborated: "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".

In January 2019, a new installment was announced to be in development, from Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema. Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan will write the script, with the plot described as a "re-imagining" of the franchise. In August, Devon Sawa expressed interest in returning to the franchise in the reboot.

In October 2020, series creator Jeffrey Reddick confirmed that a sixth film had been in the works prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, Lori Evans Taylor and Guy Busick were hired to write the script. In January 2022, Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema announced that Jon Watts had also joined as a producer. Additionally, it was revealed that the film would be distributed through HBO Max. That September, it was announced that Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein would co-direct the film, after the pair staged an elaborate death hoax in a Zoom call meeting with the studio executives. Producers were impressed with the duo's vision for the project and how their presentation evoked the franchise. The draft of the script at that time was co-authored by Busick and Taylor from an original story written by Jon Watts. Craig Perry, Sheila Hanahan Taylor, Watts and Dianne McGunigle will serve as producers.

In June 2023, it was reported the sixth film was going into production with a start date in mid-July 2023, under the title ''Final Destination Bloodlines''. In August, Reddick confirmed the film would start production once the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike ended. Principal photography took place in Vancouver from March 4 to May 13, 2024.

Recurring cast and characters

Additional crew and production details

Reception

Box office performance

''Final Destination'' is the sixth-highest-grossing horror franchise and with $939million in worldwide earnings, it`s New Line's third most lucrative horror franchise, behind ''The Conjuring'' franchise ($2billion) and the ''It'' series ($1billion).

Critical and public response

The franchise has been praised for its innovative premise of the invisible abstract concept of Death killing people instead of a usual slasher killer, and the creativity of the films' death sequences.

Other media

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. Their first five novels all featured original stories, with the first novel, entitled ''Dead Reckoning'', following a punk rocker Jessica Golden who saves herself and several others from the collapse of Club Kitty in Los Angeles, earning Death's ire. ''Destination Zero'', also set in Los Angeles, 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. ''End of the Line'' has a group of New York City 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. 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. ''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.

After the run of the original series of books Black Flame released novelizations of the first three films in January 2006. 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. 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, titled ''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.

Comic books

The first ''Final Destination'' comic book, titled ''Sacrifice'', was published by Zenescope Entertainment and came packaged with a limited edition DVD of ''Final Destination 3'', sold exclusively at Circuit City stores in 2006. The premise of the story involves the survivor of a terrible accident and his friend Jim, who continually experiences images of other people's deaths, isolating himself from the rest of the world to escape the visions that torment him. In the same year, Zenescope later released a five issue miniseries, titled ''Final Destination: 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. The miniseries was later released in a trade paperback collection in 2007, which included the ''Sacrifice'' comic as bonus content.

Themes

Three critical theories about the ''Final Destination'' franchise have been discussed in scholarly works. It has been framed as a postmodern horror franchise that, like the ''Scream'' franchise, self-consciously refers to the history of horror cinema and rewards viewers for their knowledge. Second, the films—particularly ''The Final Destination'' (2009) and ''Final Destination 5'' (2011)—have been examined for their visual effects. Third, the franchise has been criticized for being cynical and reductive. For example, film studies scholar Reynold Humphries dismisses the franchise as "obscurantist nonsense whose only 'idea' is that death is an agency that has a 'plan' for each of us".

According to media studies scholar Eugenie Brinkema, ''Final Destination'' films are characterized by their move away from the typical horror antagonist

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