While the new millennium brought forth panic, it also brought forth the first film of an iconic movie series… that also brought panic. Released in the year 2000, “Final Destination” spawned a multi-movie franchise and a cult-like following.
The franchise is also responsible for impacting a generation into developing niche fears, such as driving behind log trucks and using tanning beds.
Beginning with a catastrophic opening, each “Final Destination” movie follows a protagonist who appears to meet an untimely death. But because the movie can’t go on without them, their death is revealed to be a vision. After taking it upon themselves to save others, Death takes it upon itself to ensure their fate is sealed, killing off the survivors one by one.
The first seen protagonist is Alex Browning (Devon Sawa), a high school student who sees himself and his classmates perish in a plane crash on their way to France. After getting himself and six others off the plane, the group witnesses Alex’s vision become reality. While some are relieved to have avoided disaster, others are unsettled by Alex, especially when he realizes that Death, portrayed as a supernatural villain, is coming for them. Though they fend off Death for as long as possible, the only survivor to appear in the next movie is Alex’s girlfriend, Clear Rivers (Ali Larter).
As the franchise continued, the opening disasters became more outlandish. While a plane crash is conceivable, rollercoaster derailments and high-rise collapses occur far less frequently. This shift is likely due to advancements in technological effects. The deaths evolve as well, becoming less realistic and more shocking. Tod’s (Chad Donella) death in the first film, though a Rube Goldberg-style accident, needed to remain believable for Death to disguise it as suicide. In the later movies however, Death strives more for shock factor rather than believability. While this is a testament to its fearfactor, it also reveals a degree of laziness, as Death forgets to cover its tracks like it had in the past.
While the movies do get more elaborate, the sequel directly feeds off of its predeccesor. Each character is affected by the deaths in the original movie, surviving longer because of them. Death eventually circles back to claim their lives, crossing their names off its list. The second movie is also notorious for introducing loopholes to the system. While one can skip a death, the survivors learn how to survive it indefinitely by bringing a new life into the death loop.
Aside from this direct sequel, multiple references to the original movie appear throughout othersin the franchise. For example,
the number 180 serves as a sign of incoming doom, being present at both the plane crash in the first movie and the car pileup in the second. Characters are also connected to one another even if they never meet. The bus driver who runs over Terry Chaney (Amanda Detmer) in the first movie becomes the protagonist of the novel “Final Destination: Death of the Senses,” attempting to avoid Death himself after witnessing a premonition of his own. This extension to the franchise leans into Death’s trail as well, as the lives of those who cause the deaths are also ruined.
One of these references ties into a theory in the second movie. After learning that new life stops the death loop, they attempt to hold out the life of a pregnant survivor. However, the most recent movie in the franchise — “Final Destination: Bloodlines” — denounces this, with Death coming to claim the lives of the descendants of those who were never meant to survive an accident in the 1960s.
The original concept for “Final Destination: Bloodlines” follows a similar premise, with Death targeting a group of EMTs who each saved a life that was never meant to be saved. Both iterations open up the franchise to more potential spinoffs.
Some fans have suggested that a TV show would work, with each episode following a survivor of the Sky View collapse, and their eventual descendants. This opportunity also opens up further worldbuilding, with the series taking place in the past.
This pattern can also foreshadow the future visionaries as well. Fans have noted that multiple characters experience injuries to their fingers in the movie, starting with Iris (Brec Bassinger) in “Bloodlines,” the first protagonist chronologically. While some of the characters whose fingers are affected aren’t visionaries — such as Kevin Fischer (Ryan Merriman) in the third film — they are still affected by the visions and close to the protagonists themselves, and many theorize that they are descendants from past survivors. Their deaths in their respective movies is simply Death coming back to finish up their list. This proved to be correct in “Final Destination 5.”
With “Final Destination: Bloodlines” revealing that Death’s plans have been thwarted before, it opens up to the fact that there have been visionaries in the past that remain unknown to the audience. This possible worldbuilding can reveal the reason why the visionaries see into the future in the first place. Some fans believe there is a force equal to Death: Life.
This new force has repeatedly and directly prevented Death’s plans for a period of time. A spinoff series to tie up loose ends will certainly breathe new life into the series that “Final: Destination: Bloodlines” has already begun to do.
