In honor of the release of the trailer for the new Final Destination movie, Final Destination: Bloodlines, I’ve decided to inform the audience that is Her Campus, an audience that’s relatively young, about my favorite, and what I would consider, millennial franchise. I’m here to rank the Final Destination movies, my most favorite and least favorite deaths, and explain why this is one of the best franchises to exist. Warning: there will be spoilers ahead.
The premise of the movies
The first movie, Final Destination, kicked off the franchise with a bang. Opening with a plane crash that kills all the passengers, we see first that the accident is actually just a vision seen by Alex, a student on a school trip to Paris, who freaks out and forces himself off the plane, along with a few others, his classmates, and a teacher.We soon see that this wasn’t just a vision, but a premonition when, minutes after they are all removed from the plane, it explodes midair, this time actually killing everyone onboard. The movie continues with everyone that was supposed to be on the plane dying in awful and mysterious ways. Alex eventually realizes the pattern of “Death’s Design,” explained to him by a mortician working with the dead. Along with the first movie in the franchise, he also appears in Final Destination 2 and 5, telling the victims ways they may be able to beat death. We eventually see that death can’t be beaten, with Clear Rivers surviving in the first movie and making a reappearance in the second after admitting herself to a psych ward to keep herself from anything that could harm her. Our character Kimberly— with the premonition of a huge car pile up in the second film— goes to recruit Clear to help her beat death, but unfortunately Clear meets a horrific death by fire, once again reiterating that death cannot be beaten. The movies primarily follow a general plot structure: after opening with a disastrous accident killing many (a plane crash, a car pile-up, a roller coaster collapsing, race cars malfunctioning, and a bridge collapse), each movie follows as the would-be victims of these accidents die one by one until they’re all gone.
My Ranking
5. Final Destination 4
The fourth Final Destination, also known alternatively as The Final Destination, has the lowest Rotten Tomatoes score, and it has to be because of how awful the graphics, CGI, and ending are. The people who worked on this movie also decided to change up how the Final Destination plot structure usually works, and gave the main character, Nick, two premonitions instead of the typical one at the beginning of the movie. They also gave Nick full visions of every death with terrible CGI, which also probably contributed. The opening of this movie was a racecar accident at a track, where Nick was able to save people by almost getting in a fight, and himself, his friends, and others were removed from the track.
Favorite death: My favorite death in this movie is definitely the neo-Nazi (he had a swastika tattoo on his arm), Carter, who dies after trying to vandalize the house of the security guard, George, who kicked them out and wouldn’t let him back inside to save his wife. His truck starts to roll down the hill, and when he tries to stop it, his pants get caught by the towing cable and he gets dragged down the road. The gas canister that was in the back of the truck had tipped over, spilling on the road, and when the chain drags him and hits the ground, it creates a spark, lighting up the entire chain, and Carter catches on fire as well. The truck eventually blows up, and Carter falls into little pieces, with his head landing on George’s lawn. Obviously, this is my favorite, because there’s not really a worse person in the movie that could’ve died.
Least favorite death: Unlike the fifth movie, the ending of the fourth one was awful. It ends with Nick, his girlfriend Lori, and their friend Janet thinking they survived Death’s list, but while they’re sitting in a cafe, Nick starts to see the signs that Death is coming again, and they get crushed by a semi-truck. Not only is this different from the rest, by killing all three people at once, but the movie just ends right when the truck hits. There’s hardly any anticipation here, and it doesn’t make sense that everyone would die at once if in both premonitions, they died separately.
4. Final Destination 2
The second movie starts with Kimberly going on a road trip with her friends, when she has a premonition of a huge car pile-up on the highway. Back in the present, she’s approached by a cop who asks why she hasn’t moved. He has her get out of the car, and the pile-up occurs, with Kimberly saving many people from dying in the crash, but losing her friends who stayed in the car. The cop pulls her to the side when he sees a large truck coming, which ultimately crashes into her car, killing her friends.
Favorite death: My favorite death in the second movie is Evan’s. Once again, this death is anticipated, and it’s the first death, which means no one knows yet that people are going to start dying. Evan had just won the lottery and made many purchases, including expensive jewelry. He comes home to make himself something to eat and unknowingly puts leftover noodles in the microwave with a plastic magnet in the box. His microwave sparks, and his ring falls down the drain, which he attempts to retrieve, but he had just put his new watch on, so his hand gets stuck in the drain. When the microwave sets on fire, he panics, still trying to remove his hand, and throws a towel to put out the fire, but knocks over the pan cooking on the stove, setting the apartment ablaze. Eventually he gets his hand out of the drain, breaks his window, and makes it onto the fire escape. He makes his way down and onto the ground outside of the apartment, when he slips on spaghetti leftovers he threw out the window earlier, causing him to land on his back. The faulty ladder on the fire escape then comes crashing down, stabbing Evan through the eye, and ultimately killing him. The way Evan dies here is so unexpected because of everything that happens prior. It felt like he should’ve gotten his hand cut off by the drain, or set on fire, or even slipped off the fire escape, which is why it’s my favorite.
Least favorite death: Tim’s death just doesn’t seem plausible in the eyes of a non-science major such as myself. The anticipation is, of course, him at the dentist needing a filling, and going under with laughing gas, after the dentist decides not to inject sedatives when a pigeon crashes into the window and startles them. The dentist leaves for a second (the doctors are always leaving in these movies), and one of the hanging fish decorations falls into Tim’s mouth, which we expect to choke him. It doesn’t, and he survives, leaving the dentist’s office intact when he runs after pigeons on the sidewalk and gets crushed by a glass pane. Of course, physics would say this would work, but I just feel like the glass should have shattered before it crushed every bone in Tim’s body. I don’t like the logistics of this, so I’m ranking this death as my least favorite in the movie.
3. Final Destination 5
This movie is the most interesting, with the movie rounding out the series at the end (though the newest movie will break this circle). The premonition in this movie is a bridge collapse seen by Sam, who’s going on a work retreat with his coworkers. Sam freaks, grabs his girlfriend, and hauls them off the bus, with some of his coworkers following.
Favorite death: My favorite death in this movie has to be the final death. Sam and Molly’s death isn’t gory or long in terms of the actual scene, but it’s foreshadowed throughout the entire movie. Sam and Molly die on Flight 180, which was the flight that crashed in the first movie. I saw this movie most recently, and the shock the ending gave me was huge. When it was over, I realized that, of course, this movie was set in 2000 instead of 2011 when it was made, with the use of flip phones and an early 2000s-style wardrobe. The movie makes us think Sam beat death because he killed someone, but death always comes back around. Molly was just collateral damage because she doesn’t die in Sam’s premonition, but this is still the most interesting death. They even added the clip from the first movie of Alex causing a commotion (though the editing isn’t great) and like previously said, this rounds out the series so well, it’s clear that they were most likely intending on ending it here, which makes the new one just feel like a cash grab (that I will be seated for).
Least favorite death: My least favorite death is Olivia’s. She goes in for eye surgery, and the doctor is called away (who’s surprised?), leaving her with her eye wedged open. A cup of water spills over onto the power unit of the laser machine, making it spark. The laser starts up, burning her eye, and while she eventually gets the tool out of her eyelids, her head is still secured to the table. She burns her hand covering her eye and makes it off the table when Sam and Molly burst in to make sure she’s still alive. This scares her, and she trips over the eye of the teddy bear she was holding, making her fall out the high-rise window and crash onto a car, killing her. Her eye falls out of her head and is then run over by a car. I don’t like this one because I feel like she could’ve survived it. She may have been miserable with only one eye, but I think she could’ve survived that fall.
2. Final Destination 3
I think this is the Final Destination that I’ve seen the most; for some reason, this one is just always on cable. This movie revolves around high school students going to a carnival when a roller coaster breaks and all the people on it die. Wendy has a vision of this and tells the workers she needs to get off the ride. They let off her entire car, and the movie revolves around all of the students dying.
Favorite death: My favorite death in the third movie is the iconic tanning bed deaths. Ashley and Ashlyn go in for the tans when Ashley leaves her drink on the table. Ashlyn decides to turn up the heat on her tanning bed, and Ashley accidentally pulls a shelf in the room loose when looking at CDs. The temperature eventually rises in the room, causing the drink to drip onto the machine underneath it, resulting in it malfunctioning. The coat rack falls, blocking the girls from being able to open the beds, and all the while, the temperatures in the beds are rising. Eventually, the beds get too hot, and the girls continue to try to get out of them, but unfortunately they’re unable to escape, and instead, they burn to death. I think this is my favorite death just because of how iconic it is. Most people know about the tanning bed deaths, just like the logs in the truck from the second movie.
Least favorite death: My least favorite death is probably Perry, who gets impaled by a flagpole. After rushing to help Julie, who almost dies by horse, she realizes she’s next and stands up. The horse that almost killed Julie gets scared by the fireworks that go off, and it breaks the flagpole that it’s tied to, causing one half to fly in the air, ultimately impaling Perry. This death just wasn’t very interesting and is ultimately forgettable, therefore being my least favorite of the movie.
1. Final Destination
The first movie, as stated before, opens with students going on a senior school trip to Paris and that plane crashing after a few students and a teacher are removed for disruptive behavior. I have to say that this movie probably freaked me out the most, and ever since seeing it for the first time, it has made me a bit nervous every time I fly, though I do it religiously.
Favorite death: My favorite death in the first film in this franchise is Ms. Lewton, the teacher who stayed behind with the students. She’s packing to move out of town, and as she does so, she spots Alex, who’s unknowingly coming to warn her that she’s next to die, so she calls the FBI agents working on the plane crash, and Alex is removed from her property. She pours vodka into a mug, unaware of the crack in it, and the vodka slowly streams out of the bottom after she places it atop a monitor. The dripping vodka short-circuits the computer, and when she leans in to inspect it, the screen shatters, and pieces of shrapnel embed themselves in her neck. She removes the shrapnel from her throat and makes her way to the kitchen when the computer sets on fire behind her, eventually exploding and causing a bigger fire and throwing her to the floor. When she reaches for a towel she haphazardly set on a block of knives, the knives come clattering down with the towel, stabbing her in the chest. Alex is eventually released from custody, and he finds Ms. Lewton but it’s too late. The house explodes, but not before Alex makes it out unharmed. This death was honestly just the most interesting and anticipated one in the movie, and therefore my favorite.
Least favorite death: My least favorite death in this movie is probably that of one of the students’, Terry. She’s arguing with the rest of the survivors from the flight when she steps into traffic and gets hit by a bus, killing her instantly. The scene ends there. Terry’s death was just the most boring and inconsequential to me.
I usually get the question, “Why are you so obsessed with those movies?” But I think that if you haven’t seen them, you just won’t understand. Why is anyone obsessed with horror? Why does anyone enjoy anything? I’m excited to see what Final Destination: Bloodlines has in store, but I don’t think anything will compare to the originals.