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| Final Destination | |
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 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | James Wong |
| Produced by | Glen Morgan Chris Bender |
| Written by | James Wong Glen Morgan Jeffrey Reddick |
| Starring | Devon Sawa Ali Larter Kerr Smith Kristen Cloke Seann William Scott |
| Music by | Shirley Walker |
| Cinematography | Robert McLachlan |
| Editing by | James Coblentz |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
| Release date(s) | March 17, 2000 |
| Running time | 98 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English French |
| Budget | $23 million |
| Gross revenue | $112,880,294 |
| Followed by | Final Destination 2 (2003) |
| Official website | |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Final Destination is a 2000 supernatural thriller, about a group of teenagers who 'cheat death' by avoiding a plane crash when one of them, Alex, has a premonition of their deaths. Soon after their escape, they begin dying one-by-one in mysterious freak accidents.[1] The script was originally written by Jeffrey Reddick as a spec script for the X-Files. (Director James Wong worked as a writer, producer and director on that series.) The story shares similarities with an episode of The Twilight Zone titled "Twenty-Two". The film is distributed by New Line Cinema. The DVD was released on September 26, 2000.[2] The film was the first in the Final Destination series, and was followed by Final Destination 2 in 2003 and by Final Destination 3 in 2006. Another sequel to this film is to be produced, Final Destination 4 (3-D), the film will be directed by David R. Ellis (Final Destination 2).
Final Destination takes place on Long Island.[3] Locations such as Jones Beach and John F. Kennedy International Airport are shown. Nassau County is mentioned. However, Vancouver International Airport stood in for JFK.[4].
Contents |
Plot
Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) with his French class classmates and two teachers are gathering in the airport for their field trip in Paris. While in the airport, Alex suddenly has this feeling of anxiety. At this time, nature is showing signs about the impeding disaster. Aboard the plane, Alex had a premonition of the plane's explosion in form of a dream. Shaken, he tries to confirm the premonition by checking the other facts the premonition has shown to him (like the latch over Tod's seat that detaches when Alex turns it). The facts turn out to be correct and fearing that the premonition is real, he breaks into hysteria, screaming at the passengers to exit the aircraft. His commotion causes a scuffle to break out between him and his fellow classmate Carter (Kerr Smith) and Billy (Seann William Scott), forcing them and three others to get thrown off the flight. Shortly after takeoff, the plane explodes into flames, confirming the validity of his premonition.
Afterwards, the survivors start to die in accidents. Alex soon realizes that the survivors have cheated death, and that death, as if a character itself, has come back to kill them. Alex team up with the other survivors as they try to figure out a way to cheat death a second time.
First to die is his best friend, Tod (Chad E. Donella), after strangling himself "accidentally" by a clothes line in his home's bath room shower (and marks the first and only time that Death is seen as a malevolent force). Before this happens, Alex received a sign in the form of the word "Tod" left on a piece of a torn up magazine. He goes to Tod's house and finds out that Tod is dead and also finds Clear (Ali Larter), his classmate and one of the survivors, there hiding behind a tree and bidding him to go away. Alex also meets Tod's father who blames him for Tod's death, claiming that Tod killed himself out of grief. Alex defends himself, claiming that Tod would not kill himself since they promised to get in touch when Tod's father got over the accident. After the meeting, Alex returns to the tree where Clear is hiding only to find out she's gone.
The next morning, Alex meets with Clear (Ali Larter), outside of a coffee shop showing her the piece of magazine, and telling her the about his ideas of the "signs" and death's design. Clear does not believe it and argues with Alex, when Carter and his girlfriend, Terry (Amanda Detmer), arrive in Carter's car. Carter get out of the car followed by Terry and started out to Alex looking for trouble. Then Mrs. Lewton, their teacher, also one of the survivor, unexpectedly exits the coffee shop and announces to them that she is moving out of town, Carter blames Alex for it and picks a fight with him. Terry, being fed up with Carter's behavior, and begins walking away towards a nearby crosswalk, telling him to get over the plane crash, and that if he can't, he can "drop fucking dead". She is cut short when a bus suddenly slams into her and kills her instantly, spraying blood all over Alex and his classmates.
Alex heads home and tries to figure out Death's pattern. He realizes that they are dying in the order they would have on board Flight 180. Using a seat chart of the plane, he figures that Mrs. Lewton is next. However, he is unable to save her and Mrs. Lewton is promptly killed after being stabbed and burned within her own house. The house explodes due to a gas leak and Alex runs out of the house just in time. Billy Hitchcock witnesses this as he is riding his bike. The FBI arrive and find Alex's footprints in Mrs. Lewton's blood and fingerprints on the knife that stabbed her; Billy too testifies against him. The officials go to Clear and ask her about Alex's whereabouts. She throws them off-track by meeting Carter and Billy (instead of Alex, as the official had hoped), and they search and find Alex. After he (as good as) tells that Carter is next on Death's list, Carter goes insane (possibly from reminiscing Terry's death) and parks in the middle of a train track. With the train bearing down, Alex, Clear and Billy manage to escape the car. Alex convinces Carter to get out, however when he tries to, Death locks the car. Alex realizes that Carter is next, according to the seating plan of the survivors on the plane. He still tries to save him and eventually does just before the train collides with the car. As the group ponder who is next to die, Billy starts to panic and asks Carter to "stay away". As he turns around, a piece of metal from Carter's destroyed car is flicked by the train and decapitates him.
Alex realizes that because he had prevented Carter's death, it skipped him and went on to the next person on the list, Billy. According to the seat map, Alex would be after Billy, making him next on the list. He then goes into seclusion, isolating himself from everyone, barricading a cabin to protect himself from Death. It isn't until later, while he is making a fire, he notices an error. He remembers the two girls who asked him to move so they can sit together. If he'd moved, he would've been sitting next to Tod, making him sixth to die. But since he didn't move, that placed his seat behind Clear and after her on the list.
Clear arrives back at her house and that's when Death starts trying to kill her. Alex arrives and realizes that if he dies instead of Clear, that it will ruin Death's design again. That way, Clear and Carter can survive instead of all of them dying. He then grabs the wire and gets electrocuted, but he still survives.
Six months later, Alex, Clear, and Carter are in Paris. They take a moment to remember all those who died by Death's actions. Alex still can't get out of his mind why Death didn't kill any of them. He tells the other two about this and that he didn't die when he pulled the burning wire from Clear's car and that no one saved him. Clear requests a change of subject as Carter declares that he is "still the safest fucker in the world" because he will only die after Alex. As Alex continues to ponder about this, he notices several signs of Death nearby. He tries to leave, in order to protect Carter and Clear.
As he is walking across the road, a bus appears but Clear calls out his name and he avoids getting killed. The bus then rams into a lamp-post which causes a billboard to swing free at Alex, but Carter saves him in the nick of time. Alex realizes Death had come back for them as he was supposed to die right then, but Carter intervened. He reveals this to Carter and Carter asks who's next. As he asks this question, the detached billboard swings back towards him, projecting him instantly as the credits begins.
Cast and characters
- Alexander Chance "Alex" Browning (Devon Sawa): Alex is a student and the main character. He has a premonition that Flight 180 will explode. Making a scene before take-off, he and six other people get off the plane and witness the disaster. He would have been the last person to die on the plane.
- Clear Rivers (Ali Larter): Clear is a fellow classmate of Alex's. She feels a connection with Alex and believes his frantic assertions that the plane will explode. She is not thrown off the airplane like the other students, but exits of her own volition. At first, she does not believe the concept of Death's design, but eventually does. She would have been the sixth person to die on the plane (although presumed to be last to die throughout most of the film).
- Carter Horton (Kerr Smith): Carter is an athlete who deeply resents Alex. He gets kicked off the plane for fighting with Alex after he causes a commotion about how the aircraft is going to explode. (We are also led to believe Alex and Carter were not friendly even before Flight 180.) He later accuses Alex of being behind the crash. He would have been the fourth person to die on the plane.
- Ms. Valerie Lewton (Kristen Cloke): Ms. Lewton is one of the teachers supervising the trip to Paris. When Alex and Carter fight on the plane, she and another teacher get off to settle the two students. Finding out that Alex, Carter, and Billy got kicked off the plane, Ms. Lewton tells the other teacher to go back while she stays behind and catches a later flight. When Flight 180 explodes, she becomes very depressed and makes plans to move out of town, feeling she sent the other teacher to his death. She would have been the third person to die on the plane.
- William "Billy" Hitchcock (Seann William Scott): On Flight 180, Billy is lucky enough to get caught in the middle of Carter's and Alex's fight and gets kicked off with them. He is the jokester of the group. He would have been the fifth person to die on the plane.
- Tod Waggner (Chad Donella): Alex's best friend. When Alex gets off the plane, Tod's brother, George, tells him to accompany Alex. George dies on the plane, and Tod's father blames Alex for the crash. As a result of this, Tod's friendship with Alex is strained. He would have been the first person to die on the plane.
- Terry Chaney (Amanda Detmer): Terry is Carter's girlfriend. After trying to break up the fight between Alex and Carter, she follows Carter off the plane. Sick of Carter's antagonism towards Alex, she is on the verge of breaking up with him. She would have been the second person to die on the plane.
Cultural References
Most of the characters in the movie have part of their names taken from horror/suspense movie directors or actors.
- Billy Hitchcock - Taken from director Alfred Hitchcock.
- Terry Chaney - Taken from actor Lon Chaney, Jr..
- Tod Waggner - Taken from director George Waggner and director Tod Browning.
- Alex Browning - Taken from director Tod Browning.
- Ms. Valerie Lewton - Taken from director Val Lewton. The character is sometimes actually referred to as "Val Lewton".
Alternate ending
The scene on the beach where Clear tells Alex about her family's past was extended. Clear was telling Alex how they must take action and do something big while they still had the time. Clear and Alex ended up having sex and Clear later becomes pregnant (the scene where she finds out was deleted.) When Clear is next on Death's list, Alex saves her from the exploding car, but sacrifices himself to do so and dies. Nine months later, Clear gives birth to a boy (which she names Alex) and by doing that, she ruined Death's design because Clear creating life was not meant to be. She and Carter became close friends and they visit the Flight 180 memorial. Clear states that even though they defeated Death this one time, they only won a chance at a full life, because for everyone, there is always that one day. A falling leaf drops and the credits roll.
Influence on sequel
The concept of new life defeating death was incorporated into the storyline of Final Destination 2.
Rating
Final Destination received an R rating in the United States for violence and terror, and for language. In the United Kingdom, it received a 15 rating. In Ireland, it received an 18 for violence, horror, and language.[5]
See also
- Final Destination series
- Final Destination 2
- Final Destination 3
- Final Destination 4
- New Line Cinema
- Death
- TWA Flight 800
References
External links
- Official site
- Final Destination at the Internet Movie Database
- Final Destination at Allmovie
- Final Destination at Box Office Mojo
- Final Destination Clip plane crash scene
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