Final Destination is a 2000 American supernatural horror film written and directed by James Wong. The film was co-written by Glen Morgan and Jeffrey Reddick, both of them having previously worked with Wong in the TV series The X-Files. The film stars Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Kerr Smith and Tony Todd. Sawa portrays a teenager who "cheats death" after having a premonition
of himself and others perishing in a plane explosion and uses it by
saving himself and a handful of other passengers, but is continued to be
stalked by Death by claiming back their lives which should have been lost in the plane.
The film was based on a spec script for The X-Files written by Reddick. After his co-writers admired his screenplay, writing partners Wong and Morgan were interested and agreed to direct a feature film with it, marking Wong's film directing debut.[2][3] Filming took place in Alabama and Vancouver. Final Destination was released on March 17, 2000, and was a financial success, making $10 million on its opening weekend.[1]
The film received mixed reviews from critics; where negative reviews classified the film as "dramatically flat" and "aimed at the teen dating crowd", while positive reviews praised the film for "generating a respectable amount of suspense", "playful and energized enough to keep an audience guessing" and as "an unexpectedly alert teen-scream disaster chiller".[4][5] It received the Saturn Award for Best Horror Film and Best Performance by a Younger Actor for Sawa's performance.[6][7] The film's success spawned three sequels composed of Final Destination 2 (2003), Final Destination 3 (2006), The Final Destination (2009) and one prequel Final Destination 5 (2011), all distributed by New Line Cinema; as well as a series of novels and comic books published by Black Flame and Zenescope Entertainment respectively.
A month later, after the wire from the shower head wraps around his throat, Tod accidentally hangs himself in his bathtub, and his death is deemed as being suicide. When Alex and Clear go to see his body, mysterious mortician William Bludworth (Tony Todd) tells them that Death is intervening to kill everyone who was meant to die on the plane. Terry falls victim the next day when she is hit by a speeding bus. After watching a news report detailing the cause of the explosion of Flight 180, Alex comes to the conclusion that Death is killing the survivors in the order they would have died in the explosion on the plane. Using information he has collected, he determines that Ms. Lewton is next on Death's list. He rushes to her house but arrives too late to save her from being impaled by a falling kitchen knife during a house fire, and escapes her house, which seconds later explodes.
Alex contacts Billy, Clear, and Carter, the remaining survivors, to tell them what he thinks is happening. As they are riding in Carter's car, Alex has another vision of a train and a seatbelt ripping. Frustrated with not having control over his death and grieving over Terry's death, Carter attempts to drive head-on into a fuel tanker; however, the car seemingly by itself turns and avoids the collision. Carter then stops his car on a train crossing, wanting to kill himself before Death does. At the last moment however, he changes his mind but cannot exit his car as his seatbelt is jammed. Alex rushes to help Carter from his car, and as he foresaw, Carter's seat-belt rips and he is freed a second before the train destroys the car, thus cheating Death. Seconds later, Billy's head is cut in half by a slab of car wreckage whipped up by a metal chain dangling from the train carriage.
Alex believes that because he intervened in Carter's death, he has saved Carter, and that Death skipped Carter and went on to Billy. Later he remembers in his original premonition he was asked to switch seats on the plane, and realizes that Clear is actually the next to die. Alex rushes to Clear's house to find her trapped in her car surrounded by live wires. She is unable to escape her vehicle, which is about to explode, as a damaged electrical cable is precariously flipping around outside. Alex saves her by picking up the cable but is incapacitated by electric shock. Clear and the police rush to Alex's aid as the screen fades to white.
Six months later, Alex, Clear, and Carter arrive in Paris talking about their experience about Flight 180 and how they defeated Death. Shortly thereafter, a bus nearly hits Alex. Then, the bus hits a pole that swings up and breaks the supports to a neon sign which causes it to swing down towards Alex. Carter manages to intervene and pushes Alex to the ground, with the sign swinging down past the two of them. Carter then stands up and turns to Alex who is still on the ground. As Carter asks Alex who is next on Death's list, the neon sign swings back on its momentum towards where Carter is standing. There is a loud whack, and Alex and Clear are left as the last two survivors of Flight 180.
The film was based on a spec script for The X-Files written by Reddick. After his co-writers admired his screenplay, writing partners Wong and Morgan were interested and agreed to direct a feature film with it, marking Wong's film directing debut.[2][3] Filming took place in Alabama and Vancouver. Final Destination was released on March 17, 2000, and was a financial success, making $10 million on its opening weekend.[1]
The film received mixed reviews from critics; where negative reviews classified the film as "dramatically flat" and "aimed at the teen dating crowd", while positive reviews praised the film for "generating a respectable amount of suspense", "playful and energized enough to keep an audience guessing" and as "an unexpectedly alert teen-scream disaster chiller".[4][5] It received the Saturn Award for Best Horror Film and Best Performance by a Younger Actor for Sawa's performance.[6][7] The film's success spawned three sequels composed of Final Destination 2 (2003), Final Destination 3 (2006), The Final Destination (2009) and one prequel Final Destination 5 (2011), all distributed by New Line Cinema; as well as a series of novels and comic books published by Black Flame and Zenescope Entertainment respectively.
Plot
On May 13, 2000, Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) boards Volée Airlines Flight 180 with his fellow classmates and teachers for their senior trip to Paris. Before the plane leaves the gate at JFK Airport, Alex has a premonition that the flight will explode on take off, killing everyone on board. When events from his vision begin to express themselves in reality, he panics and attempts to stop the flight before its departure. The resulting commotion leads to a handful of passengers being left behind at the airport gate, including Alex, orphan Clear Rivers (Ali Larter), Alex's best friend Tod Waggner (Chad Donella), teacher Valerie Lewton (Kristen Cloke), Alex's rival Carter Horton (Kerr Smith), Carter's girlfriend Terry Chaney (Amanda Detmer) and student Billy Hitchcock (Seann William Scott). After they are all forced off the plane, none of the passengers believe what Alex says until the airliner takes off and explodes in mid-air, killing everyone left on it. The survivors are devastated, and two FBI agents (Daniel Roebuck and Roger Guenveur Smith) interview the people who were removed from the plane, and are particularly interested with Alex's vision.A month later, after the wire from the shower head wraps around his throat, Tod accidentally hangs himself in his bathtub, and his death is deemed as being suicide. When Alex and Clear go to see his body, mysterious mortician William Bludworth (Tony Todd) tells them that Death is intervening to kill everyone who was meant to die on the plane. Terry falls victim the next day when she is hit by a speeding bus. After watching a news report detailing the cause of the explosion of Flight 180, Alex comes to the conclusion that Death is killing the survivors in the order they would have died in the explosion on the plane. Using information he has collected, he determines that Ms. Lewton is next on Death's list. He rushes to her house but arrives too late to save her from being impaled by a falling kitchen knife during a house fire, and escapes her house, which seconds later explodes.
Alex contacts Billy, Clear, and Carter, the remaining survivors, to tell them what he thinks is happening. As they are riding in Carter's car, Alex has another vision of a train and a seatbelt ripping. Frustrated with not having control over his death and grieving over Terry's death, Carter attempts to drive head-on into a fuel tanker; however, the car seemingly by itself turns and avoids the collision. Carter then stops his car on a train crossing, wanting to kill himself before Death does. At the last moment however, he changes his mind but cannot exit his car as his seatbelt is jammed. Alex rushes to help Carter from his car, and as he foresaw, Carter's seat-belt rips and he is freed a second before the train destroys the car, thus cheating Death. Seconds later, Billy's head is cut in half by a slab of car wreckage whipped up by a metal chain dangling from the train carriage.
Alex believes that because he intervened in Carter's death, he has saved Carter, and that Death skipped Carter and went on to Billy. Later he remembers in his original premonition he was asked to switch seats on the plane, and realizes that Clear is actually the next to die. Alex rushes to Clear's house to find her trapped in her car surrounded by live wires. She is unable to escape her vehicle, which is about to explode, as a damaged electrical cable is precariously flipping around outside. Alex saves her by picking up the cable but is incapacitated by electric shock. Clear and the police rush to Alex's aid as the screen fades to white.
Six months later, Alex, Clear, and Carter arrive in Paris talking about their experience about Flight 180 and how they defeated Death. Shortly thereafter, a bus nearly hits Alex. Then, the bus hits a pole that swings up and breaks the supports to a neon sign which causes it to swing down towards Alex. Carter manages to intervene and pushes Alex to the ground, with the sign swinging down past the two of them. Carter then stands up and turns to Alex who is still on the ground. As Carter asks Alex who is next on Death's list, the neon sign swings back on its momentum towards where Carter is standing. There is a loud whack, and Alex and Clear are left as the last two survivors of Flight 180.
| Final Destination | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
|
| Directed by | James Wong |
| Produced by | Glen Morgan Warren Zide Craig Perry |
| Screenplay by | James Wong Glen Morgan Jeffrey Reddick |
| Story by | Jeffrey Reddick |
| Starring | Devon Sawa Ali Larter Kerr Smith Seann William Scott Tony Todd |
| Music by | Shirley Walker |
| Cinematography | Robert McLachlan |
| Editing by | James Coblentz |
| Studio | Zide/Perry Productions Hard Eight Pictures |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
| Release date(s) | March 17, 2000 |
| Running time | 98 minutes |
| Country | Canada United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $23 million[1] |
| Box office | $112,880,294[1] |
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MOVIES