Warning: Gross and hilarious death scene images/talk follows!
After a lengthy 14-year hiatus, the Final Destination franchise is finally coming back to theaters with a sixth installment, Final Destination: Bloodlines. The basic formula for this series has always involved someone having had a premonition that leads a group of people to narrowly avoid dying in a disaster – except by doing so, they’re defying the will of Death itself, who’s none too happy as a result and retaliates by then killing each of these survivors off, one by one, in particularly elaborate, brutal – and often darkly funny – ways. So as we get ready for Bloodlines, let’s look back at the first five films and determine which of these crazy demises stand out the most.
First though, some quick ground rules. We’ve decided that the mass casualty premonitions that begin each movie – and, in the third and fourth films, even happen again in the third act – don’t count for our purposes here. Don’t get us wrong: They’re awesome in general and feature spectacular deaths, and wow, that car pile-up that begins the second movie absolutely has us all forever fearing a “Final Destination incident” while driving. But still, in the context of this series, they’re not “real” deaths, since most of the characters we see meet their end in these premonitions will go on to actually die in totally different ways, after first surviving whatever disaster is foretold in these sequences.
But don’t worry, there’s all kinds of gnarly deaths to still sort through... Here’s our look at the 10 best Final Destination deaths so far!
10. Truck Drag & Burn
Character, Movie: Carter, The Final Destination (2009)
The fourth film in the franchise is easily the weakest installment for many reasons, including when it comes to the deaths. Some of them are fun conceptually, but notably lessened by the very fake and often goofy looking, yet very in your face, digital effects used to enhance them, which were meant to accentuate the movie’s 3D gimmick at the time - which isn’t even there to help while watching at home.
However, one highlight death in the film is Carter, who you figured the filmmakers would go big on after making sure we knew he was an absolute piece of trash racist, sporting a swastika tattoo, who’s in the middle of doing horrible racist stuff when he gets dragged behind his own truck and set on fire. Then his truck blows up, blowing Carter up with it - sending both gratuitous 3D debris and Carter’s stupid head flying.
Plus, it is a funny cut from that flaming Carter head to a clip from the 1947 Tex Avery cartoon “Red Hot Rangers,” albeit with some notably updated dialogue.
9. One Sharp Thing After Another
Character, Movie: Ms. Lewton, Final Destination (2000)
We all know spilling liquid on your computer is bad, but high school teacher Ms. Lewton finds out just how bad when her computer full-on explodes after some booze is spilled into it, sending a shard of the monitor into her neck. It seems like that could have been enough to kill her on its own, but no, Death wants this one to last, as soon enough the mixture of sparks and spilled alcohol causes a fire to break out in her house, even as she’s still bleeding out. And then her stove blows up for good measure.
Things take a further turn for the grimly humorous when Ms. Lewton’s desperate attempt to grab a dishcloth to put pressure on her wound ends up dragging her snazzy set of butcher knives down off her counter, one of which flies straight into her body. But even worse, which is to say even funnier, since this is Final Destination, is when Devon Sawa’s Alex attempts to pull out the knife, only for a chair to fall and slam that sucker even further into Ms. Lewton, delivering the literal death blow. Come on, Alex, Death obviously put that knife there for a reason!
8. I Crush Your Head
Character, Movie: Lewis, Final Destination 3 (2006)
In Final Destination 3, our heroine Wendy realizes photos she took of her fellow roller coaster crash survivors contain clues to how they will die, and in the case of football player Lewis, that seems to involve two swords. The super jock’s ensuing death scene is an amusingly testosterone-filled one, as he and his teammates are just so damn excited to be working out. The big payoff stands out, as it turns out the swords themselves – dangerously hanging overhead and, inevitably, falling – don’t cut Lewis, but they do cut the ropes on his weight machine without him realizing it. How can you not enjoy someone’s head being smashed to smithereens right as they’re screaming “I just win!”?
And, hey, at least Lewis died so quickly he didn’t even realize he’d just lost.
7. Chop Top
Character, Movie: Frankie, Final Destination 3 (2006)
Frankie Cheeks is Final Destination 3’s designated overt slimeball and not just because his name is Frankie Cheeks and he refers to himself in the third person. See, this guy’s also a sex pest who keeps being gross with girls from the high school he graduated from a couple of years ago.
What’s notable about Frankie’s death is there’s a huge misdirection in the scene, because Final Destination 3’s main characters, Wendy and Kevin, naturally think death is coming for them when a driverless truck careens down a hill and towards their car, which is stuck in the middle of a fast food drive-thru line. Except what neither they, nor those of us watching, know at first is that the douchebag in the car in front of them, who flips them off as they desperately try to escape, is none other than Frankie.
Even before it’s clear who it is – and it briefly seems like some random dude got Final Destination-ed – his death is pretty great, as the truck’s engine shoots out in the collision that occurs, flying into the back of his head and sawing into him with a fan. Then, as it becomes clear this particular victim is sleazy Frankie Cheeks, we get an exclamation point in the form of seeing the entire back of his head had been torn off.
6. Airbag Meets Pipe
Character, Movie: Kat, Final Destination 2 (2003)
Where sometimes we see people narrowly avoid several different ways they could die before something else finally gets them, Final Destination 2 had a clever swerve on that play out with businesswoman Kat when her tire blows out, causing her to crash and sending a decidedly sharpened pipe tearing into her car and going right through her seat’s headrest - except it just misses her! However, when rescue workers attempt to free her, they accidentally activate her car’s airbag, shoving Kat’s head back violently. And that’s when the force of being lurched back so quickly causes that very same pipe to stab her through the head.
This one stands out for how sudden it is, and also how, technically, the actual moment of death is off camera, obstructed by the airbag, while still using a lethal instrument that was very much set up already. This time, our expectations were that Kat had managed to avoid that particular method of elimination and something else would finish her off, but it seems like Death really, really wanted to use that pipe to get her!
5. Seeing All
Character, Movie: Olivia, Final Destination 5 (2011)
Getting LASIK surgery can be an inherently nerve-racking experience, so of course Final Destination had to make sure it went as terribly as possible – and, okay, maybe beyond possible — in the fifth film. This is one of the most notable deaths in terms of escalation, as so many awful things happen to Olivia in literally the final minute of her life. First, the LASIK machine malfunctions, horrifically cutting into not only her eye but her skin. Then, when she actually manages to escape that, she slips and falls, crashing through a window and hurtling several stories down, smashing into a car. That fall is what kills her, except Death, ever the impish prankster, then has one of her eyes fully pop out from the impact and roll into the street… and then it gets run over by a passing car!
Sorry to say, but you probably should have just stuck with wearing glasses, Olivia.
4. Tanning Bed Flambé
Character, Movie: Ashley and Ashlyn, Final Destination 3 (2006)
Most of the time, even folks who were sitting next to each other during a disaster premonition in these movies still die separately, but Death made an exception for besties Ashley and Ashlyn in Final Destination 3, who die as they lived - doing everything together. At least they got a nice little singalong right before things went horribly wrong!
This death is actually one of the more prolonged and painful ones in the series, as these two poor girls find themselves trapped in rapidly overheating tanning beds, causing their skin to burn while glass shatters in their face… before they become engulfed in flames.
It’s a memorable sequence to be sure, and one also given a dark and funny punch line with the hard cut from their twin flaming tanning beds to their twin coffins.
3. The Bus Hit
Character, Movie: Terry, Final Destination (2000)
There’s absolutely no way we can skip this death from the first movie, both because of how fun and memorable it is in its own right, thanks to the sheer surprise of it at the time, but also for how iconic it’s become to the series. Terry declares how she’s going to move on from the plane crash she and the others survived, only to find out Death has other plans when she steps off a curb and gets pulverized out of nowhere by a passing bus.
Even as the series would move into far more elaborate and gory setpieces in the sequels, Terry’s death stands out as the first time a Final Destination audience found themselves laughing and cheering for one of the deaths – yeah, yeah, we’re all sickos! – so much so that the filmmakers needed to re-edit the aftermath of the moment to account for how well it went over in test screenings, since people were otherwise missing hearing the dialogue in the next scene.
This quickly became such a signature death for the series that it is continually referenced, including providing the conclusion to the fourth movie’s “greatest hits” opening credits as well as that same movie outright repeating this death, albeit with a line of dialogue right before to let the audience know the filmmakers were well aware they were repeating themselves. Even 25 years later, the trailer for Final Destination: Bloodlines ends with a callback to this moment.
Terry, you will never be forgotten!
2. Glass Pane Flattening
Character, Movie: Tim, Final Destination 2 (2003)
The Final Destination filmmakers quickly realized they could have a lot of fun by presenting a ton of ways someone could die and then use that as a fake-out for what was going to actually occur. And few sequences do that better or provide a more amazing crescendo than what happens to young Tim in Final Destination 2, whose trip to the dentist is filled with lethal possibilities.
It starts with pigeons that apparently violently slam into the dentist’s window on a regular basis. That should be a hard pass for any potential patient! Tim somehow makes it out of this death trap, even after a near suffocation, only to instantly pull a “I see pigeons, I run at pigeons!” move outside… which then results in a giant dangling pane of glass that was established earlier just absolutely obliterating the kid!
This death is pure Looney Tunes in a gloriously bloody, Final Destination way. I mean, come on, Tim gets flattened like he’s Wile E. Coyote! Except, unfortunately, he’s not getting up from this one, giving both Death itself and those pigeons an absolute victory the Road Runner can’t claim.
1. The Human Pretzel
Character, Movie: Candice, Final Destination 5 (2011)
This sequence in Final Destination 5 featuring gymnast Candice is another where a lot of the initial excitement comes from first establishing the many ways we see she could meet her demise. A huge air conditioning unit threatening to collapse… a fallen screw on the balance beams ready to be stepped on… an exposed wire with water dripping onto it... Another loose screw on the uneven bars (seriously, this place really needs to tighten their screws better!)...
However, what’s so interesting about the payoff here is that ultimately Candice’s death could be described, in the simplest turns, as taking a bad fall, which doesn’t sound very notable for a Final Destination death.
BUT. WHAT. A. FALL.
Just as she’s doing her routine on the uneven bars, a fellow gymnast steps on that errant screw, knocks over a bowl of that, um, gymnast chalk dust stuff – sorry, guys, we’re generally not gymnasts here at IGN – and blinds Candice, just as she spins into the air and BAM…
One instantly snapped spine later and Candice has provided one of the wildest visuals in the history of Final Destination deaths, which is saying something!
What’s your favorite Final Destination death? Vote in our poll, and let’s discuss in the comments!
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