Final Destination pays homage to the greats of the genre in its choice of character names. Alex's surname is Browning, as in Todd Browning who made Freaks and Dracula. Billy's surname is Hitchcock - need we say more, and Valerie Lewton is a moniker for Val Luten, whose credits include Cat People and Walk of the Zombie.
Devon Sawa leads the ensemble cast as Alex Browning a thoughtful young man whose graphic premonition of disaster aboard the ill-fated 747 inexorably changes his life. "I'd been reading a lot of scripts," Sawa recalls, and the Final Destination script really stood out. It got me thinking about death...and life! I thought it would be challenging as an actor to go through the whole arc of character development that Alex experiences."
"Devon has an every man quality that makes him accessible," says Wong. "He's doesn't appear as if he's supremely self-assured, he's more of a regular kid who can take on the complexities of the role and become a hero."
"In the beginning," Sawa muses, "Alex is a low-key kinda guy. He and his friend Tod aren't the most popular guys at school, but they've got their own thing going. After the plane goes down his world changes completely. People are dropping like flies all around him -- the FBI are watching him like a hawk while he's trying to figure out death's design and just stay alive!"
"I actually read the script on a plane," Sawa remembers, "and found myself peeking out the window at the engine every couple of minutes." On the Final Destination set, the mock-up of the 747 was realistic down to the smallest details. "You really felt like you were inside an airplane," Sawa enthuses, "and so when it started shaking, people were screaming and explosions were going off it felt very real. Next time I'm on a plane and there's a little turbulence I'll probably reach for my oxygen mask!"
"One of the most important things we were looking for in casting," explains Morgan, "was the actors' ability to play the subtleties - the little things that a character doesn't say or do that create the edge -- that get under your skin and spook you."
Ali Larter co-stars as Clear, a feisty young woman whose individuality and intelligence have rendered her somewhat of a loner. Clear is the only person on the plane who heeds Alex's premonition and after the crash, the two become friends. "She's had a lot of loss in her life and she's kind of closed herself off to the world," Larter says of her character. "It excited me to play a character who goes from that shut-down place to a growing trust in other people and in life itself. In a lot of the scripts I read the characters I'm being considered for are cheerleaders or girl friends -- or just babes!"
The hopeful message of the film is something that Larter also found very appealing. "This film shows how easy it is to turn on someone, to blame someone when you're scared. It's also about trusting your intuitions and yourself -- trusting love and learning how to be whole in this world."
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