Other Titles • Final Destination (2000) • Flight 180
Synopses for Final Destination (2000)
1.
While hardly a spiritual upgrade of the slasher film, this high-concept teen body-count thriller drops hints of The Sixth Sense into the smart-alec sensibility of Scream. Helmed by X Files veteran James Wong, who co-wrote the screenplay with long-time creative partner Glen Morgan, Final Destination is an often entertaining thriller marked by an unsettling sense of unease and scenes of eerie imagery. It suffers, however, from a schizophrenic tone and a frankly ludicrous premise. A high school Cassandra, Alex Browning (Devon Sawa of Idle Hands), wakes from a pre-flight nightmare and panics when he is convinced the plane is doomed. His ruckus bumps seven passengers from the Paris-bound plane, which immediately explodes into a fireball on takeoff, but fate hasn't finished with these lucky few and, one by one, death claims them. Wong brings such a funereal tone to these early scenes of survivor's guilt and inevitable doom that the already far-fetched film threatens to veer into unplanned absurdity. Thankfully, the tale loosens up with a playful morgue humour: one of the victims winds up the splattered punch line to a grim joke and elaborate Rube Goldbergesque chains of cause and effect become inspired spectacles of destruction. Final Destination is a pretty silly thriller when it takes itself seriously, and the filmmakers play fast and loose with their own rules of fate, but once they stick their tongues firmly in cheek, the film takes off with a screwy interpretation of the domino effect of doom. --Sean Axmaker
On the DVD: A superb commentary from writer Jeffrey Reddick, director James Wong and producer Glen Morgan goes into great detail about the film's background. From the team's involvement with The X-Files through to the fight to keep their title "Flight 180", they're pretty candid about the movie's secrets (cameos and character names) and bringing "Death" to life. There are also eight minutes of deleted scenes from an expunged sub-plot that led to their original ending. The explanation for its rejection comes in a 13-minute featurette ("The Perfect Souffle"), which demonstrates the result of Hollywood's reliance on test screenings. There's a trailer, cast and crew biographies and two games--"Your Psychic Eye" and "Death Clock"--which are scary enough by themselves. Rounding this exceptional extras package off is a 20-minute featurette on real-life premonitions. --Paul Tonks
(21 votes)
2.
Includes both Final Destination films.
(20 votes)
3.
His entire high-school class is going to Paris, but Alex Browning (Devon Sawa, Idle Hands) can't seem to shake his fear of flying. Once aboard the plane, he has a violently disruptive premonition which gets him and five of his classmates including Clear Rivers (Ali Larter, Varsity Blues, House On Haunted Hill) and Carter Horton (Kerr Smith, TV's "Dawson's Creek") kicked off the plane. As the students watch the plane depart, they witness the horrifying disaster that proves the deadly premonition true. Now having dodged death once, the terror begins in full as fate hunts them down one-by-one. Soon the five survivors will discover you can't cheat death in this bone-chillingly-suspenseful film that critics call "A first class edge of your seat thriller!" -Paul Wunder, WBAI
(20 votes)
4.
Death is coming and Alex Browning (DEVON SAWA) is blessed with the curse of knowing when, how and where the grim reaper will strike.
Alex's bone-chilling gift reveals itself just as the teenager embarks on a trip to Paris with his high school French class. In the plane's cabin, buckled-in and ready for take-off, Alex experiences his first powerful premonition. He sees the plane explode in a fiery blaze moments after leaving the ground. Sensing imminent doom, Alex panics and insists that everyone get off the plane. In the melee than ensues, seven people including Alex, are forced to disembark.
Back in the airport terminal, Alex is surrounded by those who were kicked off the aircraft: his friends Billy (SEANN WILLIAM SCOTT) and Tod (CHAD E. DONELLA); Clear (ALI LARTER) a young woman who instinctively heeded Alex's warning; Carter (KERR SMITH), who ends up in fisticuffs with Alex and is ousted off the plane along with his girlfriend Terry (AMANDA DETMER); and Ms. Lewton (KRISTEN CLOKE), the teacher who volunteers to stay with the ejected students.
As each fumes about their lost opportunity to visit Paris, Alex's horrific premonition proves tragically accurate. The ill-fated plane explodes in midair. Shocked and confused, the survivors struggle to understand how Alex was able to anticipate the catastrophe. Some are drawn to his eerie clairvoyance, but most of the group is scared of his gift. As skeptical FBI Agents question his every word, Alex tries to reconcile the tragedy and return to a normal life but portents of doom surround him. Ultimately Alex comes to believe that somehow he and the others cheated death. One by one, as each of these fugitives of fate meets an untimely end, Alex and his remaining friends must band together to change the course of destiny and outwit the untamable forces of death.
(19 votes)
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