The Final Destination franchise might be in the horror genre, but despite that, audiences watch the films with a sense of fun. That catharsis horror is known for, where we can deal with our anxieties by laughing at or even enjoying the most frightening things on screen is never more evident than in these films. It's sometimes hard not to laugh at the absurd ways the creators of these movies come up with to kill their characters. A guy getting disemboweled by a swimming pool drain in The Final Destination, or the tanning bed demise in Final Destination 3, are so over-the-top that we can't take them seriously. They're gross, and they make us cringe, but they're not truly frightening outside of the jump-scare effect of the moment.
Then there's Final Destination 5. The last film in the franchise has many twisted death scenes, but one moment, in particular, is so traumatizing and shocking that there is no fun and no laughs to be found. It takes until the very last scene for it to happen, but when you see it play out, it's a moment you'll never forget, even if you wish you could.
'Final Destination 5' Is the Best Film in the Franchise
The Final Destination franchise had been a moneymaker throughout the 2000s, but while 2009's fourth film, The Final Destination, made more money than any other film in the series, it's also seen as the least impressive of the series. It felt like a paint-by-numbers movie. Introduce some bland characters, kill them off, the end. Much of the inventiveness of the first three movies was gone. The Final Destination was going through the motions. That changed with the fifth film in 2011, Final Destination 5. This one righted the wrongs of what came before it. We cared about the characters rather than seeing them as fodder that only existed to die gruesome deaths. Then there were the kills themselves, which aimed to be more scary than silly.
Final Destination 5 follows Sam (Nicholas D'Agosto), his ex-girlfriend Molly (Emma Bell), and a group of friends who survived a brilliantly shot bridge collapse scene in the first act. As these movies always go, the ones who escaped death, in the beginning, are then stalked by it as the grim reaper looks to collect the ones who got away. The Final Destination movies are almost slasher films where the killer is not a man in a mask but the unfathomable afterlife itself. Some of the death scenes see one character crashing out of a high-rise window and another being shot in the back of the head with a nail gun. The most disgusting death involves Candice (Ellen Wroe), a gymnast who takes a deadly fall that ends with a broken neck and spine, her body twisted in the most gruesome of poses. Still, not even that can match what happens in the finale.
The First 'Final Destination' Film Gave Audiences a Horror Film They'd Never Seen Before
Horror wasn't in a great state in 2000. The '80s slasher boom had led to a pretty uninspired early 1990s, outside of classics like Candyman and Wes Craven's New Nightmare. Then came another Wes Craven film in 1996. Scream reinvented the slasher movie and reignited the horror genre. After Scream came a cluster of copycats, from I Know What You Did Last Summer to Urban Legend. Come 2000, however, the new trend was beginning to die out. Horror needed something fresh. Final Destination provided that. It gave audiences that slasher movie vibe and gory deaths, but in a clever new package. Here, death itself was the antagonist, an invisible force out to collect those who escaped it. This gave us the unexpected with a formula we hadn't yet cracked. When people died in the most insane accidents in Final Destination, it was truly frightening because it was new.
Final Destination was bookended by an intriguing first and final act. The beginning sees a high school class boarding a plane set to fly to Paris. We follow these kids, led by Devon Sawa's Alex, as shockingly, minutes into the film, everyone dies when the plane blows up. Of course, it's just Alex having a premonition, and when he snaps out of it, he and a few other students get off the plane. He's treated like a crazy person until we watch from below as the plane then explodes on takeoff. While every film after would follow this formula, none could live up to the impact of the first time we saw it happen. Alex tries to find a way to beat death as everyone around him dies, but even he can't make it, as the final image sees a falling sign take his life.
The Twist Ending of 'Final Destination 5' Leads to a Heartbreaking Ending
The end of Final Destination 5 sees a reunited Sam and Molly alive, the couple eating together alone after hours at the fancy restaurant Sam works at. Another remaining survivor from the opening bridge collapse, the not-so-likable Peter (Miles Fisher), is in bad shape. Candice, the poor gymnast who ended up a bloody pretzel, was his girlfriend. In these films, there is a way out of death's snare. If you kill someone else, you can trade your life for theirs. Peter wants to do this but doesn't have the courage until he shows up at the restaurant, deciding that he's going to shoot and kill Molly. Sam, being the hero of the movie, stops him, in a long kitchen brawl, before ramming a skewer through Peter's back, killing him. Sam has traded his life for Peter's, breaking death's hold on him. Molly had barely escaped the bridge collapse in the opening premonition, so she was never on death's list. Both of them are going to make it.
Two weeks later, Sam and Molly board a plane to Paris, where they are moving because Sam is due to start a culinary apprenticeship in the French city. Wait, they're on a plane to France? If you've seen the other films, you immediately start to get uncomfortable. As Sam is putting his stuff in an overhead compartment, he hears a commotion and looks up. Some teenagers are being removed from the plane. These aren't just any teens though. These are the characters from the first film. The twist has been revealed. Final Destination 5 isn't a sequel, it's a prequel. Sam and Molly are on the plane that blows up in the first Final Destination.
Sam and Molly think nothing of it until the plane is in the air and Sam overhears a stewardess telling a passenger about the kid having a panic attack who wanted off the plane because he had some kind of vision. Fear crosses Sam's face. He knows what's happening and there's nothing he can do. They watch helplessly as an engine explodes and the fuselage begins to rip apart. Molly is sucked out of the plane, but it's not quick, with Sam holding onto her hand, trying to save her until she's ripped away and then split in half over the airplane wing. The plane then explodes in slow motion, the flames consuming Sam as he screams in agony. And if that's not enough, Nathan (Arlen Escarpeta), another survivor who escaped death, is killed on the ground when the plane crashes and he's crushed by an engine.
The Final Destination franchise has fun with its kills. They're meant to make you squirm but also laugh at their silliness. Not here. Sam and Molly's deaths are painfully tragic. Sure, many times the survivors die in the final scene, but not like this, so helpless to escape. Sam and Molly were happy. We cared about them. They weren't just character stereotypes but felt like real people. When they die, it's not out of nowhere. Instead, we see it coming, even before they do, and then have to wait. There's no jump scare, just slowly winding dread. Their deaths aren't held back on either. It's not a quick one-second splatter and cut to black. No, we see Molly screaming and hanging on for dear life. We see Sam screaming as fire takes him. It's brutal and grim and sad, with not an ounce of fun to be had, and no laughs to be found. Final Destination 6 is in the works, but it's doubtful that it will have a sequence as painful and impactful as the final moments of Sam and Molly.
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