Final Destination is a 2000 American supernatural horror film directed by James Wong, with a screenplay written by Wong, Glen Morgan, and Jeffrey Reddick, based on a story by Reddick. It is the first installment in the Final Destination film series and stars Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Kerr Smith, and Tony Todd. Sawa portrays a teenager who cheats death after having a premonition of a catastrophic plane explosion. He and several of his classmates leave the plane before the explosion occurs, but Death later takes the lives of those who were meant to die on the plane.
The film began as a spec script written by Reddick for an episode of The X-Files in order for Reddick to get a TV agent. A colleague at New Line Cinema persuaded Reddick to write it as a feature-length film. Later, Wong and Morgan, The X-Files writing partners, became interested in the script and agreed to rewrite and direct the film, marking Wong's film directing debut. Filming took place in New York City and Vancouver, with additional scenes filmed in Toronto and San Francisco. It was released on March 17, 2000, and became a financial success, making $10 million on its opening weekend. The DVD release of the film, released on September 26, 2000, in the United States and Canada, includes commentaries, deleted scenes, and documentaries.
The film received mixed reviews from critics. Positive reviews praised the film for "generating a respectable amount of suspense", "playful and energized enough to keep an audience guessing", "an unexpectedly alert teen-scream disaster chiller", and Sawa's performance, while negative reviews described the film as "dramatically flat" and "aimed at the teen dating crowd". It received the Saturn Award for Best Horror Film and Best Performance by a Younger Actor for Sawa's performance. The film's success spawned a media franchise, encompassing four additional installments, as well as a series of novels and comic books. The first sequel, Final Destination 2, was released on January 31, 2003.
Plot[]
High school student Alex Browning boards Volée Airlines Flight 180, a Boeing 747 with his classmates for their senior trip to Paris from John F. Kennedy Airport. Before take-off, Alex has a premonition that the plane will face a mechanical failure, leading to a mid-air explosion, killing everybody on board. When the events from his vision begin to occur in reality, he panics until a fight breaks out between him and his rival Carter Horton, resulting in both of them being removed from the plane, along with Alex's best friend Tod Waggner, Carter's girlfriend Terry Chaney, teacher Valerie Lewton, and students Billy Hitchcock and Clear Rivers. None of the other passengers, except Clear, believe Alex about his vision until the plane explodes on take-off. Afterwards, the survivors are interrogated by two FBI agents, Agent Weine and Agent Schreck, who are both suspicious of Alex.
Thirty-nine days later, after attending a memorial service for the victims, an unusual chain reaction causes Tod to accidentally hang himself in his shower that night. While his death is ruled a suicide, Alex sneaks into the funeral home along with Clear to examine Tod's corpse when the mortician, William Bludworth, reveals that the survivors who escaped from the impending circumstance have disrupted Death's plan, who is now claiming the lives of those who were meant to die from the accident. Alex and Clear are discussing their next move when the rest of the survivors arrive outside the café, where Terry is run over and killed by a speeding bus on the road.
After watching a news report on the cause of the explosion, Alex concludes that Death is reclaiming the survivors according to the sequence of their intended demises on the plane. Nonetheless, he is too late to save Ms. Lewton whose house explodes after she is impaled by a falling kitchen knife. The remaining survivors reunite while driving through town as Alex explains the situation. Carter, who is next, is enraged over Terry's loss and stops his car on a train crossing, attempting to die on his own terms. While the others escape, he changes his mind at the last minute but his seatbelt jams. Alex manages to save him just before the car is smashed by an oncoming train that knocks a shrapnel from the wreckage into the air, decapitating Billy. Alex learns that because he intervened in Carter's death, it skipped to the next person afterwards. The next day, while hiding out in a fortified cabin, Alex recalls having changed seats with two classmates in his premonition and realizes that Clear is actually next. He rushes to her house to save her while being pursued by Weine and Schreck. Alex finds Clear who is trapped inside her car surrounded by loose electrical cables that ignite a gasoline leak around her. He grabs the cable, allowing her to escape from the car just before it explodes.
Six months later, Alex, Clear, and Carter travel to Paris to celebrate their survival. While discussing their ordeal, Alex reveals that Death never skipped him after he saved Clear. Fearing that their struggle is unfinished, Alex retreats when a bus hurls a parking signage towards a neon sign which descends towards him. Carter pushes Alex out of the way at the last second but the sign swings back down towards the former and kills him, leaving Death's plan to resume action.