Movie Info
Movie Name: Final Destination
Studio: Zide/Perry Productions
Genre(s): Horror
Release Date(s): March 17, 2000
MPAA Rating: R
Does this mean we don’t get to go to France?
Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) and his class are preparing for a trip to France when Alex has a vision of the plane crashing. When Alex causes a panic, Alex, Clear Rivers (Ali Larter), Tod Waggner (Chad Donella), Carter Horton (Kerr Smith), Terry Chaney (Amanda Detmer), Billy Hitchcock (Seann William Scott), and their teacher Valerie Lewton (Kristen Cloke) are thrown off the plane. The plane crashes and all suspicion turns to Alex. Death cannot however be cheated and those who think they have escaped it find the real horror just beginning.
Death’s coming for you!
Directed by James Wong, Final Destination was a relatively low budget production. The movie did extremely well in the theater and made a huge profit for the studio. It was met with so-so reviews but with the success spawned a franchise.
Final Destination had an interesting start. It was written for The X-Files, but the series passed on it. Jeffrey Reddick’s script interested James Wong and Glen Morgan and the script was re-written for the big screen. You can see a lot of aspects of this in the script…I can totally see FBI agents Weine (Daniel Roebuck) and Schreck (Roger Guenveur Smith) as Mulder and Scully.
“Optional Sides”…Airline cutbacks.
The story of Final Destination is one of the hindrances of the film. It is obvious that the writers had a good idea of “escaping Death” and Death coming back, but then they weren’t sure where to go from there. The movie moves fast through its victims, and many of the characters make big logic jumps that don’t always make sense.
The cast is very hip and cool. It takes the stereotypical Breakfast Club set-up with jocks, outsiders, and geeks…but no one is horribly unattractive. Devon Sawa is not a very good leading actor, but he does manage to hold the movie together. Ali Larter was a bit more appealing as the romantic lead, and American Pie alum Seann William Scott has a surprisingly small role as a goofball character Hitchcock. Criminally underused is Tony Todd who always brings a nice scare factor to horror films.
Hey don’t worry, it isn’t as bad as it looks…
The deaths are what draw you to Final Destination. They are almost like the Rube Goldberg of the horror world. The effects build a lot of great suspense and as the horror is preparing to happen, you find yourself guessing what is going to end up killing the characters. They are completely ridiculous, but it is the fun of the film.
With a slew of teen horror films (starting with Scream), Final Destination just felt like another one of these movie. Unlike most of the Scream movies, the characters weren’t incredibly bright or introspective, but they were dying in interesting ways. Final Destination was followed by Final Destination 2 in 2003.
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