“Final Destination: Bloodlines” has the potential to take the series in an exciting new direction, but there’s danger in playing around with where these movies called it a day. Most horror franchises don’t get to wrap up their stories in a neat little bow, let alone a 3D highlight reel of Death’s greatest hits set to AC/DC. It remains one of the greatest theater highs I’ve experienced to date. The last few minutes of “Final Destination 5” isn’t just a great ending, but the thematic lynchpin of “Final Destination” as a whole.
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Throughout these films, the various ensembles grapple with finding loopholes in Death’s grand design. They believe that if they can find a pattern, then they can avoid their fate in the great beyond. But by the end, they realize they either did something wrong or merely delayed the inevitable. This results in one of the series’ best characters, Peter (Miles Fisher), transforming into the film’s main antagonist.
Coroner William Bludworth (played by the legendary Tony Todd) tells the ensemble earlier that leading someone else to their death could result in their remaining years being transferred to the murderer’s life account. In this case, Death doesn’t need to set a chain of events in motion, but rather allow grief and sorrow to fester into the kind of blind rage that gets Peter to do its work for them. The stakes are considerably higher when we now have to be afraid of someone we were previously rooting for.
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Sam saves Molly from his homicidal best friend, accepts his international apprenticeship and, ultimately, wins Death’s game. But the commotion aboard his plane to Paris reveals that the happily ever after couple are on none other than Flight 180, revealing the film as a secret prequel! I keep finding more and more clues that are all presented in plain sight every time I revisit it. Flight 180 is this spectre that has loomed over all five films and in this moment, we get an intimate viewing experience of it.
When it’s revealed that they’re on the flight that Devon Sawa’s Alex was foretold would explode in the first movie, you’re hit with a one-two punch of the one of the greatest horror movie twists, followed by a wave of sadness knowing there’s nothing Sam and Molly could have done to avoid this. We’re privy to their demise long before they are, making their inevitable deaths that much harder to stomach. They were always meant to die on this plane and it’s genuinely upsetting.
If Death ever truly felt cheated in these movies, why bother with the premonitions? This one flight is the epicenter of Death’s grand design, with the fates of every “Final Destination” character locked in place no matter what they did. Even doing the right thing can lead to consequences beyond your control. The rules and games to avoid Death’s wrath keep changing throughout the series because it’s all a big lark to nudge these people right where it wants them.
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“Final Destination 5” is currently streaming on Max.
