Final Destination Bloodlines' box-office milestone proves that, despite the 14-year gap since Final Destination 5, the last film made viewers want more Final Destination movies. It is one of the most innovative entries in the franchise, introducing a new theory, featuring memorably gory deaths, and ending with one of the greatest plot twists in horror film history.
Every most disturbing Final Destination death involves the log truck from the second movie, it's the twist in the ending that elevates Final Destination 5 above the other entries in the franchise. Final Destination 5's ending changed the franchise for good and is among the best in the genre.
Why Sam & Molly Were On Flight 180 In The Last Scene
They Were Flying To For Sam's Job
Early on in Final Destination 5, it is revealed that Sam, while an employee of the company, has dreams of being a chef, and is working towards an apprenticeship in . After his premonition about the bridge's collapse and the consequent pattern of survivors dying one by one, Sam becomes wistful and even questions the importance of his dream. His ex Molly, who comes closer to him during this time, becomes his priority, and he wants to abandon his chance of working as a chef in Paris to be with her.
However, the events leading up to Final Destination 5's ending, especially Peter's attempt on Molly's life and Sam's murder of Peter in self-defense, convinces Sam that life is too short to not chase one's dreams. Since the company's sales department is being closed, and Sam accepts the offer to go to for his apprenticeship, Molly agrees to him in Paris. This is why they both board Flight 180 to in the last scene of Final Destination 5.
One Of The Greatest Horror Movie Plot Twists Of All Time Made This Underwhelming Sequel Worth It
Final Destination 5's ending has one of the greatest horror movie plot twists ever, however, it is the only good thing about this underwhelming movie.
All the Final Destination movies refer to the deaths in the previous films, using them as premises for the characters to figure out Death's design. However, Final Destination 5 never refers to any calamity or premonition pre-dating Sam's vision of the bridge collapsing. It is also clearly set in the early 2000s, specifically, 2000, despite every other film being set in its year of release. Despite all the foreshadowing, the climactic twist in Final Destination 5 shocks every first-time viewer.
It is revealed that the Flight 180 going to , which Sam and Molly board, is the same one that blows up in the beginning of the first Final Destination movie. Even though Sam and Molly believe they have escaped death, they both die in the plane explosion that started the franchise. This connection gives the franchise a full-circle moment that is only possible because Molly accompanies Sam, who changes his mind about not accepting the Paris post.
How Final Destination 5's Ending Connects To The First Movie
The Same Flight 180 Blows Up
The cast's favorite franchise deaths inevitably include the deaths on the exploding plane in Final Destination. It is the first ever premonition and introduced the world to the concept that would eventually inspire a six-movie-long franchise that's possibly set to continue longer. The gory deaths, characterized by an unprecedented level of attention to detail, were shocking for the time and are still rather effective at scarring new first-time viewers.
The full-circle moment of Final Destination 5's ending connecting to the premonition event in the original Final Destination was intended to be the conclusion for the franchise, telling an internally contained story about death across five movies.
Final Destination begins with a group of school students boarding a flight to Paris, the Flight 180 route that goes directly to 's capital. However, before the flight can take off, one of the students gets a vision of a gas leak and consequent explosion that kills all the flight's engers. He flies into a frenzied state of panic and urges everyone to get off the aircraft and save themselves.
While a few people get caught in a scuffle and one of their teachers accompanies them off the flight, no one is willing to believe the boy until they watch the flight actually explode in midair, minutes after departure. This scene creates the premise for the rest of the film, where each survivor dies in the order they would have had they stayed on the plane.
The familiar scuffle from Final Destination breaks out on the airplane.
Interestingly, it is revealed at the end of Final Destination 5 that Sam and Molly have boarded the same flight. While the mention of the flight's number can feel like one of the many ominous Easter eggs in the film, things start taking shape when the familiar scuffle from Final Destination breaks out on the airplane. That's when viewers know Sam and Molly are on the very flight that started the franchise. Final Destination 5's ending connects to the first movie by unexpectedly revealing that it is a prequel.
Every Death In Final Destination 5 Explained
There Are 7 Initial Survivors
As is the case with every Final Destination movie, Final Destination 5 begins with a character getting a premonition about a catastrophe through a vision from Death. On a bus driving to the destination of their company retreat, Sam sees the bridge their bus is on collapse, killing many of his colleagues and friends. He immediately raises an alarm, and the few who run after him to stop him or follow him, because they believe him, survive.
The survivors are Candice (Ellen Wroe), Isaac (P. J. Byrne), Olivia (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood), Nathan (Arlen Escarpeta), Dennis (David Koechner), Peter (Miles Fisher), Sam (Nicholas D'Agosto), and Molly (Emma Bell). Of these eight, Molly had survived in Sam's premonition too, and so, supposedly off Death's list. The rest are supposedly doomed to die in the order they died in Sam's premonition.
Candice dies in a horrifying gymnastics mishap, where, after escaping some obvious means of getting hurt, she has powder flown at her while swinging from a beam at a rapid speed, and accidentally lets go, landing on the floor in a heap of broken bones. Isaac then dies when a Buddha statuette is dropped on his face after nearly escaping a fire set when he attempts to grab his phone while having acupuncture needles in him. He moves to a corner of the room and is about to escape when the statuette falls on him from a shelf.
10 Most Brutal Deaths In The Final Destination Horror Franchise
The Final Destination saga is full of bizarre but creative deaths, and while some were ridiculous, others were so brutal that they became memorable.
The characters learn of the concept of Death's list and a possible means of circumventing their fate when they confront Tony Todd's Bludworth at the scene of Isaac's death. As in every other film in the franchise, each survivor has been marked for death because they weren't supposed to survive the bridge's collapse. However, Final Destination 5 introduces a new rule – if you kill someone while on Death's list, Death will accept the dead person's life instead, and the number of remaining years they had will become yours.
Meanwhile, Olivia has an eye appointment for LASIK surgery, and during the doctor's absence, while she's still attached to the machine, it starts firing the laser due to a malfunction, burning her eyes and hands. Even though she manages to remove herself from the machine, she can barely see, and she slips outside the window behind her, in one of the most memorable and gory deaths in the entire Final Destination franchise.
Soon after Olivia's death, Nathan, who doesn't believe Bludworth, accidentally kills one of his rival colleagues while trying to save him from death by pushing him away, which causes him to get impaled on a hook in the factory. While Sam, Peter, and Molly confront Nathan about his actions, Dennis walks in and is hit with a wrench shot at him by a nearby machine, impaling him, and instantly killing him.
Convinced that killing someone else is the only way someone survives, since Nathan's turn was skipped, Peter chases down Molly and Sam on their date, threatening to kill Molly, because she is the only one who was supposed to survive anyway. During an altercation, Peter kills the FBI agent investigating their case, and despite getting his lifespan, he continues to hunt down Molly, leading to his death at the hands of Sam, who is trying to save her from Peter. This ideally gives Sam the lifespan of the agent.
It seems like Sam, Molly, and Nathan are the survivors of Final Destination 5, two of them having followed Death's rules, and one of them never having been on Death's list. However, Sam and Molly's flight to Paris blows up minutes after it takes off. Meanwhile, Nathan, attending his coworker's memorial service, learns that he didn't have many days left, as revealed by the autopsy, due to an enlarged blood vessel in his brain that could burst any day. While he is mulling over this fact, debris from the flight crashes into the bar, killing everyone there, including Nathan.
What Final Destination 5's Ending Says About Escaping Death
It's Basically Impossible
Final Destination Bloodlines confirms that Kimberly and Burke from Final Destination 2 are the only two survivors in the franchise's history. This implies that the theory about dying and coming back to life to evade Death is valid. However, since no one in Final Destination 5 eventually survives, this leaves a question open – were they unfortunate, or does killing not remove you from Death's list?
It can also be that lifespan isn't a commutable property at all.
If the FBI agent had only a few weeks of life left in him, just like Nathan's coworker, who could have died any day, that would explain why Sam and Nathan died, despite killing people. However, it can also be that lifespan isn't a commutable property at all, and Sam killing Peter didn't give him the agent's lifespan, but Peter's, who was already marked for death. Peter's death at Sam's hands would suggest the agent himself was supposed to die soon enough.
However, none of this information is confirmed within the film, where all we know is that every character dies by the end, like in most of the Final Destination movies. This can be explained by a much simpler theory – it is actually impossible to escape Death once he's marked you, except by dying and coming back. While this implies Nathan should have died before Dennis and not after Sam, that could simply be part of Death's scheme, who has allowed this pattern to recur enough times for Bludworth to think that's how it works.
Even though Clear Rivers managed to skip her turn on Death's list in Final Destination, she died in Final Destination 2.
The Final Destination movies are always open to interpretation because they constantly experiment with their lore, but one thing is highly consistent – almost no one ever survives the films. This could imply that it's impossible to escape Death without dying, and all the various ideas the characters come up with in the franchise are mistaken. Final Destination 5's ambiguous ending allows this interpretation, changing the face of the franchise by making one reassess every theory as the realization dawns that dying has proven to be the only way to escape.
Why Molly Dies In Final Destination 5's Ending
She Was Marked For Death
There are two possible explanations for Molly's death in Final Destination 5. Usually, from what the Final Destination movies tell us, only characters who die in the premonition but survive afterward are on Death's list. However, it is simply possible that Molly's death had nothing to do with Final Destination 5, and she was simply supposed to die in the plane explosion from Final Destination.
Wild Final Destination Theory Explains The Origin Of The Premonitions (& Completely Changes Death’s Design)
The Final Destination saga never explains the origin of the premonitions, but one theory does and makes Death's design a lot scarier.
The other explanation is a little more complicated. Final Destination 5 features deaths that would never have occurred if the people meant to die in the bridge's collapse had died there, because both Nathan and Peter kill people to try and escape death. It is possible that Sam surviving the bridge's collapse had a similar ripple effect and affected Molly. Molly would never have been on the flight if Peter had died, and, effectively, his survival is what put her on Death's list, just like the FBI agent and the factory worker.
How Final Destination 5's Ending Affects the Franchise's Timeline
It Wrapped Up The Franchise Neatly For The Time Being
Final Destination Bloodlines is the first movie in the franchise in nearly 15 years, proving that while the series has more potential, it practically ended with Final Destination 5. The new film is a legacy sequel and a possible soft reboot of the franchise. This is because the final twist in Final Destination 5's ending, which connects it to the beginning of Final Destination, completes a circle that closes off the franchise perfectly. That's why, even though Final Destination Bloodlines alludes to the previous films, it feels like an independent entry.
Final Destination 5 follows a group of coworkers who narrowly escape a deadly suspension bridge collapse, thanks to one man's premonition. Unbeknownst to them, they were never meant to survive, and they must confront their fate while attempting to outwit Death's relentless pursuit.
- Cast
- Nicholas D'Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Courtney B. Vance, Mike Dopud, Tanya Hubbard, Frank Topol, Tim Fellingham, Blaine Anderson, Dawn Chubai, Ryan Hesp, Andy Nez, Diana Pavlovská, Jodi Balfour
- Runtime
- 91 minutes
- Director
- Steven Quale
- Writers
- Eric Heisserer
- Producers
- Craig Perry, Warren Zide
