Final Destination Plot Breakdown – Horror Movie Analysis

Final Destination is one of my favorite movie franchises. I’ve been trying to get my hands on the books, without paying $250 for a 150 page paperback, for years. So naturally when Final Destination: Bloodlines announced I was unbearable. I made everyone in my household watch the trailer, squealed with delight when the late great Tony Todd appeared, and reiterated (to eye rolls from everyone present who has heard this 400 times) my longstanding belief that the screen time of Tony Todd is directly related to how good the movie is. See Final Destination 4.

To prepare for this upcoming cinematic masterpiece, let’s review everything that happened in the 5 existing movies. Yes, even the aforementioned Final Destination 4. Given that the movie trailer has the 2nd most views of any horror movie (IT takes first place) I know there are a lot of fans like myself who have been waiting 16 years for this installment.

Obviously spoilers galore. If you haven’t already, check out Final Destination first. You can watch it with a Max subscription or by/rent it from Amazon here.

Final Destination released in 2000. This WILL be relevant later, so keep that nugget in your mind. It opens with artsy cinematic shots of Alex’s (played by Devon Sawa) bedroom. We see he is prepping for a trip to France with his French class and also that he has extremely odd taste in decor. Creepy nicknacks everywhere. Interspersed is a text about demons. Or something. Is Alex reading this? I don’t know and it’s never explained. Spooky.

Alex is jumpy and superstitious from the beginning. Maybe he shouldn’t read about demons so much. He is already worried about the plane crashing and nothing strange has happened. While he sleeps, a spooky wind – a hallmark of death’s presence in the series, blows through his room and whispers his name in what, I think, is Clear’s (Ali Larter) voice. The clock by his bedside changes the time to 180. An impossible time that matches his flight number. Alex never sees this. I guess the warning was just for the audience. Flight 180 and the number 180 will dominate this series as a portent of doom.

Alex goes to the airport with his bestie, Tod (Chad Donella) and his brother. (twin? Are they the same age? I don’t know. It doesn’t matter.) As we should come to expect with Alex, everything is already scaring him. The flight time and his birthday are the same and he looks like he’s having a stoke. The board with flight times changes too quickly, scary. Someone get this kid a Xanax.

The teachers gather the students to listen to an announcement in French. None of these kids speak French. Except Clear. These are like seniors. That’s 4-5 years of French. Get it together, kids. Some cult dude accosts the children. Why was this allowed, even pre 9-11? Angry, rushing, flustered airline passengers cannot be the best recruiting ground, anyway.

Tod tells Alex they should take a pre-flight shit so the hot girls don’t walk in after them in the airplane bathroom and smell it. This is good advice, but not for that reason. Airplane bathrooms are terrifying and basically coffin sized. That would give anyone a shy colon. Rocky Mountian High plays while they poop. It talks about dying in a plane crash and I don’t know who picked this song for an airport, but they need a raise or to be fired. I don’t know which.

They board the plane, which is clearly not new, and this again scares Alex. Calm down dude. They pass a baby and a disabled passenger and Tod’s brother, whose name continues to escape me, considers this a good sign because apparently God wouldn’t take down a plane with babies. Babies never die. They’re invincible. The idiocy of that thought aside, why are they all thinking about the plane crashing?

Tod wants to sit next to one of the hot girls, so he tells them he can’t move his seat so they can sit together because he has a UTI. He said he has a UTI. WHAT? I can’t understand why he would tell them that? They just ask Alex to move and he does so now Tod has a fictional UTI for nothing. Alex is tripping while the plane taxies and again he really needed something to calm the nerves. But the teacher says something in French and the kids cheer. He could have said anything. They don’t know.

Pretty instantly, shit goes wrong. It’s turbulent, oxygen drops. More yelling in French from the teacher. And I mean, switch to English! One, they don’t understand French and two, no one is going to understand a second language as well in these situations. A hole blows open in the plane’s side and people just launch out of it. Just when you think it can’t get worse, the whole thing blows up and Alex is lit aflame… BUT WHAT? It was all a premonition, and he comes to in his original seat and the hot girls are asking him to switch!

Alex flips out, screaming that the plane is about to blow up. Now I need you to remember what year this came out because he isn’t immediately tased and dragged off to the nearest max security prison. This is 2000. Instead, Carter (Kerr Smith) the jackass jock, gets pissed Alex is making everyone uncomfortable, which to be fair he totally is, and starts a fight. It’s actually the fighting that gets Alex, Carter and Carter’s girlfriend Terry (Amanda Detmer) kicked off the plane. The 2 teachers follow and Tod goes out to check on Alex. Clear, creeped out by the whole thing, follows them off. Our final survivor, Billy (Seann William Scott) just never got on the plane. He was late because he was buying an absolutely absurd bag of whoppers. The airline won’t let any of these degenerates back on the plane. But they can totes take a later flight. Ah, how times have really changed.

One teacher gets back on board, so only Ms. Lewton (Kristen Cloke) is watching the kids. She comforts Alex and more or less determines he probably had a vivid nightmare. As any of us would have assumed. This pisses off Carter because the dude lost a half day in Paris from a nightmare, but really it was the fighting man. Take some responsibility. Alex and Carter fight again. They’re rolling around on the floor and I’m wondering where the hell security is when suddenly the plane explodes.

Everyone’s feeling pretty suspicious of Alex. Obviously. He still isn’t detained or anything. The FBI questions the entire group. Clear swears Alex isn’t a witch, but how would she even know what he gets up to? The FBI asks Alex if he was using drugs and I kinda think he should have rolled with that. It’s more believable than saying he is unexpectedly psychic. Then they ask why Alex would get off the plane if he didn’t KNOW it was going to explode, but dudes he was kicked off for fighting. He needed to be kicked off, but he didn’t leave on his own. Something they acknowledge when talking to Clear. Sneaky lies.

No one comes to pick up Clear from the airport. She has no family that loves her. This is apparent from the fact that her name is, and this is true, Clear Rivers. I know so many people think it is Claire because it probably should be. It is not.

It’s now 39 days later, and everything has been mostly fine. I assume they are all traumatized, but they’re alive. We head to a memorial for the 39 members of the school who exploded.

Every survivor acts like an absolute wierdo around Alex. Time and place people. Ms. Lewton is terrified of him. Which, fair. Turns out he and Tod haven’t seen each other since the explosion because I think Tod’s dad is angry that Alex didn’t save the other brother, or that he did save Tod. Frankly, I’m unsure. They make plans to hang out later in a strictly platonic way. Why they felt the need to make that clear is beyond me.

Tod’s chilling in his bathroom when…surprise wind. Shit is about to go down. Given that death is pretty fond of using water in its death contraptions, it’s fitting that this first one starts with a leaky toilet dripping water onto the floor as Tod shaves, what is surely not supposed to be a beard. There is no hair there.

Meanwhile…. Alex is being creepy with a tiny, blurry photo of Clear. He whips out a porn mag to help get things going. An owl appears and scares the shit out of him, so he throws the mag at the poor owl. God, the animal cruelty. Instead, the mag hit a fan that I can only assume is made of knives and shreds it into little tiny pieces. One flutters onto Alex’s lap and it reads ‘TOD’.

Back at Tod’s place, the water is chasing him around the bathroom. He turns the radio on to Rocky Mountain High. Ominous. Even Tod gets a little spooked now. As he walks toward the tub, he slips on the water, falling into a metal drying line that wraps around his neck. He flips into the bathtub and chokes to death, not very quietly but apparently quietly enough that his parents can’t hear over the TV. He tries to reach some nail clippers but can’t. I don’t think they cut through metal, anyway. RIP Tod.

Now, as far as I remember, this is the only time this happens, but the water gets sucked back up into the toilet. Ensuring that this will really look like death by suicide. Death just really wanted to traumatize everyone a little bit more.

Alex gets to Tod’s house too late, only to be confronted by Tod’s dad, who fully blames him for the suicide. Like if Alex hadn’t caused Tod so much survivor’s guilt for his brother George (Brendan Fehr) (haha the name!) dying, this wouldn’t have happened. Again I’m struck by what the hell the dad wanted here. Is he saying Tod should have gone down with his brother? I don’t know. Clear is there too because she can feel Alex’s emotions, although this never really happens again. It makes her seem a little sus at the moment.

Alex meets Clear in her crafting garage the next day to discuss the happenings. She shows him a sculpture she made of him. It’s odd. It has some type of incomprehensible attraction; she says. Is this flirting? Like they end up dating, but there are only ever these random moments of oddness. Anyway, he isn’t super impressed by it. They both decide they feel death all around them and Alex says Tod is just the first. Now I don’t know why he thinks that. I’d need more than one to establish a pattern, but Alex is superstitious, I guess, so he is ready to send them all to the afterlife. The obvious solution to all their problems is to break into the morgue.

Clear busts in like it’s her job. She has done this before. This is where they meet Tony Todd himself. (Bloodworth in the movie but like it’s Tony Todd) He tells them all about death and the pattern and cheating death. This gets expanded on in every movie. Tony also doesn’t give two shits that these randos broke into his morgue. He’s like the more the merrier. He tells them not to fuck with death, although they seem to have already done that, pulls a cath out of Tod’s body and smirks as they recoil in horror. You like this too much, Tony.

Alex and Clear get coffee to talk about what Tony the mortician said, although I swear he is a coroner. Am I wrong or are they? Or are the movies inconsistent? They have the ‘watch out for the signs’ conversation that is a staple of these movies and Clear inexplicably decides she thinks it’s all bullshit. She was just pushing for there to be death everywhere. I don’t get you Clear. Alex sees a phantom bus in the window.

Suddenly, every survivor is in the same location. And there is wind. Yep. Alex and Carter predictably fight again. But Terry has had enough. Girl just wants to forget about all this trauma and live her best life. She backs away from everyone while screaming at them to get over it and… gets run over by a bus. This was shocking when it happened. I know it’s kind of a staple in horror now and doesn’t pack a punch anymore, but damn. It did. Also, wow, the bus didn’t even try not to hit her.

Alex is at home having some Alka-seltzer, which is a scene they added because people needed a moment to breathe after Terry’s death, but it still could have been literally anything else. And he’s casually watching crime scene footage of the crash. It’s here that we learn the plane exploded because of a faulty fuse thing. I don’t remember exactly. Point is people would have exploded one at a time! And since Alex remembers every single person’s exact seat, he realizes they are dying in the same order they would have on the plane! Seems unlikely, but this is always the way with Final Destination movies. Each person explodes alone. Like Terry was right next to Carter, but they were not next to each other in the order. Cool, cool.

Alex determines that Ms. Lewton is next. So naturally he creeps in her front yard, knowing she is goddamned terrified of him. She sees him and calls the FBI, who is already suspicious of Alex. Obviously. They come pick him up at her house and take him in for questioning, where he stupidly tells them all about death’s pattern and plans. They’re like when you say ‘death’s plans’ do you mean you? And he’s like guys, I’m not Dahmer. Don’t say that. Don’t bring up serial killers when trying to seem innocent.

At Ms. Lewton’s, the wind has arrived. She puts on Rocky Mountain High to calm her nerves. At first it looks like she might explode relighting the gas stove but long time fans know this is too early. Death likes to fake out a few times first. She puts her tea into a mug but freaks out and dumps it when she realizes it has the school’s name on it. Who doesn’t look at a mug before using it? I have favorites I use in order. Anyway, she switches to vodka in the same mug and the temperature. change cracks it. Now it’s just dripping vodka everywhere. She sets the mug on top of her computer which is a bad idea crack or no. The vodka explodes her computer and shoots maybe the motherboard into her neck like a shiv. I don’t know that vodka explodes computers, but here we are.

What I do know is that the ensuing trail of fire along the vodka drips is bullshit. It isn’t a high enough proof. She needs some good moonshine. Like the deadly shit. She stumbles her way into the kitchen and grabs, while lying on the floor, the one rag covering knives. They predicably fall and impale her. Just as Alex shows back up, let go by the FBI for some reason, an explosion causes a chair to fall onto the knife, pushing it further in killing her. Alex grabs the knife and pulls it out like an idiot. First, don’t pull out objects impaled in people. Let medical professionals handle that. You will kill them faster if they aren’t already dead, as in this case. Second, did your dumbass just put fingerprints on a murder weapon? Stupid.

Alex runs from the house as it explodes. Why does it explode? Unclear. Maybe the stove went out again? Things just explode in the Final Destination universe for unknown reasons. Billy watches Alex run from the house. Suspicious as hell.

Billy and Carter meet up with Clear to get the rundown on the survivor death order, which they surprisingly believe, even though it seems much more likely that Alex is a full on serial killer. The FBI sure thinks so and even gives out a toll free number for them to call if they find him. Very considerate. They find Alex, who is kinda angry about the FBI blaming him for the deaths, but he left bloody footprints and fingerprints on the murder weapon at the scene of Ms. Lewton’s death. It would fully be incompetence if they didn’t suspect him. He won’t tell them who is next,* which pisses off Carter.

Carter drives like an asshat because he decides when he dies, apparently, and he will take out other innocent people with him. The others in the car are not on board with this death by car accident idea. Alex sees a phantom train. OOOOH. Carter stops on train tracks just as one is coming down. He sits in the car while everyone else does the smart thing and leaves. Of course, at the last 0second, Carter changes his mind and tries to get off the tracks, but death has other ideas. The car won’t start, the door won’t open, his seatbelt won’t even come off. But Alex had a vision of a seatbelt breaking, so he runs over and rips Carter out through the window. He’s been saved!

The train destroys the car and probably some of the train too but keeps on trucking. Billy is now just tripping balls. He’s screaming about how Carter is next and he is going to get as far away from him as possible. With no warning, a bit of metal from the car flys up from under the train and slices his head off. I guess Alex doesn’t get the chance to save Billy. Billy’s very freshly dead body is on the ground beside him but Alex is excitedly having a revelation. He can save people and then death will skip them and go on to the next person. How fun! But come on Alex, show some respect for your fallen classmates. Billy’s heart is probably still beating. Damn.

Alex is next so he is death proofing the deadliest cabin known to man. There are 7000 things that could kill him in the first shot alone. Like valiant effort but this is pointless. He is eating what I can only assume is cat food because it looks awful and the way he chews it is painful. I’m not sure how that keeps death away but the sharp edges of the tin can seem risky. Gloves won’t save your neck. And is that an open, uncovered, dirty wound on his shoulder? Super unworried about infections, I see. A rusty fishing hook comes at him from the closet he didn’t bother to lock and he freaks out about tetanus. Dude, I’m pretty sure you got your DTaP. You probably won’t get tetanus. Calm down.

He realizes as he reads through the newspaper that actually CLEAR IS NEXT. Oops.

The FBI is watching Clear through her bedroom window. Gross. She decides that as it is thunderstorming a full on disaster outside she is going to let the FBI bring in Alex because it is too dangerous for him to be alone. Good call Clear. He doesn’t seem all that prepared. At her house, lightening strikes a powerline snapping it in half and sending a wierd metal contraption to destory her pool. Sneaky water again. Her dog is outside in the chaos and wind blows out her candle. Death doesn’t need to bring the dog into this bullshit. Uncool. She runs outside to save the dog, which she does so we can all relax now because we don’t really care about the people, and ends up climbing back into her house while the seeminly sentient powerline chases her around and even into the house.

She runs to the car, not probably a great idea, to try to escape. It doesn’t start, then the door doesn’t open. Finally she rams through the garage door but the powerline finds her and skitters around on the front of the car. She can’t open the door without getting electrocuted.

Alex sees the FBI coming and makes a run for it to Clear’s house because he needs to save her. What’s odd is death tries to kill him a few times even though it isn’t his turn. It tries to impale him on a broken branch and then drops a log on him so he is facedown in a puddle. That’s cheating. You can’t jump ahead on the list. He arrives at Clear’s as she is stuck in the car. He tells her he will hold the powerline so she can get out of the car. It will skip her and everything will be over. His confidence is admirable but inexplicable. Why does he think this? I guess he thought he would die? He doesn’t. Clear jumps out of the car and Alex survives the crazy powerline.

It’s 6 months later and Clear, Alex, and Carter have gone on that Paris vacation together. Because PTSD doesn’t exist in this universe. I would never get on a plane again. They’re in a cute Parisian Cafe when Alex decides to fuck up everyone’s good time by suggesting that despite the fact that everything has been fine for 6 months, he thinks that death is still after them. Him specifically because no one ever saved him. He’ll be right, but it doesn’t make any sense. Death took a sabbatical, apparently.

Some dude playing guitar plays a French version of Rocky Mountian High and we all know what that means. Alex is spooked. He and Clear are dating now, so I don’t know why she is clueless about what he is feeling. She was all up in his feelings before. Alex tries to leave and now Clear sees a phantom bus. She calls out to Alex, but the bus doesn’t hit him. It hits a pole that knocks a huge sign off of a building that swings down to hit Alex, but Carter runs in and pushes him out of the way. Phew. Now it’s over.

But wait! The sign swings back and kills Carter. The sign says 180, like the evil flight number, so that’s pretty clever. I guess the cycle just repeats forever until everyone is dead.

Clear and Alex are the only survivors of Final Destination 1, but don’t worry. Death has plans, within plans. His spreadsheets are intense. Stick around for Final Destination 2 next week. And don’t get behind any log trucks in the meantime.