Final Destination (2000)

Final Destination Reviews

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In the late '90s/early '00s, the concept of "teen horror" took off, mainly thanks to titles like 'Scream.' But while so many of them were about slasher villains out to get people, 'Final Destination' entered the scene with what I think is an excellent concept: what if the movie's killer was the invisible force that was death? While these may not be the scariest films that could be considered horror, overall, one must admit that conceptually, the idea of death's unpredictability and its plan for people is terrifying.

Interestingly enough, this comes to us from director James Wong and writers Jefferey Reddick and Glen Morgan, all of whom worked on a lot of 'X-Files' material, and early script development had this concept initially as just another 'X-Files' episode until a colleague at New Line persuaded Reddick to make it a full-length feature script, which Wong and Morgan helped re-write, and it would soon become Wong's directorial debut. And as much as it would have made an interesting 'X-Files' episode, it worked out better as a film in the end, bringing in a whole new saga of horror movies.

Said saga begins when a young man named Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) boards a plane for a high school trip to Paris, France. Alex starts, seemingly nervous and iffy about the trip he's about to go on. Still, everything comes to the forefront when he has a harrowing premonition of the plane exploding with everyone on board. When he sees his premonition start to play out, he causes a scene, and he and several others deplane, some blaming Alex for having to, and some scared by Alex's behaviour. But while an argument about Alex's "freak-out" occurs on the ground, the plane takes off and explodes, proving his premonition true.

As one might expect, Alex and the others; jock Carter Horton (Kerr Smith), along with his girlfriend, Terry Chaney (Amanda Detmer); Alex's best friend, Tod Waggner (Chad Donella); teacher Valerie Lewton (Kristen Cloke); bumbling comedy relief, Billy Hitchcock (Seann William Scott); and the somewhat mysterious Clear Rivers (Ali Larter) get brought in for questioning, and the FBI becomes heavily suspicious of Alex for being the culprit of the explosion. With nothing to go on, however, everyone gets released. But something even more unusual is about to happen to this whole group.

Alex's premonition came true, and as a result, everyone who left the plane happened to avoid getting killed. However, this puts an unforeseen ripple in their fates, as they were meant to die that day. Soon, some of the group started falling victim to strange and unusual deadly accidents, seemingly a checklist of those who survived the plane explosion. Eventually, when Alex and Clear break into a morgue to see one of the first bodies, they meet the mysterious and creepy William Bludworth (Tony Todd), who informs them about the "plan" death has for people. If they can figure out death's pattern, perhaps they can keep avoiding death.

This film came out around the perfect time for me to see it, as I was around 18, and my taste for horror was only developing for a year or two. Admittedly, when I first saw this, it turned out that I loved it. It was a super creative idea, as well as one that every audience member watching could relate to. We all must go one day, and we can't predict how or when it will happen. 'Final Destination' has a way of horrifyingly highlighting that concept. We don't know when we're going to die, but here, while these people still don't know, they do know it's soon, so it's all about constantly looking over one's shoulder for that icy hand.

Nowadays, I can easily watch this as a piece of nostalgia, but I still appreciate the ideas the film has to offer, along with some of the kills. But at this point, the series does have what I might consider to be one or two better chapters, and this has since aged just a little - not necessarily in any harmful way; it's just a bit of old news at this point, fitting into that early '00s era perfectly. It's a fun time capsule, though, and I still enjoy it for what it is, having a soft spot for a lot of the horror I got into back then. Unlike most horror franchises, though, the first movie here isn't necessarily the best.

3/5

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