Final Destination Full Length

The movie is loosely based on the real life crash of Trans World Airlines Flight 800 which went from East Moriches, New York to Rome, with a stopover in Paris, on July 17th 1996. All 230 people on board died, including a group of high school students going on a class trip. Much of the news footage shown is actual footage from that. It is also loosely based on the crash of Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21st 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The story was originally going to be the concept for an episode of The X Files which was inspired by the 1984 movie Sole Survivor. In this movie a woman who was the sole survivor of a plane crash starts being haunted by dead people that Death uses as vessels to try to kill her to correct its plan. Final Destination director Jeffrey Reddick was actually on a plane when he read a story about a woman who was on vacation and her mom called her and told her not to go on the flight because she had a bad feeling about it. She switched flights and the plane that she would have been on crashed. Allegedly, four historical persons have had similar experiences to the concept of premonitions and cheating death: Winston Churchill said that on one of his frequent car rides in London during World War II, an inner voice told him to avoid sitting in his usual seat in his car one day, and he avoided death when a bomb dropped next to that side of the car. William T. Stead, a newspaper editor who died in the sinking of the Titanic said he had premonitions of dying. There is an urban legend about a fireman named Frank "Lucks/Lucky" Tower who survived all three sinkings of the Titanic, Empress of Ireland in 1914 and Lusitania in 1915. And, lastly, Adolf Hitler claimed that when he was a young soldier in World War I he was looking for a place to sit down in a trench with his fellow soldiers when a voice almost literately "pulled him" off the place to sit down on the opposite side. A moments later a bomb exploded in the trench, killing everyone but Hitler (which is unfortunate). Considering his extensive knowledge of Death's design and how it works, many fans have theorised that William Bludworth (the coroner) is the human personification of Death or at least some kind of representative for Death. However, both the actor, Tony Todd, and the movie's producers have denied it. John Denver's song "Rocky Mountain High" is repeatedly used in the movie simply because he died in a plane crash in 1997, a couple of years before the movie was made. The song can be heard whenever some characters are about to die (Tod, Ms. Lewton and Carter). The idea for including his song in the movie came when writer Glen Morgan was in the Vancouver airport waiting for a flight when Denver came on over the loudspeaker (Kristen Cloke who plays Ms. Lewton was and IS married to Morgan). The original casting choices for Alex and Clear were Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst who would later star in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy as Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Mary Jane. Fun fact: Dewon Sawa (Alex) has appeared in 2 movies with Christina Ricci, both released in 1995: Casper and Now and Then. He was also in the Eminem's Stan music video—he got the part because Dr. Dre saw him in this movie and loved it. Ali Larter (Clear) was in Legally Blonde, the TV series Heroes and a movie that's not that well known which is weird considering she stars against Beyoncé and Idris Elba (she plays a VERY different character there). Kerr Smith (Carter) was in the teen drama series Dawson's Creek with James Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams and Joshua Jackson (the last had a small role in Scream 2 and in Scream 5 Jenna Ortega's character is watching the show in the hospital). The movie's original title was "Flight 180". New Line decided to rename the film through fear of confusion with other films like Air Force One or Con Air. The original plan was to have Death as a much more obvious entity as it was during Tod's death but it was decided to have the deaths look like rare accidents. Devon Sawa read the script on a plane and found himself peeking out the window at the engine every couple of minutes. In the opening scene, Devon Sawa was supposed to pretend to be asleep—he actually fell asleep for 4 hours. Ms. Lewton's conversation with the co-pilot to let the teachers back on the plane was completely improvised. When everyone is staring at Alex after the plane explodes, both Terry and Billy's deaths are foreshadowed—there is a picture of a bus behind Terry while the reflection of the plane is shown across Billy's face flying in a line right where the piece of the car decapitates him. In Alex's vision, Tod foreshadows his own death by making choking/hanging motions towards Alex after the girls ask him if he is willing to switch seats. Also, a skeleton figurine hanging in a noose is among the toys in Alex's room. When Ms. Lewton checks the smoke coming out of her monitor, an image of a large dagger is seen on her stained glass door in the background—A foreshadowing of her death. The door also has red and orange on it and on his way to Ms. Lewton's house, Alex sees ashes floating around his head, both foreshadowing the fire. While Billy, Carter and Clear are driving to Alex's home, Carter sarcastically threatens to kill Billy, foreshadowing Carter's actions indirectly causing Billy's death. While Carter is trying to "take control" Billy's hat falls off his head, mirroring the top half of Billy's head falling off the bottom half, foreshadowing his death. In the movie, Tod's name is spelled with one d instead of the traditional spelling of two. In German "Tod" means "death". The title of the movie can be seen on a tag on Alex's luggage when a stewardess is putting it on. When the students are boarding the airplane, Alex looks down and sees a luggage cart with the number "666" on it. When Alex's ticket is torn at the checking desk before he boards the flight there is a text that says "Your final flight" if you look closely. The song "Into the Void" by Nine Inch Nails which contains the words "final destination" is playing on Carter's car radio right before Terry's death. Right after Terry gets hit by the bus everyone is sprayed in blood. When Alex turns there is a 7 on his cheek, in blood, in reference to the 7 people who got off the flight. While Alex is sitting in his bedroom reading a magazine an owl lands on a tree branch outside the window. In many cultures, owls are viewed as omens of death. In the last scene at the cafe, the sign that kills Carter spells 18o (180) in reverse. There is an alternate ending where Alex dies after rescuing Clear, who later has his baby (which she names Alex), saving her and Carter from Death. You can see it here: https://youtu.be/FrhnRChU5VQ?si=mxRdHGZH-kKJg_0X—It's bittersweet. The test audience didn't like it so the filmmakers shot another ending where Alex is decapitated by a crashing police helicopter. But again, the test audience didn't like the fact that Alex dies, so they shot the one that was used where Alex lives and Carter dies. There are currently 5 movies. A sixth movie is set to be released in 2025 under the name Final Destination: Bloodlines. It is said to be a reboot that will deviate from the standard formula the series is known for and is centered around first responders.

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