It’s hard to believe that the Final Destination franchise has been coming up with new and crazy ways to kill people for more than a decade, but that’s the reality in which we live after the release of this year’s Final Destination 5. For the record, the previous movie in the series dropped the numbering to be called THE Final Destination, implying that it would be the final chapter. It should surprise no one that the series returned for another Death defying adventure, but what might be surprising is that this fifth volume is actually pretty clever and is entirely entertaining.
If you’ve seen any one of the Final Destination movies, you know the general plot for all of them. The film opens with a group of unsuspecting folks dying horribly in some sort of tragedy. Once the last limb has been torn asunder, everything snaps back in time, and we see that the carnage all happened in a premonition had by one of the potential victims. Said victim frantically convinces a skeptical few to get out of the way of whatever is about to happen, and those skeptics become believers when the foretold mayhem does in fact go down, barely missing them in the fracas. Death, a sentient and greedy but invisible force in the Final Destination-verse, doesn’t like being cheated, so it systematically stalks the folks who escaped the big calamity, claiming them one by one with various and increasingly horrific methods of demise.
In the past the movie-opening mob has perished in a plane crash, a highway accident, a roller coaster malfunction, and a race car catastrophe. This time around, an unsteady suspension bridge is the culprit that ushers countless extras and all our stars to their respective dooms. Final Destination 5’s prescient hero is Sam, played by Nicholas D’Agosto (previously known as the cheerleader’s flying boyfriend on Heroes). Realizing that he has just witnessed a bloody and awful immediate future for himself and all of his coworkers who are traveling to an office retreat, Sam grabs his sort-of ex-girlfriend Molly (The Walking Dead’s Emma Bell) and beats feet to the safe side of the bridge. Several of his associates and their boss, played by comedian David Koechner (The Office’s Todd Packer), follow, narrowly escaping being harpooned by rebars, crushed by cars, and burned alive by tar. The rest of the office staff takes the literal plunge, dying when their bus drops into the bay far below.
Suspicious of this guy who somehow foretold the destruction of a bridge moments before it happened, FBI Agent Jim Block (Courtney B. Vance of Law & Order: Criminal Intent and, well, yes, FlashForward) is on the case. When the investigation shows that coincidental high winds caused a freak accident that lead to the bridge collapse, Block has to free Sam from custody, but his suspicions remain firmly intact. Those suspicions heighten when Death returns to act out its part from the previous Final Destination installments, accompanied as always by Tony Todd as creepy coroner William Bludworth.
Rather than shy away from the trappings that define this series, the creators of Final Destination 5 expect the audience to know every beat of the story from the beginning. They’re not out to surprise you with the revelation that Death will be stalking all the survivors of the event from the beginning of the movie. Rather, the fifth movie plays with the viewers’ expectations by teasing possible jumping off points in every scene. A lingering shot on a precariously balanced knife in the kitchen might be foreshadowing for an upcoming stabbing, or it might just be a shot of a knife. Is the loose screw on the vibrating air conditioning unit significant? It would seem so, based on the ominously paced views we get of it, but it might just be a loose screw. We know that Death is coming, but, like the characters in its crosshairs, we don’t know how or when the next slaughter will happen. The fake outs and teases turn an aging plot into a fun guessing game that provides some real and cringe inducing tension. The movie also provides a genuinely surprising plot development or two, along with some cool moments that longtime fans will appreciate.
Final Destination 5 arrives on Blu-ray and DVD on December 27, 2011. The Ultraviolet combo pack comes with both formats and also includes a code for a downloadable digital copy of the movie. In addition to the film itself, there are a few extras packed onto the Blu-ray:
- Alternate Death Scenes – A few of the deaths from the movie play out slightly differently than they do in the final cut.
- Visual Effects of Death – Two big special effects sequences get split-screen making-of treatments. It’s neat to watch after you’ve seen the movie itself. Beware of looking at it in advance or even reading about it on the back of the Blu-ray box, though, because even the brief feature title for this one contains a spoiler.
- Final Destination 5: Circle of Death – A brief behind the scenes featurette with the cast and crew.
Final Destination 5 is a worthwhile extension of a series that pretended to be finished. From the first skewering death to the final balancing of Death’s account, the movie is a gleefully gross return to what fans love about the series without feeling like an unnecessary remake of a movie that’s been remade three other times in the past decade.
