Final Destination 3

Final Destination 3
	; Final Destination 3 film poster
Directed by	James Wong
Produced by	Craig Perry; Glen Morgan; James Wong; Warren Zide; Associate producer:; Sheila Hanahan; Co-producer:; Art Schaeffer; Executive producer:; Toby Emmerich; Richard Brener; Matt Moore
Written by	Glen Morgan; James Wong; Characters:; Jeffrey Reddick
Starring	Mary Elizabeth Winstead; Ryan Merriman; Kris Lemche; Alexz Johnson; Amanda Crew; Texas Battle; Chelan Simmons; Crystal Lowe; Sam Easton; Maggie Ma; Gina Holden; Jesse Moss
Music by	Shirley Walker
Cinematography	Robert McLachlan
Editing by	Chris G. Willingham
Studio	Zide/Perry Productions; Hard Eight Pictures; Matinee Pictures; Practical Pictures; Road Rebel
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date(s)	February 10, 2006; April 27, 2006;
Running time	93 minutes
Country	; United States
Language	English
Budget	$34,000,000
Gross revenue	Worldwide: $113,270,608
Preceded by	Final Destination 2 (2003)
Followed by	The Final Destination (2009)

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Final Destination 3 is a 2006 horror movie, and the third film in the Final Destination series distributed by New Line Cinema. The film was directed and written by James Wong, who co-wrote and directed the original, and was produced by Craig Perry. The film was originally scheduled for release on February 24, 2006, however, the date was moved to two weeks earlier, February 10.

Final Destination 3 was rated R by the MPAA for strong horror violence/gore, language and some nudity. It received a 15 certificate in the United Kingdom. In Germany, it received an 18 certificate, in contrast to the 16 received by the first two installments, due to the increased relative intensity of violence and gore.

Plot

The story is set six years after the Flight 180 curse from the first film. Wendy Christensen, a soon-to-be graduate from McKinley High School, enjoys a Grad Nite visit to an amusement park with her friends, Carrie, Carrie's boyfriend Kevin and her boyfriend, Jason, before their graduation. While there, one of the friends has a camcorder and Wendy has a regular camera taking pictures of their visit. Wendy and her friends decide to ride on a roller coaster (in reality, a digitally modified version of Corkscrew (Playland)) which has a talking devil statue at its entrance which unsettles Wendy.

While waiting for the ride to start Wendy has a premonition that the roller-coaster will crash, killing everyone on board (it is a feature of all the Final Destination films that the principal character foresees their own and friends' deaths). She wakes up from this premonition, still in the roller coaster. She demands to be let off the roller-coaster. The attendant frees all the seats in the front, and some people left the roller-coaster with Wendy. The roller-coaster leaves the station, it crashes as Wendy predicted, killing her boyfriend, her best friend and other people on it.

Weeks pass, and the survivors start dying one by one in freak accidents. The photographs which Wendy takes on the evening before the roller-coaster crash give clues to how the survivors will die. The first people to die are Ashley and Ashlyn, who are burned alive in their sunbeds at a tanning salon. Looking over Ashley and Ashlyn's photo on the evening before the roller-coaster crash relates to their deaths, the picture of the two are over exposed. Wendy also realizes that the people who survived are now dying in the order they would have died if they stayed on the roller-coaster. She tries to prevent further deaths with the help of the photos she took and her best friend's boyfriend, Kevin Fischer. Wendy and Kevin figure out that there is a link in each of the pictures that correlates to how they will die. Wendy and Kevin attempt to stop Death from killing the people who got off the roller-coaster one by one.

Characters

Wendy Christensen: The protagonist, her friends tease her that she is too much of a worrier and control freak. She had a premonition of the roller coaster's derailment. She is one of the people to leave the roller coaster after her premonition. After Kevin informs her a similar incident happened six years ago on John F. Kennedy International Airport and discovers that the photographs she's taken from the amusement park are omens correlating of how the survivors would die in Death's latest plan, she and Kevin set out to save the survivors from dying. She was the last to die in a train crash in her last premonition but it is ambiguous as to whether she has actually been killed. She is portrayed by Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

Kevin Fischer: Kevin is the supporting lead character. He gets off the ride with Wendy when the harnesses for the back carts are released in order to comfort her and provide an explanation for her behaviour. He was dating Wendy's friend, Carrie, and best friended with her boyfriend, Jason, before the roller-coaster crash. He was introduced as a jock at the beginning of the film, then throughout of it reveals some heroic characteristic who would risk his own life to save others such as Wendy and Julie. On an extended scene, reveals that he's planning to enroll to the police academy to become an officer. After learning a similar incident happened six years ago at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Kevin bands together with Wendy to help save the rest of the people who left the roller coaster. He is presumably killed on a train crash. He is the 9th person to die. He is portrayed by Ryan Merriman.

Julie Christensen: Julie is Wendy's younger sister. It is revealed that she is also on the roller-coaster with her friend, Perry. She and Perry are not seen leaving the roller coaster, though it can be easily assumed that they do. She is the second person Wendy and Kevin was able to save after Ian at the celebration of the town's anniversary. She is hitched outside during a train crash in Wendy's last premonition but is ambiguous as to whether she died as was foretold. She is the 8th person to die. She is portrayed by Amanda Crew.

Ian McKinley: Artsy and moody, Ian is sarcastic, smart and cynical. He is Erin Ulmer's boyfriend and they sat together on the roller-coaster. He leaves the ride with Erin after Lewis accidentally smacks her in the face and causes Ian to start fighting with Lewis and Kevin. He is the first person Wendy have saved, but later reveals that Death purposely skipped Ian for his role in causing Wendy's death. He'd been stalking Wendy, and a dialogue and actions suggesting that he had been driven mad by the trauma of witnessing Erin's death, blames Wendy for the incident, and possibly waiting for an opportunity to kill her himself. He meets his end when a crane holding a sign drops on him, after Wendy saved herself from him. He is the 7th person to die. He is portrayed by Kris Lemche.

Perry Malinowski: Perry is Julie's best friend. She is sitting with her on the roller-coaster. She and Julie are not seen leaving the roller coaster, though it can easily be assumed that they do. She is killed when a horse sends a half of a flagpole flying through straight through her torso. She is the 6th person to die. She is portrayed by Maggie Ma.

Erin Ulmer: Erin is equally artsy and cynical. She is Ian's girlfriend. She leaves the ride with Ian after Lewis accidentally slaps her in the face and Ian starts fighting with Lewis and Kevin. She is killed by a nail gun from a home-improvement retailer of where she and Ian worked. She is the 5th person to die. She is portrayed by Alexz Johnson.

Lewis Romero: Lewis is tough, enthusiastic and the school's athlete. He was sitting alone on the coaster. He leaves the ride after insulting Wendy, which causes Kevin to start fighting with him. He meets his end with the weights on his machine crash his head in. He was the 4th person to die. He is portrayed by Texas Battle.

Frankie Cheeks: Frankie is a clown and pervert and is a graduate that still attends high school events to videotape and hit on girls, he is also the films comic relief. He gets on the roller-coaster behind Ashley and Ashlyn. He leaves the ride after Ashley and Ashlyn leave so that he can follow and film them. Frankie meets his end after a truck engine gets embedded in his head. In the original version he is the third one to die. He is portrayed by Sam Easton.

Ashlyn Halperin: Ashlyn is a pretty brunette, popular, and shallow beauty queen. She was sitting next to her friend Ashley on the roller-coaster. She leaves the ride with Ashley after getting annoyed with the other fighting passengers. She is burned alive in a sunbed. She dies with her friend, Ashley. She is portrayed by Crystal Lowe.

Ashley Freund: Ashley, the blond half of the duo, is the head cheerleader. She leaves the ride with Ashlyn after getting annoyed with the other fighting passengers. She is burned alive in a sunbed. She dies with her friend, Ashlyn. She is portrayed by Chelan Simmons.

Carrie Dryer: Carrie is Kevin's girlfriend and Wendy's best friend. She is sitting with Jason on the roller-coaster. She is killed during the roller-coaster crash, since the front row harnesses were not released. She is portrayed by Gina Holden.

Jason Wise: Jason is Wendy's boyfriend and Kevin's best friend. He is sitting with Carrie on the roller-coaster. He is killed during the roller-coaster crash, since the front row harnesses were not released. He is portrayed by Jesse Moss.

Songs featured in the motion picture

"Tribal Dance" - Performed by 2 Unlimited
"Blitzkrieg Bop" - Performed by The Ramones
"Queen of Apology" - Performed by The Sounds
"Love Rollercoaster" - Performed by Ohio Players
"Hundred Grand" - Performed by Pete Atherton
"Turn Around, Look at Me" - Performed by The Lettermen
"Killing Time" - Performed by (hed) Planet Earth
"ACF" - Performed by Matt Ellis
"Turn Around, Look at Me" - Performed by Matt Ellis
"Love Train" - Performed by Tommy Lee

Reception

Final Destination 3 was successful both on film and DVD. The film was released in the United States on February 10, 2006, and opened at #2, showing across 2,880 screens. In its opening weekend it took $19 million, averaging to a little under $6,940 per theater. As of April 16, 2006, FD3 had made $54,098,051 stateside, though the movie continued to screen across the country for another seven weeks after domestic tallies closed.

The film grossed even more in foreign markets, making over $59 million. Worldwide recorded gross has now reached approximately $113,270,000 so far, out performing both the original and sequel in the series. The DVD rentals reached nearly $45 million, making FD3 the longest running video in the top 50 chart of October 29,^[3] and the 4th best grossing film of the 50 films on the list.

Final Destination 3 has received generally mixed reviews from critics: on Rotten Tomatoes, the film was rated at 46%.^[4] The original two films received equally poor scores. Besides deriding the film for the high level of violence and the reference to the attacks on the World Trade Center in September 2001, a common complaint directed at the film was that it failed to offer anything new. The BBC awarded a rare 1 star out of 5,^[5] after awarding the first installment four stars and the second three.

However, some mixed to positive reviews generally praised some aspects of the film's set pieces and acting. Mary Elizabeth-Winstead and Kris Lemche, who played Wendy and Ian respectively, were particularly mentioned.

DVD release

The DVD has a unique feature called "Choose Their Fate". As the movie plays out, menus pop up from time to time asking the viewer to make a choice which affects the outcome of the plot. Possibilities include whether to call heads or tails during a coin flip and what temperature to turn the thermostat to in the tanning beds. One option allows the viewer to 'read' a newspaper detailing the deaths of Kimberly and Officer Thomas Burke from Final Destination 2.