Final Destination (film series)
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| Final Destination series was | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | James Wong (1, 3) David R. Ellis (2, 4) |
| Produced by | Glen Morgan (1, 3) Warren Zide (1-4) Craig Perry (1-4) James Wong (3) Associate Producer: Chris Bender (1) Sheila Hanawhore (2, 3) Co-Producer: Art Schaeffer (1, 3) Justis Greene (2) Tawny Ellis (4) Executive Producer: Richard Brener (1-4) Brian Witten (1) Toby Emmerich (2-4) Matt Moore (2, 3) Jeffrey Reddick (2) Walter Hamada (4) |
| Written by | Story: James Wong (1, 3) Glen Morgan (1,3) Jeffrey Reddick (1, 2) J. Mackye Gruber (2) Eric Bress (2, 4) Screenplay: Glen Morgan (1, 3) James Willie (1, 3) Jeffrey Reddick (1) J. Mackye Gruber (2) Eric Bress (2, 4) Characters: Jeffrey Reddick (2-4) |
| Music by | Shirley Walker (1-3) Brian Tyler (4) |
| Cinematography | Robert McLachlan (1,3) Gary Capo (2) Glen MacPherson (4) |
| Editing by | James Coblentz (1) Eric Sears (2) Chris G. Willingham (3) Mark Stevens (4) |
| Studio | Zide/Perry Productions (1-4) Hard Eight Pictures (1,3) Matinee Pictures (3) Practical Pictures (3) Road Rebel (3) LivePlanet (4) |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
| Release date(s) | 2000 – 2009 |
| Running time | 363 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Gross revenue | $468,827,397 |
The Final Destination series is a series of horror films created by James Wong, Glen Morgan and Jeffrey Reddick. Distributed by New Line Cinema, the films are centered on the themes of determinism, predestination, and precognition, in relation to death (i.e. how to foresee, avoid or control it). In a more practical sense, each film portrays a series of elaborate, often gory death scenarios that can resemble Rube Goldberg machines in their complexity and convolutedness. The franchise has also spawned a related book series (published by Black Flame) and comic series (published by Zenescope Entertainment Inc).
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[edit] Premise
The premise to both the film and book series about death is essentially the same: A group of people are gathered together at a venue, when suddenly a member of the group has a premonition, although usually seeing omens first, of a disaster that will kill all of the people present. Horrified and motivated by the vision of impending doom, the person with the premonition then tries to prevent the incident by alerting the others. The other members have doubts of the incredible claims but the visionary is persistent, fracturing the group in hostile skeptics, dubious believers, or those that had no choice but to accompany the visionary. Soon afterward, disaster strikes as foreseen, proving to the survivors that the visionary was right, and their opinions change drastically.
Over the next few days, weeks or months, the same survivors begin to die in a series of horrific and often improbable accidents until the same visionary notices a pattern and concludes that, while surviving the initial disaster, they are still destined to die. The visionary usually teams up with another fellow survivor of the opposite sex, and they are determined to once again cheat death; then the same group devises various plans to survive that usually fail until the protagonist visionary finds a solution to their fate, having salvaged two or three of the others. By the end, however, most or all of the survivors are dead. In the subsequent movie, the previous survivors are revealed to be dead, or die in the film.
However, each movie and book would leave a legacy for new generations of survivors, such as each disaster was noted by the news, law enforcement agencies, paranormal fanatics, and disaster survivors who notice the similarities within these incidents. The survivors of each sequel would use whatever they learned from these past disasters, or enlisting the aid of a survivor of a previous disaster, of delaying their inevitable fates. Midway through the second film, the protagonists learn that they have not only cheated Death through the premonition of the main character Kimberly Corman (A.J. Cook); each of them also would have died previously but were diverted from their respective destinies by the alternate death events of the first film.
[edit] Cheating Death
A recurring theme in each film is the concept of truly defeating Death. Constant intervention proves to merely restart the list from the beginning. When someone saves the targeted person, death immediately moves on to the next person on the list. Once the list of Death's Design runs through, it returns to the beginning. A key element of the films is that the protagonists always think they have found a way to cheat death.
The films have yet to explain what is sending the premonitions and omens to the protagonists, and more importantly why. One exception is the protagonist from the first film, Alex Chance Browning (Devon Sawa), who suggests that they are messages from someone, hinting Death's designs. It seems it does no good to escape the particular accident hinted at, since Death itself subsequently attacks the survivors. In the fourth film, it establishes that Death's opposite isn't the only one that would send premonitions and omens to warn the protagonists, but Death itself would send red herrings in the guise of these signs to manipulate survivors to their dooms.
[edit] Films
During 1999, screenwriter Jeffrey Reddick was disappointed for his ignored The X Files spec script. Fellow television director James Wong was inspired to make a film using the script, and made Final Destination. It stars Devon Sawa, Ali Larter and Kerr Smith and was released March 17, 2000. The film grossed $112,880,294 worldwide. Director David Ellis decides to make a second film (Final Destination 2) starring A. J. Cook and Michael Landes. It also features the return of Larter as Clear Rivers, for Sawa had an argument between New Line Cinema. The film opened during January 31, 2003 in the United States and grossed $90,426,405 worldwide.
However, Wong returns back to direct Final Destination 3. He planned to make it 3-D this time but was unsuccessful due to inefficient budget. However, it was successful in box-office with a gross revenue of $113,270,608 which started on February 10, 2006 and stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Ryan Merriman. It was intented to be the last of the series, but Ellis directed the fourth installment named The Final Destination and stars Bobby Campo and Shantel VanSanten. It was released in HD 3-D on August 28, 2009 and stayed at #1 in the U. S. box-office for 2 weeks, with a gross revenue of $151,169,829. After releasing the fourth film, writer Craig Perry announced that it was the last installment of the series, but does have an idea for another sequel.
All films received a R rating by the MPAA. Critics' rates were going down since the second film for "lack of ideas" and "gory scenes".
[edit] Novels
Throughout 2005 publishing company Black Flame released a series of Final Destination books which faithfully follow the premise of the films, with each involving a group of people who find themselves targeted by Death after surviving a catastrophe of some sort due to a character experiencing a precognitive vision. Set in Los Angeles the first novel, entitled Dead Reckoning, has punk rocker Jessica Golden saving herself and several others from the collapse of Club Kitty, earning Death's ire.[1] Set in LA as well Destination Zero has magazine employee Patricia Fuller and few others survive a train bombing and afterward, while being stalked by Death, Patti learns this is not the first time her family has been hunted by the entity.[2] End of the Line has a group of New York subway crash survivors, led by twins Danny and Louise King, trying to escape Death, who uses an unknowing agent to hasten its acquisition of the survivors.[3]
In Dead Man's Hand a group meant to die in the crash of a Las Vegas glass elevator are stalked by both Death and the FBI, the latter believing the group's savior Allie Goodwin-Gaines was responsible for the elevator crash.[4] Looks Could Kill has beautiful New York model Stephanie "Sherry" Pulaski stopping her friends from boarding a yacht when she has a vision of it exploding, but is left horribly disfigured and comatose by flying debris moments afterward when her vision comes true; eventually awakening the embittered Stephanie makes a deal with Death, aiding it in claiming her friends in exchange for having her good looks restored.[5] After the run of the original series of books Black Flame released novelizations of the first three films in January 2006.[6][7][8] Black Flame's last Final Destination novel was Death of the Senses released in mid 2006. Taking place in New York the book has a homeless man named Jack Curtis saving policewoman Amy Tom from a maniac after having a vision of Amy's death; Amy's attacker is later revealed to be a serial killer who was meant to murder six other people (representing the first five senses and a sixth) who Death begins targeting as Jack and Amy rush to find and warn the intended victims.[9]
[edit] Comic books
The first Final Destination comic book, entitled Sacrifice, was published by Zenescope Entertainment and came packaged with a limited edition DVD of Final Destination 3 sold exclusively at Circuit City. The premise of the story involves the survivor of a terrible accident, who continually experiences images of other people's deaths, isolating himself from the rest of the world to escape the visions that torment him. Zenescope later released a five issue miniseries, subtitled Spring Break, which involves a group led by Carly Hagan being stalked by Death after surviving a hotel fire and becoming stranded in Cancún, Mexico.[10][11][12][13] The miniseries was later released in a trade paperback collection, which included the Sacrifice comic as bonus content.[14]
[edit] Future of the franchise
Producer Craig Perry confirmed that there are no plans to go ahead with a new Final Destination film, likely making The Final Destination the last installment in the series.[15] He said that combined with a now 3D installment, the film series started to look "cheesy in name alone" and like "another one of those" films a part of a dying or discontinued franchise, such as Leprechaun 4.[15] He added that the word "The" in the title was to signify this as the last film in the series and that it is difficult to come up with "a fresh spin" for these types of franchises:
These things are hard to figure out, they’re getting more and more expensive to do. This is kind of the intersection that makes everything come to bear. It has a healthy budget, the special FX is great, a great marketing department and it has a really nice franchise loyalty to build from and to deliver to, why push it any further than this?[15]
Despite Perry feeling that the Final Destination franchise may be better left at The Final Destination, he said that he does have an idea for a sequel. "Of course, Freddy had a Final Nightmare too, and that didn’t last very long," he stated. "I do have an idea which would make it less expensive, but make it more interesting, [assuming] we’re fortunate enough to even have the conversation about what a fifth one would even be. I think that the fans in particular will appreciate the spin it puts on the notions."[15]
[edit] Reception
[edit] Box office performance
| Film | Release date | Box office revenue | Reference | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Foreign | Worldwide | |||
| Final Destination | March 17, 2000 | $53,331,147 | $59,549,147 | $112,880,294 | [16] |
| Final Destination 2 | January 31, 2003 | $46,961,214 | $43,465,191 | $90,426,405 | [17] |
| Final Destination 3 | February 10, 2006 | $54,098,051 | $59,172,557 | $113,270,608 | [18] |
| The Final Destination | August 28, 2009 | $66,113,793 | $86,136,297 | $152,250,090 | [19] |
| Final Destination film series | $220,504,205 | $248,323,192 | $468,827,397 | ||
[edit] Critical reaction
| Film | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | Cream of the Crop | Community | ||
| Final Destination | 30% (83 reviews)[20] | 25% (20 reviews)[21] | 70% (1000 reviews)[22] | 36 (28 reviews)[23] |
| Final Destination 2 | 47% (106 reviews)[24] | 32% (22 reviews)[25] | 53% (783 reviews)[26] | 38 (25 reviews)[27] |
| Final Destination 3 | 44% (111 reviews)[28] | 33% (24 reviews)[29] | 45% (909 reviews)[30] | 41 (28 reviews)[31] |
| The Final Destination | 29% (83 reviews)[32] | 0% (8 reviews)[33] | 29% (541 reviews)[34] | 34 (13 reviews)[35] |
[edit] References
- ^ Rhodes, Natasha (2005-03-15). Final Destination: Dead Reckoning. Black Flame. ISBN 1844161706. http://www.amazon.com/Final-Destination-1-Dead-Reckoning/dp/1844161706/ref=pd_sim_b_6.
- ^ McIntee, David (2005-03-15). Final Destination: Destination Zero. Black Flame. ISBN 1844161714. http://www.amazon.com/Final-Destination-2-Zero/dp/1844161714/ref=pd_sim_b_1.
- ^ Levene, Rebecca (2005-06-07). Final Destination: End of the Line. Black Flame. ISBN 1844161765. http://www.amazon.com/Final-Destination-3-End-Line/dp/1844161765/ref=pd_sim_b_2.
- ^ Roman, Steven (2005-09-13). Final Destination: Dead Man's Hand. Black Flame. ISBN 1844161773. http://www.amazon.com/Final-Destination-Dead-Mans-Hand/dp/1844161773/ref=pd_sim_b_4.
- ^ Collins, Nancy (2005-11-29). Final Destination: Looks Could Kill. Black Flame. ISBN 1844163164. http://www.amazon.com/Final-Destination-Looks-Could-Kill/dp/1844163164/ref=pd_sim_b_4.
- ^ Rhodes, Natasha (2006-01-03). Final Destination. Black Flame. ISBN 1844163172. http://www.amazon.com/Final-Destination-Movie-Natasha-Rhodes/dp/1844163172/ref=pd_sim_b_8.
- ^ Collins, Nancy (2006-01-31). Final Destination 2. Black Flame. ISBN 1844163180. http://www.amazon.com/Final-Destination-II-Nancy-Collins/dp/1844163180/ref=pd_sim_b_2.
- ^ Faust, Christa (2006-01-03). Final Destination 3. Black Flame. ISBN 1844163199. http://www.amazon.com/Final-Destination-III-Christa-Faust/dp/1844163199/ref=pd_sim_b_1.
- ^ McDermott, Andy (2006-08-01). Final Destination: Death of the Senses. Black Flame. ISBN 1844163857. http://www.amazon.com/Final-Destination-6-Death-Senses/dp/1844163857.
- ^ "Final Destination #1". Zenescope Entertainment. https://www.zenescope.com/sunshop/index.php?action=item&id=9&prevaction=search&previd=&prevstart=0. Retrieved 2009-08-13.
- ^ "Final Destination #3". Zenescope Entertainment. https://www.zenescope.com/sunshop/index.php?action=item&id=82&prevaction=search&previd=&prevstart=0. Retrieved 2009-08-13.
- ^ "Final Destination #4". Zenescope Entertainment. https://www.zenescope.com/sunshop/index.php?action=item&id=49&prevaction=search&previd=&prevstart=0. Retrieved 2009-08-13.
- ^ "Final Destination #5". Zenescope Entertainment. https://www.zenescope.com/sunshop/index.php?action=item&id=80&prevaction=search&previd=&prevstart=0. Retrieved 2009-08-13.
- ^ "Final Destination Trade Paperback, Spring Break". Zenescope Entertainment. https://www.zenescope.com/sunshop/index.php?action=item&id=106&prevaction=search&previd=&prevstart=0. Retrieved 2009-08-13.
- ^ a b c d Bloody Disgusting (2009-09-06). "BD Horror News - Producer Craig Perry Talks ' The Final Destination', Fifth Film?". Press release. http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/16928.
- ^ "Final Destination (2000)". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=finaldestination.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
- ^ "Final Destination (2003)". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=finaldestination2.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
- ^ "Final Destination 3 (2006)". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=finaldestination3.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
- ^ "FINAL DESTINATION". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?id=finaldestination.htm.
- ^ "Final Destination". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/final_destination/. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
- ^ "Final Destination (Cream of the Crop)". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/final_destination/?critic=creamcrop. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
- ^ "Final Destination (Community)". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/final_destination/reviews_users.php. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
- ^ "Final Destination: Reviews". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/video/titles/finaldestination?q=Final%20Destination. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
- ^ "Final Destination 2". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/final_destination_2/. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
- ^ "Final Destination 2 (Cream of the Crop)". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/final_destination_2/?critic=creamcrop. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
- ^ "Final Destination 2 (Community)". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/final_destination_2/reviews_users.php. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
- ^ "Final Destination 2: Reviews". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/video/titles/finaldestination2?q=Final%20Destination. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
- ^ "Final Destination 3". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/final_destination_3/. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
- ^ "Final Destination 3 (Cream of the Crop)". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/final_destination_3/?critic=creamcrop. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
- ^ "Final Destination 3 (Community)". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/final_destination_3/reviews_users.php. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
- ^ "Final Destination 3: Reviews". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/finaldestination3?q=Final%20Destination. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
- ^ "The Final Destination". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/final_destination_final_death_trip_3D/. Retrieved 2008-08-29.
- ^ "The Final Destination (Cream of the Crop)". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/final_destination_final_death_trip_3D/?critic=creamcrop. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
- ^ "The Final Destination (Community)". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/final_destination_final_death_trip_3D/reviews_users.php. Retrieved 2008-02-12.
- ^ "Final Destination, The: Reviews". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/finaldestination4. Retrieved 2008-08-29.
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