The Final Destination

The Final Destination
Theatrical poster
Directed by	David R. Ellis
Screenplay by	Eric Bress
Story by	Jeffrey Reddick
Produced by	Craig Perry Warren Zide
Starring	Bobby Campo Shantel VanSanten Haley Webb Mykelti Williamson Nick Zano
Cinematography	Glen MacPherson
Edited by	Mark Stevens
Music by	Brian Tyler
Production companies	Zide/Perry Productions LivePlanet
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date	August 28, 2009 (2009-08-28)
Running time	82 minutes
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English
Budget	$40 million
Box office	$181,576,903

The Final Destination (also known as Final Destination 4 or Final Destination: Death Trip 3-D) is a 2009 3D supernatural-horror film written by Eric Bress and directed by David R. Ellis, both of whom also worked on Final Destination 2. Released on August 28, 2009, it is the fourth installment to the Final Destination film series, and the first of which to be shot in HD 3D.

Plot

Ten years after the explosion of Flight 180, Nick O'Bannon (Bobby Campo) has a horrific premonition in which a bizarre sequence of events causes multiple race cars to crash at the McKinley Speedway race track, sending flaming debris into the stands, brutally killing his friends and causing the upper deck of the stands to collapse on him. When he comes out of this grisly nightmare, Nick panics, persuading his girlfriend, Lori Milligan (Shantel VanSanten), and their friends, Janet Cunningham (Haley Webb), and Hunt Wynorski (Nick Zano), along with George Lanter (Mykelti Williamson), a security guard at the track, to leave... escaping seconds before Nick's frightening vision becomes a terrible reality. Thinking they've cheated death, the group has a new lease on life, but unfortunately for Nick and Lori, it is only the beginning. As his premonitions continue and the crash survivors begin to die one by one, Nick must figure out how to cheat death once and for all before he, too, reaches his final destination. After they escape, a woman, Nadia Monroy (Stephanie Honoré) scolds the group for their actions, just as a tire flies out of the stadium and violently rips off her head and left arm while the others look at her in horror.

Not long after a memorial for those who were lost, Carter Daniels (Justin Welborn), a survivor, attempts to burn a cross (a practice of the Ku Klux Klan) on George's front lawn, because he blames George for stopping him from going back into the burning stadium to save his wife, Cynthia (Lara Grice). His plan backfires as he is set on fire and violently dragged down the street by his own tow truck. He is then blown up by the gas tanks in his car, with his blown off head landing next to George, who came out to see what was happening. The next day, Samantha Lane (Krista Allen), another survivor of the accident, is killed when a lawn mower rides over a rock thrown in its path by her sons, also survivors, sending it flying through her eye. When Nick and Lori hear of the deaths, they learn about the three previous disasters and realize that Death is back once again.

While Janet and Hunt refuse to believe so, Nick convinces George and Lori to help him conquer Death's plan. Andy Kewzer (Andrew Fiscella), yet another survivor, is next, but is diced when a carbon dioxide tank drives him into a sharp metal grid fence. Hunt and Janet are next, as they died at the same time in the premonition. Nick rushes to save Hunt at the pool, while Lori and George rush to save Janet. They succeed in saving Janet from a malfunctioning car wash. Nick, however, is too late; Hunt is pulled down onto an exposed drain in the deep end of the pool, and drowns while his internal organs are violently sucked out by the pool filter.

George considers suicide due to causing the death of his wife and child, years ago after a car accident when he was drunk, but is unable to kill himself. This leads the survivors to believe that saving Janet has defeated Death. Nick decides to take Lori out on a holiday, but Janet and Lori decide to go shopping and see a movie before they leave. In the mall and the theatre, Lori begins to see omens herself, warning her that the danger is not over. Nick too realizes this, as there was another survivor, Jonathan Grove (Jackson Walker). Nick warns George about this, and they go to the hospital where Jonathan is located, but Jonathan is crushed by an overfilled bathtub over a collapsed ceiling before they can get to him. Outside the hospital, George is hit by an ambulance, leaving it up to Nick to save the girls. Nick arrives and pulls Lori from the cinema just before it explodes from a fire above, impaling Janet on the flying wreckage. Another explosion causes Lori to be crushed by an escalator. It is then revealed that the whole thing was another premonition. Nick fails to save George in time, but does save Lori and Janet by extinguishing the fire that would have caused the initial explosion.

Weeks later, the trio, thinking they have conquered Death's plan, celebrate surviving in a cafe. Nick notices a loose leg on a scaffold outside the cafe, and he tells a construction worker to fix it up. Once inside, he drifts off into thought after seeing omens around him, and realizes that his premonitions and signs, along with all the disasters and deaths that had occurred since the speedway incident, are red herrings from Death used to manipulate them into where and when it would really come for them. Just as Nick realizes this, the scaffold falls, and in order to avoid it, a truck swerves, crashing through the cafe window (as the film changes to X-ray vision), crushing Janet, decapitating Lori, and causing Nick to fly and hit the floor, breaking his jaw, and causing his teeth to fall out, leaving no survivors of McKinley Speedway accident.

Cast

• Bobby Campo as Nick O'Bannon
• Shantel VanSanten as Lori Milligan
• Haley Webb as Janet Cunningham
• Nick Zano as Hunt Wynorski
• Mykelti Williamson as George Lanter
• Andrew Fiscella as Andy Kewzer
• Krista Allen as Samantha Lane
• Justin Welborn as Carter Daniels
• Stephanie Honoré as Nadia Monroy
• Lara Grice as Cynthia Daniels
• Jackson Walker as Jonathan Groves

Production

Development

After the success of Final Destination 3, which was initially planned to be in 3-D, Eric Bress wrote a script, which impressed producer Craig Perry and New Line Cinema enough to green-light a fourth installment. James Wong was on board to direct, but because of scheduling conflicts, he decided to drop out. Consequently, the studio executives opted for David R. Ellis to return because of his work on Final Destination 2, who personally accepted because of the 3-D. For the 3-D, Perry said that he wanted it to add depth to the film instead of just "something pop[ping] out at the audience every four minutes."

Filming

Although shooting was to be done in Vancouver, which was where the previous three films were shot, David R. Ellis convinced the producers to shoot in New Orleans instead to bring business to the city, and because the budget was already large. The opening crash sequence at "McKinley Speedway" was filmed at Mobile International Speedway in Irvington, Alabama. Filming began in March 2008 and ended late May in the same year. Reshoots were done in April 2009 at Universal Studios Florida.

Release

The film was released in 3-D as well as in conventional theaters on August 28, 2009. It was initially planned for an August 14 release. It is also the first 3-D film to feature D-BOX motion feedback technology in select theaters.

Box office

According to USA Today and Newsday, Final Destination 4 debuted as the top of the North American box office, beating Rob Zombie's Halloween II, by earning $28.3 million during its first weekend. It is also topped the box office in the UK. The film remained #1 at the box office in North America for two weeks. On September 11, 2009, it gained a little more than a million dollars and dropped to #7. The film has grossed $66.4 million domestically, $119.3 million in foreign sales, and $181.5 million worldwide.

Critical reception

The film received mostly negative reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 28% of 90 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 4.2 out of 10. Among Rotten Tomatoes' "Top Critics", which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs, the film holds an overall approval rating of 0%, based on a sample of 9 reviews. The site's consensus is that "With little of the ingenuity of previous installments, The Final Destination is predictable, disposable horror fare." Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 0—100 reviews from film critics, has a rating score of 30 based on 14 reviews.

Many critics opined that "the series has clearly run out of ideas". "The biggest sin of The Final Destination is its general lack of imagination," said one. "It's death porn, pure and simple," said another. "Whatever hints of originality lay in the series' previous editions have been all but sucked out of this one," spoke Jordan Mintzer of Variety.

Some positive reviews referenced its "OK sense of humor","swift [progression]" and "effective opening sequence of racetrack destruction that puts its Fusion 3-D technology to good use".

Home media

The Final Destination was initially scheduled for a DVD and Blu-ray Disc release on December 22, 2009. The film was pushed back to January 5, 2010 in the US. Both the DVD and Blu-ray included two pairs of 3D glasses in each cover and had a 2D version on the menu, along with additional scenes. Only the Blu-Ray version included two alternate endings, a "making of" featurette about the deaths, storyboard visualization and a preview of the new film, A Nightmare on Elm Street. The Blu-ray release is also a combo pack includes a standard DVD of the film.

In Target stores, some of the DVDs include an exclusive Final Destination comic book.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album was released on the 25th of August in 2009, three days before the film's theatrical release, under independent label Varése Sarabande. The album consists of 23 cues composed and mixed by Brian Tyler. He took over scoring the series after the untimely death of the composer for the first three films, Shirley Walker.

Track listing

The CD features the score composed by Brian Tyler, omitting commercially released songs that were featured in the film.

U.S. edition

Untitled

1. "The Final Destination" – 2:56
2. "The Raceway" – 3:07
3. "Memorial" – 2:46
4. "Nailed" – 3:22
5. "Nick's Google Theory" – 1:30
6. "Revelations" – 2:28
7. "Raceway Trespass" – 1:39
8. "Stay Away from Water" – 2:38
9. "Flame On" – 1:43
10. "Moment of Joy" – 1:17
11. "Signs and Signals" – 2:51
12. "George Is Next" – 1:12
13. "Car Washicide" – 3:05
14. "Newspaper Clues" – 1:57
15. "Premonition" – 1:50
16. "The Salon" – 3:53
17. "Questioning" – 1:04
18. "Death of a Cowboy" – 2:08
19. "Gearhead" – 1:56
20. "Sushi for Everyone" – 2:53
21. "The Movie Theater" – 3:03
22. "You Can't Dodge Fate" – 1:28
23. "The Final Destination Suite" – 13:29

Commercial songs from film, but not on soundtrack

• "Devour" - by Shinedown
• "How the Day Sounds" - by Greg Laswell
• "Burning Bridges" - by Anvil
• "Why Can't We Be Friends" - by War
• "Don't You Know" - by Ali Dee and the Dekompressors
• "Faraway" - by Dana Schindler
• "Dream of Me" - by Perfect
• "The Stoop" - by Little Jackie
• "Sweet Music" - by Garrison Hawk
• "Corona and Lime" - by Shwayze
• "Make You Crazy" - by Brett Dennen

Soundtrack reception

The soundtrack attracted generally favorable reviews. Based on 11 editorial reviews, FilmTracks awards the film with an average score of 3.3 / 5. Composer Tyler was called "capable to further explore new stylistic territory while making substantial use of the structures and tone of [predecessor composer, Shirley Walker's] music." His approach to the scores were called "intelligent", and provides "adequate if not strikingly overachieving recordings is testimony to his immense talents."

The reviewers were also impressed with the extension of the sound used by Walker in Final Destination 3. "It relates to an affection for Walker's contribution to the industry," says an unnamed critic.

A SoundNotes reviewer grades the film with an impressive score of 7.5 / 10, remarking "Brian Tyler slugs his way through the inadequacies of The Final Destination and produces a score with reasonable entertainment value and enough of an appeal to make it function well apart from the woeful film."

Sequel

Main article: Final Destination 5 (film)

After the success of The Final Destination, which was thought to be the last film of the franchise, the head of Warner Bros., Alan Horn, had confirmed a fifth Final Destination film is in works at ShoWest.

External links

• Official site
• Official trailer site
• The Final Destination at IMDb
• The Final Destination at AllMovie
• The Final Destination at Box Office Mojo
• The Final Destination at Rotten Tomatoes