Final Destination 5 (2011)

“	You were supposed to die on that bridge. You're not supposed to be here. You shorted death. So you let death have somebody else in your place, and you take their spot in the realm of the living. All the days and years that they have yet to live. And they take your place in death. Then the books are balanced.	„
	― William Bludworth

Final Destination 5 is a 2011 American horror film written by Eric Heisserer and directed by Steven Quale. It is the fifth installment of the Final Destination franchise. It stars Nicholas D'Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Arlen Escarpeta, David Koechner and Tony Todd.

Synopsis

Sam Lawton and his colleagues are on their way to a company retreat, when he gets a vision of bridge collapse that will kill him and several of his colleagues. Just as he managed to evacuate everyone on the bus, the disaster does happen. But they aren't out of the clearing yet, as Death comes to claim what is his, in the bloodiest of ways.

Plot[]

Warning: this text contains details about the plot/ending of the film.

On his way to a company retreat with his colleagues, Sam Lawton is sitting in the bus. As the bus is crossing the North Bay Bridge, cracks caused by construction work result in structural failure. This results in the brigde breaking apart and cables being torn off. One of his colleagues, Candice Hooper, jumps over a roadblock and grabs the railing, only for the structure beneath her to collapse. As she falls down, she is impaled on the mast of passing sailing boat. Sam quickly snaps Peter Friedkin, Candice's boyfriend, back to reality and tell him to follow. It is only then that they realize that they have forgotten Isaac Palmer on the bus, who is dragged into water, when the bus plunges into the North Bay. Meanwhile, Olivia Castle runs into a man and loses her glasses, disabling her completely. Sam tries to save his ex-girlfriend Molly Harper and is able to get on the other side but instead of saving himself, he goes to help her, while Peter flees from falling debris on the brigde.

As she tries to crawl over however, the beam breaks and she slides off, falling into the water. Although initially able to survive the fall, she is killed when a car falls on her. Shocked, Sam looks into the deep but is called by Nathan Sears and Dennis Lapman and turns around to see Nathan being hit a loose cable that kills him. Dennis is stunned, just as more of the bridge start to give in, almost throwing him over the side. As he holds on for dear life, a tank with hot tar is kicked over by another shock, engulfing Dennis. Burned alive, Dennis falls in the river. Peter joins Sam and together they manage to jump to the railing of the brigde, and escape just in time, when the part of the brigde they were standing on, collapses completely. But as they climb up, a truck with iron rods, slips. The rods impale Peter, before a plate on the truck drops, cutting Sam in half.

It is than that Sam wakes up and realizes it was just a vision and that nothing has happened yet. He evacuates the bus, just in time as the disaster he saw in his vision, takes place seconds later, killing dozens in the process. But by evacuating the bus, he saved the lifes of Candice, Isaac, Olivia, Nathan, Dennis and Peter (Molly was also saved but she didn't die in the original vision and would have survived no matter what.) FBI agent, Jim Block, who is tasked with investigating the disaster, believes that it is a terrorist attack. Although he doesn't believe Sam to be responsible for this, he does promise him to keep an eye on him. Later, at the memorial service, they are approached by the coroner, William Bludworth. Bludworth warns them that "Death doesn't like to be cheated" and therefore they should be extra careful. Believing the man to be talking nonsense, they ignore him and leave.

But soon, his warnings come true. Peter goes to Candice's gymnastics practise. Through a faulty ceilling fan, a screw drops on the balance beam, after which a fellow gymnast steps on the screw, hurting her foot and falling off the beam. In her fall, she bowls over a bowl with white powder (for grip). Candice, who is praticing on the uneven bars, is caught in the dust cloud and let go of the bars on the worst moment possible. She falls as she crashes into the ground, her neck, spine and legs are broken, with her back having snapped in half. This leaves Peter devastated.

The next day, after stealing a coupon, Isaac goes to a chinese spa resort. Making himself very impopular with his denegrating behavior, under the impression that they don't understand English, he is given his acupuncture treatment. When he complains about the needles not being sterilized, the massuese immediately obliged, revealing herself to be able understand English. He continues with his racist comments, much to the annoyance of masseuse. When he is called on the phone, which is put on vibrate, the masseuse tells him that he can't call during the session and places his phone on a shelf, next to candle. When the masseuse leaving behind, so he can sleep of 30 minutes. With needles in place, he is rather immobile when the wind causes a piece of burning incense to fall on a towel, lighting it. When nobody reacts to his screams, he tries to move, only to fall facefirst on the ground, driving the needles deeper. It also causes the bottle of alcohol, used to sterilize the needles to fall and spill on the ground, drenching him and most of the room in process.

Although he is in horrible pain due the fall, he tries to remove the needles, but realizing how painful this is, he quits after one. Just as he is at the door, his phones vibrates again, knocking a candle from the shelf that ignites the alcohol, knocking him against the wall, falling on several shelves on the wall. Believing to have survived however, he sighes in relief, only for another shelf to give in and dropping a massive statue of Budha on his head, crushing his head beneath its weight. When Sam and Molly discover that after Candice's accident, Isaac died at the spa, they are greeted by Bludworth again. Sam confronts him, as he warned them before and seem to know more about this. Bludworth explains again that Death wants their lifes and that if they wish to truly cheat Death, they must kill someone who was never meant to die on the brigde. This way, they would switch places with the person they kill and get their remaining lifespan.

Sam goes over the list of people who would have died on the brigde, in chronological order and realizes that with Candice and Isaac dead, Olivia is the next person. And just on that day, she goes to the eye surgery clinic to treat her myopia. When she enters the cabinet, she is anxious when she sees the chair. The surgeon notices this and when she asks why there are stuffed animals on the shelves, he explains it is for younger patients, but also for those who are scared of procedure, offering her a bear to comfort her. In her anxiety, she accidently pops of a bead eye of the teddy bear, which falls on the ground. Just as she is strapped into the chair, with the laser ready to start to do its work, the surgeon discovers that their files missing from her dossier. While he goes to fetch them, a cup of water on a water cooler drops on a power outlet, leading to a chain reaction that causes the laser to malfunction and power up beyond what is necessary for the operation, exceeding the max. value of 5 milliwatt dramatically. The malfunction causes vibration and as Olivia tries to grab the controller used for the operation, trying to save it from falling, she actually causes just that to happen, activating the laser, thar starts to sear both her eye and hand. Eventually she is able to escape the contraption, just as Sam and Molly arrive to save her. In agony and panic, she cries out for help up trips on the bead eye and falls through the window. She lands on a parked car, killing her instantly and causing her eye to pop out of its socket.

No longer able to deny the fact that Death is chasing them, Sam and Molly study its design again and realize that Nathan is the next on Death's list. At the moment, Nathan had returned to the plant, where they worked and was sitting in the control room. When he called co-worker Roy Carson to the control room. Nathan has a strange feeling that something is wrong, and sees static discharge at a crane. But he is quickly ambushed by Roy, who wants to know what his problem is. When Nathan ask Roy about his time card, Roy reacts furious and what follows, is a discussion about cutting hours. As Roy is scolding him, the crane moves and Nathan realizes that what he saw, was no simple static discharge but a malfunctioning of the crane. As he tries to warn Roy, the man keeps yelling at him. As the lifting hook dangles above them, Nathan tries to convince Roy, they have to move and eventually tries to pull him away, much to the protest of Roy.

When Roy tries to grab Nathan, believing his supervisor is attacking him, Nathan pushes him off, only for the lifting hook to crash in the panel, Roy is standing on and impaling his head on the hook, in the fall. When Nathan goes to check on Roy, he realizes what he has done. As Sam, Molly and Peter arrive, Nathan explained what happened, and they suggest that he might have claiming Roy's remaining lifespan. Nathan is freaked out by this suggestion and asks him how he is so sure. As Sam explains that there is an order to the deaths, Molly asks who would be next than, just as Dennis arrives. Demanding to know what happened, Dennis asks what happened to Roy, just as Peter repeats Molly's question. The question is quickly answered as the wrench Roy was using and placed near a belt sander, falls and is launced at Dennis. Hitting him in the face, it is driven halfway in this head, at eye level.

As Sam goes to work at a restaurant that evening, he asks his supervisor if he could reserve the restaurant for a date with Molly, something the supervisor allows him. Unbeknownst to Sam and Molly, Peter has grown paranoid by his imminent death and the idea that he won't be able to stop Death. He decided to take Bludworth's word to heart and goes out to take a life. Seeing how Sam is already doomed and he lost Candice himself due to Sam's premonition, he decides that he will go for Molly. He enters the restaurant and attacks Molly. He draws a gun and starts firing, but to his annoyance, both Sam and Molly escape to the restaurant's kitchen. The gunshots do alert Agent Block however, who is standing outside the restaurant. When he goes to investigate, he is shot fatally by Peter however. Relieved by the fact that he has beaten Death, he draws the conclusion that it would be waste to spend the rest of his life in jail and decides to kill both Sam and Molly. Without witnesses and safe from Death, there is nothing that will stop him from living his life again to the fullest. In the struggle, he dropped the gun, on a hot stove. Unable to get his gun, he grabbed a kitchen knife as Molly jumps on his back. Although he is initially disarmed, he manages to fight her off and throw her against the ground. As he picks up the knife and walks towards her with the knife. Before he is going to stab her, he asks her to tell Candice, he loves her. He failed to stab her however as Sam impales him through the back with a large rotisserie, killing him. Wondering if he now got Block's life, the gun on the stove fires, missing Sam by a mere inch. This confirms that he do has his lfe.

Two weeks later, Sam and Molly are boarding an airliner to Paris, as Sam has taken on a job at Miro81. As they put their hand luggage away, they are disturbed a fight between two teenagers Wondering what it was about, Sam looks at his tickets, revealing that their flight is Volee Airlines Flight 180. The teenagers are Alex Browning and Carter Horton... Upon takeoff, they overhear a conversation between the stewardess and a woman, revealing that Alex had a vision of the airplane exploding. Realizing that the boy's vision is bound to happen, they are horrified by the realization that they won't escape this time. At that moment, the airplane motor explodes and the side of the airplane, is starting to rip apart. Passengers are sucked out, and eventually Molly, who was sitting at the window side, was sucked out as well, only to be bisected when she hit the tail wing. The rest of passengers, amongst Sam, die when the fiery explosion raged through the plane. The landing gear of the plane falls and descends to Earth.

Meanwhile, the colleagues of Roy are holding a memorial, attended to by Nathan, who is still guilt-ridden. A colleague claims that it might be better for Roy, before revealing that Roy's autopsy (ordered by the insurance company) revealed that Roy had a deadly brain aneurysm that would have burst and killed him "any day now" Nathan asks him if this is true, and he responds "Life's a bitch" before walking off. As Nathan realizes that this means death is still coming for him, the landing gear crashes through the roof and crushes Nathan to death, throwing his arm at the screen...

List of deaths[]

List of deaths in the film Final Destination 5.

Name	Cause of Death	Killer	On Screen	Notes
North Bay Bridge Victims and bus driver	Various: died trying to escape North Bay Brigde collapse.	Death	Yes	Shown in detail in vision, later partially shown from afar
Hipper	Severe Organ Damage: stabbed in the chest	Death	No	Deleted scene
Candice Hooper	Severe Cervical and Spinal trauma: snapped in half, breaking her back and neck, after a fall during gymnastic training.	Death	Yes
Isaac Palmer	Decapitation/Crushing: got his head crushed by a budha statue.	Yes	Death	Prior to his death, he fell from a table, during an acupunture session, while trying to escape a starting fire. The needles were driven into his flesh, due to the drop. An explosion, knocked him against the wall, which in turn caused the statue to fall.
Olivia Castle	Falling: slipped on bead eye, falling through a window, crashing into a car	Death	Yes	Prior to her death, her eye was lasered by a malfunctioned laser surgery machine, searing both her eye (blinding her in that eye) and her hand. After her fall, her eye was slammed out of the socket and a car drove over it.
Roy Carson	Falling/Impalement: fell through the catwalk and was impaled, through the jaw on a hook.	Nathan Sears	Yes	As Nathan was responsible for Roy's death, Roy's remaining lifetime was given to Nathan.
Dennis Lapman	Severe Head Trauma: a wrench was launched in his face, at eye level.	Death	Yes
Jim Block	Shooting: shot three times in the back.	Peter Friedkin	Yes	As Peter was responsible for Jim's death, Jim's remaining lifetime was given to Peter.
Peter Friedkin	Impalement: Impaled by meat skewer.	Sam Lawton	Yes	As Sam was responsible for Peter's death, Peter's remaining lifetime (stolen from Jim) was given to Sam.
Flight 180 female attendant	Explosion/Incineration: died when the plane exploded.	Death	Yes	The disaster that kills her, is the plane disaster from the first.
Molly Harper	Bisection: sucked out of a plane, bisected on one of the tail wings.	Death	Yes	The disaster that kills her, is the plane disaster from the first.
Flight 180 victims and Sam Lawton	Explosion/Incineration: died when the plane exploded.	Death	Yes	The disaster that kills them, is the plane disaster from the first.
Several people in the bar and Nathan Sears	Crushing: Crushed by falling plane's landing gear	Death	Yes	The disaster that kills them, is the plane disaster from the first.

Cast[]

Nicolas D'Agosto as Sam Lawton
Emma Bell as Molly Harper
Miles Fisher as Peter Friedkin
Ellen Wroe as Candice Hooper
Jacqueline MacInnes Wood as Olivia Castle
P.J. Byrne as Isaac Palmer
Arlen Escarpeta as Nathan Sears
David Koechner as Dennis Lapman
Courtney B. Vance as Agent Jim Block
Tony Todd as William Bludworth
Brent Stait as Roy Carson
Roman Podhora as John
Jasmin Dring as Cho
Barclay Hope as Dr. Leonetti

Production[]

Development[]

In March 2010, the head of Warner Bros., revealed Final Destination 5 was in works. Later, producer Craig Perry confirmed that just as The Final Destination, the film would be shot in 3D. On April 2010, it was announced that Eric Heisserer would be the screenwriter. In June 2010, Steven Quale was announced by New Line Cinema to be the director. The film was supposed to be released on August 26,2011 but they later changed it to August 12, 2011. The producers aimed to make the film darker and more suspenseful than the previous installments, trying to recapture the feel of the first film once again.

Casting[]

The first character that was cast was Peter Friedkin, in August 2010. For the role, they went with actor and musician Miles Fisher, who is most famous for acting in short films and a small role in the comedy film Superhero Movie. Fisher would later say that although he had done some work in television and film, but 3D was whole another thing. Arlen Escarpeta was the second to be cast, this for the role of Nathan. Later Nicholas D'Agosto and Elen Wroe were cast as Sam and Candice respectively. The biggest reveal however was the return of Tony Todd, to reprise his role of William Bludworth. David Koecher and P.J. Byrne were announced to have joined the cast on August 30, 2010, while the female lead, Molly, got an actress in Emma Bell on September 2. Jacqueline Mac Innes Wood and Courtney would join the cast as Olivia Castle and Jim Block respectively in mid-September of that year.

Filming[]

Just like the original three films, location filming took place in Vancouver, British Columbia once again. It was also here that the opening scene would be filmed as the North Bay Brigde was modelled after the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver. The Principal photography took place between September 13 and December 14, 2010.

Music[]

The soundtrack to Final Destination 5 contains 19 tracks, once again composed by Brian Tyler, who also composed the soundtrack of the previous installment. It was released physically, four days after the release of the film, makng it the second Final Destination soundtrack to get a release. Actor and singer, Miles Fisher who plays Peter Friedkin in the film, released a tie-in video for his single "New Romance". In reference to the premise of the Final Destination series, the music clip featured key actors of the film, who die in freak accidents. This was done parodying Saved by the Bell.

Just as in previous films, Final Destination 5 featured multiple commercial songs, released by various artists.

I Will Buy You a New Life by Everclear
Successful Leader by Jeff Tymoschuk
Ballroom by Terry Poison
Dust in the Wind by Kansas
Walk Like Water by Cliff P. deMarks, Jr.
Me, Myself & I by Excellence
The Orbiting Suns by Jens Gad
If You Want Blood (You've Got It) by AC/DC
Give Me More by Empyr
Left for Dead by Chimaira
When Darkness Falls by Killswitch Engage

Release[]

Box office[]

On its opening weekend, Final Destination 5 made $18,031,396 domestically, ranking it the third grossing of the weekend, behind Rise of the Planet of the Apes and The Help, being number 1 and 2 respectively. In the series, it was the third biggest opening, behind The Final Destination and Final Destination 3. The film made $42,587,643 domestically and $157,887,643 worldwide, make it the second most succesful film in the franchise, with The Final Destination being the most successful.

Home media[]

On December 27, 2011, it was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc, with the Blu-ray coming out in two forms: the movie-only edition and the Blu-ray Disc/DVD/UltraViolet edition. 3D edition for Blu-ray was originally released as a Best Buy exclusive. On December 26, 2011, the film was released with a Blu-ray Disc special edition, contained the 3D cit of the film. An UltraViolet copy of the film was available. On March 16, 2021, this his released on Blu-ray Disc "Final Destination Collection'', by Shout Factory's (Scream Factory) with Blu-ray in the collection (''Final Destination" & "Final Destination 2" & ''Final Destination 3'' & ''The Final Destination'').

Reception[]

Critical reception[]

Generally speaking, the film received positive reviews, with a 61% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, landing on average 5.8/10 by the critics (129) and 5.2/10 by site visitors, making it the first and only film in the franchise to have a "Fresh" rating. The mainstream critics from metacritic, gave it a 50%, based on 24 reviews. It was however criticized for failing to be truly inventive in the franchise, missing good character development and lacking memorable dialogue. It was however praised for being an improvement over the previous installment and for its use of 3D, visual and creative death scenes. Other praiseworthy features were the departure of the campiness and the return of suspense as well as the disaster scenes at the beginning and en

The 3D feature got notable praise of reviewers Richard Roeper, Linda Barnard and Todd Gilchrist, with the last claiming it to be the best 3D horror movie ever. Several reviews also praised the visual effects of the film, and often compared them to the heavily criticized CGI used in the previous film.

Controversy[]

The poster of Final Destination 5 attracted quite a lot of controversy in the UK. The original theatrical poster was according the Advertising Standards Authority, likely to caus fear and undue distress to children and therefore, they ruled that the advert, which had been used on buses and trains during the summer, had to chance. Warner Bros. countered this, stating that the poster "accurately reflected the content of the film in an appropriate manner without causing excessive fear or distress". They also argued that the dark grey and black colours were "unlikely to engage the attention of young children", and that the "surreal" image did not feature people, blood or display any real life violence. In total, the ASA received 13 complaints, with three about children (aged between 1-3) were indeed upset by the poster.