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Top Ten ‘Final Destination’ Film Franchise Deaths

For those unaware, another episode of the Out Now With Aaron and Abe podcast featuring horror for the month of October is dropping again today.  This particular one is of note as it’s a discussion of the Final Destination films and features Aaron Neuwirth, of course, but also Brandon Peters, James “Jimmy O” Oster, and myself.  Plus – the original film creator Jeffrey Reddick joins us – a hell of a bonus!  So, it felt apt to revisit said franchise with a new article highlighting cool killer wares right here on WhySoBlu.com.  Thus today we’re going back into the world of trying to escape death (damn you Tony Todd!) by highlighting what Final Destination has become known for – the elaborate kills.

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Now, there are purists out there who may distinguish between the films’ premonition deaths and real life ones, but for this list, all demise is fair game.  You may agree with some and not with others, but the below are specific selections of the terminations that crawled deep under my skin.  From rollercoasters run amok to gymnastic moves that turn deadly, here are my own personal….TOP TEN FINAL DESTINATION FILM FRANCHISE DEATHS!

 10. Grill Explosion – Final Destination 2

Leave it to the end of a film to inevitably hit the audience with a doozy, and that’s precisely what happened to poor young Brian Gibbons in the last moments of Final Destination 2.  Having been saved by the eviscerated Rory Peters earlier in the film, Brian gets a BBQ meat and fire sandwich right to the face in the form of one exploding grill.  Come and get it!

9. Bus Hit – Final Destination

A serious shock to every viewer, the death of Terry Chaney by a speeding bus in the original Final Destination was a surprise, to say the least.  Dealing with the repressed angst and control issues of her boyfriend Carter Horton was bad enough, but then Terry getting hit head-on by massive Greyhound with gore in-store gives this kill an extra jolt of out-of-nowhere brutality even Jeffrey Dahmer doesn’t deserve.  (Okay, maybe HE does!)

8. Flying Tire – The Final Destination

Just when the clever Nick O’Bannon manages to successfully cheat the grim reapers plan and get all the previously premonition slain victims out of the race track in The Final Destination (aka part 4!), old man death proves he does indeed have a good memory and a sense of humor.  Nagging girlfriend Nadia is so busy berating the group that she misses the spare tire flying fast and furious at her melon.  Head’s up, girlfriend!

7. Hot Tar – Final Destination 5

I don’t know why the hot sticky splash of heated tar to the face and upper torso of known comedian David Koechner’s obnoxious character Dennis Lapman is so undeniably satisfying.  Could it be we love to see unsavory bosses get their due?  Or perhaps it’s because it kills all comedy right there on the spot.  No matter what the reason, seeing the flesh peel off the hands of the slimy Dennis before he falls to his inevitable death is both strangely horrifying and kinda gratifying.

6. Pool Drain – The Final Destination

While the pure physics of such a death could be dispelled very easily by experts, there’s simply no denying the gore galore spectacle of Hunt’s pool drainpipe death.  Being stuck at the bottom of a pool with no escape should be bad enough, but the filmmakers take this death one step further by having our jock asshole hero actually get disemboweled by said pipe.  Life (and innards!) going down the drain indeed.

5. Gymnastics – Final Destination 5

Having always been freaked out by the acrobatics of gymnasts, this particular death carried an extra cringe factor for me.  Faking out the audience with a whirlwind of possible kill triggers – leaking water, an errant single screw – this one relishes in taking its time.  But it is the final fate of varsity athlete Candice Hooper, who lands wrong, has her body bend backwards, snapping her spine as a result, which ultimately shows that not all sports injuries can merely be walked off.

4. Tanning Bed – Final Destination 3

While there is a slight gratuitous nature to the half-naked deaths of shallow gals Ashley and Ashlyn, it does in no way make this one any less brutal.  Trapping themselves inside a getting hotter enclosed tanning bed, the two teens go from rocking out to Love Rollercoaster to screaming on a bed of broken glass and fire – guess temp gauges are there for a reason after all.

3. Shower Hanging – Final Destination

One of the franchise’s most emotional, visceral, and realistic deaths, Tod Waggner’s hanging in the shower is particularly unnerving.  It could be the fact that Death’s plan for Todd here seems extremely premeditated (that water moving back and forth with motivation is creepy shit!) or that it wants him to seriously suffer in silence.  But honestly, it’s the reaching for the scissors just out of range paired with the eyes turning red from oxygen loss that makes this one a first kill fans will never forget.

2. Highway – Final Destination 2

There is so much grizzly carnage, mayhem, and “ooh, I felt that” moments in the opening premonition of Kimberly Corman’s vision in Final Destination 2 that I’d be hard-pressed to pick just one cool kill.  The log through the head of lawman Thomas Burke, the semi-truck head-on collision for Rory Peters, Evan Lewis running into a gas tank – they all work in tandem to make the opening sequel sequence just that much more uncomfortable… for your viewing pleasure, of course.

1. Roller Coaster – Final Destination 3

I know some of my podcast colleagues had issues with this one, but in my opinion, the rickety track stops here.  For those of us who already have a healthy fear of roller coasters, to begin with, Part 3’s opening sequence only goes to show precisely why such anxieties are more than warranted.  Wheels coming off tracks, safety guards flying up, and people falling to their back-breaking doom means one thing – Six Flags can truly kiss my ass.

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