The 13 Gnarliest Ways to Die According to the ‘Final Destination’ Series
Death comes to us all, and never has that been better exemplified than in the Final Destination series. The film franchise, which expands from five films to six with the arrival of Final Destination: Bloodlines, has spent the last quarter century tormenting audiences with its unique spin on the slasher format. Rather than be a vengeful friend, jilted lover, or slow-walking mask-clad behemoth, the killer in the Final Destination movies is the one thing that no one can outrun—Death itself.
The formula for a Final Destination film is simple: Each opens with the protagonist experiencing a vision of a life-ending disaster that spurs them, and some others, to flee. The prophesied event occurs, but the survivors don’t have long to appreciate their time on Earth. After all, no one cheats Death. Soon, the number of survivors begins to dwindle as they start dying in freakishly strange and macabre ways.
Rather than rely on a kitchen knife to off its victims, Death has many more inventive methods of claiming its prey. As such, the Final Destination series has become synonymous with making audiences afraid of the most mundane household implements. Who amongst us hasn’t felt a rush of nerves should you end up driving behind a truck ferrying logs or similar quarry? The series takes great glee in hammering home the message that death is inevitable and that everything and anything is capable of taking a life. The variety of deaths displayed within the franchise is inventive and shocking, and none of them are anything that anyone would want to think about. Nonetheless, some are far worse than others.
Here is a collection of the gnarliest ways to meet the Grim Reaper, at least according to the Final Destination films.
13. Hung in the Bathroom (Final Destination)
Tod Waggner holds the accolade for being the first victim of Death’s vengeful hand in the Final Destination series. His death showcased how menacing a slasher movie kill sequence could be, even without the presence of a corporeal killer. The scene also introduced the world to the trick that would become the series’ calling card: the constant teasing of deadly scenarios. In Tod’s case, water leaks from the toilet, and electrical appliances start to spark, but ultimately, it is a simple cord that Tod slips on that tightens and kills him.
12. Decapitated by an Elevator (Final Destination 2)
Elevators are a claustrophobe’s worst nightmare, and movies, not just horror, repeatedly enjoy inflicting trauma on sufferers. First came the openings of Speed and Resident Evil, which highlight the perils of skipping the stairs. But it’s the demise of grieving mother Nora Carpenter that best demonstrates the ghastly reality of death by elevator. Having already lost her son Tim to a freak ‘accident’ involving pigeons and sheet glass, Nora is served further troubles when she opts for the elevator rather than the stairs. Firstly, her braid gets snagged on a box of hooks. Then she falls and gets stuck with her head trapped between the elevator doors before it begins its ascent, decapitating her in the process.
11. Head Crushed While Pumping Iron (Final Destination 3)
Final Destination 3 was the first post-Saw Final Destination movie, and it shows. The deaths were suddenly bloodier, and it featured a more extreme, unexpected, and somewhat cruel culling of its crop of survivors. One of those unfortunate victims is gym bunny Lewis Romero. As Wendy Christensen desperately tries to relay her theory that he is next on Death’s list, Lewis continues to work out on a weight machine. As Wendy scans the room, she picks up on the signs and helps avert what she thinks is intended to be his death. Death was just playing with its food, however. As an elated Lewis celebrates Wendy being wrong, his head is suddenly crushed between two gigantic weights.
10. Nail Gun to the Face (Final Destination 3)
Another gnarly sudden death in Final Destination 3 is inflicted upon the film’s resident emo kid, Erin Ulmer. Erin is the girlfriend of fellow student and Devil’s Flight roller coaster survivor, Ian McKinley, who ends up being killed inside a hardware store after hours. In a tragic twist of fate, seconds after Wendy has saved Ian from Death, Erin’s end is triggered as a nail gun unceremoniously empties itself into her face. This death is one of the grimmest due to its excessive brutality. Just one well-placed misfired nail would have been enough to complete the job, but Death isn’t messing around here.
9. Rock in the Eye (The Final Destination)
The fourth instalment of the series, The Final Destination, was part of cinema’s 3D boom. As such, every death was made with eye-popping intensity as the viewer was repeatedly attacked with items protruding from the screen. Of all the protrusions, it is the eye of mother-of-two Samantha Lane that is most memorable. Having escaped the destruction at McKinley Speedway, Samantha is treating herself to a hard-earned girls’ night and some pampering beforehand. A hair salon is an environment full of danger, from the obvious scissors and hair dye chemicals, to, in this salon’s case, malfunctioning chairs and dryers. Samantha’s death sequence is riddled with anticipation as she encounters and survives all of these perils, only to step outside and immediately have a rogue rock fly into and through her eye socket, popping said organ out of the screen in gory 3D glory.
8. Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (Final Destination)
Remember at school when you had to circle that sheet of potential hazards around a house or in a room? Well, teacher Valerie Lewton should have taken one home to study, as her death in Final Destination takes place within the confines of her house. Overridden by survivor’s guilt and freaked out by Alex’s premonition, the teacher is packing up to leave town. But before she can escape Death’s grasp, it comes calling in a rather spectacular fashion. The woman is surrounded by death-dealing scenarios, from a mug leaking alcohol onto a computer monitor to a misplaced towel. Her death is caused by a chain reaction of events that sees computer shrapnel cut her throat, a knife block fall on her. This leaves one knife embedded in her before a chair tumbles down on her, pushing the knife further in. Oh, and then her house explodes.
7. Eye Impaled by a Ladder (Final Destination 2)
Final Destination 2 continues the trend of throwing everything (including the kitchen sink) at one of Death’s victims. Lottery winner Evan Lewis can’t believe his luck. In just one week, he has become rich AND survived a freeway pile-up. Whilst he may have evaded Death there, it’s the combination of day-old spaghetti and a ladder that finishes him.
Evan’s demise is something of a comedy of errors as he has repeated brushes with death and injury. He narrowly avoids losing an arm to the garbage disposal, but as he is distracted dealing with that, a kitchen fire breaks out. Frantic, Evan races down the fire escape, unknowingly loosening one of the screws on his way down. He makes it to the ground fine, before promptly slipping on the spaghetti he threw out of the window rather than into the trash. As he lies stunned, the ladder suddenly comes free of that loose screw and he is impaled through the eye.
6. Insides Sucked into a Pool Drain (The Final Destination)
Whereas the audience has sympathy for most of the survivors, The Final Destination’s Hunt Wynorski is an unlikely jerk from start to finish. After having suffered Hunt’s grating personality for far too much of the run-time, the audience is richly rewarded with one of the franchise’s most heinous deaths. Deciding that he wants to see out whatever time he has left having fun, Hunt heads to the pool for a little sun, sex, and swimming. Although he manages the first two, the swimming portion is interrupted when his lucky coin falls to the floor. Unable to be without it, Hunt dives to the bottom at which point he gets sucked inside out Alien Resurrection Newborn style, by a faulty vent. It’s a slow, drawn-out scene that had viewers cheering and squirming in equal measure.
5. Splattered by a Bus (Final Destination)
Fed up with forever listening to her boyfriend, Carter, argue with Alex, all Terry wants is a moment of peace. She’s ready to move on with her life and tells the feuding boys exactly that before stepping out into traffic and getting smushed by a bus. The death of poor Terry Chaney in Final Destination is one of modern cinema’s greatest jump scares. Unlike other deaths to that point, nothing had indicated that Terry was next on the chopping block and the bus was unseen until the instant it smashes into her. Attempts to replicate this death have been made in later entries into the series, but none have the same shock value.
4. Blinded by Laser Eye Surgery (Final Destination 5)
Across the series, the deaths within the Final Destination movies fit along a spectrum that ranges from over-the-top and wacky, to “dear God, I’ve always been terrified of this.” Of those deaths that align with the latter half, Final Destination 5’s Olivia Castle is one of the most brutal. Too afraid to seek treatment for her eyesight, Olivia makes do by wearing glasses, an accessory that doesn’t fit in with her party girl lifestyle. In the wake of surviving the collapse of a suspension bridge that kills several of her work colleagues, Olivia decides that she wants to see the world properly and bravely gets laser eye surgery.
Unfortunately for Olivia, Death is feeling especially naughty and brings all of her fears to life. Left alone by her surgeon in a vulnerable position, the laser suddenly turns on and begins to cut her eye to shreds. After freeing herself from the machine, Olivia stumbles around blindly before falling out of a window and going splat on a car below. It’s a nasty death made all the more gruesome by the fact that, like The Final Destination before it, Final Destination 5 was released in theaters in 3D. Argento has nothing on this level of eye trauma.
3. Death by Tanning Bed (Final Destination 3)
Final Destination 3’s Ashley Freund and Ashlyn Halperin are the franchise’s answer to The Simple Life’s Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. The pair thrives on looking good and worships at the altar of the tanning bed, the very implement that causes their undoing. Of all the characters to have cheated death, the duo seems unfazed at how close to death they came on Devil’s Flight. Having survived the ordeal, they immediately throw themselves back into their life of partying, and parties mean the need for a top-up tan.
Oblivious to the consequences, the two repeatedly bend, or outright ignore, the safety rules at their tanning salon. Death is waiting in the wings to capitalize on their mistakes, though, and the friends perish in one of the most feared sequences of the series. Featuring some of the best ramp-up tension of the franchise, as the girls prepare for their tanning session, the audience sees warning signs everywhere. Screws fall out of the wall leaving shelves in danger of falling, and the girls push certain machinery outside of their designated limits. Once the tanning starts, the real nightmare begins as the shelf falls on top of the pods, trapping them in place. At the same time, the thermostat bursts, causing the temperature to rise to deadly levels. With their bodies unable to cope, the besties begin to cook.
2. Folded in Half (Final Destination 5)
A burgeoning theme within the Final Destination film is that exercise is bad for you. Poor Lewis got his head splattered in Final Destination 3, but his death pales when compared to the unfortunate fate of gymnast Candice Hooper in Final Destination 5. Although part of the office outing that should have ended in the team dying in a suspension bridge collapse, Candice is just an intern. Rather than a career in the paper business, Candice has aspirations of becoming a world-class gymnast.
Death comes for her during one of her training sessions, and there is no denying that her death is one of, if not the, most agonizing. After narrowly avoiding stepping on a nail whilst practising on the balance beams, Candice ultimately succumbs to Death’s wrath during her routine on the rings. A fellow gymnast steps on the nail hiding in plain sight on the bars and, in doing s,o kicks off a chain reaction of chaotic event,s including talc and fans that cause Candice to dismount badly. And by badly, we’re talking her legs fold over her head, and every bone in her body comes to rest at an unnatural angle. It’s a ghastly visage, a jumble of limbs, and one that continues the warning that exercise can kill you.
1. Flight 180 (Final Destination / Final Destination 5)
Whilst the Final Destination series has consistently provided nightmare fuel for all manner of strange deaths, it is the original’s premonition of the ill-fated Flight 180 that remains the most distressing. Planes are often cited as one of the safest ways to travel, so it’s terrifying to consider exactly what could go wrong mid-flight. Filmed in a horrifically realistic way, Final Destination shows the plane falling to pieces as it becomes a flying fireball. But that’s not the last of Flight 180…
In a twist that no one saw coming, Final Destination 5 actually slots into the timeline ahead of 2000’s Final Destination. This realization comes during the closing moments as it is revealed that Death’s surviving victims, Molly and Sam, are en route to Paris on Flight 180! In the background, Final Destination’s Alex Browning is seen freaking out and being removed from the plane as the films come full circle. This second flight with 180 was somehow even more disturbing, thanks to audiences’ shifting attitudes towards gore, and so the film ends with protagonist Sam Lawton being burned alive.
What’s your favorite Final Destination death? Did it make it on this list? Let us know on Instagram, Facebook, or Bluesky @DreadCentral!
Categorized:Editorials
