How to Survive A Final Destination Film

How to Survive a Final Destination Film

If you think about it logically it is not possible to survive a Final Destination film. In the Final Destination series the antagonist is not a machete wielding psychopath or a deranged child killer. In these films the villain is Death himself and everyone knows that the two things that cannot be avoided are death and taxes. Unless of course you are Mitt Romney, who can avoid one of them.

Final Destination 2

At the end of Final Destination 2 there are survivors. Kimberly (A.J. Cook) survives to the end of the film by failing to drown herself in an ambulance. As a method of survival this is not recommended. As she has to be revived by the doctor it can be argued that the only way that she manages to be alive at the end is by dying and coming back again. As all those who have died trying autoerotic asphyxiation are unable to testify, this is a tricky thing to get right. 

The lesson that can be learned from Final Destination 2 is that surviving one film does not guarantee that you will survive the next. Clear Rivers (Ali Larter) is still alive at the end of Final Destination. Her continued existence in the sequel derives from complete isolation. In Final Destination 2 she is seen voluntarily living in the padded cell of a mental institution where no sharp implements or hazardous substances can get at her. Of course she then decides to leave her sanctuary in order to help her friends and as a result dies in an explosion of oxygen.

What Clear’s demise ultimately proves is that Death can be postponed but never avoided. Having made it safely to the end credits Kimberly’s death is announced in a newspaper clipping in a later film.  She is killed alongside fellow survivor Thomas Burke (Michael Landes) thus proving that Death doesn’t like loose ends.

Words of Advice From The Candyman

There is one minor character that manages continual existence throughout that Final Destination franchise. This is of course Mr. Bludworth the creepy coroner played by Tony Todd. His role is unclear. There are those who view him as the manifestation of Death himself. Others see him as a wise man and prophesier. While yet another group think that he is just a creepy weirdo who gets a little more camp as the films go on.

What ever he is he is not to be trusted. In Final Destination 5 he tells the survivors that the way to cheat Death is to give him another victim. The logic says that Death was due a life and he doesn’t care which one he gets as long as his figures balance. This is not the case.

The result of Bludworth’s advice is that one of the characters turns homicidal and the remaining protagonists are so busy basking in their newly won life that they never stop to review the vision in any great detail. If they had they would have remembered that they both survived the bridge falling and that Death wasn’t after them because of that. This may have caused the hero to react a little quicker when he heard the strains of Dust in the Wind and they may have survived the plane.

Therefore when finding yourself in a Final Destination movie Mr Bludworth should be viewed as nothing more than an interesting plot device. He is there to move the story along and not as a cheat key for survival.

Death Always Wins

The only way to survive a Final Destination film is for it to be ordained. If you were meant to survive the initial accident then you will still be alive when the credits roll. As seen at the end of both the fourth and the fifth films this will not save you from being the victim of a later accident but considering that all of your friends have already died in a variety of horrible ways you may see this as form of reunion.

If Death has marked your card then you will die. Death cannot be bargained with. There are no games of chess in the Final Destination films. If you were meant to die in the accident then you will die. There is no cheating Death.

However when finding yourself in one of these films you may take comfort from the fact that everyone is going to die eventually. Even the minor ancillary characters are going to come up against the reaper in the end. You at least know that your death will be quick and it will be soon. Enjoy the life you have because it is precious and will shortly be at an end.