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6 May, 2025
WB Spotlight: Iconic Deaths from the Final Destination Franchise
Take a look at the most gruesome but memorable demises in the Final Destination films.
The Final Destination film series has revolutionised a unique niche within the horror genre; becoming infamous for orchestrating elaborate but devastating scenes, from the most unassuming and regular daily occurrences. The franchise has thrived on building tension and the haunting idea that Death is always one step ahead...
The deaths are not just iconic due to their gory features, but their creativity. From a simple loose screw to an innocent gust of wind, each film used everyday scenarios to teach us one thing; you can’t cheat deathand it will always catch up to you.
Read below to revisit the most iconic deaths from each film, in release order.
1. Final Destination (2000)
Final DestinationDeath doesn't take no for an answer.
Death is coming. And Alex Browning is cursed with knowing when, how and where the Grim Reaper will take his next victim to the Final Destination.
After boarding a plane to Europe with his fellow French club members, high school student Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) has a premonition of the aircraft exploding moments after takeoff, killing every person on board. Alex panics, insisting that everyone get off the plane. In the melee that ensues, seven people, including Alex, are forced to disembark - saving them from a fiery death when the plane explodes as Alex foresaw.
But when one by one, the seven who cheated fate meet an untimely end, Alex and his remaining friends band together to try to change destiny and outwit the untamable forces of death.
Iconic Death 1: Terry Chaney
Cause of death: A bus
After Alex warns everyone that Death is still coming, Terry yells, “You can just drop f***ing dead!” but is immediately hit by a speeding bus. It was a sudden and shocking way to go, and cemented the film’s unpredictability.
Iconic Death 2: Tod Waggner
Cause of death: Bathtub
A terrifyingly simple scene made more disturbing by its intimacy. The water, the slipping and the wire - all part of Death’s quiet but inevitable plan. Are you scared to go into the bathroom now? Because we are!
2. Final Destination 2 (2003)
Final Destination 2DEATH May Be Closer Than It Appears.
Locked away by her own choice in the perceived safety of a psychiatric hospital, the lone survivor from Final Destination lives in constant terror that Death is coming to claim her. She may be considered crazy, but she's not wrong. Death is moving toward suburban Route 23, heading south in Final Destination 2.
Meanwhile, en route to a weekend getaway with her friends, Kimberly Corman (A.J. COOK) has a terrible premonition... Shocked into action, Kimberly blocks traffic on a highway on-ramp. Drivers honk and complain - until Death tears up the highway in a massive pile-up, with those left on the on-ramp narrowly escaping with their lives. But Kimberly knows it's not over: Death won't be cheated so easily. Now this random group of strangers, who were all meant to die in the freeway disaster, must join Kimberly in a desperate attempt to stay alive.
Iconic Death 1: Timothy Carpenter
Cause of death: Pane of glass
An innocent trip to the dentist turns fatal when a massive sheet of glass falls and flattens young Tim. This graphic and unexpected death left us with our jaws to the floor.
Iconic Death 2: Kat Jennings
Cause of death: A pipe
After a near-death escape, Kat is trapped in a car wreck and as she’s freed, a rescue workers actions lead to a sharp pipe impaling her skull. Talk about bad luck!
3. Final Destination 3 (2006)
Final Destination 3This ride will be the death of you.
In the third film of the Final Destination franchise, high school student Wendy Christensen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) fails to stop the ill-fated roller-coaster ride that she predicted would cause the deaths of several of her friends. She teams up with schoolmate Kevin Fischer (Ryan Merriman) in a race against time to prevent Death from revisiting the survivors of that amusement park accident.
Iconic Death 1: Ashley and Ashlyn
Cause of death: Tanning bed
This death was both gruesome and eerily claustrophobic. Trapped inside malfunctioning tanning beds, the two girls are burned alive as upbeat music plays, a chilling juxtaposition.
Iconic Death 2: Lewis Romero
Cause of death: A weight
Cocky and defiant, Lewis is decapitated by malfunctioning weight equipment in the gym, this was very brutal and very fast. Who else was left scared to go to the gym?
4. The Final Destination (2009)
The Final DestinationRest in pieces!
If somehow you manage to cheat Death, you can be assured that Death will stalk you until it's finished... This time, Nick O'Bannon's (Bobby Campo) premonition of a deadly car race spares his life and those of a few lucky (or unlucky) others around him. But Death won't take no for an answer. And the visions keep coming in, as one-by-one the crash survivors die in ever more gruesome ways. Now, Nick must figure out how to cheat Death once and for all before he too reaches The Final Destination.
Iconic Death 1: Lori
Cause of death: Escalator
Although later revealed to be a vision, the image of Lori being dragged into a malfunctioning escalator remains one of the most disturbing images in the series, this is definitely hard to erase from our brains.
Iconic Death 2: Samantha Lane
Cause of death: Eye surgery and a rock
After surviving a laser eye surgery scare, Samantha steps outside and is immediately killed by a flying rock launched by a lawnmower, quickly and ironically.
5. Final Destination 5 (2011)
Final Destination 5Death has never been closer.
Death returns for another wild ride in the latest "5nal Destination." This latest lethal thrill ride follows on the almost $200 million worldwide box-office of the fourth installment. With a cast that includes Heroes' Nick D'Agosto, The Walking Dead's Emma Bell, Friday the 13th's Arlen Escarpeta, The Office's David Koechner and Candyman's Tony Todd (an original alumni of the "Destination" series). The Grim Reaper's sure to have a field day with life-threatening sequences including a suspension bridge collapse, laser eye surgery gone wrong and other fiendishly clever ways to perish!
Iconic Death 1: Candice Caldera
Cause of death: Gymnastics
We would maybe say this is the most suspenseful scene of the series, Candice’s death is a slow-burn. Audiences held their breaths, as screws, fans, and water threatened her balance. In the end, a simple slip leads to her body folding in an impossible and horrifying way.
Iconic Death 2: Olivia Reynolds
Cause of death: Laser eye surgery
A callback to the previous film, this scene combines medical anxiety and gruesome visuals. Olivia’s eyeball literally pops out, only for her to slip and fall on it causing her death. Laser eye surgery has never looked so scary.
6. Final Destination Bloodlines (2025)
Final Destination BloodlinesThe newest chapter in New Line Cinema’s bloody successful franchise takes audiences back to the very beginning of Death’s twisted sense of justice—Final Destination Bloodlines.
Plagued by a violent recurring nightmare, college student Stefanie heads home to track down the one person who might be able to break the cycle and save her family from the grisly demise that inevitably awaits them all.
Final Destination Bloodlines stars Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Richard Harmon, Owen Patrick Joyner, Anna Lore, Rya Kihlstedt, with Brec Bassinger, and Tony Todd.
Go watch it with your friends and family in cinemas May 14.
You can book tickets now here.
Watch the trailer here.