Final Destination

You're going to die. We all will die someday. Maybe we'll go quietly, or perhaps we'll live out a rad, intricate domino effect accident. Having just survived the millennium, horror in the year 2000 was poised for this discussion and a playful sigh of relief. James Wong's final destination answered the call, hitting at just the right moment to earn over$110 million worldwide. Obviously, this film would probably have never been made in 2001. As we approach its 20th anniversary early next year, join us in celebrating death, paranoia, and everything late 90s. I'm Ian, Scary Movie Skeptic. And welcome to. What's your favorite scary movie is a horror film podcast where we're on a journey to find our favorite scary movie one at a time.

Whether you hate them or love them, join us and discover yours. Spoilers ahead, so plan your movie screening every weekend before the episode release. I read a quote from the director of the film we're about to discuss that said, We want to do for planes and air travel what Jaws did for sharks and swimming. Have you been on any planes recently? I have. We all have actually. What? When? Yesterday, in fact, uh, we made a little trip down to Orlando, Florida to meet Mr. Mouse. Mickey. That's who that was? No. Well, when you were on said plane, maybe did you feel like any like I'm gonna die today? Okay, so this is like a a very d topical conversation.

Oh, is it? For me. Um Yeah, you're gonna explain things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I over the past, you know, six months to a year, I have developed a certain anxiety of flying. And you fly a lot. I fly a whole lot, and I've always have for college as well. What? Yeah, I just hate commuting for college. Yeah, it's the worst. Floating from the dorm to the classroom. For holidays, I went out of state. So, like every time in the summers, for like Christmas, Thanksgiving, spring break, all that stuff. Okay, get on with it. What's going on? I've flown a lot, and then I also traveled a lot. Hey, Caroline. Have you flown? Shut up. And all of this to say, I've never once thought about dying in an aircraft.

I just like, you know. I mean, it's crossed my mind before, but I never got anxious. And over the past six months, I really started to get anxious flying. Punchline. Okay, cool. Cool. Glad glad. I I say that I've I fly I have flown more than the normal person. Alright, well, so spoiler, we're discussing final destination. And all that to say, I saw this movie when I was younger, and I think about it probably every time I get on an airplane where I sit down and I'll think, today's the day. We're going down. Gonna die. Ian, do you ever think you're gonna die on a plane? You know a thing or two about planes. Well, I guess we established if anyone knows about planes here, it's Caroline.

Yeah, I flew a lot as a kid. Cause you know, high school. Yeah. Final Destination was released in March of the year 2000. Another recent brush with Death Panic. Yeah. Uh The Millennium. It was co-written and directed by James Wong, who, when the credits came up, Caroline was like, oh, that guy. Not to be confused with James Wong of Saw and the Conjuring. Racist? All right. But Jesus. Final Destination was James Wong's feature film directing debut. He returned to write and direct Final Destination 3 in 2006 and is most known for writing uh and heading multiple episodes of multiple, many episodes of the X-Files with his writing partner Glenn Morgan, who is also the co-writer of this movie.

That makes so much sense. Yeah. James Wong also has done a lot of episodes of American Horror Story, and Glenn Morgan has since executive produced seasons of the X-Files reboot and Jordan Peele's Twilight Zone Reboot. The story was originally created by Jeffrey Redick, who created the script to submit as an episode for the X-Files, and then New Line Cinema convinced him to create a feature-length film. So lots of X-Files going on here. Jeffrey Reddick also wrote Final Destination 2 in 2003 and Tamara in 2005. The actors of this movie include Devin Sawa as Alex Browning. Devin was in Idol Hands from 1999 and The Exorcism of Molly Hartley in 2015. Allie Larder plays the role of Clear Rivers.

She was in the Resident Evil films, Legally Blonde in 2001. Noticed that right away. And she was also in Obsessed from 2009. Another wolf on that movie. We also have Care Smith as Carter Horton from obviously Dawson's Creek and My Bloody Valentine from 2009. And the horror icon Tony Todd as Bloodworth. He was in Candyman in 1992, which Parker watched recently. I did not watch the whole thing, but yeah, they just put it on Netflix. And do you know who he plays in Candyman? Who? The titular candy man. Oh, I did say he was very handsome. He has a very like robust voice. A very like, oh, are you talking to me? He was stunning in the scenes that I saw.

You know, um, my our or not our most recent, but our our most recent long haul flight from Madrid to New York, I really did think we were gonna die. I started crying on that plane. It was very choppy. So what's the truth? Do you get scared on flights or not? I'm hearing a lot of information being thrown around. I I said I didn't used to get scared, but recently I get scared. My my grandfather has flown a lot. Hey, my entire family on my mom's side has anxiety about flying. My grandfather passed away in a plane crash. Mmm, so this movie hit close to home. Not really. Just the anxiety part. The reality of the final destination airplane explosion is very unrealistic.

What? No, there were like cylinders or something. I'm a pilot. They used some words. All I have to say is that fluids. That side came off and all the seats just slid right out, like coming out of the oven. Well, yeah, imagine the force of the winds. Suction. The IMDB summary reads After a teenager has a terrifying vision of him and his friends dying in a plane crash, he prevents the accident only to have death hunt them down one by one. That's inaccurate because he doesn't prevent. Yeah, I was gonna say he does not prevent it, but he prevents dying himself. Yeah, he saves uh, you know, a couple of them. The Rotten Tomatoes critic score is thirty-four percent.

Oh, boo. The audience score sixty-eight percent. Admirable. The critics' consensus is quote, despite a panel of X-Files alums at the helm and a promising premise, flighty performances and poor execution keep Final Destination from ever taking off. Oh, tomatoes, uh damn Windsor stand-up comedy show. That was jokes. That's probably the most aggressive review we've gotten from them. You know, I would say I don't think any of the performances in this movie like grab me. Agreed. But I didn't think any of them were bad. So for them for them to specifically point out poor performances. I'm kind of like, who? Name names, you know? I thought they were all fine. I wasn't like actively annoyed by any of the actors, which I can't say for a lot of the movies we reviewed.

I didn't not believe them, you know? Um I have one question before we dig in. If you were on a plane and you had a vision like that, would you make a big stink and try to get people off, or would you just quietly slip off yourself? I think it depends on how much I believed it. He seems like he really believed it, and then later was like, hmm, how silly of me. You want to hear a relevant story? I'd probably slip off just myself. Well, I already gave you a lot of relative facts about me, so I don't know if we need your story. Well, when I was younger, um young enough to still have a stuffed animal where I bring them everywhere.

So for you, Caroline, that's what high school. Oh you guys are just hating on me today. But anyway, I my grandma was babysitting me, and we had to go to my mom's dance performance like 30 minutes away. So we had to go drive there. We're in the car, and we're about to leave, and I'm like, I can't leave without my stuffed animal patches. So I run back in and get the stuffed animal because I have literally a vision of us getting in a car accident, and lo and behold, like 15 minutes later, boom, we get in a car accident. The car hits the front end of our car and does like one or two flips, and the guy survived the guy was fine, and we were fine.

But I knew something was gonna happen. I didn't even stop it. Wait, did you go? So I got my stuffed animal. Oh. Yeah. That's like some some like Greek literature prophecy stuff. Because if you hadn't have gotten the stuffed animal, you probably would have left earlier and not gotten in the car accident. Would you say maybe that's some that's a Raven stuff? Because Raven, she's always trying to stop those prophecies, and that's just what does it. Sophocles, man. Is it Sophocles? I had a couple of those things as a kid. Maybe I do have some visions. You're just now telling us. I used to get deja vu and think like now someone's trying to do it.

I'm like Raven! I thought I was psychic. Well, I would say that's pretty much the opposite of a final destination type premonition. Fine? Yeah. Yeah, because someone didn't have the balls to save anyone. I was nervous. Um so I would like to mention Final Destination 1 was a very successful film. It spawned Final Destination 2, Final Destination III, the final destination, and Final Destination 5. And in January of 2019, sound familiar? This year, a quote, reimagining of the franchise was announced, but no information yet. So we might be seeing more Final Destination gracing our screens. As a man who has watched them all? Yes. Do they get better? Mmm, curious question. It's actually interesting because I, one, I'm just an interesting person, so I'm sure you want to hear my personal story.

But I kind of struggle with franchises. I like to watch the first one or two, and then I don't really care to finish it. I've been trying to remedy that as of late. Uh, if if you haven't heard, I have a podcast. Um but I sat down to write down some stuff about Final Destination, and I was like, wait, I have actively like sought out every single movie in this franchise and have seen them all multiple times. So I guess Final Destination and I are like best friends. Uh yes, I have seen them all. Uh Final Destination 2, good. Final Destination 3, good. Final Destination 4, not good. Final Destination 5, maybe the best one. Really?

Yeah. So uh something tells me I had a sneaky suspicion that maybe they would get a little bit better. Final Destination 5 is great. Final Destination 4 is like they're trying to capitalize on 3D, and there's like like poles going through people and like straight into the camera, and it's like, ugh. Is five three D as well? No. I hate 3D movies. But well, it's like the obnoxious because you now you know they do cool things with 3D where it's like just like depth and stuff. This was like in your face, like things trying to hit you. I think I would prefer that actually. No, I hate that. I think there are like unlimited options and scenarios to add in this into this franchise.

Yeah, I think that uh each uh each uh film, I was gonna say episode, but I couldn't get it right. I would say each film finds its own approach, and some people have criticized it for that because the lore and the rules kind of change and alter throughout the films, and people are like, where's the consistency? Um, but I was reading an article discussing that and saying how there are no rules with death. So, you know, I think they can be the premise is vague enough where they can be a little more loose and free with things, and uh, I think for the most part they found a groove. I mean, the franchise is always silly and ridiculous, but the like to its strength where it knows what it is, and it knows you're just here to watch people die, and uh they give it to you.

I kind of love that they balanced like things that could happen to people and like how fragile humans really are, and then they added this layer of like ridiculousness of like all of these things lining up at once for like the perfect storm of death. Yeah, it's well, and part of it's supernatural, and part of it's just like look around. We're in a kitchen slash living room right now, look at all the things that could kill us right here. Yeah, uh, and so yeah, I think that's exciting. And also I think it's really playful and fun because we'll go uh death by death later. But like in each one, like for instance, Todd in the bathroom, you know, he gets out his razor and he cuts his neck, and Ian was like, ugh, and then he gets out his nose hair trimmers, and he's got scissors in his nose, and y'all were like, and then like the last thing you expect is like the clothesline in his tub, and so they very purposefully are playing with you and subverting expectations in a way that I think is really funny.

People always say that horror and comedy are really similar because scares and jokes are just punchlines that you have to pull off, and I think Final Destination uh is really tapping into that more than other horror films that I've seen. Uh, so I want to start with the plane crash. Obviously, that's like the uh, you know, it happens at the very beginning, but that is the uh centerpiece of this film. Uh it's known for the plane crash. You watch it for the plane crash. What'd you think, Ian? You said not realistic, but maybe putting that aside, suspending some disbelief, I think it's a pretty cool scene. Yeah. Yeah. I can tell you a little bit about how they shot it.

Yeah. So the airplane scene, they had a giant sound stage, and they made a replica of the interior of the plane, which was forty-five thousand pounds and could seat 89 people. And they had people in a giant plane on a giant device that it said could move 45 degrees side to side and 60 degrees front to back, and they just literally shook people around in there and like ripped the wall off and pulled people out and just like staged the whole thing. Wow. And then for the actual exterior shot of the plane exploding, they created a 10 by 7 foot model of the airport? 747. 747. Boeing 747. Boeing 747. Uh, and they launched it 40 feet in the air and blew it up.

Oh my gosh. So I I thought that was pretty cool that they took measures to make sure everything looked nice and realistic and crisp. Kind of cool. Yeah. Wow, they've really tried. Yeah, I thought that was pretty cool. Um, and I think it pays off really well. I think that later in the film or in the uh franchise, some of the uh CGI is a little trying to do more than the time would allow. And uh you can tell in this one that things look a little more gritty, a little more like I think of Billy's head being chopped off. There is some real squirting, there's some texture. Yeah, yeah. And it could have looked not so hot, like in The Babaduck, when that guy pretty much, the husband has the exact same kind of death where something slices through the center of his face and it kind of slides off in this goofy looking effect, where the rest of that movie looks so real because they made practical effects for it.

So it could have been silly like that, but I like that they went took the extra measure to make things a little more tangible. So plane crash, effective, not effective? What'd you think? Uh they really spend a lot of time being like, hey, hey, this plane is gonna crash. The whole like first ten minutes of the movie, I was like, I get it. Yeah, did you feel that? What was the whole thing with the parents be pre like were the parents in an accident? No, I think that they I think his dad had some anxiety about flying because he like took the trick of like don't take off the luggage tag for good measure. Yeah, yeah, they were all it's just all superstitions with like, oh don't do this, and then they're being really dramatic of like rip slow motion, and then like you're seeing like the like flipboard in the airport, like something goes off in it, you know, and you're seeing just little things start kind of like breaking and I think that's where it gets me because also like when he's in the bathroom and he's like the songs by an artist by someone who died in a plane crash, and like all that, like those are like the little things that I could see where someone who's really anxious about flying, you know.

Those are like little things that happen to everyone if but if you read too far into them, sure, you could make it out to mean something. And I actually liked the moments like that at the beginning of the film a lot more than later in the film when He would literally see like a reflection of a bus passing in the window. Or they saw like the train in the car window. I liked the uh the more um anxious yeah things at the beginning than the more like oh I'm having a vision. So let's like I said go death by death. First up, Todd. Goes to shave, didn't happen. Cuts his nose hairs, didn't happen. Plugs in the radio, didn't happen.

Little stream of water following him around the bathroom. Takes the laundry off that line that I have personally only seen in hotel showers. Yeah. Uh and it gets him, wraps around his throat, too slippery, kills himself. That was what I was like. Even if there's a bottle of lotion underneath my feet. I could see it. What? I could totally see it. Alright, let's go test it out. What's your favorite scary movie live? Mythbusters. From our bathroom. Caroline versus bottle of soap. I just kept thinking, like, he has hands. There's a faucet right behind him. Or lift your leg out and put it on the floor. Well, remember, you're choking me. It's not fucking death. The line.

Death is trying to kill him. That's something else that this movie is uh known and respected for is that, you know, Scream happened a few years before this. Kind of a big deal. Then a lot of other teen scream slasher films happen. And then this, they were like, we don't want to have another slasher. We don't want to have another monster. We're going up against death itself. Something that you can't see is basically doing the same thing that a slasher does, except every single person watching this film knows what death is. We all know him, you know? So I respect that. I think it's cool. And so you maybe you suspend your disbelief a little bit for scenes like that, because it's not just that he's slipping and he can't get up, it's that something is actively trying to kill him there.

But that was the only one that like really stood out in my mind that seemed far-fetched. For me, I always thought that was the grossest one. And then they go break into the morgue to try and see his body, and here he is. Playing a mysterious mortician named Blood. Chill out with that name or name. Yeah, I kind of forgot that that scene was in there. Well, what happens here is that's a character that kind of comes in and out of every movie. And you don't know exactly who he is, but you uh get the sense that maybe he's not just a mortician. Maybe he's a bit more of like a reaper character. He says some spooky things like the risk of cheating the plan, of disrespecting the design, could incite a fury that could terrorize even the grandmother.

And you don't even want to fuck with that, McDaddy. And he's the one that kind of sows the uh seeds of what's going to happen in their minds. In death, there are no accidents, no coincidences, no mishaps, and no escapes. To try and get Alex's cogs turning, trying to get him clued in, but at the same time, I don't think Bloodworth wants him to solve the puzzle. I think he's just trying to be like, I'm coming for you. You can't escape, death is inevitable. And so I think this character plays more of the role of getting the philosophical like themes of the movie planted in our noggins. I just thought it kind of like didn't fit well.

Like I felt like we were already on this journey. So maybe the most shocking, surprising, exciting death of the movie is little Terry, mad at the coffee shop, backs up into the street. They died! We lived get over it. I will not let this plane crash be the most important thing in my life. Come on. Moving on, Carter. And if you want to waste your life beating the shit out of Alex every time you see him, then you can just drop fucking dead. Pretty cool. Pretty exciting. A good splat, and uh everybody just watches. Now, what I don't like is that that happens and they still think that it's Alex. Yeah. There were like five witnesses.

Yeah. So that doesn't add up a lot to me. Uh, and then probably my favorite death, Mrs. Luton. She, first of all, for a teacher, not very nice to Alex. She could be supportive, even if she does think he's scary, but instead she says, You scare me, don't talk to me. She's a human too, Parker. Yeah, but not very supportive. Teachers are humans. Yeah, well. Sometimes. Hmm. Well, she's being a little dramatic. And same situation where so many red herrings in this scene where you're like, what's gonna kill her? And probably the most complex, crazy series of events breaks a glass of vodka, it followers to a follows her to a computer, computer blows up, shards of glass in the throat, fire follows her through the vodka stream back to the kitchen, where something explodes and she falls onto the floor, tries to grab a towel on top of a knife rack, knife falls into her chest, and then when Alex comes in to try and save her another explosion or something, chair falls over and jabs the knife into her chest.

It's just the worst part. That's pretty wild. I love that. I think it's pretty hilarious. I think that's where if you weren't sure that this movie was trying to be serious or not, I think you get your answer. Yeah. And uh it's only up from there for the rest of the franchise because they really have to start pulling pulling out the stops. I just think like the writers, they're like in a room and they're like, oh, then then what if this happens? Then what if this happens? Like they don't like they could have stopped at any one of those levels. I'm certainly glad they didn't. I know, yeah. I also like this one because there's a lot of imagery that again is playing with us, like her stained glass knife on the door.

And um, like she like is standing and then she like crouches down to like reveal the knife, pointing down at her, and then stands back up. There are just a few things where it's like, stop being so tricksy, movie. You know? Yeah. Uh well, I guess right now I'll tell you the part that I don't like in this movie because this is where I'm really just like, enough already. These goddamn detectives. Get them out. Yeah. That's the part where I'm like, this was written as an X-Files episode, and it's really showing. Because even before I knew that, I was always like, God, just have Mulder and Scully in here because we get it. Don't name them Shrek either.

Uh, so interesting. This all the characters in this movie pretty much are named after directors, producers, and actors that are famous for mostly horror films. So that character is named after Mac Shrek, who plays Nosf uh, the count in Nosferatu. So the main character in Nosferatu. So it's uh sometimes a little on the nose, like Billy Hitchcock. You're not fooling anyone, uh, but sometimes more subtleties like that. So they did have things that they were naming each character after. I just yeah, a little ridiculous sometimes. But a fun, it's fun when horror films pay homage to the horror films before then. I always like that. Yeah, I don't think the FBI or Yeah, they were FBI agents.

They were? Yeah. I don't think the FBI agents added anything other than a reason for Alex to be running around. And I never like it in horror movies when there are people whose only purpose is just not believe what's happening to the main character. Yeah. I'm always like, ugh, like we believe them, so it's just frustrating for you not to. And with a villain like death, why do you need this added layer, you know? Yeah, I mean, would you say death, greatest villain of all? Yeah. Or death is really the villain in every movie. It is. So, uh, maybe every single horror film we've watched is just either a prequel or a sequel to Final Destination.

Chew on that. Yeah. Um, after Mrs. Luton, we get a little sob story from clear. That's annoying, you know. Yep. Dad get it, mom becomes a hoe, and uh abandoned. Yeah, I didn't really care. Um, I was like, come on, kill someone else. This is where things get interesting, though, because we know clear has a connection with Alex. They have some sort of supernatural thing going on between them. And so they're like, let's get the gang together and uh chat it out. Carter's like, no thanks. I'm just gonna kill us all. And then he's like, Oh, never mind. I guess we should be friends. And then he's like, oh no, my seatbelt's stuck, and there's a train coming towards me.

And Alex is like, Alright, get you out. And then we get the first kind of true, fast rule. You know, earlier Alex has established that the death is killing them off in order of how they would have died on the plane. And so now they've discovered that if someone intervenes, it can skip them. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if that's true a cycle. I don't know if it would skip and just never stop. But they're like, let's go with it. Is every Final Destination a new cast? Or is it like for the most part? There are a few characters that recur, but um, it's mostly a new ensemble. Ensemble. Uh, but unlucky for Billy, Carter was skipped, and that piece of metal goes straight through his noodle.

Yep. And I actually really like this decapitation. It looks gross. It just flips right off of his head, and there's like a little spurt and a squirt. And he stumbles. Yeah, it's gross. Yeah. I like being grossed out. Uh, and so that kind of whittles it down to our uh, you know, b uh Carter has been not so nice, and he becomes one of our heroes, kind of at this point. Where I guess he doesn't do that much, but you know, in our final denouement at the end, he is part of the gang. So they had to bond a little bit. Now, here's where an interesting question is raised. So Alex is like, oh shit, I'm next.

He goes out to clear his father's cabin, and he starts really doomsday prepping out there, putting corks over nails, taping up edges, you know, trying to protect himself. Used a lot of duct tape. A lot of duct tape. He's eaten like squishmish food. Gross. Trying not to choke. I like that uh he stops that knife from stabbing through him and then he looks and he goes, tetanus. Uh but this raises an interesting question, I think, because the movie kind of asks a little bit. Death, even if it's not as dramatic as all that. History says it's gonna get us all, you know. It's inevitable. So, would you spend your life trying to prolong it and stressing out constantly like Alex, or would you just try and enjoy what you got while you have it?

You know? I would say a real predecessor to YOLO Final Destination. You know, at my ripe, ripe age of 26, Ripe, there's a lot of things that I look back on and I'm like, I could have died. Right there. Was it worth it? Like, where? Probably a lot flying you did. Yeah, I got stitches in Bulgaria, could have knocked myself unconscious while wakeboarding and drowned. I did a third one. Would you do it again? I don't know about that. But yeah. But you're probably glad you did it instead of saying, I could hit myself in the back of the head and go to the hospital, then I I better sit it out. You know, there's just like little things that happen in your life, and you're like, that could have done me in.

I'm clumsy. That's all you need to know. You? Anyone? I've personally never had a near-death experience. No, but maybe not near-death, but like little things that you're like, that could have gone really wrong. Well, one time when I was a kid, I didn't know that if you dial 911 on a payphone, still calls the police. So I was at the tennis courts with my friends and his dad. And I said, somebody said something, and I was like, uh oh, calling the police 911, and I dialed it, hung up, like five minutes later, police show up. And they're like, did somebody call the police? And I was like, was it me? Near death experience. Would do it again, 10 out of 10.

Recommend. I did the same thing on my the phone in our basement. It was like one of those, just the buttons, and it was a Garfield phone. It's like Garfield. It's like a landline phone. 911. Police showed up. They told me not to do it again. Does that happen on your cell phone? Like if you accidentally call it and then just like hang up right away, do they track it? I don't know. Can they track cell phones? Can I try it? I don't know. Probably they can track everything. I thought you had from all of my CSI days watching CSI. I was about to say you need to be on it for like at least a Yeah, you have to be on it.

Should we call an ass? If it's not a landline, I think you have to be on the phone for like five minutes. Call 911 and say, hey, can you track me right now? No. Well, it's the little things like these stories that really make life worth living, am I right? This is when Alex makes the riveting discovery that I don't think was really well built up to that, uh, or made clear that he thought he was next in death's plan, but really he switched seats. And so clear is next in Death's scheme. Yeah, that wasn't well built. I think they needed to give us a little bit better of a view of that diagram he had made so we knew who was next.

Yeah. And then we could have gasped. But even this time, knowing that kind of what was gonna happen, I was like, wait, what? I envision like short, quick cuts with the map, like enlarging and making small and then multiple layers of the map and adding confusion, maybe a little twist of the brain and a build-up, and you're realizing, oh shit. The map. Can I ask you something? No. Yes. In the beginning Wait Yeah, okay. In the beginning, they showed a man who was disabled, and you said that was important. Uh no, I didn't say that was important. The somebody was getting on the plane and he said it would take a fucked up god to crash this plane, and then he saw that guy and goes, a real fucked up god.

Oh. So just kind of sowing the seeds of kind of the the brain food to chew on there. Oh, I thought that man was gonna come into play somewhere. No, he died. Yeah. Sad. Yeah. With everyone else. Yeah, so then kind of final main death is this big fiasco in the forest leading up to Clear getting trapped in her car with live wires, pool water all over the place, dog in peril makes it. Uh, and house burning down, a lot of stuff going on here. And Alex tree falls on him, face trapped in a puddle. That would really be a way to go. There's a lot of stories of that out there. Really? People in tornadoes, you drown in like an inch of water.

Oh, that'd be terrible. If you're like knocked unconscious and you just fall into like a puddle. Also, I'd be him like watching this movie from the afterlife, and I'd be like, everyone got these cool deaths, and I drowned in a puddle. Real thing, it happens. Well, long story short, he saves clear, and they're like, Oh, maybe we should go make out for a second. Because then they get together. And she dyes her hair. Yeah. You know, people for some reason are like, six months later, why is her hair dyed? Um, so the thing is, is they had to reshoot a lot of this ending because they uh had a different ending that they didn't like with her being pregnant and things like that.

Oh shit. Uh, and so she was filming a different movie. Do you think legally blonde? That's what I was thinking. Her hair was blonde. I should goog that. Sorry, fans, you'll have to Google it yourself. So when they reshot this, I think they kind of added in the six months later thing to be like, time is past. She dyed her hair because she's starting anew. So hair is dyed, and uh this whole Paris thing where they're like finally making reparations for what's happened to us. We're in Paris. And then they're like, oh wait, Alex, you were never killed. All these things saved from the bus. Carter saves him from the billboard. I told you you were next! So it was next.

Smash! Straight to credits. Pretty fun, cute way to end. It's something. How did it leave you feeling any tickle in the tummy? I wasn't like I never got attached to anyone in this movie. So, like, at the end they could have killed anyone and be like, sure. I liked Alex and Clear. I thought they were cute and fun. Alex's hair really got on my nerves. It was 2000. I know, but it was just well. Yeah, I think it's a fun way to end. Yeah, no, it's fun. It's fun. Uh, so what would you think overall of the movie? What would you think worked? What would you think didn't work? Like, how would you summer up? Uh, I enjoyed it.

I think it's a very clever concept of like a horror movie with just the natural things around you that could kill you, you know? And to add the extra layer of like that, like, you know, over dramatic ways, layers on layers of like kind of hilarious but also morbid ways to die. It was fun. Execution was like, I feel like execution my entire life. My friends and people around me talked about Final Destination. And so it was built up to be this series of quite the amazing feats. And really it was just kind of smelly feat. Teen uh Final Destination is like a party movie. Yes, party movie. Yeah, for sure. It's a teen scream. It's something that you watch when you're in high school at like a slumber party.

I would like to go to a drive in and watch a screen. Yeah, I don't think you should necessarily have been expecting high art. Um, you know, just you gotta know what it is. What I think is interesting about this movie is that it came, I think it took what was possible. Popular about Scream, this like popular cast of teens, teen ensemble slasher type thing, and it made it a new. It was like this is something really successful. We want to build off of its success, make some books, but at the same time, like we do want to make something that's not just a ripoff. And I think they did that really successfully. I was also reading uh that some people categorize it as the the start of a new subgenre of horror movies called The Grand Slasher, where it's a slasher type movie with something larger than a slasher doing the killing.

So in this one, death. And it claimed that this was the predecessor of movies like Saw. And I think that's actually a pretty interesting way to look at it, where because I do think that this like uh push into something gorier definitely in that way could be a predecessor to Saw coming in 2004, just four years later. Uh, but also how the idea of a more like psychological cerebral slasher could feed into Saw as well. I think that's pretty neat. Yeah. I'll leave you with a quote from James Wong. He said, quote, We didn't want a guy in a dark cloak or some kind of monster chasing after these kids. That's been done again and again.

I became very excited when we decided to make the world at large and the service of death our antagonists. Everyday objects and occurrences then take on ominous proportions, and it becomes less about whether or not our characters are going to die, and more about how they will die and how they can delay their deaths. The entertainment value is in the ride, not in the outcome. And so I think perfect way to sum up the conversation. We've been having right on the nose, hit the nail on the head. Into the head. What would you say? And there's some really good options here. Is your most memorable murder from Final Destination? To go with a teacher. Mrs. Luton?

Yeah. Oh yeah. For sure. That has to be it. Oh yeah. I'm going to agree. Wow, unanimous. Mrs. Luton. Unanonymous. You won one thing. And that's our appreciation of the. Can I just point out one moment of her point it out? When they're going through the airport and Alex gets handed that thing about like the guy handing out posters or whatever. Yeah, it's kind of like a Hare Krishna thing. Yeah, yeah. And she comes along and she like does this like cool like backwards walk thing and is like, I'll take care of this. Or something like that. Fuck off. Yeah. Or if you've harassed my student. Yeah, she's like, I'm gonna thank you, be. It just seems so out of character.

Well, I just don't think we got to know any of the characters before this accident. Maybe she was a cool, fun teacher, and then this just rattled her and ruined her. I just thought to myself, what teacher in their right mind? She's young. She's hip. She's drinking vodka out of a mug. I guess so. We all do. So I think uh that's just a character we don't know. She's got new layers. She's complex. She's got layers. Yeah. What would you say on a scary scale? One to five, you would rank this. I'm gonna give it a four. Wow. Yeah. Wow. All right. I just I think this is like I think this movie is how my mom's brain works.

Like she thinks of like ways where all laws of physics are just like defied, and I somehow will die over something stupid that I'm doing. Yeah, I will say the opening scene of Final Destination 2, not spoiling it, but I think about it all the time. I was disappointed. I thought there would be a roller coaster scene. That is a different Final Destination. That would be Final Destination 3. I also I I've heard so many stories about all of these movies. Like in high school, like Ian said, everyone was talking about it, and like apparently there's one in a tanning booth. And like I think it's kind of worse to not see the movie and have your friends try to explain the scenes to you because then you're imagining it.

These movies are why I will never get acupuncture. Oh no. So I would give this probably a three. I think it's super fun, and I agree that I like the way it sews the paranoia. But you're not rating it on the movie, you're rating it on the scariness. Yeah, so I'm giving it a three. Uh, I know what I'm talking about, Ian. I don't know. It sounded like you were critiquing the movie. No, I'm giving it a three because I like the way it sews paranoia. It's scary. Uh, I don't think it's the scariest thing ever, and I think similarly to Caroline, I think it depends on the person who watches it. You know, I've seen all five of them, so at this point I'm like, these are fun.

But I think when you watch them the first times, they're a little more scary. I watched this for the first time probably in elementary school or junior high and was like, uh. I'd probably give it a three as well on the scary scale. Um not because it's scary, but more so for the um, I don't want to even say gore, but like the um There's gore. The penetration of sharp objects is real, and I hate the penetration of sharp objects. That happens quite a bit. Uh so would you give Especially in the neck? Would you give this movie a smash? Or a slash. I would give it a slash with the with the context of I want to see the other final destinations.

Hmm. I I'm hopeful that maybe they get uh even more creative with the deaths. That's a hope you can definitely have. Um but I'm gonna have to say I slash it. Well, I'm going to say uh give a little mysterious premonition of future events that we may have some exciting developments coming up soon in what's your favorite scary, where maybe you could get some bonus content from us. Nothing revealed just yet, but that's something that could be on the map doing like a final destination super episode of the series. Caroline, smash or slash. I wish there was like a little bit of an in-between here. Slash. I think I said, it's a thumbs up or a thumbs down.

It's a would recommend or would not. I'm gonna do a light, very light love smash. Just the tip. Just the tip over the pants. Mmm. I like that little dry hump. Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna leave it there. Cool. I'm gonna give it a smash. I think part of it's nostalgia. Like I said, I didn't even realize that I guess I'm obsessed with Final Destination until I sat down to research it and was like, I've seen all of these more than once. So I didn't realize how much Final Destination was part of my childhood and my horror upbringing, yeah. And I mean, again, I guess it's because I'm young. But I I do really like Final Destination.

It's definitely a smash. So, on that note, what would you say is your favorite scary movie? The leaderboards are at both of you dweebs at The Shining. This Dweeb, Dr. Sleep. The Shining. The Shining. I'm gonna stick with Dr. Sleep. Wow. Thank you. You alright. What a riveting conversation this has been. You can hear more conversation from this crew next week when we discuss, and spoiler, I haven't seen it. The Blair Witch Project. Oh my god. I'm pretty excited. I have done a little research. I'm gonna do a little more because I want to know more about it since it's a seminal horror movie. But I don't want to do too much research because I think it'll be fun for us all to go in uh not knowing what happens, because I know a lot about it, but I don't know how it ends.

Well, don't spoil yourself. I'm gonna try not to. It's one of those movies where you've heard so much about it that it's almost like, wait, have I seen that? And then you're like, no, I haven't. So Blair Witch Project coming at you hot next week. Until then, you can hop on over to Apple Podcasts, where it would be fab if you left us a rating and a review. And then maybe next week on said Blair Witch Project episode, you'll get a scream over if the airwaves. You want to be really creative, leave a review about our Blair Witch Project episode before it airs. Yeah, if you have a um a vision of how good it's gonna be, leave us a five-star.

See, it's funny because this episode will come out the day after we record our Blair Witch episode. So it's extra weird. Yeah. You'd have to really be able to see the future and get that in right now. Who tapped our apartment? Wow. Uh we have a review from S37-7 forward slash money sign. How many still? What does it mean? No! Final destination right here. God damn it. Let's all hold the wire that has electronics in it. For reference, Parker just spilled his water all over our podcast stuff. We could have maybe this is the start. Oh my god, what if it electrocuted live on air? Oh my god. Whoever finds this, post it. Oh no. This was like classic wick.

Get the knives out of the way! Get the knives out of the way! Wow, that is Final Destination life. Alright, back to this. What a way to end. We have a review that said that they highly recommend this podcast. What? Hosts have great chemistry and have enjoyable discussions of the movies they cover. You get the benefit of learning about different horror classics, both old and new, with the added bell and whistle of being able to relive the enjoyment of previously seen horror classics by hearing about the experience of reviewers, Ian and Carolyn. Not sure who that is, but not me. Caroline. It's okay. We forgive forgive you. S37 forge slash seven forge slash money sign. Wait, it's not done.

I'm mentioned two. Uh it's great hearing about the experiences of Anna and Caroline, seeing them for the first time. Parker's love for horror movies comes through by the work he has put into his podcast, along with his co-hosts. Thank you. Thanks so much, S37 Ford slash seven forward slash money sign. Thanks for smashing us. Wow, thank you. I love being mentioned by name in our reviews. Wink wink. Any future reviewers out there is L-I-N-E. But she don't care. I love you all. You said bell and whistle, but the way you said it, I thought you said bone whistle. And I was like, what the hell is a bone whistle? I love a good bone whistle. Oh my god.

Wait, is that a real euphemism? No, that's my new favorite one. Guys, they're gonna make it a thing. Gonna go below the own old bone whistle. Alright. Well, on that freaking note, my name is Parker Heron. You can find me on Instagram, Twitter, Letterboxd, and the Slasher app. We'll see if that takes off at Parker Del Rey. My name is Caroline L-I-N-E. And you can find me on Instagram at Caro Manifesto. It's so weird. I thought you spelled it with a C, but I guess it's with an L-I-N-E. Shut up. Wow. And my name is Ian. You can find me on YouTube and Instagram at Ian Hoyt. Adding the Instagram back in. And you can find all three of us for future shenanigans, shenans, on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, at ScarymoviePod.

You can find our calendar. You can find reviews. You can uh other things at Scarymoviepod. What will you find? Yeah, what you'll have to look to find out. Um, and you can always send us an email with your thoughts or feedback at Scarymoviepod at gmail.com. See you soon.