Final Destination

Final Destination

Starring Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Kerr Smith, Sean William Scott

Directed by James Wong

The Story:
While on a plane bound for France with his classmates, student Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) has a premonition of the plane exploding, and he freaks out.  The Air Marshall escorts Alex off the flight, along with fellow students Carter (Kerr Smith), Terry (Amanda Detmer), Billy (Sean William Scott), Clear (Ali Larter), Tod (Chad Donella), and teacher Miss Lewton (Kristen Cloke), and as the plane takes off it indeed explodes, killing everyone on board.

Alex is first seen as a possible suspect in the explosion, and the other survivors - as well as the entire town - see him as a bad omen.  Only Clear is willing to talk to him, telling him that she felt the same sense of dread on the plane before getting off.  Soon, those who survived the crash begin to die in unexplained ways, leading Alex to believe that they had cheated death before, but now they have to find the pattern again in order to cheat death yet again.

The Synopsis:
Based off an idea for "The X-Files," director James Wong turned the concept of death hunting down teenagers from a television episode into a full-fledged film, and eventually a franchise that's spawned four sequels to varying degrees of success.  What made "Final Destination" so unique is that the killer isn't a masked killer, a machete-wielding undead monster, a nightmarish ghoul that haunts your dreams, or a three-foot-tall doll - the killer is death itself, a concept that seems impossible to cheat.  You can't hatchet death in the head, blow it up, or shoot it repeatedly: death is the ultimate equalizer, and it will get you eventually.

Or is there a way to cheat death?  That's what's asked in this film, and to a sense it achieves its goal in creating an existential quandary for our heroes - at least in teen lingo.  Sure, there's discussions about death and the afterlife, but never too serious, even as death stares them in the face.  There's no way to kill death, but there could be a way to cheat it - but, like with everyone who feels cheated, they don't take it lying down.

The film was released in 2000, and you can clearly tell from its somewhat dated effects and cast of lead characters that served as a who's-who of hot young actors of the early 00s that you don't remember today.  Heading the cast is Devon Sawa (yep, pretty much unknown nowadays) as Alex, the hapless hero who gets a vision and spends the rest of the film doing the most stupid things that draw attention to himself from the FBI, who here are portrayed as the classic bumbling sleuths you wouldn't want investigating your missing toothbrush much less murder.  Ali Larter (she's had some good career moves since then, like on "Heroes" or the "Resident Evil" series) plays Clear, a girl who has a troubled past and possible romantic connection with Alex that's never fully developed.  Kerr Smith (again, not a lot of success recently) plays Carter, the typical jock-stock character, and Sean William Scott (fresh off his "American Pie" stint and gearing for a lucrative film career, at least until around 2009) stars as Billy, the slacker goofball that Scott typecast himself to be.

What made the film work was the concept of death as a killer, and how it goes about righting the wrongs it's been given.  The deaths could've been accomplished by the most menial of ways - shot, stabbed, set on fire, car wreck - but here death concocts some unique Rube Goldberg-type traps to ensnare its victims.  It makes it fun to watch how death's design works to off the supporting characters until we're only left with the obvious final people, and it's by no means a stellar film, but fun to watch with other people to just simply enjoy the campiness of it.

 It's also interesting to view this through the lens of life after 9/11, since the film was released before then.  The entire opening scene would've been done incredibly differently if filmed after 9/11, but as it was, it seemed rather mundane.  Alex freaks out, and the Air Marshall escorts him off the plane with some of the other kids.  Now, the entire plane would probably be disembarked and put on another plane or something like that.  What also made the film work for me was that opening scene, because I am scared to death of flying, and this film played so well on my fears of that.  Undoubtedly, this will never be a film shown on an airline flight.

The Summary:
With a solid opening and interesting concept, we can choose to forgive the dated feel of the film and appreciate it for what it is - a fun thrill ride where death cannot be cheated, no matter how hard we try.

The Score: A-