Final Destination (2000)

Elevator Pitch: During the embarkation for a trip to France from JFK, one of the students, Alex Browning, has a premonition that the plane will blow up, and so tries to return to the terminal. A confrontation develops and he and six others are thrown off the plane, which explodes immediately after take-off killing all on board. When one of the seven is killed by strangulation, put down to suicide it becomes apparent that Death is stalking them to fulfil the casualty total for the crash. When despite their knowledge further members of the group are freakishly terminated the survival of any of them is in doubt.

Content: No sex or nudity at all, with just a bit of drinking on one occasion. The plane blowing up is graphic, but the writers have their cake and eat it, because it is a dream. The seven are thrown off the plane and over the duration of the film Alex and Clear Rivers become closer – but not that close. The two of them break into a funeral parlour to have a look at their friend’s body and are informed about what can happen by the mortician. Most of the rest of the film is spent with the survivors taking steps to avoid Death, sometimes unsuccessfully.

A View: This was the first film of a franchise. I think we are up to FD6 now, and treatises have been written about the films’ structure and why they are popular. This one made money even though it was not liked much by the critics, although Roger Ebert predicted correctly that there would be sequels. It was a bit more popular with the general public. There is always this problem with teen slashers of any sort that at least some of the acting is poor and to enjoy this you have to be a bit forgiving. Past that it rolls along and does not give you time to get bored.

Additional Info: The on line info suggests that this movie borrows actual details from real plane crashes, including the Lockerby disaster.