The Final Destination Information

The Final Destination (also known as Final Destination 4) is a 2009 American horror film written by Eric Bress and directed by David R. Ellis, both of whom also worked on Final Destination 2. Released on August 28, 2009, it is the fourth installment of the Final Destination film series, and the first to be shot in HD 3D. It is currently the highest grossing Final Destination film, earning $186 million worldwide but also received the worst critical reception of the franchise. It was followed by Final Destination 5 in 2011.

This was one of the last films to be theatrically released by New Line Cinema until it was merged with its sister studio Warner Bros.

Plot

College student Nick O'Bannon watches a race at McKinley Speedway for a study break with his girlfriend Lori Milligan, and their friends Janet Cunningham and Hunt Wynorski. While watching the race, Nick has a premonition that a race car crash will send debris into the stands, causing the stadium to collapse, and killing numerous people. When Nick panics a fight breaks out, and several people leave before Nick's vision becomes a reality including Lori, Janet, Hunt; security guard George Lanter; mechanic Andy Kewzer; mother Samantha Lane; tow truck driver Carter Daniels; and Andy's girlfriend Nadia Monroy. Nadia gets angry and yells at them when she is suddenly obliterated by a stray tire that flies out of the stadium.

Several days after the disaster Carter is dragged down the street by his tow truck, which explodes. The next day, Samantha is killed when a flat pebble propelled by a lawn mower is shot through her eye, and Nick and Lori realize that Death is still after them. Hunt and Janet refuse to believe them, but they convince George to help. After reviewing the race track's security footage, Nick realizes that Andy is next on Death's list. The three visit Andy at the mechanic shop to warn him, but he is hit by a jet-propelled propane cylinder and extruded through a grid fence as rhombic pieces of flesh.

Nick receives visions of water and tries to warn Hunt, who is at a country club pool. A series of accidents cause the pool to start draining, and when Hunt dives in the pool to retrieve his lucky coin he is sucked in by the drain. At the same time, Janet becomes trapped in a malfunctioning car wash. Lori and George manage to save Janet before she is shredded by the car washes rotating brush, but Nick is unable to save Hunt whose organs are sucked from his body and shot out through a poolside pump. George is next, however, multiple failed suicide attempts lead them to believe that saving Janet ruined Death's plan.

Sometime later, after Lori and Janet go to the mall cinema, Nick sees more omens. He and George rush to the hospital to save Jonathan Groves, another survivor they don't recall at first, who is killed when an overflowing bathtub falls through the ceiling and crushes him. When they leave, George is struck and killed by a speeding ambulance. At the movies, Lori starts to see omens as well. While Nick rushes to save them, a fire erupts behind the movie screen. Nick convinces Lori to leave, but Janet refuses and is killed by flying debris when the fire sets off an explosion. As Nick and Lori try to escape, Lori is pulled into a malfunctioning escalator's gears, and Nick realizes that it was just another vision. Unable to save George, Nick rushes to the theater and barely manages to stop the fire before the explosion occurs.

Weeks later, Nick notices a loose scaffold prop outside of a caf and warns a worker about it before meeting Lori and Janet inside. While Lori and Janet talk, Nick notices several more omens and realizes that everything they've been through was only a feint meant to lead them to where they needed to be for Death to strike. At that moment, the scaffold collapses, causing a truck to swerve and crash through the window, killing all three of them.

Cast

For more details on the characters, see List of Final Destination characters.

• Bobby Campo as Nick O'Bannon
• Shantel VanSanten as Lori Milligan
• Nick Zano as Hunt Wynorski
• Haley Webb as Janet Cunningham
• Mykelti Williamson as George Lanter
• Krista Allen as Samantha Lane
• Andrew Fiscella as Andy Kewzer
• Justin Welborn as Carter Daniels
• Stephanie Honor as Nadia Monroy
• Lara Grice as Cynthia Daniels
• Jackson Walker as Jonathan Groves
• Billy Slaughter as Frankie

Production

Development

After the success of Final Destination 3, which was initially planned to be in 3D, Eric Bress wrote a script, which impressed producer Craig Perry and Warner Bros. enough to green-light a fourth installment. James Wong was on board to direct, but because of scheduling conflicts with Dragonball Evolution, he decided to drop out. Consequently, the studio executives opted for David R. Ellis to return because of his work on Final Destination 2. He accepted because of the 3D. For the 3D, Perry said that he wanted it to add depth to the film instead of just "something pop[ping] out at the audience every four minutes."

Filming

Although shooting was to be done in Vancouver, which was where the previous three films were shot, David R. Ellis convinced the producers to shoot in New Orleans instead to bring business to the city, and because the budget was already large. The opening crash sequence at "McKinley Speedway" was filmed at Mobile International Speedway in Irvington, Alabama. Filming began in March 2008 and ended in late May in the same year. Reshoots were done in April 2009 at Universal Studios Florida.

Music

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album was released on August 25, 2009, three days before the film's theatrical release, under public record label JVC/Sony Music Australia. The album consists of 23 cues composed and mixed by Brian Tyler. He took over scoring the series after the untimely death of the composer for the first three films, Shirley Walker.

Commercial songs from film, but not on soundtrack

• "Devour" by Shinedown
• "How the Day Sounds" by Greg Laswell
• "Burning Bridges" by Anvil
• "Why Can't We Be Friends?" by War
• "Don't You Know" by Ali Dee and the Deekompressors
• "Faraway" by Dara Schindler
• "Dream of Me" by Perfect
• "Make My" by The Roots
• "The Stoop" by Little Jackie
• "Sweet Music" by Garrison Hawk
• "Corona and Lime" by Shwayze
• "Make You Crazy" by Brett Dennen

Score

The CD features the score composed by Brian Tyler, omitting commercially released songs that were featured in the film.

U.S. edition

1. "The Final Destination" - 2:56
2. "The Raceway" - 3:07
3. "Memorial" - 2:46
4. "Nailed" - 3:22
5. "Nick's Google Theory" - 1:30
6. "Revelations" - 2:28
7. "Raceway Trespass" - 1:39
8. "Stay Away from Water" - 2:38
9. "Flame On" - 1:43
10. "Moment of Joy" - 1:17
11. "Signs and Signals" - 2:51
12. "George Is Next" - 1:12
13. "Car Washicide" - 3:05
14. "Newspaper Clues" - 1:57
15. "Premonition" - 1:50
16. "The Salon" - 3:53
17. "Questioning" - 1:04
18. "Death of a Cowboy" - 2:08
19. "Gearhead" - 1:56
20. "Sushi for Everyone" - 2:53
21. "The Movie Theater" - 3:03
22. "You Can't Dodge Fate" - 1:28
23. "The Final Destination Suite" - 13:29

The soundtrack attracted generally favorable reviews. Christian Clemmensen of Filmtracks.com gave the score 3 out of 5 stars and felt Tyler was "capable [...] to further explore new stylistic territory while making substantial use of the structures and tone of [predecessor composer] Shirley Walker's music." His approach to the scores were called "intelligent", and provide "adequate if not strikingly overachieving recordings is testimony to his immense talents."

The reviewers were also impressed with the extension of the sound used by Walker in Final Destination 3. "It relates to an affection for Walker's contribution to the industry," said an unnamed critic.

A SoundNotes reviewer grades the film with an impressive score of 7.5/10, remarking "Brian Tyler slugs his way through the inadequacies of The Final Destination and produces a score with reasonable entertainment value and enough of an appeal to make it function well apart from the woeful film."

Release

The film was released in 3D as well as in conventional theaters on August 28, 2009. It was initially planned for an August 14 release. It was also the first 3D film to feature D-BOX motion feedback technology in select theaters.

Box office

According to USA Today and Newsday, The Final Destination debuted at the top of the North American box office, beating Rob Zombie's Halloween II, earning $28.3 million during its first weekend. It is also topped the box office in the UK. The film remained #1 at the box office in North America for two weeks. On September 11, 2009, it gained just over a million dollars and dropped to No. 7. The film grossed $66.4 million domestically and $119.3 million in foreign sales, with a total of $186.5 million worldwide.

Home media

The Final Destination was initially scheduled for a DVD and Blu-ray Disc release on December 22, 2009. The film was pushed back to January 5, 2010 in the US. Both the DVD and Blu-ray Disc included two pairs of 3D glasses with each set and featured a 2D version on the disc, along with additional scenes. Only the Blu-ray Disc version included two alternate endings, a "making of" featurette about the deaths, storyboard visualization and a preview of A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010). The Blu-ray Disc release, also a combo pack, includes a standard DVD of the film.

In Target stores, some of the DVDs included an exclusive Final Destination comic book.

The movie was released uncut in Australian theaters with an MA15+ (Strong horror violence, sex scene) rating. When the movie's DVD/Blu-ray Disc release was reviewed, the ACB (Australian Classification Board) noted several scenes in the 2D version that exceeded the guidelines of the MA15+ category. There were two editions released in Australia: a DVD version which only contains a censored 2D version (most of the blood effects taken off and gore trimmed) and a DVD release awarded an R18+ rating (High impact violence) with both uncensored 2D and 3D versions (and 3D glasses included). The covers between the two releases vary.

Reception

The film received generally negative reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 29% of 95 critics gave the film a positive review, with a rating average of 4.2 out of 10. The site's consensus is: "With little of the ingenuity of previous installments, The Final Destination is predictable, disposable horror fare." Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 0-100 reviews from film critics, has a rating score of 30 based on 14 reviews.

See also

• List of ghost films