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4/05/2018

Final Destination (2000) - Wong's entertaining death chiller kicks off a lucrative fatalistic teen franchise



We are reminded of the skulls lying behind the young, attractive stars' faces on this effective poster for James Wong's Final Destination

A high school class boards a plane headed for Paris, which explodes shortly after take-off. One of the students wakes up on the plane, which is readying for take-off. The experience, an extremely vivid dream or premonition, makes him leave it. - Only to actually see the plane explode shortly after with most of his classmates onboard. - This is only the beginning ...

These are the opening scenes of Final Destination. And you can't argue with this opening, which is hauntingly morbid and evocative, besides well-made technically.
Regrettably the young actors in Final Destination, of which many are lifted from TV, are generally sub-par, and it is also curious that the script often charge them to be stupid to the point of retardation.
Final Destination is, despite - and sometimes maybe because of - its moments of involuntary comedy and frightful self-importance, an entertaining teen horror. It is written by Glen Morgan (The X-Files (1993-18)), Jeffrey Reddick (Tamara (2005)) and feature-debuting co-writer-director James Wong (Dragonball: Evolution (2009)).





Watch a trailer for the latest in the franchise, Final Destination 5 (2011), here

Cost: 23 mil. $
Box office: 112.8 mil. $
= Big hit
[Final Destination premiered 16 March (USA) and runs 98 minutes. Reddick's original idea was first envisioned as an X-Files episode, but was instead written as a feature. Filming took place in British Columbia, Canada, including in Vancouver, in Toronto, Long Island and San Francisco from May - August 1999. The film opened #3, behind fellow new release Erin Brockovich and holdover hit Mission to Mars, to a 10 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed #3 for another week before leaving the top 10, grossing solid 53.3 mil. $ (47.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 15.5 mil. $ (13.7 %) and Germany with 6.9 mil. $ (6.1 %). The success spawned a franchise of 4 more films, (Final Destination 2 (2003), Final Destination 3 (2006), The Final Destination (2009) and Final Destination 5 (2011)) comic books and novels. Wong returned with The One (2001). Final Destination is rotten at 34 % with a 4.7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Final Destination?

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