Final Destination 5 (2011) Review

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Sometimes, the end is the beginning.


PLOT


Final Destination 5 follows office worker Sam Lawton for, 'Presage Paper', set to go on a company retreat with his colleagues, but he has a premonition that they will all die upon crossing the North Bay Bridge under construction, that will collapse due to high winds. The vision saw himself die with everyone, but she is able to get his ex girlfriend Molly Harper to safety. Panicked of what he saw, he urges everyone to leave the bus with him. Besides Molly, those that join him include their boss Dennis Lapman and fellow coworkers: Nathan Sears, Olivia Castle, Isaac Palmer, Peter Friedkin and his girlfriend Candice Hopper. FBI agent Jim Block does not believe Sam when questioning him, but he lets him go due to confirming there was no foul play. Only after a memorial for those that died at the bridge does Sam and Molly try picking up where they left off, as she explains she wanted to end things with him because due to his job offer in Paris as a cook, she didn't want him to pick between her and the job. Strange accidents would start occurring as Candice gets killed during gymnastics practice; When a teammate lands on a nail that fell from the air conditioner above, she bumps into a bowl of chalk that blows into the fan and when Candice loses her grip at an uneven balance beam, she breaks her spine and dies. With Peter coping with his loss, Isaac goes out to a massage parlor after stealing a coupon from one of the deceased. He gets an acupuncture session from one of the masseuses but when the latter accidentally loosens a chair, he would fall off and the pins would completely penetrate his skin. Because the masseuse left before the fall happens, a fire then starts and he dies from a Buddha statue that crushes his head. Just when Sam and company discover what happened to him, they officially meet coroner William Bludworth who was present at the memorial. He shares with them that they weren't supposed to survive the bridge accident and because of this, Death will find a way to come after them in an intended order. When Sam asks how they can avoid dying sooner, he implies they can kill someone else and take whatever amount of time they got left. While Nathan doesn't believe there is a way out yet, he joins Sam & Molly to try saving Olivia. Sadly, that doesn't work out planned due to her laser eye surgery going completely wrong. When a doctor briefly leaves to get a correct file, a malfunction occurs and causes to start the laser earlier than it should. Olivia does escape from the laser once she frees herself from restraints, but tripping over a loose eyeball of a teddy bear causes her to fall out a window and die in the process. At the factory, Nathan would later have an argument with his co worker Roy over hours getting cut, which would unintentionally lead to the latter getting killed via impalement to the face by a hook. When Peter finds out about this, he suspects Nathan will have whatever is left of his life now. When Dennis checks in on the accident, he gets struck to death by a wrench that was launched by a belt sander Roy left before he died. Although Sam knows his time is coming soon, he is able to rekindle things with Molly and takes the apprenticeship offer from his chef. When they celebrate by having dinner at the restaurant he works at, Peter has grown to be unstable after Candice's death and tries to kill them both with a gun. He only ends up killing Block who was near the area staking out the restaurant. Peter is free from Death's list with this action, but still chooses to try killing Molly since she is a witness to it all. Luckily, Sam intervenes in time by stabbing him with a meat spit. Two weeks later, the couple board a plane to Paris as planned, but they notice commotion between high school students that get removed from the plane. When the plane takes off, Sam hears the flight attendant share to another passenger that one of the students claimed to have had a vision that the plane would crash. With the plane being Flight 180 and the student being Alex Browning (Devon Sawa), this confirms the story to have taken place before the very first film. Just when Sam realizes it is too late, he and Molly die from the crash along with the passengers, as predicted. At Roy's memorial held in a bar, Nathan discovers from another coworker that Roy had a brain aneurysm, meaning he would die soon regardless. Just upon realization, the film ends with the same plane crashing through the roof and only killing Nathan instantly. 


THOUGHTS


Considering how hard it is for a franchise to regain momentum after a setback, I had low expectations here and little did I expect a vast improvement that was much needed. Writer Eric Bressner & director Steven Quale step in and they are ironically give new life to what could've been left for dead and do not disappoint at all. With Tony Todd returning as the mysterious Bludworth, who many fans could agree is the mediator on what is going on. Before the twist, it's a whole other surprise that he reveals an official scapegoat for those who want to escape a sooner fate. Having said that, the Rude Goldberg-like deaths that occur are well made with an improved combo of visual and practical effects. Collapsing bridges are definitely something to be paranoid about, but said paranoia is taken to the moon when you see a botched surgery and a rehearsal gone sour. Now I don't want to even think about getting any kind of massage. And of course, it was a great twist when realizing this was a secret prequel with hints so easy to miss before the climax brings things full circle. It's a great payoff deep down because it was a bold way to say death can't always be defied, as it can only lead to the consequences of trying too hard to set things right. You can easily pick up on this with another creative ensemble. While David Koechner and PJ Byrne are so good in playing it straight as their characters Dennis and Isaac are dead on sleazy guys, it is a relief the most ideal protagonist is Sam. Nicholas D'Agosto portrays him as a guy who is at the brink of figuring it all out because that's how grateful he is trying to be. In the process, he wanted to sure he would live without regret by setting things right with the only person he cared about most. Emma Bell was also great as Molly because she was always sincere with her decisions. It’s really this dramatic relationship that builds a better connection with the characters, which did feel missing in past entries. These two were a good pair for being thoughtful. She really thought staying out of his way was gonna make him happy, until realizing it was gonna make things worse, hence quickly rekindling. Sadly, their self awareness was not enough to keep them alive. Their deaths are honestly the saddest for knowing they couldn’t avoid the inevitable and rather than climax being played for laughs, it’s far more horrific in comparison to the past. In a similar sense, Mies Fisher was compelling in his own right as Peter because he starts out as a calm friend until all the shock he's witnessed has triggered him to be very pragmatic. His loss over Candice broke him, especially since Ellen Wroe portrayed her as a vivacious one and the two got along so well for just taking things one day at a time. When she died, he just lost his only reason to be happy and seeing Sam happy with Molly only triggered him. His philosophy to kill someone he knew rather than a stranger was already problematic, but killing an agent was a whole other batch of mass hysteria he would cause. He would reunite with Candice, but just not the way he wanted. I even was rooting for Olivia since Jacqueline MacInnes Wood had her own optimism to bring towards the character. She wanted to see things with a clear image which would start a new chapter for her, but not even that went her way sadly. Lastly, Nathan felt like a wild card but much different from what Peter would be. Arlen Escarpeta showed him as a guy who was trying to keep his head up towards negativity, but would unintentionally walk into what he thought was a blessing. The fact Bludworth didn't have to tell him and Sam who they should kill only makes them fall into Death's trap much more easier. If anyone before and them knew this rule, there's a good chance they would've gotten out of the cycle to the advantage they were looking for. It even sucked to see Agent Block to die because compared to the detectives in the first film, Courtney B Vance made made the guy one who was far more neutral. He didn’t leap into anything because he knew it was better to get the clear facts before making a mistake. If that was enough, he probably would’ve lasted longer than the people who were supposed to die, considering he wasn’t even part of the plan. This movies is definitely well made, but there were still a few things that confused me as I sat through it. Like for instance, Molly could’ve cancelled the plane ticket during the retreat. If she did that, Sam would’ve not noticed because he would’ve been so caught up with work. And why exactly does Candice separate herself from the group in the vision? The bridge was collapsing from the right, so it felt like it could’ve been avoided if she followed Sam. It sounds hilarious for Dennis to think Isaac died at the bridge, but what made him think that? There had to have been a list of the fallen for him to remember in the memorial. And no one saw the nail fall? Of all people, Peter should’ve noticed since it happened right in front of him and wasn’t distracted. Also, there were no cameras in the office when Isaac steals from the deceased? I know Dennis is caught up in his own office, but there had to have been security to stop the guy. That bothered me more than the masseuse not hearing the chair break. And if Molly didn’t want Sam to leave the house, he should’ve safe proofed it for her sake before even leaving. Hell, he also should’ve unplugged both plugs of the meat grinder if he was superstitious. And lastly, where the hell did Sam come from when lunging onto Peter? It does not look like he had any space in the kitchen, so I’m confused. Ignore these things, then you’ll still be amused of what’s being done here. In short, Final Destination 5 is the horror comeback that the genre thrives for and lives up to the hype and then some. If you like over the top horror, see this now.