Dir. Steven Quale, 2011, USA, 92 mins
Cast. Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, Arlen Escarpeta, David Koechner, Tony Todd, P. J. Byrne
Review by Michelle Moore
It has been said throughout the entire Final Destination franchise that you can’t cheat death. Over the course of four films countless people have tried without success. In this fifth instalment, killing someone who was not meant to die, it turns out, is apparently the way to save your own life, but even that doesn’t always work out for the best.
In Final Destination 5, a group of co-workers heading out on a bonding retreat encounter some problems crossing a bridge. Sam (D’Agosto) has a vision in which the bridge collapses, killing the majority of his co-workers. Upon waking, he quickly ushers as many people as possible to safety and watches as his vision becomes reality. As those saved begin to die in shocking ways, Sam, his girlfriend Molly (Bell) and two other co-workers must battle against death’s sinister plan.
This is the second film in the franchise to be filmed in 3D and is certainly the more impressive of the two. Although this is Steven Quale’s directorial feature film debut, the film’s 3D effects are some of the most gripping and shocking ever to be seen. The opening credit sequence is over shattered glass, as the instruments that caused the death of previous Final Destination characters fly through the screen: hooks, wires, knives, planes and fans. The ending features splattered human remains attacking the screen. Forget Final Destination 4, My Bloody Valentine and Saw: The Final Chapter. The visuals in Final Destination 5 outdo them all.
There are many aspects of this film that bring back memories of its predecessors. The truck of logs that crosses the bridge just before the minibus is reminiscent of that on the motorway in Final Destination 2 and the whistling kettle in Molly’s apartment recalls the apartment of teacher Valerie Lewton in the original. The death scenes themselves are given enormous suspense, making one ask oneself “is this going to happen” or “is that going to happen”, only to have something out of the blue cause the death instead. Take for example the death of a gymnast. Is the fan going to fall? Will she get electrocuted? Yet when her death comes, it is shocking and unexpected.
One of the best features about the film is its avoidance of talking about that number 180. There is no talk of flight 180 (the near death experience in the first film) or route 180, although the restaurant can be seen to have some connection. There is also no mention of this all happening before by any of the main characters and no research online about previous occurrences of someone seeing something before it happens. In the previous films some of the plots have looked back to the original idea to explain why it is all happening again: ‘This is what happened to the people that got off the flight 180 so it will happen to us.’ As the movie concludes, the reason as to why all this is not mentioned all becomes clear.
The collapsing bridge sequence is terrific, although not for the faint hearted or squeamish. One character falls from a great height and splatters on the concrete below, spikes impale bodies and then the screen, and Peter (Fisher) performs a Tom Cruise style jump that would suit any action flick and make Cruise himself jealous. The most mind boggling feature of the film is its ending. You won’t see it coming and it will leave you flabbergasted. Final Destination 5 is the most shocking and creative episode of the franchise in terms of its death scenes and stunning in its visual effects and 3D technology, making it the finest of the series… to date that is.
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