A “Final Destination” revisit: “Final Destination 5”
- Matt Palmer
- May 25, 2025
- 3 min read
In the 2011 entry “Final Destination 5,” during a bus ride with his colleagues to a corporate retreat, Sam experiences a horrifying vision: the suspension bridge that they - and many others - are crossing start to crumble around them.
When his vision ends and, almost immediately, starts to come true, Sam takes quick action that saves a number of people, including his girlfriend, Molly, and his best friend, Peter.
However, the survivors soon find that Death will not be denied.
For those who haven’t seen this entry of the “Final Destination” series, this review will contain some spoilers for this movie towards the end! The fifth installment of this franchise really gave the series a bit of a boost after the third and fourth “Final Destination” movies. Not only does this entry add more intensity to the series, it also adds depth to the established formula.
The bridge collapse sequence in the opening minutes of the movie really sets a high bar for tension and the visual effects during this premonition is actually not that bad. Just like “The Final Destination,” the movie had a 3D theatrical release so the filmmakers used more CGI for the 3D effects. Sure, the CGI can still take you out of the movie a little bit. Yet, it’s not nearly as bad this time around and the opening sequence is where the viewer can notice the okay CGI effects the most.
“Final Destination 5” also delivers us some truly memorable sequences that fans of the series might enjoy. Besides the tense-filled opening of the bridge collapse, we also get to see a gymnastic routine go horribly wrong, a trip to the massage parlor that may make you wince and a laser eye surgery scene that could make you not want to get laser eye surgery.
Since I’m going to be talking about the movie’s ending here, this is where the spoilers kick in. The ending of this sequel reveals that the characters that survived the end of the movie end up on Flight 180, the flight from the 2000 movie. So this ending reveals that “Final Destination 5” is secretly a prequel to the series. There are also some small details scattered throughout the movie that do hint at this.
While some fans didn’t really like this major twist of the movie, I thought it worked quite well. The ending of this “prequel” definitely did a decent job bringing the first five movies full circle!
And, now that I have revisited the entire franchise (and saw “Final Destination: Bloodlines”), here is where I rank all six of the movies from worst to best: No. 6 - The Final Destination; No. 5 - Final Destination 3; No. 4 - Final Destination 5; No. 3 - Final Destination 1; No. 2 - Final Destination: Bloodlines; No. 1 - Final Destination 2.
You can stream “Final Destination 5” and the other movies (except for “Bloodlines”) on the Max streaming service (soon to be back to HBO Max).
Features the longest "opening disaster" in the film series. The bridge disaster lasts 4 minutes and 44 seconds.
(at around 1h 25 mins) A picture of Roy standing next to the #6 race car, which caused the crash on the racetrack in The Final Destination (2009), is seen in the bar.
The restaurant that Sam works in is called 'Le Cafe Miro 81'. This cafe was seen at the end of Final Destination (2000) in Paris; when viewed upside down, the last three characters of the name look like '180', the number of the doomed flight from the first movie.
In keeping with series tradition, several of the main characters are named after famous horror directors: Peter Friedkin is named after The Exorcist (1973) director William Friedkin; Candice Hooper is named after Tobe Hooper, who directed both The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Poltergeist (1982); and Olivia Castle is named after William Castle, who directed both The Tingler (1959) and the House on Haunted Hill (1959).
Producers for this film stated that this film is dark like Final Destination (2000), as opposed to the almost comedic route that The Final Destination (2009) took.
Comments