Excuse the Intermission
Alex, Erica and Max take you on a journey through film with this discussion podcast about movies.
Excuse the Intermission
Death's Design Returns: Examining the Final Destination Franchise
When Final Destination: Bloodlines shattered box office expectations with a $100 million worldwide haul, it proved that even after 14 years, Death's design still captivates audiences hungry for creative kills and nail-biting tension. But how does this sixth installment stack up against its predecessors?
Join hosts Alex, Max, and Erica as they journey through the entire Final Destination franchise, ranking all six films and dissecting what makes these movies uniquely addictive despite their often schlocky nature. From the high-concept original that launched the series in 2000 to the roller coaster thrills of Final Destination 3 and beyond, we explore how each film contributes to the franchise's legacy.
The conversation dives deep into the franchise's most memorable moments – that infamous highway log truck scene from the second film, the tanning bed sequence that made an entire generation claustrophobic, and the MRI machine magnetic catastrophe in the latest installment. We examine how these films function as perfect time capsules of their respective eras, particularly Final Destination 3's pitch-perfect capture of mid-2000s teen culture complete with low-rise jeans, flip phones, and digital cameras.
Beyond the kills, we appreciate the connective tissue binding these films together – Tony Todd's ominous presence, recurring motifs like Heist Pale Ale appearances, and the number 180 popping up throughout. We also explore the franchise's possible origins in a specific Twilight Zone episode and debate whether Bloodlines' hereditary curse concept successfully evolves the series.
Whether you're a long-time fan who's seen every installment or someone curious about this enduring horror phenomenon, our ranking provides the perfect roadmap through Death's design. Listen now, and remember – you can't cheat death, but you can enjoy watching others try.
How's it? I'm Alex McCauley. I'm Max Fosberg.
Speaker 3:And I'm Erica Kraus.
Speaker 1:And this is Excuse the Intermission a discussion show surrounding death's design, final Destination Bloodlines, is killing it at the domestic and international box office, far surpassing any expectations that anyone could have had for the film's financial success. Where does it rank among the storied franchise's best? That will be for us to decide on this rankings episode as we dive into the Final Destination series and talk about our favorite kills, our favorite performances and whether or not this collection of horror films harbors a hidden gem of a lost horror sequel. All that up next on the other side of this break. All right, gang, here we stand, we're putting the pieces together. After seeing the premonition that Final Destination Bloodlines would rip, we planned for a few weeks that we would do this episode, but there is so much more to understand and unpack now that the film has opened at over a hundred million dollars worldwide. So how did we get here? Can death be stopped? Why did this horror franchise pop off? What's going on? How are you guys doing today?
Speaker 3:I'm good, I'm crazy news about this new final destination. I know, but it wasn't pulling in that much.
Speaker 2:But it did. It did five million yesterday on a monday. Like it is, it's killing, it's kicking ass interesting.
Speaker 3:yeah, when I told my dad I was seeing it the other day he was. He was like oh yeah, I want to see it, I want, I've heard it's good reviews and so I don't know, I'm excited to talk about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I think it kind of goes back. Something we always talk about on this podcast is that horror is evergreen. Horror is it brings the people out. It's a genre that usually always works. Somehow we found Final Destination as its only big release here on a weekend in May, and I think it's just good timing. I also think when was the last time a Final Destination movie came out? Was it 14 years?
Speaker 3:ago 2011.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah, 14 years ago was the last Final Destination and I remember that one. I believe that one did okay and is kind of revered as one of the better of the six. As far as, like, the kills go, I remember a really um, memorable escalator kill in in that one.
Speaker 1:uh, I think that's in four. Is that in four you're thinking of?
Speaker 2:okay, well yeah, uh, it's, it's pretty wild, uh, to see that, but also like very encouraging. Right, it's pretty wild to see that, but also like very encouraging right, We've is this another? I think this is another WB property as well Actually, I, in fact I'm pretty sure it is because all the other movies are on HBO max. So now Minecraft centers, final destination bloodlines. Wb is having a hell of a year. Hell of a year.
Speaker 1:That is a great start and, yeah, I think you hit on something with the timing, because across a lot of the USA, at least, where this film did over 50 million dollars domestically, you had a lot of high school seniors graduating this past weekend, so you had a lot of young people, I think, out looking for things to do, which don't always, doesn't always mean that you're going to go to the movies like you did maybe back when we were in high school in the early 2000s. Of course, you're going further back in the 90s or something like that.
Speaker 1:But still, young people need something to do, and this new generation has not had a final destination movie yet. And so whether they have watched the previous films on HBO max and I love that we're back to HBO max, I never called it max, I know we joked around with our own max.
Speaker 2:I finally won my, my uh my suit.
Speaker 1:Defamation clause, um. So, yeah, it's whether or not people have come to the franchise um through it being like passed down to them. Older siblings, maybe you're just watching um on streamers. I think that it was the timing was right for for this, and now we can maybe get into, at the end of this conversation, what franchise we think might try to hop on the the train, the gravy train of. Hey, it's been 10 years, hey, it's been 15 years. Is it time for us to bring something back?
Speaker 1:But this did just feel like the perfect time, with us right on the precipice of summer. There's some huge releases coming down the pike as far as this next weekend and the weekends to come, and so I do think that, with it being kind of a quiet week, we're still post centers. You know that the teenage date night crowd needed something like this in between all the family activity that's been happening at the box office this spring, uh, between the Minecraft movie, and Lilo and Stitch is coming out this week, which will be another big draw, I think, for families. So so this was kind of one for us, this was one for the younger generation, the younger crowd, and you just love to see it like a hundred million dollars worldwide. Never could have, never could have predicted this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and and kind of. I mean you know I these movies Final Destination movies, if we want to start, you know, talking about the franchise and the films as a whole uh and, yeah, let's do it right, like they are.
Speaker 2:What they are about is how, how, uh, wild or um, uh, creative, creative or shocking. The kills are right. It's all about the kills opposed from like maybe one or two actors that have been in these movies. No one ever really is like a, a star right of the silver screen or or even like goes on to really do a whole lot, um, but they are somehow like, just like, perfectly bad. Uh is kind of how I can describe it. Like Like they are while you're watching it, you sometimes grown, but you're also like laughing your head off or you're, you're just locked in. You can't, you can't turn away.
Speaker 1:I mean, I was asking myself a lot this past week when going back and watching this is like watching these different movies, like is this a? Is this a real? Is this a real movie? Like do watching these different movies like, is this a? Is this a real film? Is this a real movie? Like, do are these real people in these movies?
Speaker 1:Um, because, you're right, you really don't have any like household recognition as far as names or faces go. Nobody from this franchise has really gone on to do much outside of, like you said, a handful of actors, and so you can just kind of watch them in a vacuum. Now I do think it's going to be interesting to talk about the extended universe that the final destination movies have created within themselves, because there are a lot of through lines that connect the different movies, just like random things, like the brand of a beer, like heist pale ale I don't know if you guys have noticed that, but heist h-i-c-e, heist pale ale is in every single movie people drinking that. The number 180 comes up a lot in all of these movies, and that goes back to the first one. It's flight 180, right?
Speaker 2:right isn't the end of final destination, destination five isn't it. Doesn't it lead into Final Destination?
Speaker 1:the first one. That's what it implies.
Speaker 2:That's insane yeah.
Speaker 3:You just gave away like a huge spoiler alert to number five by the way.
Speaker 2:That's like a huge plot twist which came out in what 14 years ago? 14 years ago.
Speaker 3:I just watched five for the first time, just like two hours ago, and everyone was like the ending is so good and I had no idea. And then I was like, oh no shit. I thought that was kind of cool.
Speaker 1:So you can air your grievances out with Max on this one. No, it's fine, no, not you, but anyone who who then turns to final destination, final destination five, um, okay, so what is sort of the two of you? What is your history with the final destination movies? Is there any certain one that means something specific to you? Where do they kind of live in your, in your estimation?
Speaker 3:I. I mean this is like our generation's horror too. I mean this. The first three came out well, the first one came out when we were it was 2000, um and then the second and third one were probably like middle school, high school years and I feel like it. I do remember very vividly seeing the second and third one and like renting those at home and probably came to the first one maybe later, just amongst renting on a weekend. But, um, you know my relationship with them.
Speaker 3:I I never really liked these movies, to be totally honest. It's just not really my, it's not my type of horror and you know, I think even from the beginning I didn't really take them too seriously. However, I would say the second and third one had such an impact on not only me but our entire generation of just very infamous scenes right and um, especially the second one with probably arguably the most impactful opening scene, slash kill of them all with the log truck. I think that is something that has lasted in most of like millennials brains for since we've seen it the first time. So, while I don't personally have like much of an interest in these films, I think that I do have like a pretty long history, just because I can remember watching them for the first time and being like you know, I just thought it was just over the top and just a fun time, you know time, you know, yeah, yeah, you know, the log truck is is death's truck, right?
Speaker 2:I mean, that thing keeps coming back almost in all the movies after number two.
Speaker 1:Uh, it pops up, um I I would argue that the truck is the log truck. From that, from the premonition. Opening in in number two is not only the most, I think it's easily the most iconic piece of imagery from this franchise, but I would put it up there with almost any opening in any horror film. Yeah, from the last 25 years, from this century really yeah, it's, it's.
Speaker 2:It's a fantastic, uh way to start off your film again, just like such a creative and iconic imagery with those with that log truck, and especially for people like us who grew up in Washington right, you know, I always think about that Like there are probably, there's probably a whole part of the country that's never even seen a log truck in real life and maybe he doesn't even think those are real. But those are definitely things we, you know, grew up seeing all the time um, and you've definitely driven behind one too and moved out of the lane yeah, for
Speaker 1:a hot day from it max on your drive down to los angeles.
Speaker 2:You sent erica and I uh you said the first final destination truck of the trip yep, yeah, yeah, um, yeah, these movies, you know they remind me of of like my hot, hot topic era, right, like I mean they are, they're nostalgic just in, like the font on the poster, um, they remind me so much of of like a 12, 13 year old, 14 year old, great gateway horror right For for any young person who who wants to get into horror. Because, again, these are they're, they're almost like disaster movies, but then with saw, you know, mixed in, right.
Speaker 2:Or torture movies mixed in right, or torture movies, um, mixed in um. So, yeah, I, I've, I know I've seen, well, I've definitely have seen all six of them, at least once you know, the first, like two or three I've seen multiple times. Uh, four and five I'm a little less uh, familiar with, but, um, I mean four's got a great opening too with the nascar and and like just a ridiculous hokey like that is, I think, also known as like the worst one in the series and the cgi is horrendous, but like the runaway, the amount of runaway tires that fly into the stands and just like bounce and bounce people's heads off it's, it's simply amazing, uh, it's, it's like looney tunes, it's like rated r looney tunes and, um, I find them, I find them again just like perfectly bad.
Speaker 1:They're endlessly entertaining. I think One and two, as they have lived on HBO Max for a long time now, are perfect background movies that I love to just pop on if I'm working from home or cleaning the house, whatever it may be. So I really hold those two near and dear. I kind of watch them as one movie. I think that those are the easiest of the two to sort of sandwich together, and that's obviously thanks in large part to the ally larder character and and also just how that second film is connected with the first film, because that's another thing that that the extended universe does a really good job of. It's not like these events, these these death, death, defying circumstances of evading your, your fate, happen in a vacuum and there isn't some shared history among the characters, like it always comes back to like oh well, this is a lot like what happened with those students that were on their trip to Paris, and so there there is that connection. And then of course, you have the Tony Todd character, who is kind of the stand in for death.
Speaker 1:But he's also always the one who is helping our characters along their way at least kind of realize the reality of their situation. And he plays someone who's always working in the coroner's office, who's surrounded by death. For for um. For the extent of his time in these films, I think four is the only movie that he does not show up in um in bloodlines, and I guess we should maybe start with just sort of our impressions of bloodlines and then we can work our way into our rankings here. But Tony didn't look great in Bloodlines. I almost wasn't sure if it was him at first.
Speaker 2:Well, it was his last performance.
Speaker 1:Yeah and so yeah, because RIP, of course, but like you can just tell that, like I don't know, I'm not saying that there was maybe some you know TET or. Cgi look there, but he just looks very thin Maybe some, you know CGI. He just looks great. He looked very thin. You could tell that this was I actually didn't know that it was his last performance, so that makes a lot of sense now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he had cancer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because he's such a big hulking presence. You think about him as Candyman, or his presence his performances, I should say, in these other films. But so it was good to see him kind of pop back up in in bloodlines. But, um, let's talk about that movie. It's obviously was a huge success at the box office. I think that people are very entertained by it. Once again, I'm not seeing anybody say that it is the number one film within the franchise or one of the best horror films of the 2020s or anything like that. Um, but, but what did you guys think about the story that we got here in bloodlines?
Speaker 2:max, you could go first I mean I, I cackled and howled all the way through, right from just from the beginning the, the opening sequence where we're on a knockoff space needle, uh, I write.
Speaker 1:The whole movie feels a little.
Speaker 2:It feels very pacific, northwest oh so, yes, absolutely, they're definitely in washington state. They filmed it in vancouver, yeah, uh, yeah, man, it it was. It was bad, but like, again, like incredibly fun, like there are. There are moments that are just, you know, spellbindingly stupid, um, or like characters that just like disappear, or, uh, you know weird scenarios. You know this, this family that we're following around all of a sudden has, like, we've gone to like three funerals in a row and we're still just all hanging out in the living room, you know, with, with, with the strings, lines of string on the on the wall, trying to be like no, this is the order death.
Speaker 1:You know, like there's, there's and half the people are like this this isn't really happening.
Speaker 2:You're crazy and then you know I, but I thought there were some great kills, uh, throughout the uh, there's a hot, there's a sequence in a hospital with, like an MRI machine that goes to research level and like becomes a huge magnet, which you know, again, like this isn't science, we're not here for science, this isn't exact science, but and then I don't want to spoil anything, but like the ending, the very end sequence, right, and, and you know, all these movies definitely end a certain way and like this was ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous, that you know this happened in this little suburban neighborhood.
Speaker 2:So, I don't know, I had, I had a really good time. Uh, I don't know, it seemed like there was like one other couple in the theater that was having a really good time with me, uh, and laughing a lot and clapping, and um, there's always a little bit of. You know, some of these skills can can get always a little bit of. You know some of these kills can can get you a little bit, like you know, give you the shivers, but uh, yeah, I I enjoyed myself.
Speaker 1:Erica. What did you make of the bloodlines approach to it, I guess, would be a good place to start and and how the story tried to now make death's curse almost a hereditary thing. Did that? Did that work for you?
Speaker 3:no, no, no, it didn't. I'm sorry. I I mean it. Like I said, these are, these movies really are not my cup of tea, and it's just because of how bad the acting is it's like it I'm I mean, I've said this so many times on here like I.
Speaker 3:really you'd think I'm a like wannabe acting coach or something, considering how much I pick apart everyone's acting. But it will make or break a movie for me and obviously the acting has never been the whole point of any of these movies. But it's just it had been so long since I'd seen one of these and I the bloodline thing just made it cringier. I think like I just, I don't know, I just didn't really love that aspect. I thought like the whole grandma thing was kind of odd and I don't know, I don't know, I didn't really care for it. I guess I didn't really like I don't know, I didn't really care for it. I guess I I didn't really like the movie. To be totally honest, like it felt really really bad, like I don't know, sorry I think the acting doesn't.
Speaker 1:The acting never helps these movies. It can certainly. It can certainly provide that awesomely bad, perfectly bad quality that I think max is referring to. But, like I was just trying to look up, whoever plays the dad, the, the father to to our main girl, um, the girl played by caitlin santa juana in this film, um, he's terrible he's so bad like sir yeah, the younger brother professional you are a professional actor, I need these, this line reading, to feel less wooden, um.
Speaker 1:But but then, on the other hand, you know what? What we do have are just like some insane kills, and the kills have good effects tied to them. I will say, and I mentioned this to max, that I thought a lot of the movie, a lot of the background of the movie, a lot of the green screen, looked like sky captain in the world of tomorrow. It looked like and I I think that like the wachowski speed racer is like far and away better than this, but it just looks like hyper real. It looked too, too fake to even be considered something that would be in our world or any other world. And Max made the good point when we were talking off mic about this that maybe that was for adding that hyper realism to the premonition at the beginning. But but also we talked about it's probably just a budgetary but also it's just bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you don't have. You know, you don't have the visual effects.
Speaker 1:Crew from oppenheimer working on sure, working on final destination bloodlines and six, yeah, and, and that's to be expected, right, but, but, but no, I mean, I thought that I thought that there were definitely some good kills. Once we get to the rankings for these, this film, I'll kind of unveil what I think is my favorite kill from this movie. But some good tension. You're right, that MRI scene was crazy, and every single time we get a new Final Destination movie, I'm excited to see the settings in which we're going to have a death scene, because these moves are very digestible For, as poor as they may be in certain aspects, the creativity, I feel like, is never lacking.
Speaker 1:And here we are in number six and I'm watching it in my theater, thinking how have we not done a tattoo piercing parlor, you know like, and how have we never involved, you know, in one of the films we have like an eye exam room where we start to dabble in some medical equipment. But then again, yeah, like I see that MRI machine in this one. I'm like how have we never really had like a big hospital scene? Yet? I guess in final destination too, there's a hospital scene as well. But but just anytime they involve a new something to assist in death's design, I'm always like this is great. Have we not done this before? Can't wait to see where this goes wrong.
Speaker 1:And these movies always have in in final destination bloodlines is no exception. They always have a really perverse sense of humor about them. I don't think it's too big of a spoiler to say that when this MRI machine does turn into a giant magnet in this film, we find out that one of our characters has his privates pierced, and that is a very, very funny moment. And so just when things like that happen in these movies, I can't help but just think like only in a final destination movie, you know it's, it's schlock man, it's, it's, it is.
Speaker 2:it is a good old fashioned schlock man. It is good old-fashioned schlock.
Speaker 3:I think what would make these movies better for me is that if they were a little bit more self-aware, and I kind of assumed that this new one would be a little bit like that, because there's a trailer for this movie that pretty much shows the entire tattoo studio scene and you're watching it and then you know our, our guy, he's like, he puts on it's it's like Eric's sad playlist and you start tattooing dad on him and I thought that that was like they're so, not like this is very campy and I I loved that. That. That was like they're so, not like this is very campy and I I loved that and I was like that seems like I would like to keep that tone more of like almost like cabin in the woods type of feel, where they're like in on the joke, in on the joke in on the like.
Speaker 3:All the actors are in on the joke and I, yeah, and more of like we're we're being over the top on purpose and it's more of like this, like humor that you know you got to really pay attention to, kind of thing, and it's I don't know. I just was thinking about that watching a lot of these movies because they're they're all pretty pretty bad. Um, except for, I would say, the second and third one, are really um, like really on par with the time that they came out with that. They came out in um, but I was like just thinking about that with this new one, I'm like it would just be so much. I. I almost I just assumed that it was almost going to be a little bit like, more like making fun of itself, because these movies are known for being pretty corny.
Speaker 1:Um, and I was that that whole the tattoo scene, I did really like that I do think you're right, though, because if they would have stuck with the tone of that tattoo scene throughout the film and even, like I'm thinking of, when the sister has her encounter with death, the female cousin to our main character that's a very funny campy scene where they are almost being self-aware and saying, oh no, watch out for this thing over here, watch out for this guy with the leaf blower, and and be in there in on the joke.
Speaker 3:But then 10 minutes later we're back in that living room and it's like kramer versus they're trying to be kramer versus kramer again or something and have this real intense family drama and it's like I'm sorry it's not merritt's story it's not like that, it's not that deep yeah, and I just I think it would be such a like more exciting franchise if it was a little bit, or at least if they could have turned the corner, you know, almost 15 years later with this new movie and been like, hey, look like our movies Destination is let's bring this back all the way around and let's make a joke out of it, because it already is kind of jokey, and let's just make it wild. The monkey has a lot of Final destination tones, and it has, but it has that like almost over the top jokey feeling to it. Where you're like, it just it feels smarter. Um, but yeah, I would have liked to see them do something like that with this, with this one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the one thing that you have to be careful with with parody once, once you get to parody and and especially when you're parodying yourself or any sort of franchise, you know that that kind of signals, the the end right, like that is like we have. We have kind of run, run out of everything we want to do, so we're going to make a joke of ourselves and yeah, so I I'd rather see. I feel like everyone the audience and the movies are are in on the joke, like there's unintentional comedy, but it's almost like to. At this point it's like very intentional. Um, but yes, these movies are very stupid. They're so stupid and and again, I, I, I just hope they keep, if they're going to continue to, to pump these out, which I'm sure they will after this weekend. Uh, you know, I like the seriousness.
Speaker 1:Well, I was just going to say there's something to be said about the direction that we have ended up going and where the franchise currently sits, because the first film is very high concept it is. It's taken very serious and the kills are made to be more of this, this very intricate, unfortunate circumstance. That really makes you then. I feel like all these movies can do this. But it was really after that first movie where I think I think people started to second guess themselves every time they turned on their oven and heard a strange noise or like walk out into a crosswalk without looking both ways, like there's.
Speaker 1:There was all of a sudden so much to be said about how every little thing that we do during our daily routine could ultimately have an impact on our fate, and I think that that is still such a high concept for a film and it's interesting that we've gone away from that. And I think it's great to have this balance, because we need to have we can't just have everything be elevated right In the horror genre, and so I think it's great to have this camp and this schlock sort of like reserved for this franchise. I think the Saw franchise was really good at that for for a while too, but that was another one that almost had this real high concept start of like what if death became a game?
Speaker 2:And I don't know if I ever got funny. Did I ever get?
Speaker 1:funny really. Saw never got funny, but you did start to go to those movies just to see how intricate and how advanced the games would become. That's true, and the traps, the death traps, and so I think there's some similarities there. But it will be interesting, because I don't think it's never too late, right to change, and so you could. I think you could return to this franchise at some point and strip it down, dial it back a lot and turn it back into like a real dark version of people who have cheated death and now death is coming back for them. And it's not crazy cgi and it's not people getting ran over by lawnmowers, but it's like real gnarly, real gruesome and can still be a lot of fun, but just has that different tone, something more similar to the first film.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I could have. I could have uh tolerated the fifth one a lot, or the new sixth one um a lot more, if that cgi was not so bad it was like really bad and and I don't know anything about that kind of stuff, but I just that first, even the first scene in the space needle, I was like, ah, this is so bad already I would like I don't expect the acting to be great in any of these movies, like I said, but even watching, like going back to the second one, um, and that first the log scene, I mean it looks amazing and it's not like it's it.
Speaker 3:I mean it looks like an early 2000s movie and I'm like I want that again. I like I don't need this, like just, oh, it just was too much in this new one. I'm like it took me out of it so much, whereas, like I would rather see like maybe a less intricate death, but still like maybe look a little bit more realistic or something. But, like you know, that log scene is so badass because there's like real car I'm pretty sure they are cars crashing, I mean there's like real practical effects happening, um, and even this, the cgi that there is, does not look too like. It just doesn't look too much. And without sacrificing a really iconic death scene where you're just and it's gory and it's just over the top, even the opening of the third one too, the roller coaster, is just great I I couldn't agree more with you, erica, and I'm excited to get to start to talk about all of these films.
Speaker 1:So what? In a little bit more detail here. So what we're going to do is we're going to rank these movies. We'll go through each, say what we have at six, work our way to number one. I have so many other lists to go with my list for these movies.
Speaker 1:This is a franchise that I do just have a real soft spot for, like this this would have. Some of these movies would have fit perfectly into our guilty pleasure discussion that we had on erica's episode a few weeks ago. So I also have, like, my favorite kills within each movie. Um, I, I have these ranked by what I think my favorite premonitions are, because I think that there are some bad movies in this franchise that start with a great premonition. Max already alluded to the NASCAR scene at the beginning of the fourth one. Not a good movie, but I love that premonition. So a lot of different things to sort of recommend and to highlight from these different movies. We'll start, though, with a general ranking. So, max, let's go to you. What do you have as your number six, final destination film?
Speaker 2:I have the final destination, which is final destination four at number six just as as do I, yeah, as do I okay great, just a week kind of a weak movie.
Speaker 3:Overall the worst cgi and this wasn't 3d, wasn't it this? That was like the gimmick yes one yeah yeah, it was very.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and it's only like 73 minutes something like that. It very short.
Speaker 1:It's a very short film and it's funny because these films all do follow basically the same. They have to write by design, no pun intended. They have to follow the same formula, movie after movie, where X amount of people evade death, cheat death at the beginning and then you know, once that person then has their standalone scene, that scene is going to be their death scene, and I think there's something genius about that. Really, like, these films cannot be that hard to write, if I'm being honest, and that probably has led to some laziness in the script and the different scripts plural, I should say. However, there are some. I think there's some real highlights in Final Destination 4.
Speaker 1:I do think that that NASCAR track opening scene is really good and in 2009, these movies are an amazing snapshot of the year and the political climate in which they came out. In which they came out because for 2009, this movie, in in a few different ways, is aged so interestingly and so poorly. Like there is just some overt racism. And in this fourth film oh yeah, that that makes no sense. One of the characters just starts out he's got a swastika tattoo on his arm, he's at the racetrack, he's getting called a redneck, he is spewing racist remarks left and right, um, just something that would never be in a movie as sort of like not necessarily a joke, but you would just never have that archetype, that type of character, in a movie right now. Um, so that that's not the best.
Speaker 1:As I mentioned, it's the only movie without Tony Todd. Another thing that these movies do interesting is that they exist without the trope of having a finals girl or, in some cases, a finals guy, because it's not always a girl or a guy that has the premonition. You really never know who it's going to be. So our lead actor in this movie, his name is bobby campo and he's the one who has the premonition that a car is going to blow a tire after a series of unfortunate random occurrences, um, and and create this giant crash that leads to yes, I love the way you said that, max is like very looney tunes, esque collapse of this entire um racetrack really earthquake happens where cement is falling on people and it's just like everything is just on it's.
Speaker 1:It might as well be animated, some of those sequences, um, of these giant blocks flattening people like pancakes. This movie does have a fun double premonition at the end and that's where you do get that escalator scene that you were mentioning, max. So I do want to give it credit for that. And then I will say I think this movie has, even though I have it at six, I have the premonition ranked as the fourth best premonition in the series. But I think it has a top three kill this movie. This movie has a top three final destination killing it for me. Do you want to guess which one? I think that is.
Speaker 2:Is it the? Is this the tanning beds? No, it's not the tanning beds, that is also a top three, maybe top five.
Speaker 1:Yeah, kill for me this. I'm talking about the pool drain.
Speaker 1:Oh yes, yeah, in this one Incredible stuff, incredible stuff where a character goes swimming in a public pool that has had its drain turned on by death and my guy is ass down on the pool drain as it sucks out his insides, which we then see erupt out of the, the water system, the pipes of this pool. Incredible stuff in one of those moments where, when you're watching these films, not every death can you feel, but that's one where, like, your body winces Yep. And so I do have to give the final destination, the fourth film, some credit. All right, erica, what's your number?
Speaker 2:five, since we're all in agreement on six.
Speaker 3:Oh you're, you're muted sorry, I was muted um. I have final destination six as my number five I also have bloodlines as my number five.
Speaker 2:I also have bloodlines. As my number five, I also have bloodlines as my number five.
Speaker 1:So so, Erica, what was your favorite kill in bloodlines?
Speaker 3:My favorite kill was not even a kill Like it's the tattoo scene. That really was like. That was what.
Speaker 2:It's a good fake out.
Speaker 3:It is a good fake out. I thought that that was the most well done, but I'm trying to like. I did really like the MRI scene. I thought that that one was like kind of like, oh, like, um, you know, the one that I really wanted to be true, I guess. I mean, I don't know, like, I just that whole thing, it flowed really well. I thought like the the campiness of the whole thing was fun, but, um, I don't know if that counts because it's not really a kill, but yeah, the MRI scene, I guess too, was pretty good.
Speaker 2:I want to give some love to the trash compactor sequence, where our main character is like calling out exactly how the death is going to happen. Right Like the, the uh tree trimmer that's leaning up against the tree, the leaf blower, the kids with the soccer ball, and they think it's going to happen to, uh, our the older cousin.
Speaker 2:Yeah, our piercing bud, and instead and that's, and then, and then it doesn't happen, right. And then the sister, the younger sister, goes out for a run and exactly that happens and she's stuck in this trash compactor and her head, like a watermelon, just gets squished and they show it to you. I mean they stay on her and it's bad, cgigi. But at the same time I I was like, oh my god, we're squishing heads we're squishing heads and and pulling off limbs.
Speaker 1:I I did love that prosthetic again, it looked very rubber and totally yeah, um, but gnarly at the same time. I want to give. I want to give a shout out to the barbecue scene and, and specifically like the tease of the shard of glass, because that was that was really well done and created a lot of anxiety and tension for me when I was watching, where I was sitting up in my seat, because I was thinking if someone, without giving away too many spoilers, a shard of glass is incognito amongst a big tub of ice and you see it get scooped up into a drink, you don't know who gets the drink that has the shard of glass in it yet. So there's some real mystery as to how this shard of glass is going to play a role in someone's death and there's a lot of other things going on, and that's another calling card for this franchise is that there will be so many tiny little things introduced into a scene and so you're not ever sure what's actually going to be the main trigger that leads to someone's death.
Speaker 1:But this shard of glass I'm just thinking of someone swallowing that with their drink and it landing, or maybe not landing but in it, traveling down your throat, and how gruesome that could be. It doesn't end up playing out that way. There is still a scene that involves a moment that involves the shard of glass at this barbecue. That then leads to, um, someone meeting their demise via another tool. Uh, but, but that was that. That whole scene. Um, I thought was pretty well done.
Speaker 1:It kind of the family barbecue yeah, there's also like a trampoline, uh involved which again just like a great uh, you know anxiety inducing moment with like a rusty rake underneath and the camera keeps cutting to the trampoline fabric, stretching and ripping and getting um closer and closer to snapping. So so some good stuff there, um, but okay, sounds like we're. So we're in agreement with six and five. I'll go first here with number two, with number four, and this is where I have final destination to this. This hurts me because I actually have this is my favorite premonition and this is, of course, the log truck premonition. It's the whole highway crash at the beginning.
Speaker 1:I love ali larder coming back in this franchise and really tying it to the first one. Like I said, aj cook, who's my girl from criminal minds. She's one of the only actors that has actually continued on and had quite a bit of success post appearing in a Final Destination movie. So got to give AJ Cook a shout out, ali Larder, of course. However, this movie, once you get past, I think it's just because the high of that premonition scene is so great Once you get past that the other characters just really aren't that interesting.
Speaker 1:You have the mother, teenage son that have a really odd dynamic together. I do love the son getting flattened by the plate glass window. That's, I think, my favorite kill from this movie. But like the pregnant woman, the woman who's like the you know, 30 year old, kind of like go get, go get her business woman type, and then you have the the stoner kind of metal head guy. There's just like nobody that I really get attached to in this movie, whereas I think some of the other movies to come have a little bit more meat on the bone as far as as far as story goes and character development, for as silly as that sounds in a final destination movie. But for those reasons, although I love the premonition, like I said, have it rated number one and shout out to AJ cook and Allie Larder, but I have final destination two in my four spot.
Speaker 2:In my sports four spot I have final destination five uh, and part of the reason is that I think I've only seen this movie once, so the rewatches aren't there for me yet. I don't know it as well as some of the as as these next three uh on my list, but I just remember it being again kind of like similar to four, where some of the effects and the CGI is overdone. I believe this was another attempt at 3D glasses in a Final Destination movie and a little melodramatic, which is kind of funny Again, funny to like nitpick in a Final Destination movie. But whereas, alex, you were just saying you can't really get behind any one and two or get connected to any one and two, I feel that with with five, whereas two, three or you know, three, two and one, I'm, I'm along for the ride with, with all of those characters and can get behind them.
Speaker 1:What's in your four spot, Erica?
Speaker 3:I also have final destination five Okay.
Speaker 1:So final destination five is my three. I'm happy. Or, excuse me, final destination five is in my three spot, yeah, so I'm happy sliding that down to four. Um, and in aligning with you guys, I I do want to give five some credit for the, the melodramatics of it, and I think that there was a real because there's a real attempt to have a few scenes in this movie that aren't just segues into another character's death, like I do think that it's really smart to show all of the characters in their office after our like, uh, you know, our cell phone guys at the acupuncture, uh, massage parlor or whatever, and, yeah, he's having his death scene. Um, you know that that could just be sort of by itself, but but they intercut it with everyone else, like getting drunk at work, because they're all grieving and they don't know how to handle it, and I'm like this is kind of solid, and once again they're drinking the high spale ale. So I love it.
Speaker 1:It's a moment to like connect the extended universe, and so I I do like that they just like show us a few scenes like that, that that, um, the best friend of our main guy, uh, played by nicholas diosco, he, he, who's the one that kind of has the double crossing, and I like that as well. Like there's, there's kind of the double crossing, like someone sort of goes to the dark side and really buys into this idea of like what happens if I kill someone else, to take a life and take their place, and so I feel like the, the expanded community and everything else in five just makes a little bit more sense than it does like in two. Like I appreciate the police investigation that's going on in five a lot and how the one detective is like this is all so fucking weird. Like in none of these other movies do we have a police officer who is really like no, there's something like that needs to be investigated here. I need to continue to talk to these young people about these deaths that keep occurring within their friend group and to these people who were involved in this action at the beginning. So I just like all of that stuff. I do like, too, that he's trying you know he's trying to get his ratatouille on and go to Paris and become a chef and the dinner scene that he has with his girlfriend is actually like pretty endearing. Like again, it's funny to think that a final destination movie can, aside from maybe the first one, like pull off some character development, but I feel like this movie really does have it, actually, um, more so than a lot of the others. So that's why I give I give five a top three spot but, like I said, happy to move it down to the four spot to hang there with you guys.
Speaker 1:I do love the gymnastics accident, um, and this movie a lot, because that is another great like pull the rug out from underneath you kill scene, where we have become so conditioned to to think that the raising temperature in the room which leads to some water dripping out of a pipe, which leads to a spark on an electrical cord, is going to have something to do with this character's death, when really all it is is like a big bowl of like rosin chalk that gymnasts would use to help their grip gets blown into a fan blinds, a girl who's on the bars and when her body snaps when she hits the mat, it's incredible stuff.
Speaker 1:Like great, great stuff. And also ol Olivia's eye exam and this one Olivia, who's kind of like the edgy, hot chick in this movie, she decides to go in to get like LASIK surgery done, which again, just like a great snapshot of the time in 2011 for someone to go in to have like laser correction surgery done on their on their eye. And I mean, like Max, I know this for you, you're a big eye person in horror movies when it comes to like grotesquery, and so I love that scene because it's so gnarly. Yeah, I don't know, like I'm a team player, I will move five down to four, but I think five is really, really solid.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're making me want to go back and rewatch it now, just because, again, that's the one I've seen the least and david kochner.
Speaker 1:David kochner is so goddamn funny in everything he's in, of course, but especially in, like the, the cold open, if you will, the premonition scene, where he's looking at our main character. He goes look at me, what's my name? And he's like dennis.
Speaker 1:And he's like now, look away, like he is just the biggest asshole boss and he's so good at it, he plays that kind of character so well. So yeah, I final destination five. I would almost make the case for this as being the lost horse sequel. Sequel within the franchise, because I think it is. It has a lot to appreciate and outside of the trappings of the franchise. To begin with, you know, just like spotty cgi and bad acting here and there, like I think it's pretty flawless, to be honest well, that, yeah, that then that sounds like it deserves a re-examination on my part for sure.
Speaker 1:So then, what is at your three spot? The two of you.
Speaker 2:So this is where I have Final Destination 2 at.
Speaker 3:Interesting. I have the first Final Destination on this one. That is personal preference, but yeah, I like it like you even with the devin saw of it all you guys need to let that go, because that was just we did not we did not start this fire well, that was a different time.
Speaker 1:I was three and also he was much younger. We can't hold what she said at three years old against her once.
Speaker 3:Devin reached puberty. I mean, I didn't even know first of all, I didn't even know what his name was. When I first saw Casper, just mind you, he was like a little bit older crowd, like the girls were loving Devin. I didn't know any better. I didn't pay attention to him after Casper. So let's just let's just set the record straight. But no, I um the first one. Yeah, the. I mean it's good. This is not a movie that I saw like when it came out. You know this, I was eight years old when this movie came out and I'm sure I didn't. I watch this movie until you know, many years later watching it. The second and third one are much more impactful to me, just culturally. But yeah, I think that it's. It's obviously a really great movie. It's what sets the entire franchise up. Obviously it's. It deserves recognition. It's just not my favorite one. But some really solid kills. The airplane sequence doesn't really do a whole lot for me.
Speaker 2:Well it's. It's a really interesting sequence, because this comes out in 2000,. Right Like literally a year later.
Speaker 1:This part of why I think this movie is so important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it doesn't. It would never exist because, as we all know, a year later was 2001, in which the life in the US what happened, Max?
Speaker 2:Took a turn. There was a terrible, terrible attack on New York City. So yeah, I think the first one is really important and kind of, you know, I liked what alex was saying earlier about it, how it is high concept and very like stripped down and and compared to where we go with the franchise right, even though, like a lot of the zany and wacky and fun of final destination, especially in the later movies, is from again these looney tune kills. The first one is is such a it's almost more of a thriller rather than like one of these. Like you know, it's almost like what kill, kill porn, uh, which is like its own kind of genre or whatever.
Speaker 2:So I have two here because, again two, you know, I think a lot of what helps to get into the top three is that opening sequence. However, a lot of it after that, as opposed to actually there's one kill in two that I think is probably my favorite kill, which is the hot rod guy in his kitchen getting the hand stuck in his garbage disposal, because A that has been just like a major fear of mine, since I was a child, since I knew what a garbage disposal was, and also, again, just like a great fake out right as soon as he gets his hand stuck in there, you're like, oh, we're gonna have, you know, finger linguine here in a little bit.
Speaker 2:He ends up getting it out, then his apartment gets on fire, so now you're thinking he's going to be charred.
Speaker 1:He ends up getting out and we, we get down to the bottom of the alleyway and then a ladder comes down and smashes fire escape ladder yeah, also, another amazing sequence too, because it involves it heavily, heavily involves the usage of an answering machine, which is so great. This character has recently won a small fortune in the local lottery and so he has all these people hitting him up, all these chicks specifically, yeah, who are hitting him up, and he is like making I don't know. He's making like instant mac and cheese or something in his kitchen. I forget what it is, but he's just like, yeah, what?
Speaker 2:did you call him a hot rod guy? Yeah, uh. So yeah, I really really love that kill and and again. Two is like, I believe, what two came out in 2000, 2003, 2003. So yeah, I'm 13 years old when this comes out, so it it does have a bit of more of a nostalgic feel to it for me, which is why which is why it's ahead of something maybe like five that sounds like needs to be.
Speaker 1:Um, I need to go back and rewatch, cause it could be just a better movie overall, I mean the biggest indictment really that I have on five, aside from how I said that you know it has the typical bad acting and spotty CGI, as as most of the films within the franchise do. For me, even though I had number five ranked at three, I stand by that personal ranking. But I do have the premonitionition scene the suspension bridge collapse, as like the fifth, the fifth best premonition out of six. I do feel like that.
Speaker 1:That opening sequence is pretty weak and you know it's interesting enough that actually two of these six premonitions involve things that we're very familiar with one, a suspension bridge and the collapse of a suspension bridge, and then also this sky view, space tower, um, so I don't know what that says about life here in the pacific northwest and, uh, and even logging trucks, you know, really, but but I do think that that that premonition scene in in this second final patient, final destination film is the best premonition scene, right, um, of them all yeah, so, um, yeah, but but I have.
Speaker 2:So I have final destination, the first one at my two spot, okay, uh, and and then I have, yeah, final destination two at three erica, I'm guessing you have. Do you have final destination two at 1 or at 2?
Speaker 3:I have it at 1.
Speaker 2:I have it at 1.
Speaker 3:And I have 3 at number 2. At 2.
Speaker 1:And Alex. So my top 3 goes. I'll just start with 1. I have the original at number 1. And I feel like that's almost as default, and I came in here willing to flex that out because I have final destination three as my two, and that's the one that I think is the real hidden gem of this franchise, and so I'm totally here to entertain a conversation surrounding three as potentially the best film in the franchise, and then, and then I do have five as my number three, with two on the outside looking in as far as the top three goes. So this is messy all of a sudden. We're just saying numbers, if you like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know who knew.
Speaker 1:With F3. So yeah, I mean I guess we need to figure out where we are going to place maybe Final Destination one here, because it sounds to me like there's maybe room to put Final Destination, the first film in the series, in the three spot.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it could easily wait. Max, where did you say you have the first one?
Speaker 2:I have the first one at two.
Speaker 3:So I think it going at two makes sense Right.
Speaker 2:Well, but then that, what, what goes, what goes, we're, we're working on number three, right? We need to place.
Speaker 1:we need to place one, two and three yeah.
Speaker 1:That's we need to place one, two and three, yeah, what we need to do, yeah, and and now I, although I love the cold open that we get on that highway in the second film, I just think that number one overall is just such a better, well executed and original story, and so that's why, almost by default, I have it in the number one spot. But really when it, when it's looked at in comparison to number two, I just feel like two is two is really just like a sequel. Right, it is just running it back and and we're playing the hits, and I just think that you know everything that we get with the teacher and sean williams scott's, or, um, who is it? What's his name? Yeah, sean williams scott, right, he's in the first one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's in the first one, his character in the first one, the teacher in the first one, um, the survivor's guilt, like there's a lot again like really high concept and really emotionally aware. Um, that first one, that first movie is, there's just so many different things. I think Ali Larder's character does a decent job in the second film and kind of exhibiting some of those emotions, but like everything that happens in that first film I just think is like really exciting and unlike anything we had really ever seen before, except for like this one really old Twilight Zone episode that we can get to maybe here. If you guys had a chance to watch that, I don't know, I put it in our little show outline, our little notes in the text message. So I don't know if you guys got a chance to look at that, but this whole idea of like having a premonition of death, it was just so, so cool in in 2000. So that's why I'm, I'm, I'm willing to have a conversation around.
Speaker 1:Three is potentially going number one, but I don't think I. I mean, well, let's talk about it. Putting two above one feels weird to me though.
Speaker 3:I think I'm admittedly putting number two at my number one because of the logs.
Speaker 1:That's fine, Like I'm not attached to this series at all.
Speaker 3:So, um, I think that makes sense. I mean listening to two people who obviously are more excited about this entire franchise than I am. I'm like I mean I just I, you're, you're making great cases for them, so I do I.
Speaker 3:I think that the third, third one I had trouble deciding which one I liked better, the second or the third one, yeah, it's because those are the two that I watched as a kid and you know those were the most impactful like jarring ones to me, whereas the first one just doesn't. Really I don't have any kind of history with that at all yeah, so I think the, the, the second one could go at three, and then number two, the first one and then number one, third, three. Is that what?
Speaker 1:we're talking about. Totally fine with this yeah yeah, I mean that's that's.
Speaker 2:I have three at number one, I, I three. I think is is kind of everything working on every level right and it has probably the best performance in any sort of final destination movie mary elizabeth winstead. Yeah uh, she's wonderful and she's leagues above anyone else. Plus it's got the fucking kid from all those disney original movies and look of the irish look at the irish and the? Uh wasn't a smart house and uh uh wasn't he the mermaid boy too, or something?
Speaker 1:like that, the other me or something, maybe something like that that's one of the lawrence brothers um was.
Speaker 3:No, he was not in the 13th year 13th year.
Speaker 2:13th year, okay yeah.
Speaker 3:Same same timeline, the same year, like era. I guess the third one has my favorite kill which is the tanning bed scene. Yeah, it's my favorite franchise, yeah, um, I think especially watching that too. Uh, growing up in an era where us girls were going tanning a lot too, um, and I'm very claustrophobic- listen.
Speaker 1:Final destination three. Okay, before we just get to final destination three, which we're putting at our number one, final destination two we've talked about the logs. We've talked about ali larder. We've talked about the logs. We've talked about Ali Larder. We've talked about AJ Cook Rock solid. Final Destination 1, the original is in our two spot Devin a king, everything else that happens in the film Really exciting, really fun, really creative. The ingenuity, just like you never really see anything, like it are we are. Can we close the book?
Speaker 3:yes on, yes, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:So here we go for three I think that three you can make the argument because 2006, my god, we. I cannot wait till we hit the 2006 movie draft. But like we just did this with o5 there, there could be the case that, like house of wax, is the most 2005 movie ever made, because you have Paris Hilton and you have Chad Michael Murray and just a perfect encapsulation of what was popular and hip and trendy in 2005. I think the movie that you could maybe make the case for, that is like the most 2006 movie ever made is Final Destination 3. When I think of life as a 16 year old, it is everything that you see in Final Destination three.
Speaker 1:I love what Erica is saying about, like the tanning beds. Like I don't think that that hits now, that there's no way that that would hit now the way that it did nearly 20 years ago when everyone was obsessed with tanning beds. The Hollister, abercrombie low rise jeans. I got got, you know, listen, mary elizabeth winstead is amazing in this. I have to give a shout out to her sister, amanda crew. Amanda crew, she flew too close to the sun. She could have been something. Um, I love. I love her as an actor from this, from this era, this beg this begotten era. You know the hardware store like the drive through window, so much of this movie just works. They have razor flip phones, just like.
Speaker 2:Ryan, miriam in hair.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly Just the styles, the digital cameras Like.
Speaker 3:I have this digital camera on loan from the yearbook.
Speaker 1:like teacher, I guess Like, and I'm taking pictures for the school yearbook. Incredible time capsule from 2006.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's amazing, and the roller coaster premonition is again like top three. It's my second and the you know the.
Speaker 1:The roller coaster premonition is again like it's my second favorite behind behind the logs.
Speaker 2:Yeah it's, it's fantastic, it's really good and always a like a thing you think about. Uh, you know I actually recently got onto a roller coaster for the first time in like I don't know, probably 15 years. And you know you still think about Final Destination and like, oh, I hope everything's like real screwed, real tight on this on this track here, because I don't want to go flying off into the nothing.
Speaker 1:It's the perfect vehicle to for what we now know has been the sequential order in which death is going to come back to take the, the lives that were promised to him, and so I love, whereas, like, everything else is sort of like it's chaotic, it's a bridge collapsing, it's a highway crash, it's a plane crash, and and you have to go back and figure out, at least as an audience member.
Speaker 1:The characters obviously do themselves if they're going to try and solve um kind of death's mystery puzzle here. But, like, the roller coaster is such a great ladder almost for like who was in front of me and then who was behind me and who was behind me, for them to to go ahead and figure it out. So I do love that. And also, too, just like in 2006 that's how you shot and and made a movie with a ton of extras like that opening carnival sequence is really exciting to go back and watch now because there is so much going on, like there is a ton of production that goes into that opening sequence, and not that some of the other films um don't have that as well, but except for like the train, the, the roller coaster cart actually going off the tracks, of course, um, very little, very little. Cgi, as I think erica pointed out at beginning, like to see the amusement park. The lights, the noise, the rides, everything, all the extras, as I mentioned, is just like really endearing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah it's, it's great. We used to. We used to go on location, we used to go find amusement parks and we take teenagers there and shoot.
Speaker 1:I I would also say too that take teenagers there and shoot. I would also say, too that, as much as I do love the tanning bed sequence and it's great, it is so, so good I think it's so strong that it overshadows the hardware store kill sequence as well. Is that the?
Speaker 2:nail gun.
Speaker 1:That's the nail gun, it ends with the nail gun. And that's another just incredible location that when you're watching a final destination movie, and then the way that you go about the rest of your life, every time you step into a lowes or a home depot, you're thinking, oh my god, there are a thousand different ways for me to die in this giant hardware store, you know, just like hundreds of pounds of wood and concrete and everything just stacked on shelf upon shelf above you. That just is like towering over your head. And so I, I love that sequence as well, and so, yeah, I'm, I'm totally happy with, with three as our number one. I think this, I, I think we're all in agreement, sort of that.
Speaker 2:this is the one that is the most well-rounded yeah, I, I think it's from head to toe, the most complete and and again like that, probably the. Is it the hidden gem or is, or would you consider something like five, the hidden, hidden gem? Uh?
Speaker 1:well, I I mean I the way that we've sort of defined this in the past right is once people have maybe thought that the franchise was like dead and gone. Then something comes back and and breathes new life into it, right, but but we've also mentioned in the past that, like, usually this happens with, and so that's when I think of, like maybe the Paranormal Activity franchise and I love Next of Kin and I believe Next of Kin is like the seventh film in that franchise of the Paranormal Activity movies and so that makes me more inclined to think like, well, find a destination. Five after four was a stinker really comes back and surprises people. Or or maybe when you go back and revisit it you'll be surprised because you're like, oh, I thought this was done, like I thought we were kind of dead after 2 and maybe 3, some people have said it's good or whatever.
Speaker 1:but then I see 4 and 4 has like a you know, 2.1 rating on Letterboxd or something like that, but to follow suit with how things have happened in the past, it's always that third movie in the franchise that brings it back. It's Nightmare on Elm Street, dream Warriors, it's Halloween, season of the Witch, and so it makes sense for Final Destination 3, I feel like to be the one that can be considered as good, if not better, than the original.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I totally agree, I think. I mean obviously I had final destination, three at one, it's just. It's just an iconic, iconic film and the poster, the poster too iconic film, and the poster, the poster too, I think also plays into it. You know where the kids are all upside down on the roller coaster.
Speaker 1:Turning more ghoulish as they go, back, as they go further back. I mean, I can just as Erica mentioned, like renting it from the video store. That is just kind of a core memory is seeing that box on the shelf and taking it home. So, OK, is there any room to talk about? What was it? Season two, episode 17 of the Twilight Zone in the episode 22. Did you get?
Speaker 1:I did not get to this, unfortunately I didn't either so I I will just briefly explain for people who maybe want to check it out. It's, I, I believe, right now not only on paramount plus but, uh, I think, on pluto tv and a few other free subscription type of streaming apps. You can find a lot of the twilight zone episodes right now. So check Pluto TV first. Um, but this is. This is a a short, you know 20 minute long twilight zone episode about a woman who has been committed to. She's a performer, she's a dancer is how they phrase it, and she has been committed to a hospital for fatigue and like concerns surrounding her mental health and she keeps having this reoccurring dream, this vision of sorts, that she will uh wake up and head down to the, the morgue of this hospital that she's staying in, and it's a very disturbing, very scary episode of the twilight zone. You know, a lot of them can be sort of supernatural, they can be almost like fiction.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:This is a scary episode of the twilight zone. This woman goes down to the basement and after walking down this long hallway with some really long takes and long holds, going around corners and approaching doorways and things like that, a woman opens up the door to the morgue and says room for one more, and then she snaps out of her nightmare. So she's having this, this dream of of sort of like death and death coming for her. So then at the end of this Twilight Zone episode, she is released from the hospital and she's going to get on an airplane so that she can return to her life. And as she's walking up this is an old airplane where you walk out onto the runway and you go up the staircase that they wheel out there for you to board the plane in that way and as she's doing that, she's starting to see a lot of signs that she's seen from this dream that she's had when she's been staying in the hospital all the way up until the point where she gets to the top of the staircase leading to the airplane and the flight attendant welcomes her on the plane by saying room for one more.
Speaker 1:She freaks out and she decides I'm not getting on this plane and she runs back into the airport and she's having this panic attack. The plane still takes off and as she is in the middle of this panic attack, at the gate of her where her plane's departing, her plane explodes in the sky behind you. Great, just great stuff. And I've never quite seen, like you know, an IMDb trivia fact or anything like that written about how the, the creators, the writers, the director of final destination was ever influenced by this episode of the twilight zone. But like what are we talking?
Speaker 3:about here.
Speaker 1:It's so similar um, and so you know not to say that final destination is adapted from this episode of the twilight zone, but, um, there are definitely worse ways that you could go and spend 20 minutes after you're done listening to this podcast. So I would definitely advise anyone who's interested to go search up episode the episode of the twilight zone that's titled 22, 22. Yeah, it's good stuff. Okay, so that'll do it for a conversation on the final destination franchise. As for what's next, here on the pod we have a little movie from another sort of exciting franchise that's coming out this weekend. Um, are you?
Speaker 3:guys familiar with the mission impossible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a little indie, uh, are you familiar with the mission impossible movies by chance? Uh, we have the final reckoning, which hits theaters this friday, and of course, I gave us a chance to return to the wonderful world of Ethan Hunt.
Speaker 1:Espionage, death, defying stunts, the survival of cinema, the rabbits out the what, the rabbits foot, the rabbits foot, all the great things. So I don't know what do we expect out of this. We thought we would be getting this movie last year. It was, of course, delayed. We're now back. This, I assume, is going to be our last time spending um any amount, with our last time spending time with tom cruise in the role of ethan hunt. So where, where are we at?
Speaker 2:it's. It's gonna be really interesting. I've I've got my ticket set, uh, for friday morning 10 30 the morning. Thank God, bless the theater workers. I will be there. I'm excited to see it. I know that the runtime is quite long and it'll be really interesting. I think. To compare it to I was thinking about this today no Time to Die, which was Daniel Craig's last outing as Bond, and how actually well that was handled and elegantly ended and kind of wrapped up is, does Tom Cruise have the wherewithal to do that with Ethan Hunt?
Speaker 1:Or will we be left? Can he walk away from this character, can he?
Speaker 2:actually walk away.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And you know, I know he's got a. His next project is with a With Inuratu, inuritu, inuritu, and supposedly he's coming back to acting and he's really going to kind of go for it again as far as like awards and whatnot. But can Ethan Hunt die? I think is my biggest question, and I'm going to be really. You know, I love Mission Impossible movies. I love them. I wasn't as high on Dead Reckoning as I was Fallout right, I feel like three through six. We were going up the roller coaster in Final Destination 3, if you will, and now we are kind of on the downtrend.
Speaker 1:So it will be really interesting to see how they wrap this up, and I hope it's good if, if you could just pick like gut check here before before going out to the movie theater, before maybe thinking about it too much, before revisiting any of the other films, would you rather this end the way that, say, the Dark Knight Rises ends with Christian Bale's Batman, or would you rather it end with a no time to die, daniel Craig, blaze of glory.
Speaker 2:I want blaze of glory. Okay, that's what I think, that's what I want, because I don't want, I don't want an open door. I don't, I don't want there to be able to, to go back. You know, I don't want to see 70 year old crews jumping out of a goddamn plane yeah, okay, that's fair.
Speaker 1:Uh, erica, mission impossible. What do those two words mean to you?
Speaker 3:I had no idea it was coming out so soon. I thought it was coming out this summer for some reason.
Speaker 1:This is our Memorial Day weekend movie this year.
Speaker 3:Summer's here. I had no idea I have not seen any of the Mission Impossible movies except for Fallout and Dead Reckoning. I loved Fallout, um, dead reckoning was fun, I was. I mean, fallout was my introduction to the series, um, and so of course I was like this fucking rocks. But then dead reckoning was it was, it was good. I was already like, okay, I'm, I'm in um, but that's, I don't know I I'm excited for this movie. I mean because I'm I'm hoping that this is the last one, because I I'm always a big advocate for like let's just end it while you're already on top, kind of thing, like don't just don't overkill. So I hope that this one goes out with a bang. I'm really excited. I've seen, you know, some of the stuff that tom has done for this and um, you know I I I have no doubt that I'll be very entertained yeah, it's gonna be again.
Speaker 2:It's gonna be interesting. I popped on mission impossible, the original the other day that movie brian de palma's, de palma's mission impossible. That movie is just so fucking good.
Speaker 1:It is so masterfully made like it's just one of the best movies of the decade, the best movies of the 90s. It's just wild. The nineties.
Speaker 2:It's just wild. It's so incredibly entertaining.
Speaker 1:I do believe that when dead reckoning came out, we did a rankings episode, so I don't think it's helpful to go back and do a whole series collective type of episode. So I'm not sure exactly how we'll quantify our discussion surrounding the film, but I'm sure there'll be as Tom always gives us, there'll be plenty of meat on the bone here for us to stew over next week. So until next time, please follow Excuse the Intermission on Instagram the three of us on Letterboxd to track what we are watching between shows, and we'll talk to you next time on ETI, where, of course, the movie still matters. Thank you.
