Final Destination [VHS] [2000]

The movie starts off happily enough with a class of high school seniors about to depart for Paris. Once they board the plane, our main man, Alex, cannot quite overcome his fear of flying, as he has a premonition that the plane is going to blow up upon takeoff.

His hysteria is such that he, as well as four other students are escorted off the plane and accompanied by faculty members, one of whom returns to re-board the plane. No sooner does the plane take off, that it blows up in mid air. It seems that fate has snatched these lucky individuals out of death's clutches...or has it?

Their relief, at having escaped being blown up on the plane, turns to terror, as it appears that fate will not have them cheat death. The lengths that these young people go to evade fate, and the steps that fate takes to hunt them down one by one, makes for a crafty and clever thriller. Teens and adults alike will enjoy this flick.

Alex Chance Browning (Devon Sawa) obviously does not love to fly, but he shakes off several bad omens to board the plane taking a large group of his classmates to Paris. Just before takeoff, he has a premonition of imminent disaster and ends up getting himself, five classmates, and a teacher, thrown off the plane. While his fellow stranded travelers tell him off and ridicule his claim to have somehow seen the plane explode after takeoff, the plane does indeed explode just as Alex predicted. These six other people seem more upset than grateful to Alex for having essentially saved their lives, and he finds himself a social outcast and even a person of interest to the FBI. Things only get worse from here. His circle of seven survivors begins to die off one by one, and Alex begins to see a pattern in these events. He comes to believe that he somehow messed up Death's plan, and now Death is coming to claim the lives of the seven who were supposed to die in the plane crash. He figured out that plan once already, and he is determined to figure out whatever new design Death throws at him. If he and any of his friends are to survive, Alex must outsmart the Grim Reaper yet again, a tough task indeed.

There is not as much character development as I would have liked in Final Destination, but this does keep one from getting too attached to a character slated to die. The relationship between Alex and Clear Rivers (Ali Larter) is especially ambiguous. One character really stands out in the movie, despite his relatively short appearance: Tony Todd (of Candyman fame). He plays a disturbingly dark, strange mortician whose ruminations about death really push the horror aspects of the movie to a higher level. The death scenes are, for the most part, quite delightful. One in particular occurs so suddenly and out of the blue that you have to just stop and give the moviemakers a little love. A decapitation scene came off a little unrealistically, but all of the other special effects were quite impressive. I have to say I really love the ending of the film; it is such a rare thrill to see a cold-blooded concluding moment rather than a sappy fairy tale ending.

Speaking of fairy tale endings, that is exactly what the first cut of this movie had, along with a romantic element that ultimately found itself on the cutting room floor. Not only can you see the deleted scenes and alternate ending on the DVD, you can learn the reasons why the changes were made. The DVD includes a short documentary discussing the screen tests done for the film; as a result of these screen tests, the movie was altered rather dramatically in order to better please the intended audience. This documentary provides some great insight into how movies actually get made. A second documentary tells the story of a real-life "intuitive investigator." While this 19-minute feature is interesting up to a point, I really do not see why in the world it was included here. Back on the plus side, there are several commentaries of the movie included on the DVD. Final Destination is quite a good movie in and of itself, and this bounty of extra features makes the DVD a great purchase for those who enjoy psychological thrillers.