The Final Destination franchise is all about how Death will not allow people to cheat it and, when they do, it seeks revenge in a variety of nasty, Rube Goldbergian ways. Because of this, there is naturally an immense roster of creative, outlandish kills in the series, even more so than a typical slasher franchise. So cutting the wheat from the chaff to craft a Top 10 is much more difficult than usual, but never fear.
Let me bravely guide your path toward the best and bloodiest ways that FD characters have shuffled off this mortal coil.
A note: I won’t be counting any deaths from the franchise’s signature opening sequence premonitions here, as they technically don’t happen in-universe, and they’re generally so stellar that they deserve their own article.
For a ranking of every entry in the franchise, click here!
The Top 10 Deaths in The Final Destination Franchise
#10 Surprise Bus (Final Destination)
The “surprise death” has become a staple of the franchise, but – as is so often the case – the first is the best.
#9 LASIK (Final Destination 5)
This one is ranked slightly lower because the actual Death (Olivia falling out of the window) isn’t that interesting. But the way it plays out beforehand is pitch perfect grossout thriller tension-building. From the way it harnesses everyday fears (I haven’t gotten LASIK myself, but I imagine this is what everyone who gets it worries is going to happen) to the eye trauma to the hand trauma, this is a laundry list of some of the nastiest and most brutal ways to terrorize both a character and the audience.
#8 The Kitchen (Final Destination)
Just like the bus sequence, the Death of poor Ms. Lewton was the progenitor of many future Final Destination scenes, this time of the Rube Goldberg variety. This scene drags out her Death by putting her in an increasingly impossible situation and closing on a bloody moment where the thing that might save her – the dish towel – ends up spelling her doom. Plus, that gory little punchline at the end where the falling chair deals the killing blow is just deliciously nasty.
#7 The Fire Escape (Final Destination 2)
The fire escape sequence perfectly encapsulates everything the Final Destination franchise does best. It has a drawn-out rise and fall and deals the killing blow exactly when Evan thinks he’s escaped. But on top of the final moment, the entire four-minute sequence is chock full of fun grace notes, from the harrowing garbage disposal moment to the cheeky little foreshadowing of the fridge magnets spelling out “E Y E.”
#6 Shower Strangulation (Final Destination)
Because the first movie was a little less elaborate and focused on things that might conceivably happen to a human being in real life, its kills are less outré, but no less brutal for it. Seeing the veins in Tod’s eyes burst as he is being strangled is a deeply chilling injection of body horror verisimilitude.
#5 The Airbag (Final Destination 2)
This is the Final Destination equivalent of the photographer going, “Now, let’s do a fun one.” Kat survives a car wreck, only to have the airbag (something that’s meant to keep them safe) smash their head into a broken pipe. It’s funny, it’s gruesome, it’s a blast.
#4 The Pool (The Final Destination)
Sure, this may not be the best or most believable setup in the world, but this Death has everything it needs. 1) An everyday, commonplace fear dragged from the back of the collective subconscious. 2) A truly awful way to go that allows for an explosion of blood. 3) Shirtless Nick Zano. Hey, I don’t make the rules.
#3 The Weight Bench (Final Destination 3)
One of the best misdirects in the entire series! After the scene focuses so hard on the clattering swords on the wall, only for them not to hurt Lewis, they do indeed become instruments of Death, but in a way that nobody would have expected (and one that allows for a lovely explosion of blood, another staple of the franchise).
#2 The Balance Beam (Final Destination 5)
The balance beam kill! Truly a tension sequence of epic proportions, both because of how much it draws out the audience’s anticipation of the fact that this poor gymnast is going to die epically and because of the downright Hitchcockian way that the sharp screw on the balance beam triggers the most squeamish, intimate fears hidden deep within our psyches. Nobody really has a sense of what getting decapitated feels like, but we can all squirm in revulsion at the thought of a tiny sharp object piercing the sole of our foot.
The only reason this is #2 is the same reason the LASIK kill is ranked so low: the actual Death isn’t the reason this scene is great. Just like Candice herself, it doesn’t really stick the landing, even though it is decently gnarly in its own right.
#1 The Falling Glass (Final Destination 2)
Look, the Final Destination franchise courts simple pleasures like watching a kid get squashed like a grape by a falling pane of glass, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a good ol’ explosion of gore, especially one this perfectly rendered. Not everything has to be Hitchcock.