Review of Final Destination 2 (2003) by Corrado D — 07 Sep 2010

What?? A sequel to Final Destination?? Well.... I did enjoy that film so I'll go to watch this. But we all ready know how it works, so I don't see them putting in any twists...... oh how wrong I was.

The film starts off with a very familiar opening credit scene. Very dark, disturbing, mysterious. The background reveals a news story that it is the anniversary of the flight 180 crash (the plane from Final Destination 1). The audience is reminded of the premise, that those who escaped then died in the order they would have done had they not escaped the plane crash. Also discussed is that there was a suggestion that death has a design, and by cheating it the first time the survivors were subject to violent deaths which appeared to be bizzare accidents because it was still their time, and you can't cheat death.

(SPOILERS BELOW).

Then meet Kimberly, she is preparing for a road trip with her friends. She's a nervous driver anyway, ensuring everyone is buckled up for safety and commenting on other people's poor driving (such as the lorry driver having a swig off his beer). She even has to change the radio a few times due to the songs (one of them being Highway to Hell). In what can only be described as typically over-hyped hollywood car crash, we see several people meet a sudden, explosive end. Although I enjoy the scene, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that 1) nobody's brakes seem to be in full working order cause I can tell you I wouldn't have driven the same distance they all did when the shit hit the fan, and 2) they also seem to be smuggling extremely sensitive explosives as all but 3 vehciles explode much easier than a real car would.

Flash back to Kimberly on the on-ramp. She is freaked out by the premonition she just had, and checking the radio for Highway to Hell to prove her fear right (which I must point out is odd given that she goes to a different radio station) Kimberley blocks the on-ramp. Officer Burke (who was the first to die in the crash) comes along to see what the hold up is, and manages to pull Kim to safety as a truck crashes into the side of her car killing her friends. A quick look at the carnage on the road shows a sign that reads "180 ahead".

Kimberly is apparently familiar with the story of flight 180 and tells the fellow survivors (who have been shepherded at the police station) that her premonition was just like Alex Browning's. They all disbelieve her, except for Burke, and leave. Surprise surprise, one of the survivors, Evan Lewis, dies in a tragic accident that is almost a small homage to Val Lewton's death, in that lots of things go wrong that could potentially have killed him, but don't only for it all to stockpile, and domino to his eventual death.

The news report the death, Kimberly sees it and upon speaking to Burke, discovers that Clear Rivers is still alive, holed up in an asylum as voluntary patient in a padded cell. The rules are that you aren't allowed to take anything sharp, metallic, chockable.... or potentially dangerous in anyway into her room.

Kimberly meets Clear, who tells her the rules discovered in the first film. However, death is not playing by the same rules. Kimberly points out that the last to die in her premonition were her friends, but they were killed seconds after the crash occured. Clear concurs that death is working backwards, but can't suggest why. A plea and a dressing down from Kimberly, Clear is left contemplating the life she is preserving.

Kimblery and Burke go to Norah and Tim's house, who are next to die if death is truly working backwards. They're not there but a reflection of non-existing pigeons has Kimberly in a flap leading to the worst line in the film "Norah and Tim are going to be killed by pigeons".

Anyway, turns out that's not a stupid sentiment as when they finally catch up to Norah and Tim, yelling a warning about the pigeons causes Tim to scare a nearby flock, sending them up to workmen above who, trying to avoid the pigeons, accidentally drop a huge plan of glass down to the ground to crush Tim (who had just managed to avoid death by dentistry).

Clear shows up outside of the asylum, determined to beat death once and for all and claim back her life. A visit to an old friend (the creepy mortician) reveals a new clue "New life defeats death". If a life comes into being that was never on death's list, the design must be scrapped and death would have to start again - what luck! There was a pregnant woman on the on-ramp, and she looked ready to drop at any day.

Gathering the survivors at Burke's flat (he got all their details through his work as an office), they tell them the rules and give them all cell phones so that they can easily be reached and warned of a sign. Norah decides she doesn't care, she's all ready lost her husband, and now her son, if it's her time to die to be with them so be it. She leaves, followed by Eugene, a teacher who doesn't believe in fate or that death is coming for them. He does however take a cell phone to give to Norah at Kimberly's plea. Meanwhile Kat sneaks out for a cigarette. She's a little freaked out, but not a true believer. She misses the lift and has to take the stairs. Norah and Eugene are on the lift, with a man with manacin arms in a box. Some of them are handless and have hooks on the end instead. Rory has a small accident trying to safe-proof the apartment and sees a shadow of a man with hooks for hands. Kimberly phones Norah, who drops the phone. Bending down to pick it up, her hair gets caught in a hook - unbeknownest to her. When Kimberly tells her to be on the lookout for a man with hooks, Norah panics and tries to run out of the lift (which has been explained to be malfunctioning). Her head gets caught in the doors and the lift goes up. Eugene, Clear, and Kat all try in vain to push Norah's head out of the lift, and she is decapitated. Eugene (being in the lift) returns to the flat first and attempts to shoot himself with Burke's gun. It fails to to fire on every shot - it's not Eugene's turn. Kat walks in with Clear, covered in blood. She's a believer now.

So the group are in a car, on the way to the pregnant woman who Burke has arranged to be arrested so she is safe in a cell and can't be killed. The group begin discussing near death experiences when the twist of the film is revealed. Kat explains that she was on her way to a motel when the coach she was on ran over and killed a young girl. She didn't make it to the motel, which had a gas leak and killed all the guests. The girl that was killed was Terry Chaney (FD1).

Eugene says he was called to substitue for Val Lewton (FD1), and that day a kid in his class brought a knife to school, and killed the teacher standing in for Eugene.

Rory reveals he had tickets to a show in Paris, but a coach crash lead to a sign falling down, killing someone and causing chaos. He missed the show, and wasn't there when the theatre collapsed that night. That sign killed Carter (FD1).

Kiberly reveals that she was at the mall one day with her Mum. She was distracted by a news story about a boy hanging himself in a bathtub. She was seperated from her Mum, who was car-jacked in the parking lot and killed. The story was off Tod Waggner's death (FD1).

All the people who should have been killed on the freeway, would all ready have been dead had death not had to kill the flight 180 survivors. They were loose ends resulting from flight 180 that needed to be tied up. That's why death is working backwards.

Ironically pregnant lady goes into labour and is rushed to the hospital by another officer who accidentally runs the group of survivors off the road.

Eugene is badly injured and rushed off in an ambulance. Rory saves a young boy from being run over (this is important later). Kat is trapped in the car, with a pipe sticking through her headrest. Stressed, she is having a cigarette and fails to see the petrol leak under the car. The fireman trying to cut her free inadvertantly set off her airbag, pushing her head into the pipe behind. As she dies, she drops her fag, which follows the leaked petrol back to the news van from which it is leaking (the same van that nearly killed the farmboy). The van explodes, causing a barb wire fence to be propelled across the field slicing Rory into three large parts, and one small part (and no, it's not his penis).

Clear, Kimberly and Burke rush to the hospital after Kimberly has a vision of what appears to be a Dr Kardshian killing the baby that they hope will save them. Pinning the Dr against a wall, the baby is successfully born. Celebrating their triumph over death, Clear goes to find Eugene to tell him the news. Then Kimberly has another premontion, which is actually a flashback, and realises that the pregnant lady did not die in the original crash. Therefore, her baby is not a life that would never have existed. No new life, noe death cheating KABOOM. Eugene's room blows up as a result of a malfunction with his oxygen tank. The explosion takes Clear with Eugene, and Kimberly and Burke are the only ones left. Then Kimberly sees an article about a drowning victim being given new life. She pieces together premonitions throughought the film that had previously been misinterpreted, to formulate a plan in which she drives an ambulance into a nearby lake, drowns, dies, and then is resucitated by Dr Kardashian. She puts the plan in action, is revived and her and Burke are relieved to have finally beaten death....... for those of you who watched the first film, you would have been with me in being annoyed by this. After all, Alex was revived by paramedics after saving Clear, and it didn't do him, Carter or Clear any good. And also would have surely cleared up the ripples too, and we wouldn't even have a second film. But fear not.......

A few weeks later, Burke and Kimberly are enjoying a bbq at the farm where their crashed. Farmboy mentions that Rory had saved his life, goes over to the bbq and is promptly killed in an explosion.

YOU CAN'T CHEAT DEATH.........

Side note, in FD3 special features DVD it is possible to learn that Kimberly and Burke were eventually killed trying to escape a runaway truck, and falling into a woodchipper.