Final Destination 2 (dir. David R. Ellis, 2003)
A fun fact about Final Destination 2, during production, it was decided that the film wasn’t violent enough, and scenes were re-shot to make the death scenes all the more violent and elaborate. The best death in the film: A car explosion propels a section of barbed wire fence through the air at high speeds, razoring a victim into several parts as it speeds around him. Neat! Never seen that one before. The opening accident is this time a highway pileup wherein people are burned, exploded, and crushed by flying truck logs. The psychic this time is Kimberly (A.J. Cook).
Another fun element that Final Destination 2 introduces, compounding the wicked fatalism of the series: there may be hope. In this film, our heroes once again visit the pathologist Bludworth (Tony Todd) and he explains that Death may be offset by Life. This means that an unborn baby may very well hold the key to their salvation somehow. The funny thing about Death’s plan, though, is that it always corrects itself. So while much of Final Destination 2‘s drama hinges on whether or not Kim will be able to save an unborn baby, we learn at the film’s end that it won’t work. In a series devoted to undoing everyone’s life, I don’t think that revealing the twist endings are any sort of spoiler.
It’s heavily implied that Tony Todd’s character, because he seems to take such glee in the frustrated attempts of the hero teens to outrun their violent destiny, is in fact Death himself. In conversations with peers, friends have referred to him as Death, even though the series never makes that explicit. I like to think that Bludworth is just a human who is highly in tune with Death, and not a supernatural entity himself.
Again: The only reason we see these films is the spectacular death scenes, and Final Destination 2 has plenty. It also has a few survivors, and I’ll have to reveal that Kim does survive to be in Final Destination 3. Guess what happens to her in that film. Oh yes, and Ali Larter returns, revealing that it’s been a whole year since the events of the last film, and that she now hides out from Death in an asylum cell. Kim eventually meets with her, and we learn complex connections the characters in part two had to the events of part one. It’s all hokum, really. I admire the screenwriters’ attempts at mythbuilding, but I will have none of it. Guess what happens to Ali Larter in part two.
The final shot of the film is a mother screaming in terror as her son’s charred severed arm lands on her lovely summer picnic. That’s why we see these things. Indeed, thanks to its ramped up gore, its clearly rushed production, and higher body count, Final Destination 2 is a lot more fun and cheesy than the original. The first actually had sights on being scary. This one finally knows what’s what.
Be sure to join me next week, as I’ll be continuing through the bizarre twists in this series, some actual plot developments, and two attempted “final” chapters. Until then, look out for knickknacks.
Witney Seibold is the head film critic for Nerdist, and a contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. You can read his weekly articles Trolling, and The Series Project, and follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
