Now that there’s a sixth installment of Final Destination on its way called Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025), it’s time to revisit all the deaths in the previous five movies. Next up is Final Destination 3 (2006).

This franchise is a slasher, however it is all about how the characters will die in the most original, gruesome or bloody way instead of guessing who the killer might be. That makes this franchise a different kind of slasher and also a difficult one, while each movie has to add more victims, and has to be bloodier and more original than those before.

We have already witnessed an exploding plane, with Death finishing his Design by orchestrating five original deaths. The second movie started off with a huge pile-up and 11 creative deaths, and surprisingly two survivors. We’ve learned that new life can indeed save them. So there is a way to cheat Death. 

A third installment has not an easy task. The bodycount has to be higher, the kills more creative and bloodier. And there has to be added something special or different to keep the viewers interested. 

The overal plot of all these movies is the same. The main character gets a vision about a huge accident and warns their friends and others. They escape the deadly incident, but Death’s Design is now messed up and he is coming for them. Now the real survival starts as they have to find a way to cheat Death. And Death himself will find new exciting, original and bloody ways to kill them one by one.

So let’s see what the third installment brings us. 

Plot

Six years later in real-life as well in the Final Destination universe this third installment has to offer the most elaborate premonition death scene so far. When Wendy is about to go on a rollercoaster ride on the fair with her boyfriend Jason and her best friend Carrie and Carrie’s boyfriend Kevin she has a horrifying vision about the rollercoaster derailing and causing some gruesome deaths.

When she gets out of her fugue, she’s already in her seat next to Kevin who switched places with Jason who wanted to go sit in front with Carrie. Wendy panics and makes a big fuzz, wanting to get out, so the operator releases the safety, but only for the back half of the rollercoaster and she gets out with Kevin and some other classmates. She desperately tries to warn the others on the front side who are about to depart. Jason and Carrie are demanding to get out, but the operator ignores them. After she’s thrown off the ride, the rollercoaster crashes with Jason and Carrie on board. 

Wendy survives the accident and saved Kevin, a jock Lewis, an alumni student Frankie, best friends Ashely and Ashlyn, Goths Ian and Erin and two unknown others. This time technology plays a crucial role in identifying who is going to get killed in what way. Wendy took pictures of all of them at the fair and each picture has a clue that indicates how they’re going to die. Kevin is the one who looked up Flight 180 and sees the connection with Wendy’s premonition, while she thinks it was just a hallucination and due to her guilt she wants nothing to do with it. Until Death is coming for each of them, in order this time.

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Death numbers 1 and 2: Ashley and Ashlyn

Due to the fact that they are best friends and do everything together, it’s fitting they also die together. And in a tanning studio no less. While they are lying inside the tanning bed, several things go wrong. Ashley sets her drink right on top of a box that controls the tanning bed causing a malfunction, as a result of which the temperature rises. When Wendy finds out that they are next she tries to call Ashley who reaches for her phone causing a domino effect of things falling including a shelf that falls between the tanning beds blocking their way out. So they burn alive. A real elaborate fun chain of events that is both caused by Ashley and Ashlyn as well as Wendy, and the stupidity of the shop owner who has shut himself out. Very graphic and the first movie that shows nudity. 

Death number 3: Frankie

When Wendy and Kevin pull up at a drive thru, a truck blocks their way out and another truck that they almost hit a few minutes before, is now rolling off the hill and is coming their way. While Kevin and Wendy manage to get out of the car in time, the driver in front of them has no clue what’s going on and gets his head split open when the truck collides with both cars and the hood and grill of Wendy and Kevin’s car are send hurtling towards Frankie, who is surprisingly in the front car. In a way Wendy is partially responsible for the accident. This is a sudden death. While we expected Wendy or Kevin to die, someone else of whom we even didn’t know was there in the first place, dies. When Wendy and Kevin take in the damage, only then they and we find out it’s Frankie. So this death is not anticipated at all and therefore hardly noteworthy. Just a big surprise. 

Death number 4: Lewis

They figure out Lewis is next and they go see him in the gym. But he refuses to believe them and gets himself all worked up. When indeed a series of freak actions almost kill him, he survives and gets even more worked up doing his final push on a fitness machine, causing two weights of the machine crush his head. So in a way, again, Wendy and Kevin were partially to blame. If he wasn’t that angry he might not have so badly wanted to show them he can beat Death. This gym is not only full of testosterone, but also full of little death traps and dangers everywhere. Who hangs two scimitars right over a weightlifting machine, that’s an accident waiting to happen. Still you can’t predict how Lewis is going to die. It’s not only a big bang after the storm, but also rather graphic and bloody. 

Death number 5: Erin

Now Wendy and Kevin are trying to warn Ian and Erin who work at a hardware store, which is an absolute death trap all by itself. So a freak chain reaction takes place involving a forklift, hamers and loads of other dangerous equipment. But Wendy identifies the danger just in time, saving Ian, but causing Erin to trip into a railgun that fires a couple of nails into her head. When all eyes are on Ian, it’s Erin who bites the dust, and in a very harsh way at that. This one you didn’t see coming and is somewhat similar in set up as Lewis’ death. But they did save Ian and Death has skipped him.

Death number 6: Perry

Now they have to figure out who also got off the rollercoaster. And Wendy is shocked when finding out it’s her sister Julie and one of her two best friends. At the fair Kevin watches out for Julie, finds her but she gets entangled in a rope that is being pulled along by a stampeding horse. Kevin manages to save her, but Death immediately kills Julie’s friend Perry and impales her with a flagpole. Surprise! It was Perry who sat next to Julie. We didn’t even know her and she’s dead before we got the chance. Quick and forgettable. 

Death number 7: Ian

Now only Wendy and Kevin are left to deal with Death. Wendy figures out that Ian is going to cause her death and when he shows up at the fair, she almost gets killed by fireworks. But she ducks and the fireworks also miss Ian only to cause the fall of a neon sign crushing him. This one feels a bit off, because Death has started the cycle again and he’s first, but the other three survive for another couple of months. 

Ranking the 7 or 10? deaths

First of all the premonition scene is the most elaborate and detailed so far. While in the first film everybody explodes at somewhat the same time. In the second movie the enormous pile-up causes everybody to die a different way, but they all just crash and it goes rather in a high speed. But this one, takes its time. Everyone dies a different way and the sequence even has a lot of tension. People trying to save each other by holding on to each other, gives it a whole new dimension and it feels far more frightening and way more horrifying. 

So maybe this movie has failed to come up with more original and gruesome bloody deaths, but it certainly gets credit for the premonition scene. Not only has this installment the most detailed, horrifying, terrifying and graphic premonition scene, it also has a second premonition scene. 

While  it seemed that Wendy, Kevin and Julie have escaped Death, we know that Death never gives up. Five months later they all accidentally meet on a subway train. On the subway Wendy has a vision of the train crashing. Knowing this they desperately try to find a way out, while the screen fades to black. So we will never know what happened to them. So there could be 10 deaths, almost as many as the second movie. It remains to be seen if they escape Death a second time or does Death always gets his way? Maybe we will find out in part 4. 

So the main characters did die, probably, but the deaths weren’t bloodier nor were there more deaths compared to the previous films. Although the premonition scene itself was bloodier and more gruesome. Another thing that is different this time is that the pictures that were taken at the fair all have a clue about how the people in the picture are going to die. Wendy figures this out and tries to warn them, but instead helps Death to kill them off. 

Although the deaths weren’t especially original, there were two death chain reaction scenes that were very entertaining. My favorite death chain reaction is the one with Ashley and Ashlyn. But the deadly chain reaction in a store full of little deathtraps was also very fun. And add to this that a gym is full of deathtraps and dangerous equipment as well. Deaths no.3, no.6 and no.7 are rather quick and easy to forget, all the more so you didn’t even know who was going to be next or that the next victim was even there. My favorite part of this movie was the rollercoaster scene itself. 

What will the fourth installment have in store for us? 

Read more about Final Destination:

• Final Destination (2000) review
• Final Destination (2000) ranking all deaths
• Final Destination 2 (2003) ranking all deaths
• The Final Destination (2009) ranking all deaths
• Final Destination 5 (2011) ranking all deaths