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. Let’s revisit the fourth installment.

We already watched Death kill those who have escaped his Design in the most original, bloody and gruesome ways. Three very different kind of deadly accidents were the cause of all this mayhem. An exploding plane, a huge pile-up, and a crashing rollercoaster. What kind of accident has Death in mind to gather some souls this time? And with what original ideas will he come up with to slay those who have escaped him by the means of a premonition that one of them had right before the event? 

The second film did have a larger bodycount, and more original and bloody deaths than the original. It also showed us that new life can save them, with eventually two survivors cheating Death. The third film didn’t have a bigger bodycount than the second, and the deaths were certainly not more creative or bloody. But this third film gave us a big elaborate premonition scene of the rollercoaster crash and as a bonus gave us a second little premonition scene right at the end. And it contained clues in pictures taken from the survivors that told them how they would be killed by Death.

Will this fourth installment have even more extreme kills, and more creative ones? And will everything get bigger and better? And will there be another twist that will make this installment stand out or at least giving it a different touch?

Let’s take a look and go to the race track. 

Plot

The fourth installment takes us to the race track. Nick, his girlfriend Lori, her best friend Janet and her ex-boyfriend Hunt are watching the cars, when Nick has a vision about a car crashing into the crowd, causing the stadium to collapse, killing his friends, a bunch of other people and himself. When he comes out of his fugue he can predict all the small actions that are going to take place and he panics. Wanting to get his friends and himself out of the stadium, a scuffle breaks out and a lot of other people as well are guided outside by the security guard. While they stand outside arguing with each other, all hell breaks loose in the stadium. There are initially 9 survivors, but there’s a new twist. 

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Death number 1: Nadia Monroy

While they are standing right outside the stadium Nadia gets hit by a flying tire and is squashed. Just like the second film, Death wants to hurry it up and gets started right away. It’s very unexpected. So soon after the disaster, actually it is still happening. It was so quick we didn’t even get a good look. 

Death number 2: Carter Daniels

This racist tow truck driver Carter blames George the security guy who stopped him from going back into the stadium for his wife who was still inside. So he is planning to put up a burning cross in George’s front yard. But he gets entangled in his own tow chain, while the truck begins to drive away it drags Carter along. The chain sparks up a fire and Carter is set on fire, with an explosion to finish him off. He’s is getting dragged very slowly and he’s on fire for quite some time. This is the first time a survivor is a racist and highly unlikeable and his death feels like karma. 

Death number 3: Samatha Lane

Samantha, another survivor is a mother of two boys who goes into the beauty parlor at the last minute. The beauty parlor though, has some defects. The ceiling fan is loose, the chair doesn’t work properly, a glass of water is put next to a hair straightener connected to the socket, and an inflammable hairspray, while her hair is being cut. So what will finally kill her off? Death has his pick. A little chain of events tries to kill her, but only scare her off. She makes it safely out of the salon. At least at the doorstep. Because outside, Nick’s little vision gave a hint, a guy is mowing the lawn and hits a small rock that is sent flying into Samantha’s eye, killing her at once. A quite elaborate and fun scene with a twist at the end. We can now safely say that a chain of events, and death traps waiting to happen are Final Destination’s signature kills and the most fun ones. 

Meanwhile Nick has a premonition about each person who’s going to die next, just like he had a vision about Samantha’s death. He sees all kinds of objects that have something to do with the upcoming death. He teams up with Lori and George the security guard to find the order in which the survivors are going to die and to warn them.

Death number 4: Andy

Andy is up next, so Nick, Lori and George warn him. While they try to convince him outside the auto repair shop where he works, that he is in danger, a pulley is pulled free and launches off a carbon dioxide tank that smashes Andy into the metal grid fence. Small pieces of him breaks through the fence, making this kill short but graphic and creative. 

Death number 5: Hunt

Nick has a vision about water, and since he can’t tell who died first in his initial vision, Hunt or Janet, as they died together, they must split up to save Hunt and Janet. Hunt is at a swimming pool at the country club and Janet is going to the car wash. Now we have two death scenes playing out at the same time. And they both involve water. So they both are going to get killed unless someone intervenes. When Hunt throws a water gun in an enclosed shed he accidentally turns on the water drainage of the pool. When his lucky coin rolls into the pool, he dives after it, but he gets too close to the drain, that is sucking him in. 

Meanwhile Janet has trouble with her car roof that opens and doesn’t want to close, while she’s in the car wash. As a malfunction also causes a water pipe to break, the car fills up with water rather quickly. She tries to get out through the roof, but the roof is trapping her, while the car slowly rolls towards the big brushes, wanting to crush her head. 

At the same time Hunt is stuck with his but in the drain. Nick is just in time to see the drainage system overload and spews Hunt’s intestines and blood as a fountain all over the place, as Hunt is sucked into the drainage pipe. Very fun and gory and bloody and maybe even a bit fitting. What a way to go. 

As for Janet. Lori and George arrive just in time, pushing Janet’s car backwards with their own, saving her and intervening. 

Death number 6: Jonathan

Although Nick originally thought that he saved eight other lives at the race track, he also  prevents Jonathan from moving seats and in doing so, Jonathan was found alive beneath the rubble instead of killed. Jonathan lies in the hospital, but the space right above him is a therapy bathroom. The orderly forgets to turn off the water so it keeps flowing setting the room under water. The bathtub and all the water gets so heavy that the ceiling cracks. Jonathan desperately tries to escape and crawls over the floor to get away, but the ceiling bursts and bathtub with water and all and ceiling fall right on top of him. We never knew about him so that’s a little twist in the story. The death itself was entertaining enough. 

Death number 7: George

George tries to kill himself, but Death wont let him. Instead Lori and Nick save him. Now it’s up to George and Nick to save Lori and Janet. Nick had a premonition of them sitting in the movie theater at the mall, while the theater explodes causing the whole mall to explode. When they are on their way, Nick has this vision, and ironically when he ‘wakes up’ again, he and George are crossing the street. As Nick wants to tell George about his premonition, George gets hit by an ambulance. Very surprising and shocking. Quick but bloody, no one saw this kill coming. 

But heads up, there’s something entirely new at play here. Because after George is killed, Nick rushes to the mall, because Lori will be next. Lori and Janet go see a movie after doing some shopping but there’s construction work going on in the mall, right behind the movie theater. Gas barrels are set on fire and are about to explode. Nick manages to convince Lori to get out of the theater partly because she had seen signs that reminded her of small actions at the race track accident. She leaves but Janet refuses and gets blown up with the rest of the audience. Lori and Nick run for their lives and take the escalator, but it collapses and Lori gets stuck in the grinders, squashing her to a pulp right before Nick’s eyes. And then he wakes up just in time to see George get hit by the ambulance. So what do we have here? A very elaborate vision that explicitly shows the deaths of Janet and Lori and many many others at the mall.

But now Nick knows exactly what’s about to happen and stops the explosion and saves not only Lori and Janet but also the lives of many other people. Where does that leave Death’s Design. Does he now have to kill hundreds of other people who were at the mall and were supposed do die? Then he has some catching up to do. He will be very busy. 

Death number 8, 9 and 10: Janet, Lori and Nick

Meanwhile Nick, Lori and Janet have successfully cheated Death. Or have they? Again Nick sees signs all around him as the three of them sit in a cafe called Death by Caffeine. All the signs lead to the race track. So he wonders out loud, did Death lead them to this point, (implicitly saying that he was supposed to save all the people at the mall?) to be killed there and then. Was this the Design all along? The moment he said it, a truck swerves away from a falling scaffolding and crashes right into the three of them.

Ranking the 10 deaths

Just like the third movie, this one also had a second premonition death scene. But this one was far more elaborate. In fact while watching you think this is really happening mainly because of George’s death. A death which in fact Nick experiences twice. The second premonition death scene also had a very gruesome death scene with Lori being dragged into the grinders of the escalator, completely getting crushed to a pulp. While Janet’s death was quick and fiery. That gave a new twist to the franchise and a fun one. Question is whether all the saved people at the mall, should or shouldn’t have died. 

This installment gave us a fountain of blood, an explosion and a fun chain of events with a twist. I really did enjoy the creative death of Jonathan. Very ingenious or maybe rather tedious, either way it was very entertaining. The scenes of Hunt and Janet who were playing out simultaneously was a great new idea, and the fate of poor Hunt really sucked. Carter and Samantha died from a deadly chain of events. While Samantha’s death was fun and original, Carter got what he deserved. 

This fourth installment really was bigger and more extreme. With two great premonition scenes. The second one was even bigger and better than the first and served as a great twist to the story. And lastly with quite creative and original death scenes this fourth film really came through. 

Read more about Final Destination:

• Final Destination (2000) review
• Final Destination (2000) ranking all deaths
• Final Destination 2 (2003) ranking all deaths
• Final Destination 3 (2006) ranking all deaths
• Final Destination 5 (2011) ranking all deaths