Final Destination 2 is a 2003 supernatural thriller, and sequel to Final Destination (2000). Directed by David R. Ellis starring A. J. Cook as Kimberly Corman, and Ali Larter as Clear Rivers. The film is set in White Plains, New York and in the proximity of Greenwood Lake, NY, in 2001, a year after the events of the previous movie and has two returning characters; Clear Rivers and the mortician William Bludworth. Grossing $16,017,141 on its opening weekend in the US, which was a significant portion of its overall profit. It was a minor hit, debuting in its first week at #2 and falling from then onwards.[1] It was followed by Final Destination 3.
Plot
The film takes place one year later after the Flight 180 curse from the first film. It begins with a TV newsman talking about Flight 180 and its survivors and who got killed. Only one person survived, Clear Rivers (Ali Larter).
Then we meet Kimberly Corman (A.J. Cook), who is going on a road trip with her friends.
They start their trip. She is driving with her one girl friend and two stoners in the back. Her dad calls her and tells her that her transmission fluid is low and to get it checked. She says ok and hangs up. Her friend tells her not to stop the car, though, when the warning light comes on. While driving, Kim sees a bus full of rowdy football players, a jocky looking guy, a cyclist, a mom and her son, a truck with logs, a guy drinking in a truck, a stoner, and a cop. Then, when the cop spills his coffee, the truck's cargo falls off. One of the logs goes through his window, splattering his head and splertting blood everywhere. The stoner's car flips over the cops, the cyclist falls off and his rammed by his motorcycle, the mom and son's car blow up, and the stoner gets hit by a truck. Kimberly's car flips and she thinks all is okay, until she sees the jocky looking guys car on fire. It gets hit by the other truck, which comes for her car, until she wakes up out of a premonition.
She stalls her car on the entrance ramp, stopping some people, the cyclist (Eugene Dix), mom and son (Tim and Nora Carpenter), a pregnant mom (Isabella Hudson), the jock aka lottery winner (Evan Lewis), the stoner (Rory Peters), a rich girl (Kat Jennings), and the cop (Tom Burke). He stops and asks Kim why she is blocking traffic. Shes says that she saw a mass pile-up. He doesn't believe her, until the truck passes by. The cars start blowing up. Kim freaks out, Tom runs to his cop car to alert the other cops, and runs back to save Kimberly from an oncoming truck, which hits her car, killing her friends. She cries and is taken back to the police station with the others.
They all talk about how coincidental it is that Kim saw it just like Alex Browning did in the first film. Eugene tells everyone about it, how everyone died. Tom notes that one lived, Clear Rivers. They all talk about how they are going to die, and then leave. Kimberly's dad arrives and takes her home. She talks to her dad about her mom and all the death stuff.
First, we see Evan, who was a lucky lottery winner and is getting a bunch of messages from women over his money. His microwave blows out as his hand gets stuck in the garbage disposal, after trying to get his ring. He throws a chair at a window and gets out of his apartment right before it blows up. He climbs down a ladder, which won't come down, so he forcefully jumps on it, making it fall. He lands on his feet, but slips on some food. The ladder comes down within inches of his head, and then it impales him through his right eye.
We see Tom looking up on articles about the Flight 180 incident. He comes upon Alex Browning, the survivor from the first movie, who apparently, while with Clear, was killed by a falling brick. Then we see the other survivors from the car incident, watching the news. Kimberly sees it and goes to her room. She looks at all her pictures of her friends, looks up Clear Rivers, and goes to the mental institution where Clear is. She talks to Clear, who tells her that she should just save herself, and that all her friends will just die. She feels kind of guilty after Kimberly storms out. She goes home and finds Tom there. They talk until Kimberly sees a reflection of a bunch of pigeons. She turns and nothing had been there. Then we see Clear in her cell, where she has a sudden change of heart.
Tim and his mom, Nora, are at the dentist. Tim goes inside. The dentist is about to put a syringe in his mouth, when a pigeon hits the window. The dentist says he can't do the shot with the distraction, so he gives Tim laughing gas instead. Back in the main room, a fish tank has just begun leaking near a half-pulled out plug. As he is drilling, the dentist hears glass break, and leaves Tim with his mouth open. While Nora and the dentist are trying to get rid of the bird, the plug blows up the circuits. The gas tank turns up all the way, making Tim's whole body numb. A plastic fish falls from the ceiling into Tim's mouth, who chokes and almost dies until the dentist's aid takes it out. They leave after Tim almost dies. Tim walks through a construction site next to the dentist's office, while standing under a giant glass window. He scares a flock of pigeons, one hitting the release switch on the crane holding the window, which makes the glass fall, crushing Tim.
Nora cries over the incident. Kimberly arrives and tries to take Nora away, but Tom stops her. She says that Nora is next. Then Clear arrives. She takes them to the morgue, where they meet the mortician, William Bludworth (Tony Todd). He tells Kimberly that the only way to stop death is to create new life. She doesn't understand, but this comes to importance later. While at a gas station, Kimberly has a weird vision, that she is driving a van and it crashes into a river. Tom then realizes that new life could mean pregnancy. There had been a pregnant woman stopped before the incident. Tom sends out an APB on the white van the woman was driving.
All of the survivors gather at Tom's apartment. They all talk about who's next, Nora knowing it's herself. Kimberly gives them all cell phones, saying that if Kimberly sees something, she will call them. Eugene doesn't believe this stuff, so he picks up his jacket, starting for the door. A ball rolls out into a mousetrap. It snaps and flings up and knocks down a boat, almost killing Clear. She tells everyone to be careful. Somewhere close by, a cop finds Isabella, in the white van, and arrests her for stealing the van, jokingly set up by Tom.
Nora leaves with Eugene in an elevator. They are with another old man, who is carrying a basket full of prosthetic arms. Some of the arms had hands, others had hooks. Back at Tom's, while Rory Peters is securing the potentially deadly things, he knocks down a bunch of stuff. He looks at the ground and sees a shadow of a body and some hooks. Tom calls Nora, who drops her cell, getting her ponytail caught in the hooks, and tells her that hooks are going to kill her. She doesn't understand, until the hooks trap her hair in the cart. The old man tries to get her free, but the elevator opens and she runs out, only to get her head caught between the doors. The elevator shaft tries to go up and Nora is being strangled because she is being choked by the elevator doors, the top of the elevator entrance way, and the floor of the elevator. Kat and Kimberly try to pull her down which cause her to become decapitated. Eugene is scared and crazily goes back to Tom's. He threatens everyone with a gun and puts to his head, shooting six times, with nothing coming out. He breaks down and cries, while Tom inspects the gun. It is fully loaded. Clear says it wasn't his turn.
They leave. Then it shows the cop that pulled over Isabella and Isabella in the prison. As they start arguing, Isabella's water breaks. The cop panics and they leave in her van. Back to the others, they are driving. This is where the first movie comes into play. They talk about near death experiences. Eugene explains that he was a teacher, and he was sent to another school to substitute for a deceased teacher named Valerie Lewton. The teacher that took his place died two days later when a student brought a knife onto the campus. Kat says that she was supposed to die in a gas leak at a bed and breakfast hotel, but the bus she rode there killed Terry Chaney, which delayed her arrival. Then Rory says he was in Paris, on acid and all this stuff, and he was supposed to die at a theater. But he saw Carter Horton get killed by a falling marquee. Tom says that there had been a train wreck (Billy Hitchcock's head and Carter Horton's car from the first film) and that he had been sent to that, while his partner died, where Tom was supposed to go. Kimberly was lured away from a thug fight by a TV report about Tod Waggner who had supposedly strangled himself to death in his shower. They are all connected to the Flight 180 survivors.
As the cop and Isabella are speeding down the road, Kat's tire pops and they almost hit Isabella's van. The car goes crazy, and crashes. A log goes through the side, pinning Kat to her seat, and a sharp pipe fragment through the back of her headrest. She is almost hit by it. Eugene has some kind of liver problem and can't breathe. Some farmers arrive and Kimberly tells them to call 911. He goes to the hospital. A camera crew arrives, only to hit a rock, breaking their gas tank, causing it to leak. Rory hands Kimberly his wallet and his keys, and asks her to get rid of his porno, drugs, and beer... "anything that would break my mom's heart". The son of the farmers, Brian, comes and tries to help Kat, but she hits him, making him run off and tell his dad. Rory then saves the farmer's son from a speeding car. Firemen are using a chainsaw to cut off Kat's door. Kat asks the firemen not to do it so loud, the fireman tells her "Okay, I'll just put it on quiet mode." Kat says "That would be great." The chainsaw forces the airbag to come out, impaling Kat's head into the pipe, killing her. The cigarette she was smoking falls into the puddle of gas from the news truck. A tree falls down as Tom is coming towards Rory. Tom moves out of the way and lies down. The news truck blows up. A barbed-wire fence blows away, rams into Rory's torso, and cuts him into three pieces. The farmer lets them take his truck. They leave. Then suddenly Kimberly starts choking and has a vision of being in the hospital. And a doctor, Dr. Kalarjian, supposedly choking Isabella. She tells Tom and Clear what she saw. Then we see Eugene, who is alright until the vents close. A cord connecting to the gas loosens, releasing it everywhere and cutting off Eugene's air supply and the plug is almost disconnected. They arrive. Clear goes to find Eugene and Tom and Kimberly go to Isabella.
The baby appears to be choking. Tom and Kimberly hear the intercom calling Dr. Kalarjian to Isabella's room. They stop Kalarjian and enter the room. Isabella's baby is fine. Eugene's air comes back from the Emergency battery. They are all celebrating, until Kimberly has another vision. She sees Isabella at the wreck. But not dead. She wasn't supposed to die in the accident. And then she remembers further and sees bloody hands. Clear goes to Eugene's room. The vents are closed, the gas is still in the room. The plug disconnects sparking a fire that incinerates the room, killing Clear and Eugene. Kimberly goes towards Clear's body, which isn't fully burnt. Tom pulls her away. She figures out that the visions are about her. She looks on the wall and sees a newspaper clip, saying "New Life for Drowning Victim." Shes sees a white van pull up. She understands what she must do and takes it and drives into the lake. Tom follows her and tries to get her out. Everything turns dark. Then she awakes to see the vision she saw earlier. Dr. Kalarjian trying to revive her. Tom is at her side and welcomes her back.
Tom and Kimberly are invited to the Farmer's house, the one earlier who called the ambulance for Eugene. They are eating at a barbecue in the back yard. The son, Brian, goes to check on the food. The father explains that before Rory died, he pulled the farmer's son out of the way of an oncoming truck. Tom realizes what will happen, and in the background, we see the barbecue blow up, with Brian also. The arm lands in the mom's plate and she screams.
Characters
- Kimberly Corman (played by A.J. Cook): The female lead, and the visionary whose warning leads to several other motorists and drivers avoiding the accident on Route 23. She was expected to die way before she had her premonition of the pile-up. She explained that a year ago, she and her mother were at a local mall, when a group of thugs started harassing them. Her mother confronted them and died in the process. Meawhile, Kimberly was lured away by a news program at a nearby electronics shop about a teen named Tod Waggner who had supposedly strangled himself to death in his shower. She figured out that to save Tom, she had to die. She took an ambulance and drove it into the lake. She drowned but was saved by Tom and revived later at the hospital. In an uncut scene of Final Destination 3, it is revealed that Kimberly and Tom were killed in a woodchipper accident prior to the five months after the roller coaster incident, though this scene being cut may mean it never happened.
- Officer Thomas "Tom" Burke (played by Michael Landes): A New York state trooper and lead male character. He would have died at the hands of a thief holding someone at gunpoint, but his partner went in his place and was killed instead, since Officer Burke was responding to a call to clean up the remains of Billy Hitchcock near some train tracks. When Kimberly drove into the lake, Tom jumped into the lake to save her, and brought her back to the hospital, where she was revived by the doctor. It is learned in Final Destination 3 that he and Kimberly died when they were killed by a woodchipper, though this scene being cut may mean it never happened.
- Clear Rivers (played by Ali Larter): The lone survivor of the Flight 180 curse from the first film (explaining that Alex Browning died after being struck by a falling brick during the September 11 attacks) who comes out of a self-imposed exile in a mental hospital and uses her experiences to guide the new group of survivors. She is incinerated in the hospital along with Eugene, and she is the seventh one to die.
- Eugene Dix (played by TC Carson): A teacher who is initially skeptical of Death's design, but becomes convinced after witnessing Nora's predicted death. He explained that he would have died sooner at a local school where a student brought a knife on campus, but instead he was transferred to Mt. Abraham High to substitute for Ms. Valerie Lewton after her death. He is incinerated in the hospital along with Clear, and he is the sixth one to die.
- Rory Peters (played by Jonathan Cherry): A drug addict, and the film's comic relief. He was destined to die sooner at a theater in Paris, until he witnessed Carter Horton get struck by a swerving billboard that fell from the top of the theater building. He is killed after an explosion, being cut into several pieces after a barbed-wire fence slices through his torso. He is the fifth one to die.
- Kat Jennings (played by Keegan Connor Tracy): A very direct woman who appears selfish and tends to complain often. She was destined to die at a bed and breakfast hotel where there was a gas leak and almost everyone suffocated. However, the bus she rode there struck a girl (Terry Chaney) on the street, delaying her from arriving. She is killed after being in a car crash and becoming stuck in her seat, when the airbag goes off and impales her head into a pipe protruding from her headrest. She is the fourth one to die.
- Nora Carpenter (played by Lynda Boyd): Nora is Tim's mother, and she is the oldest of the survivors. She is decapitated in an elevator door, and she is the third one to die. A clue to her death was a shadow of a man with hooks.
- Timothy "Tim" Carpenter (played by James Kirk): Tim is 15 years old, and is the youngest of the survivors. He survives a near-fatal choking incident at a dentist's office, but gets crushed by a giant glass window that falls from a crane outside. He is the second one to die. A clue to his death were the pigeons in the mirror.
- Evan Lewis (played by David Paetkau): A young man who recently won $250,000 in a lottery. He escapes a microwave induced fire in his apartment, but is impaled through the right eye by the fire escape ladder. He is the first one to die. A clue to his death was the fridge letter magnet. After the letter "H" fell into his food in the microwave, it spelled "eye". Another clue to his death was the doll with only one eye.
- Isabella Hudson (played by Justina Machado): A pregnant woman that originally wasn't meant to die in the pile-up and did not die in the film. After the mortician, William Bludworth (Tony Todd), told Kimberly, Tom, and Clear that new life defeats death, they figured out that when Isabella had her baby, they would have defeated death. However, Kimberly had a vision showing that Isabella was not meant to die in the pile-up, and thus, they still had to deal with death. Since Isabella was not meant to die in the car crash, no one was safe, and Clear and Eugene died that day.
- Brian Gibbons (played by Noel Fisher): A minor character in the movie who appears in the field scene, but was not on the on-ramp of Route 23. He was originally planned to be run over by a news van, but Rory Peters saved him. He is killed in a barbecue explosion in a cookout. He is the eighth one to die. Oddly, Death saw fit to kill him simply because his life was saved by one of the condemned from Route 23, even though he was only in a position that threatened his life because of the Route 23 survivors being present (the news van was coming to the crash site of Kat's car shortly before her death, and Brian was only there to see the crash).
Music
Soundtrack
- "Main Title" – 2:48
- "Kimberly's Lake Premonition" – 2:03
- "Blow-Out" – 1:44
- "Coincidence-Kimberly Remembers Mom" – 2:27
- "Killer Kayak" – 1:11
- "Nora's Turn-Eugene Freaks" – 3:40
- "Kimberly Goes to See Clear" – 1:51
- "Kimberly Sees Dr. Kalarjan" – 0:47
- "Ba Bye Kat & Mustang" – 1:19
- "Dad and Kimberly" – 0:45
- "Pigeons" – 2:39
- "Eugene's Oxygen" – 2:54
- "New Life" – 1:59
- "2 Left" – 4:21
- "We Did It" – 0:40
Songs featured in the motion picture
- "Dance with Me" - Performed by The Sounds
- "Rock'n Roll" - Performed by The Sounds
- "Highway to Hell" - Performed by AC/DC
- "Jon F. Hennessy" - Performed by FT
- "Middle of Nowhere" - Performed by The Blank Theory
- "Vitamin" - Performed by Incubus
- "I Got You" - Performed by (hed) Planet Earth
- "Rocky Mountain High" - Performed by Pete Snell
- "Rocky Mountain High" - Performed by Jude Christodal
- "My Name Is Death" - Performed by Jude Christodal
Reception
On its release, Final Destination 2 received generally mixed reviews from critics, earning a 47% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While most praised it for its special effects and inventive death sequences, some dismissed it as being 'an average sequel to an average movie'. Nevertheless, this film topped the Rotten Tomatoes score in terms of the series, with the highest score amongst the four films in the franchise.
The film has landed on many "best car crash/accidents" lists including one by New York Magazine which cited the highway pile-up scene as the greatest car crash in movie history, calling it "the new gold standard for car-related chaos in cinema".[2] Even acclaimed director Quentin Tarantino was quoted as saying that the opening scene was "a magnificent car action piece".[3] The highway pile up was nominated for "Best Action Sequence" at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards.
References
External links
