Final Destination is a franchise with a hefty mortality rate, but how do all the creative death sequences compare? We’ve ranked all the deaths from worst to best!
It’s hard to imagine any horror franchise existing that cherishes the artistry and ingenuity behind its death sequences as much as Final Destination. Originally conceived by Jeffrey Reddick as an episode of The X-Files, Final Destination was a slasher without a killer: instead of a masked maniac sequentially hunting down teens, Death was the murderous culprit, desperate to claim the lives of those who evaded its icy touch through premonition-inspired happenstance.
Throughout the franchise, the majority of character deaths are rarely made quick and simple. Instead, most play out as a series of convoluted, Rube Goldbergian accidents, offering up countless red herrings and keeping us guessing as to the exact manner of grisly demise. The theatricality of the death sequences makes them worth listing, so we’ve decided to rank each of the Final Destination deaths from worst to best.
But first, a few ground rules. In this list, premonition deaths don’t count. This includes each of the disasters that serve as the inciting incidents, the disaster that closes out Final Destination 3, and the lengthy third-act premonition in the fourth film. We’re also only including on-screen fatalities, which eliminates the lame falling brick that killed off Alex Browning between instalments, and we’re not including killings not caused by the manifestation of death itself — a couple of murders in Final Destination 5 would only rank dead last anyway.
Secondly, we’ve taken into account a variety of metrics to determine the ranking placements, from the innovation of the sequence to the effects, the surprise, the character value and simply how enjoyable the sequence is to watch. So, without further ado…
34. Perry (Final Destination 3)
Being impaled through the back by a flying flagpole wouldn’t be the worst result, but what dampens Perry’s demise is that we know so little about her. I’m not even certain she has a single line of dialogue, and within seconds of learning about her she’s dead, her corpse sliding down the pole protruding through her stomach. Perry is a stat-padder, and nothing more.
33. Nadia (The Final Destination)
Mere moments after escaping the memorial race pile-up, Nadia is obliterated by an airborne tyre. Nadia narrowly avoids last place because she has but a single line of dialogue and the grisly aftermath is appropriately gnarly, but her death ultimately suffers because we don’t see Death’s mechanics at play — the tyre quite literally flies in from the heavens, and that’s no fun.
32. Jonathan (The Final Destination)
Jonathan is the third and final victim whom we barely spend any time with: he lies bedridden in a hospital room when an overflowing bathtub falls through the ceiling, crushing him. This feels more like negligence on behalf of the nurse who kept the tap running than a part of Death’s grand design. Talk about poor bedside manner…
31. Roy (Final Destination 5)
There’s an interesting bait-and-switch with Roy’s death, as we’re expecting Nathan to bite it after surviving the suspension bridge collapse, but instead belligerent factory worker Roy falls through a grate and is impaled through the jaw on a metal hook. He wasn’t Death’s target so his demise isn’t as effective as most, but the bloody effects utilised do sweeten his short drop.
30. Nick, Lori and Janet (The Final Destination)
It’s pretty disappointing that an out-of-control truck crashing through a cafe wall causes the deaths of our final trio, especially after a lengthy sequence involving an escalator turning Lori into minced meat turns out to be just another premonition. The X-ray animation for the precise cause of their respective deaths isn’t as interesting as the movie hoped it would be either.
29. Nathan (Final Destination 5)
Nathan is crushed by falling landing gear from a plane explosion, which once again wouldn’t be too bad on its own but his death acts as the final stinger before the credits roll, and it arrives as a twist that comes moments after an all-timer reveal. Sadly it suffers as a result, we’re so high on the previous sequence that the closing moments lose their impact.
28. George (The Final Destination)
Sometimes the sudden death works, and George being obliterated by an ambulance as he’s crossing the street might’ve been better received had it not also been part of a premonition initially, and had it not been done better earlier in the franchise too. We do sort of get to see it happen twice, but that hardly works in the film’s favour.
27. Valerie Lewton (Final Destination)
Without question, Miss Lewton’s death has the most moving parts. Spilt vodka causes her computer to spark and explode, which sends shards of glass into her neck. She falls and reaches for a towel that rests atop a block of knives, one of which topples and impales her chest, and a falling chair drives that knife deeper and finishes her off. Oh, and then her house explodes. There’s too much going on, and it strains believability more than most. Also, ice cold Vodka doesn’t ignite; that’s a common misconception often seen in movies, and it’s nothing short of a lazy crutch.
26. Eugene and Clear (Final Destination 2)
Eugene and Clear both die in a fiery explosion in a hospital, which wins points because it briefly seemed as though the former character had been spared an agonising death by way of slow suffocation. It is a shame that the only returning survivor went out so suddenly though; Clear deserved a much grander exit.
25. Nora (Final Destination 2)
Nora’s death taps into a classic fear. Her neck becomes trapped between the closing doors of an elevator, which eventually decapitates her despite the best efforts of those around her to help her get free. It’s more traumatic than funny or scary which makes the sequence plenty effective, although something about a man carrying a basket of mannequin arms will always make us scratch our head in bemusement.
24. Andy (The Final Destination)
Mechanic Andy’s death is precisely the kind of brutal lunacy that Final Destination fans love, but sadly this one feels repetitive of a similar sequence from two films prior. Andy is hit by a gas canister propelled through the air and driven into a chain link fence, causing his body to split into diamond-shaped chunks through the steel structure. It’s so silly, but it does work.
23. Ian McKinley (Final Destination 3)
Belligerent and bereaved McKinley looks as though he’s narrowly avoided death when wayward fireworks breeze past him, but as he’s boasting about his supposed immortality he’s crushed by a falling cherry picker, ironically emblazoned with his surname. It’s a simple death but the splatter effects are satisfying, and the twitching upper torso is a nice touch. Do we buy him laying into Wendy before he meets his dramatic end? Not really, but the swift flattening has grisly appeal.
22. Carter (The Final Destination)
Carter is the only name that comes up twice in this list, though this character is far more repugnant than the other. Carter Daniels is an openly racist Southern caricature who dies while attempting to take vengeance on black security guard George, who saved his life by preventing him from re-entering the flaming racetrack. He gets dragged down the street by a chain attached to his truck, which sparks and lights him on fire, all while WAR’s “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” blares over the radio. Then he explodes. Quite fitting.
21. Olivia (Final Destination 5)
The most traumatising death for this author who wasn’t blessed with perfect eyesight, Olivia is put through the wringer when her laser eye surgery goes awry. “Death” causes the laser to activate while her surgeon is out of the room, causing her retina to be scorched out, and her hand to be badly scarred when she attempts to block the beam of red hot heat. She does manage to escape, only to trip and fall through the window to her death several stories below. It’s underwhelming that a simple fall is what kills Olivia off and it’s not a particularly enjoyable sequence to watch, but like her damaged retina that laser burned its way into our memory.
20. Brian (Final Destination 2)
You might knock Brian’s death because he’s only a minor character in the second film, but his demise comes as a surprise bonus, and all the breadcrumbs were laid bare for us to see. Brian takes us to the credits with a simple barbeque explosion, followed by a piercing scream from his familial on-lookers and a severed, charred arm landing on the dinner table. Magnificent.
19. Rory (Final Destination 2)
Rory is sliced into pieces by a barbed wire fence, propelled in his direction after a van explodes. How the mass of barbed wire and fence posts remain intact as it flies through the air is anyone’s guess, but it’s the better kill of the few that see characters diced into pieces by steel. A niche group to be sure, but Rory comes out on top.
18. Carter (Final Destination)
It’s perhaps tame compared to later franchise freak accidents, but Carter Horton’s closing death from the original film still feels effective. Alex, Clear and Carter believe they’ve escaped death and are relaxing in Paris when Alex begins to see the signs of impending doom, and right when he’s about to be flattened by a swinging rooftop sign, Carter pushes him to safety. If only he’d anticipated the sign swinging back the other way though…
17. Lewis (Final Destination 3)
Final Destination 3 added a fun wrinkle to the franchise formula, giving the characters photos to inspect for clues that reveal how each death might occur. This led to plenty of great misdirects, and Lewis’ death is a strong example. An image of crossed scimitars makes us believe that wall-mounted swords will cause his death, and they do, but not directly. Intense, wall-shaking gym activity causes the swords to fall, missing Lewis but instead slicing cables connected to his weight machine. Lewis confidently pulls another rep and has his head crushed by inward-swinging weights. Sudden and brutal: a lethal combination.
16. Tod (Final Destination)
Tod’s death will forever be a classic. It was the first (and bizarrely the only) death where the physical manifestation of “Death” was evident, with a growing pool of strangely blue water sneakily pursuing Tod across his bathroom. Eventually, the water makes contact, causing Todd to slip and fall neck-first onto a clothing wire stretched across his bathtub, which strangles him to death as he tries and fails to find his footing inside the wet tub. His eyes turning bloodshot red and his rabid desperation makes it a rough sequence to watch, but it’s a memorable first notch on Death’s belt.
15. Hunt (The Final Destination)
If you’d have asked us to predict a Final Destination death involving water, which is the warning sign Nick is given from his brief jumbled vision, none of us would’ve predicted Hunt would get disembowelled rectally by way of a swimming pool drain. It’s too silly to function really, and yet it endures as an oddly compelling method of a survivor being dispatched. Hunt was such a cartoonishly gross character that such an absurd punishment does admittedly feel fitting.
14. Molly (Final Destination 5)
Much of what makes Molly’s death so memorable isn’t actually the way she dies, which is being sucked out of a plane and getting bisected by the wing, but the fact that it’s part of a sensational twist that reveals Final Destination 5 has been a prequel all along. Sam and Molly board the original Flight 180, and as we see the cast from the first film get escorted off the plane after a heated exchange we know our surviving duo are doomed. It’s a brilliant ending that brought the series full circle.
13. Isaac (Final Destination 5)
Isaac is another character we love to loathe, and P.J. Byrne does an excellent job making him the type of sleazy weirdo we crave to see get his karmic comeuppance. His death is another example of Final Destination at its best; he’s receiving acupuncture therapy, so naturally we’re looking at the needles and wondering how they’ll factor in, but actually, a series of events leads to his head being crushed by a falling Budai statue — a magnificent misdirect.
12. Sam (Final Destination 5)
Sam dies along with Molly in the Flight 180 plane crash, so he also benefits from the twist prequel reveal in our ranking, but he gets bonus points for the exact manner of his death. Sam burns up after the plane catches on fire, which pays homage to how Alex Browning saw his death during the first film’s premonition sequence. It’s a nice touch that makes what would’ve been a relatively tame method of demise more impactful for long-term franchise fans.
11. Evan (Final Destination 2)
Perhaps one of the most memorable deaths simply because of its unexpected nature, Evan’s long-winded death sequence sees the young lottery winner trap his arm in the garbage disposal while his apartment catches aflame. After struggling for a while he manages to escape out the window and onto a fire escape, where he descends smoothly enough, only to slip on a banana peel (that he earlier threw out the window) and land on his back, placing him directly under the section of the fire escape that can be extended down to the ground. It shoots out and stops inches from his face, and after Evan takes a brief sigh of relief, the ladder extends further and impales him through the eye. It’s another death that epitomises the beauty of how Final Destination always keeps us guessing.
10. Dennis (Final Destination 5)
There’s a strong simplicity to how Dennis bites the dust in Final Destination 5, from the sudden nature of his swift end to the gory aftermath. A loose spanner (or wrench, for our American readers) makes contact with a belt sander and flies in Dennis’ direction, lodging itself horizontally deep within the man’s face. It’s brutal and oh-so-satisfying, amplified by the horrified faces of the characters who were forced to bear witness and the brief shot we see of the grisly aftermath.
9. Kat (Final Destination 2)
Kat falls victim to the classic Chekhov’s Gun set-up, but seeing her death ahead of time doesn’t lessen its impact. After a series of events cause Kat to crash the vehicle she’s driving, she finds herself pinned in her seat with a wooden fence post across her legs, and a sharp PVC pipe impaling her headrest. She survives though, and it isn’t until rescue attempts are made that the sharp pipe comes back into play; a fireman using the jaws of life sets off the vehicle’s driver-seat airbag, which pushes Kat’s head back into the PVC pipe, impaling her through the skull. Sudden, bloody and emotionally scarring for the characters, it hits all the right notes.
8. Frankie (Final Destination 3)
Frankie is another unlikeable character that we love to see meet his end, though his death is far more visceral than others. We’re focused on watching Wendy and Kevin try to escape their pinned-in vehicle as a driverless truck barrels down a hill in their direction. They make it out at the last second, but the collision causes their vehicle’s engine to fire out and into the driver’s seat of the car in front, with the fan component making mincemeat of Frankie’s skull. It earns bonus points for a gory flourish deserving of the insufferable Frankie Cheeks.
7. Terry (Final Destination)
Some might say that Terry’s death is too simple, or that it’s been done too many times in other horror projects to have an impact, but this is the violent progenitor. Terry concludes a verbal dressing down of the other Flight 180 survivors by stepping off a street curb only to be suddenly obliterated by a bus. It truly comes out of nowhere and understandably horrifies the witnesses, but its suddenness makes it one of the most memorable and effective of the franchise.
6. Billy (Final Destination)
The first Final Destination didn’t really embrace gore as much as some of the later instalments did, but Billy’s death is the exception — not that his death was bloody, but the disturbing visual imagery does all the work instead. After a train crashes into and destroys Carter’s car, Billy gets decapitated when a piece of metal debris is flung in his direction by a loose chain. His headless body remains standing just long enough for the train to pass, before almost comically crumpling to the floor. It’s an all-timer.
5. Samantha (The Final Destination)
Samantha’s death perfectly exemplifies the gleeful lunacy of certain Final Destination deaths; specifically, the misdirect. Various threats are hinted at as Samantha gets her hair done in a salon, but she dies suddenly after she leaves when a lawnmower blade flings a stone (earlier thrown by one of Samantha’s sons) from across the street and through her eye. It’s the textbook bait-and-switch, and it’s so silly but iconic all the same.
4. Tim (Final Destination 2)
Tim’s death is also a bait-and-switch, and the result is slightly more satisfying than Samantha’s. After evading danger in a dentist’s chair, Tim leaves the practice only to be crushed spectacularly by a falling pane of glass that instantaneously liquifies him, and in front of his mother, too. It’s brutal in the best way, and it’s another appropriate demonstration of what Final Destination is all about.
3. Candice (Final Destination 5)
Finally, the very best of the bait-and-switch kills belongs to Candice, a gymnast who suffers one of the most visceral, hard-to-watch deaths of the franchise. One might suspect that Candice must step on the unnoticed screw that ominously lands on her balance beam, but she manages to avoid it. Another gymnast doesn’t however, and in a series of bumps and tumbles, Candice is blinded by powdered chalk as she dismounts the uneven bars, causing her to botch her landing and violently snap her body in half. It’s so sudden and unexpectedly brutal, even for Final Destination, and that’s part of the reason it became an instant classic.
2. Erin (Final Destination 3)
The strength of Erin’s death lies neither in the set-up nor the reactions of the other characters, but purely in how much it makes us wince. “Death” comes for McKinley in the hardware store where he and Erin work, and as Wendy saves him at the last second, Erin pays the price by sliding backwards into a nail gun, which promptly shoots her through the back of the head around a dozen times. Nails protrude from her face and hand, with blood gurgling out of the many puncture holes. It happens abruptly, and the violence of each nail firing makes it all the more impactful.
1. Ashley and Ashlyn (Final Destination 3)
Iconic in so many ways, from the set-up and the “Love Rollercoaster” song choice to the genius of the concluding match cut, the dual death of Ashley and Ashlyn takes the top spot. Both girls find themselves locked inside side-by-side tanning beds with the temperature steadily rising, until the glass inside each capsule shatters, exposing them to burning hot UV lights before each bed ignites in flames. It’s a terrific sequence from front to back, showcasing every minor detail that causes the young women to be roasted alive without the possibility of being rescued. It’s horrifying and gruesome, creative and grimly gratifying, and it epitomises everything great about the Final Destination franchise.
Final Destination: Bloodlines will be released globally in theaters and IMAX on May 16, 2025.
