Final Destination 5

Guilty pleasure. If there was ever a time to apply that label to something, this would be it. If you know me, you realize that I have this weird obsession, and I can't put a finger on why. This series of movies are over the top, and completely ridiculous. They are also incredibly entertaining.

They each follow the same formula, more or less: a group of young folk are in a situation, when one of them has a vision of an elaborate, horrible accident. In the first movie, it's a group of kids getting on a plane. The one guy has a vision of the plane exploding. After the vision, they freak out, of course, and proceed to abandon where they were and hence, avoid their deaths. But Death doesn't take kindly to being cheated, so he proceeds to kill everyone - one-by-one - until they are all in the ground as originally intended.

The intro "accident" is akin to the old James Bond pre-song sequence. Each movie in the Bond series had this elaborate, stunt-filled sequence that served as the intro to the movie. To me, the Final Destination sequence is the same kind of thing, except it takes place fifteen minutes in (after the useless character introductions/background) and lasts another good fifteen to twenty minutes. Each movie has to find a way to outdo the previous one. The last hour of the film is watching those characters die in absolutely horrible ways.

I probably haven't done it justice, and that's alright. It's one of those things you just have to see for yourself. Watching people die doesn't sound very enjoyable, but the movies bring it into the comical realm. They're interesting because they're so "elaborate." The death is inevitable, but how is it going to go down? What may seem obvious doesn't turn out to be, as the scene takes a different direction. There is tons of gore for good measure, then we quickly move onto the next. 

While I was at home sick the other day I decided to put number five on, and I realized while watching it how easily these people die. A head gets crushed (and completely explodes), people get decapitated, sheered in half or have rods blasted through their head. It's quite gruesome, really, but then you have to keep in mind that Death working his magic here: how else would a laser-eye surgery machine get turned way up to a point where it melts your eyeball? Rack it up to Death: he makes it happen.

Then I realized, who is giving these people the visions? Their deaths are inescapable, and doesn't really serve as a vehicle that could be used to avoid death in the future. Sure, you get a few extra days of life, but your end is right there. Not only that, but if you're one of the people at the end, you realize that at any moment some freak accident will wipe you out. And it's going to be painful. If we accept that Death has a plan, and is doing what he is doing, is it safe to assume then, that God is also out there? I thought perhaps He was providing the visions, but that would mean he's in on the joke, which doesn't seem his style. No, God just lets Death do whatever he wants. But perhaps that's just reading way too much into it; these movies don't need that much thought allocated to them: they're senseless, amusing, quick and dirty. Can't wait for the next one!