Death always finds a way. Final Destination is one of the more unique horror franchises out there, relying on a concept that hasn’t been copied or bettered since the series debuted in 2000. It’s a series that can be horrifying, tense and tongue-in-cheek all at the same time, whilst constantly coming up with new and more disturbing ways to kill off its characters.
To celebrate the franchise’s legacy as well as the release of the long-awaited sixth entry, Final Destination: Bloodlines, this May, we’ve decided to rank the 10 most memorable deaths from throughout the series.
For the sake of this list, we’re only counting specific deaths that occur after the premonition sequences. Despite how iconic those sequences are, they would require a list all of their own.
Honourable mentions: Billy Hitchcock being decapitated by a flying chunk of metal (Final Destination), Tim Carpenter being squashed by a sheet of glass (Final Destination 2), Isaac Palmer getting his head crushed in a massage parlour (Final Destination 5), Ms. Lewton dying in her own home (Final Destination) and Kat Jennings getting a pole through the head (Final Destination 2).
10. Tod Waggner (Final Destination)
Tod’s death from the first movie had to make the list as it’s the one that kicked things off. After a few scenes of our survivors attempting to get back to normality, the rather scrappy end of the likeable Tod sets the wheels in motion for the film and shows that no one is truly safe. Compared to some of the other, more gory deaths in the series, Tod’s plays out in an unsettlingly realistic manner, making it a very disturbing watch due to the lack of blood and his constant struggle that gets more panicked as the scene plays out.
9. Brian Gibbons (Final Destination 2)
This last-minute addition to the kill count of Final Destination 2 is both shocking and morbidly funny, for those who may have a darker sense of humour. Just when we think the film is over and everything is as it should be, we get this very quick death of a character most people had probably forgotten about. The BBQ explosion comes out of nowhere and ends in a gleefully grim, if rather humourous way as Brian’s torched arm lands directly on his mother’s plate.
8. Frankie Cheeks (Final Destination 3)
The ever-annoying Frankie Cheeks receives possibly one of the goriest deaths in the entire series. What makes Frankie’s brutal demise all the more impactful is just how gruesome and disturbing it is. Most of the kills in the franchise are quite immediate when they happen, but the way the truck engine repeatedly blends Frankie’s skull into pieces feels like it lasts way longer than it actually does due to how relentlessly graphic it is handled along with the build up that led to it.
7. Olivia Castle (Final Destination 5)
Giving us one of the more squirm-inducing deaths of the series, Olivia’s ill-fated laser eye surgery is a tense and graphic ordeal that squeezes as much suspense as it can out of its restrained setting. This scene is also one of the better examples from the franchise of a scene heavily hinting at one or two ways for the character to die, only for a different, more straightforward method to kill them instead. It plays with your expectations in a truly unsettling manner.
6. Nora Carpenter (Final Destination 2)
After seeing her son get reduced to a bloody pulp, the last thing Nora Carpenter needed to worry about was a man with a basket full of hooks and an elevator, of all things. Final Destination 2 did a solid job of showing the survivors’ attempts at working together to beat death, but the way Nora is mercilessly beheaded by the elevator doors reinforces how unforgiving this franchise can be. This is certainly one of the more chaotic kills in the series and is made more memorable because of it.
5. Hunt Wynorski (The Final Destination)
Arguably the weakest film in the franchise, 2009’s The Final Destination falls short in the kill department compared to the other entries…that is, until Hunt dies. This scene is possibly one of the oddest, most unique ways for someone to go and is made all the more memorable purely for how over the top and bizarre it is. I guess it takes real guts to commit to a scene such as this.
4. Lewis Romero (Final Destination 3)
Sometimes, a character will die in the series whom we’ve grown to like…Lewis isn’t one of those characters. The setup presented here continuously throws you for a loop until things gradually fall into place, and bam, we get an intensely visceral death that doesn’t hold back. Final Destination 3 is a film that gets very playful and borderline sadistic with the concept, and Lewis’s demise is one of the best instances of this.
3. Terry Chaney (Final Destination)
Though this series is best known for its deliberately drawn-out, Rube Goldberg-esque chain of events which lead to a character’s inevitable end, some of the more impactful kills actually end up being the sudden ones that take you by surprise. The first of these we get in the entire franchise is in the form of the abrupt death of Terry, who, mid-conversation, is hit by a bus. It works as an effective jumpscare, but also reinforces the unpredictability of the premise that the series has set up.
2. Ashley Freund and Ashlyn Halperin (Final Destination 3)
As previously mentioned, Final Destination 3 packs in some of the most brutal kills of the whole franchise and the deaths of Ashley and Ashlyn are no exception. This drawn-out sequence of the two characters burning alive is horrific to see play out, and is made all the more ruthless by ending on a smash cut from their tanning beds to their coffins. It’s a needlessly harsh way for these two characters to go, but it certainly gets the ball rolling as the first of many deaths Final Destination 3 has to offer.
1. Candice Hooper (Final Destination 5)
Whether you have seen these films or not, there is one death in particular that everyone knows about…and it is this rather gruesome kill from the fifth entry. Sometimes, the deaths that focus on prolonged build-ups can be a bit underwhelming, but Candice’s demise shows how well these sequences can be done by amping up the tension with every shot and cut. It is one of the most suspenseful scenes from the franchise, and the final death still comes as a shock no matter how many times you watch it.
Final Destination: Bloodlines is in UK cinemas from May 14, 2025.
