Final Destination: Can You Really Cheat Death?

Precognition is a well-worn device in sci-fi, fantasy, and horror movies…but few franchises have used it to such a unique effect as Final Destination!

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

• Han Solo (wait…wrong franchise!)

Ever just get one of those feelings? A faint chill, a little crawling of the skin that tells you that maybe the path you’re currently on is the wrong one and that something terrible is about to happen. You’ve heard the saying “like someone just walked over my grave,” right? Well, some Hollywood genius decided to build an entire film franchise around this concept with Final Destination and the franchise is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary and gearing up to release its sixth film (Final Destination Bloodlines) later this year!

That first Final Destination movie is packed with memorable moments. And gruesome as some of them are, most of the deaths in Final Destination are things we’ve all lost sleep over, whether it’s a mid-air disaster, a bus accident, and others. But unlike other horror movies, it isn’t about the deaths so much as it is about Death…the very personification of Death, who isn’t amused when someone sees what’s coming and escapes their fate. 

And while you probably don’t have to worry too much about Death itself taking revenge on you, the concept of precognition, the ability to see or sense events before they happen, isn’t as far-fetched as you might think. We have a scientist to dig into that, and a pop culture expert to make sure that Death’s plans all vibe on screen. What have our hosts foreseen? Check out the latest episode of Does it Fly? to find out!

SUGGESTED VIEWING 

There are five (currently released) Final Destination movies, but we focused our discussion this episode on the first film, 2000’s Final Destination from director James Wong who also had a hand in the screenplay with Glen Morgan and Jeffrey Reddick.

FURTHER READING 

Do you want to delve a little deeper into the facts, concepts, and stories Hakeem and Tamara referenced in today’s episode? Of course you do! 

Clairvoyance and Precognition

Just like Hakeem says about his own experiences, scientific study of these phenomena isn’t getting laughed out of the room in academia these days. Will that continue? Well, we’ve got a feeling…

Cognition + Time = ?

To be fair, Hakeem didn’t present this exactly as an equation, but these are the two key components of precognition. Key to this is “the relativity of simultaneity” which has weirdly come up in other episodes, but is particularly relevant here. See also: The Andromeda Paradox

Quantum Entanglement

We’re not entirely sure we follow Hakeem here, but it seems to involve both you and your future self. Which isn’t strictly the definition of quantum entanglement, but it’s still pretty awesome!

The True Story of Final Destination 

Well…sorta! But as Tamara pointed out, one of the writers did indeed have this movie percolating for a while because of an allegedly real event. Imagine how different things would have been had this movie only ended up as an episode of The X-Files. It could have happened!

WANT MORE FROM DOES IT FLY?

We try not to do TOO many horror movie episodes, lest we incur Tamara’s wrath, but check out our episodes on Smile (for some more weird modern horror) and The Wolf Man (for some classic monster action)!

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