How to Watch <em>The Final Destination</em> Movies In Order

Have you ever wondered how you would die? Of course, the ideal situation for anyone is dying in bed, surrounded by loved ones. But some people are not so lucky. And there’s no movie franchise that explores the alternative in more creative and graphic detail than the Final Destination movies.

The latest entry in the franchise, Final Destination: Bloodlines, promises to be another campy, blood-curdling romp into myriad death traps. Bloodlines sees Tony Todd return in his final role as the ominous mortician, William Bludworth. Plus, directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein take the reins of the franchise's future. I’m so ready to develop new fears of everyday objects! And I'm sure you are, too. But before we get there, we should revisit the past like a Final Destination protagonist—because that’s where the answers lie.

The franchise began as a spec script for a certain iconic spooky series about unexplainable phenomenon, The X-Files, but lucky for us, New Line Cinema picked it up and the story turned into a box-office hit. The concept was simple enough: What if death was a more active force than we thought? That’s what makes the Final Destination series so special—there’s no boogeyman with a chainsaw or machete—the antagonist is death. The concept and execution were so successful that the first film in 2000 made $112 million at the box office, and its sequels raked in around that much as well.

The franchise excels at taking ordinary fears people have—flying, roller-coasters, driving behind big trucks on the highway—and turns it into a sensationally macabre Rube Goldberg machine of slaughter. Thanks to these movies, you’ll never look at a tanning bed, pool drain, or escalator the same way ever again. If you haven’t seen the series yet, or if you want an excuse to revisit it, I’ll be your grim reaper and lead you down all the circles of hell the Final Destination movies have in store.

Hulu MAX

Woah, starting your Final Destination binge with the last film in the franchise? I know that seems wacky, but if we’ve learned anything from this franchise, it’s that you have to trust the process. Like every Final Destination joint, we start off the action with a premonition. While on his way to a work retreat, Sam Lawton (Nicholas D'Agosto) sees a suspension bridge—one that he so happens to be on—leading everyone on board their bus to die, except for his ex, Molly (Emma Bell). Sam tries to prevent as many people as he can from falling (sorry) victim to the accident. But little does he know, just like every other Final Destination protagonist, he’s now doomed everyone he saved to a slightly delayed, but far more gruesome death. And this installment loves to incorporate dangerous things flying at your face, because it was meant to be screened in 3-D.

Now why would the universe grant you the power to foresee your grisly death and prevent it, just to then come after you in an even worse way? Hopefully, one day the franchise will provide a satisfying answer. This film also introduces a long-dissected theory in the series: Would killing someone before you die somehow extend your own life? This theory is rocky at best, no matter how persuasive William Bludworth (Tony Todd) tries to make it sound. Peter, one of Sam’s friends that he saved from the bridge collapse, decides to try out the theory, but isn’t able to succeed before death claims him. Sam and Molly manage to escape death, and possibly even add more time to their lifespan by killing in self-defense. But their escape from death's design is short-lived (again, sorry), as it's revealed at the end of the film that they're boarding Flight 180 from JFK to Paris...

Fears Unlocked: Acupuncture (although, if you're being racist at the massage parlor, you have it coming?); uneven bars (we'll leave that up to Simone Biles); Lasik eye surgery (why do optometrists have glasses anyway?).

MAX Amazon

The ending of the fifth film leads us right back to the very start of the franchise—which honestly blew my mind when I first saw how it all tied together. When high-schooler Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) boards a flight to Paris with his classmates, he has a premonition of the plane exploding while making its ascent. When little things from his vision begin to come true, he yells that the plane is going to go down. This gets him and a couple of other people from school kicked off the plane for being disruptive. However, before anybody can get too upset about missing their flight, the plane explodes in the air—just as Alex predicted.

This sets off a chain of deaths in the order of which the remaining survivors should have died on the plane. Alex figures this out, all while everyone else calls him crazy. It's also very fun to watch this film picturing the FBI agents in it as stand-ins for Mulder and Scully, since this movie was originally meant to be an X-Files episode. Alex tries to intervene in death's design as much as he can. The first kill post-Flight 180 is a dialogue-free scene where Alex's best friend Tod is being stalked by death, and Alex is taking a break from his research of plane disasters to look at a Penthouse magazine. Whoops! His fan accidentally shreds it, leaving only a scrap cut out with the name, "Tod."

Elsewhere in Final Destination, William Bludworth makes his creepy debut at the funeral home to say that death has a design for every person's bitter end. Aw, don't you feel special? This sets up the first rule of death's design—that it goes after you in the order of who was originally meant to die. Alex believes that intervening by saving whoever is next to pass will make death skip over them. I'd probably cling to that logic too! However, as Alex's girlfriend Clear Rivers (she lives in the woods, okay?) learns, death's designs are a lot more complicated than you can imagine.

Fears Unlocked: John Denver's classic country hit, "Rocky Mountain High"; (don't ruin this song for me); drinking vodka out of a mug (seriously, what the fuck?), clotheslines (stick to the dryer!).

MAX Hulu

One of the best elements of the Final Destination franchise is how much it ties together past characters and events, so that you really feel the butterfly effect of every decision. This direct sequel was taken over by director David R. Ellis, who kicked it off with one of the most iconic opening premonition sequences of the series. It absolutely ruined highway driving for people. Not that you ever feel fully comfortable going 70mph behind a log truck, but if you've seen the brilliant pile-up scene at the beginning of this film—and watched decapitation via giant log through the windshield—good luck getting behind the wheel ever again.

This sequel's protagonist is Kimberly Corman (A.J. Cook). After her premonition of the disaster, she saves the lives of her friends and other motorists behind her. Smart cookie that she is, she makes the connection that everyone she saves has some connection to the survivors of Flight 180. She tracks down the only remaining survivor of the plane crash, who we learn is Clear Rivers. She offers as much help as she can to Kimberly, figuring out that death is coming for everyone in reverse order. Clear also leads Kimberly to Silly Willy Bludworth, who sets up a new rule: Bringing new life into the world could disrupt death's design. This theory is never really proven, but Kimberly opens up the possibility that resuscitation could make death skip over you.

Fears Unlocked: Logging trucks (and driving in general); spaghetti (we're a penne-only family now); elevators (even the Tower of Terror).

MAX Amazon

James Wong, who directed the original film, returns to helm the third installment. This sequel sees the lead, Wendy Christensen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), take ominous photos of her schoolmates while they're all hanging out at an amusement park. The opening premonition is Wendy's vision of a roller-coaster derailing and killing her and all her classmates.

Much like the first film, Wendy flips out and demands to exit the ride. The grisly accident plays out exactly like Wendy's vision, and kills her boyfriend Jason, as well as her buddy Carrie, the girlfriend of Kevin Fischer (Ryan Merriman). Kevin and Wendy grow close in their grief, and Kevin brings up Flight 180, mentioning that he's afraid what happened to those survivors will happen to them. The two start to sleuth and realize that the photos Wendy took of their classmates show clues of how they will die. They attempt to intervene before death gets a hold of their friends—but in good old Final Destination fashion, death outwits them all.

Along the way, there's some excellent kills, including my favorite one, which involves two blazing tanning beds turning into coffins. At the very end of Final Destination 3, thinking they effectively saved themselves, Wendy runs into Kevin and her sister on the subway and has a vision of the train derailment that kills them all. Whether they make it out alive or not after Wendy's vision is not known.

Fears Unlocked: Weights (that's the real reason I don't go to the gym); drive-throughs (just order Uber Eats!), tanning beds (UV rays are bad enough for you).

MAX Amazon

Don't come after me, haters, but this is probably my least favorite film in the franchise. Maybe it's because I don't have any experience with race car tracks, or maybe it's because I don't think tampon ear plugs are very effective. Either way, this 3-D sequel didn't hit the mark (for the last time, sorry). Not only was the dialogue clunky and borderline painful to listen to, but the actors' performances were disastrous. The main clairvoyant in this story is Nick O'Bannon (Bobby Campo), who has a premonition of a racetrack accident that causes the deaths of many people in the stands. Of course, he evacuates his friends and some lucky—or unlucky, depending on your perspective—bystanders.

As we've come to expect from the series, the racist characters die pretty early on, and in dramatic fashion. This time around, we've got a guy who's ready to burn a cross on the lawn of George (Mykelti Williamson), a security guard who is Black. Where did this dude get a giant cross on this short notice? It doesn't matter, because before he can do anything, he catches fire and is dragged through the street by his own car.

In this film, Nick experiences visions filled with snippets of lethal objects—and the audience is supposed to deduce what those glimpses mean for the next death. Survivors from the accident begin to die one by one. George suffers from horrible survivor's guilt—he also escaped a drunk-driving incident that killed his family—and tries to end his own life. But, alas death is a petty bitch. You can't die until death is ready for you to go. At the end of Nick's useless visions, everyone's dead except for him, his girlfriend Lori (Shantel VanSanten), and their friend Janet (Haley Webb). He saves them from burning to death in a movie theater.

Don't worry, the movies can still be our safe haven, fellow horror nerds! They all survive until... oops. Nick didn't get the memo about a giant truck blasting through the window of their favorite cafe, which is aptly named "Death by Caffeine."

Fears Unlocked: Car washes (why did her car have so many windows that would not open?); pool drains (ever read the Chuck Palahniuk short story, "Guts"?); escalators (I'll take the stairs, please and thank you).