Final Destination 2

Final Destination 2
File:Finaldestination2.jpg Region 2 DVD Cover
Directed by	David R. Ellis
Written by	Jeffrey Reddick (characters) J. Mackye Gruber (story)
Produced by	Craig Perry
Starring	Ali Larter, A. J. Cook, Michael Landes, Keegan Connor Tracy, Jonathan Cherry, James Kirk, Lynda Boyd, Justina Machado, Sarah Carter, T.C. Carson, David Paetkau
Music by	Shirley Walker
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release dates	January 31, 2003
Running time	90 min.
Language	English
Budget	~ $26,000,000

Final Destination 2 is a 2003 horror film and the sequel to Final Destination (2000). Directed by David R. Ellis, it stars A. J. Cook as Kimberly Corman and Ali Larter as Clear Rivers. The film is set a year after the previous movie and has only two returning characters; Clear Rivers and the mortician William Bludworth. The movie grossed $16,017,141 on its opening weekend in the US, a significant portion of the $46,455,802 it grossed overall. It was a minor hit, debuting in its first week at #2 and falling from then onwards.

Plot

It has been one year since the tragic explosion of Flight 180. While going on vacation, Kimberly Corman, (played by A.J. Cook) traveling with her friend Shaina (Sarah Carter) and two other male friends, has a premonition of a horrific freeway pile-up while still on the on-ramp. She causes outrage when she blocks traffic, but the signs prove true. The survivors, Eugene (T.C. Carson), Rory (Jonathon Cherry), Katherine (Keegan Connor Tracy), Nora (Lynda Boyd) and her son Tim (James Kirk) are all held up at the police station and Kim begins to tell everyone about her strange premonition. They all leave, but one of the survivors dies mysteriously, and Kim begins to suspect that her premonition is really something more. In a mental institution, she meets Clear Rivers (Ali Larter), the sole survivor of Flight 180, who has had similar experience with premonition. She reluctantly accepts Kim's offer to help her spot the signs to keep her and the others alive, but the deaths have already begun. A police officer who initially brought everybody in for questioning, Thomas Burke (Michael Landes), also offers his assistance in keeping everyone alive, but it becomes a race against time as everyone has scattered after dismissing the tales. The enigmatic mortician William Bludworth (Tony Todd) makes another appearance and provides more insight into the workings of Death involving the forces of balance.

File:Corman.jpg

Kimberly Corman (A. J. Cook), the main survivor from Final Destination 2

Cast & Characters

• Kimberly Corman (A.J. Cook): The visionary in this film. She is the one who prevents the pile-up. Because of the few people surviving Flight 180, anything that the survivors did afterwards affected other people, interfering in their planned deaths. Basically, if everyone died on Flight 180, then people in this film would have died months ago prior to the pile-up. Kimberly would have died along with her mother in a shoot-out robbery, but she was caught up in watching a news special on how a teenager "committed suicide" (this is Tod's death in the first Final Destination). Kimberly cheats death and survives the movie.
• Clear Rivers (Ali Larter): Returning in this sequel, Clear comes out of her safe self-imprisonment and helps the new set of survivors, using her knowledge and experiences based on the first film. She is the last survivor of Flight 180. She eventually dies from an explosion in the hospital while looking for Eugene.
• Officer Thomas Burke (Michael Landes): A New York State trooper who gathers everyone together to inform them of what's going on, provides the equipment and serves as Kimberly's love interest. He would have died months prior in a shoot-out while on the job, but he was busy cleaning up the remains of William "Billy" Hitchcock (Flight 180 survivor) at a train accident. He would have been the first to die in the pile-up. Burke manages to defeat death and lives.
• Rory Peters (Jonathan Cherry): A drug addict who acts as the comedy-relief of the group. He is likable, but a bit immature. He would have died in a theatre in Paris that collapsed, but he was too freaked out to attend when a guy was hit by a falling sign (Carter from the first film). Rory dies when he is sliced by barbed wire that was released from an explosion.
• Kat Jennings (Keegan Connor Tracy): A very self-centered and direct woman who tends to complain. She would have died at a bed and breakfast in Pennsylvania when a gas leak suffocated all the renters, but she was unable to go when the bus she was on "splattered some girl on the street" (Terry Chaney of the first film). She is a survivor of the pile-up. A sharp plastic pipe goes through her seat in another car accident after the pile-up. It misses her the first time round. However, when the firemen attempt to get her out, an air bag activates pushing her head back into a PVC pipe.
• Nora Carpenter (Lynda Boyd): She is the oldest of the pile-up survivors and is seen as skeptical, but she proves to be a loving and caring mother to Tim. After he dies, she is very depressed, not caring if she is next until her fate finally arrives. Nora dies when she gets her head stuck in an elevator until it eventually comes off.
• Timothy "Tim" Carpenter (James Kirk): The youngest of the survivors, he and his mother Nora are seen as having an ideal mother-son relationship. They may not have any link to the Flight 180 survivors and may have been intended to die in the pile-up in the first place. A glass screen is accidentally dropped on his head and he died.
• Evan Lewis (David Paetkau): An impatient man who wins the lottery on the day of the crash. After the crash, he goes on a shopping spree before being the first (not including Shaina, Dano, and Frankie) to die. He dies in his escape from a fire in his apartment, being impaled by a fire escape ladder.
• Isabella Hudson (Justina Machado): A pregnant woman who was on the highway during the pile-up. The survivors falsely believed that Isabella having a baby would remove them from death's list. It isn't until much later that Kimberly realizes that she was not meant to die, thus her baby's birth will not save them.
• Shaina Gordon (Sarah Carter): A friend of Kimberly that dies minutes after the pile-up.
• Dano Royale (Alex Rae): A friend of Kimberly that dies minutes after the pile-up.
• Frankie Arnold (Shaun Sipos): A friend of Kimberly that dies minutes after the pile-up.
• Mr. Corman (Andrew Airlie): Kimberly's father. He is constantly worrying over her safety after his wife's death.
• William Bludworth (Tony Todd): The strange mortician that informs the characters of Death's design. He talked to the first round of survivors in the first film and told them the concept of the design and intervening in it. Here, he tells Kimberly only one thing: "Only new life can defeat death." He also comments that Clear has such "a fire in [her]" hinting to the fact that he knows how she dies.
• Eugene Dix (T.C. Carson): A teacher who would have died at a school when a kid brought a knife and stabbed the teacher replacing him. However, he had been transferred to another school to take over for another teacher (Valerie Lewton). He was a survivor of the pile-up. He dies with Clear in the explosion when he is in hospital.

Alex Browning & Clear Rivers

Clear was fated to be the second to last person to die in the original Final Destination (after Billy and before Alex). Due to all of the interventions, by the Final Destination scene in Paris the list was Alex, Carter, Clear. Obviously, Carter intervened in Alex's death and subsequently was next in line and killed, making the list Clear, Alex. We learn from Officer Burke's research and also from Clear that Alex was killed when a falling brick hit his face. His death was attributed to a gust of wind that dislodged the brick from a nearby building, but it was obvious that Death planned for him to die after Clear they say that Alex pushes Clear out of the way and was supossed to die of a flesh eating virus eventually. Clear states that since the events in Paris, she and Alex had skipped Death dozens of times before he was killed.

Devon Sawa (Alexander Chance Browning) does not appear in the film due to a contractual dispute with New Line, so his character was killed off-screen.

When the decision was made to kill off either Clear or Alex in pre-production, Alex was chosen, as females seem to drive horror movies better than males. The fact that two female lead characters would be in this movie compelled Ali Larter to resume her role as Clear Rivers.

Deaths

Original Design

Death's original design in the pile-up was as follows: Thomas, Eugene, Rory, Kat, Nora, Tim, Evan, Kimberly (and friends: Shaina, Dano & Frankie).

Actual Deaths

Due to the fact that Kimberley intervened all 11 people (including herself) from being involved in the pile-up, Death's design was now working backwards: Kimberly (and friends), Evan, Tim, Nora, Kat, Rory, Eugene and then Thomas. The reason for this is since most cheated death once due to the survivors of the first film, Death is attempting to eliminate those who were originally meant to die in the pile up first (Evan, Nora, Tim, Shaina, Frankie, and Dano) before they could influence more people through their actions. Due to interventions (and the arrival of Clear from the first Final Destination), the order of death was as follows: Kimberly, Shaina, Frankie, Dano, Evan, Tim, Nora, Kat, Rory, Eugene, Kimberly, and Thomas Burke.

• Shaina, Dano, Frankie: Death by blunt trauma:

Minutes after the gigantic pile-up, Kimberly fails to notice another truck (carrying cars) heading toward her car that is at the exit to the highway. Officer Burke sees this and successfully pulls Kim out of the way. However, the truck still manages to strike Kimberly's SUV, with her friends still inside. The truck catches fire, and they all die instantly. This truck is actually the truck that crashes burning into Kimberly's SUV during her premonition vision of the highway pile-up and kills both her and her friends.

• Evan Lewis: Death by Impalement:

While escaping from his burning apartment, he slips in some pasta (he threw). The ladder comes down from the escape route and the metal tip of it stops inches from Evan's face. Realizing that he has dodged Death once again, Evan lets out a laugh of relief. Then, the ladder comes down, impaling Evan through the eye, killing him instantly.

• Tim Carpenter: Death by Crushing and Blunt force trauma:

After narrowly escaping death from suffocation at a dentist clinic, (lulled into a false sense of safety) Tim runs toward a flock of pigeons after misunderstanding Kimberly's warning. The startled pigeons flew up to the construction worker, and accidentally flipping the switch to the pane of glass he was carrying, it toppled down. Tim was crushed by the glass.

• Nora Carpenter: Death by Decapitation:

Filled with grief over her son's death, she leaves to her apartment to plan her son's funeral. Knowing she is next, Eugene accompanies her into the elevator. A man carrying a selection of prothetic limbs, some of which have hooks, is also in the elevator. Meanwhile, Rory is putting away bungee cords, but a bowling ball rolls and knocks a selection of items over. The resulting mess forms a shadow of a "hookman". Calling Nora, Burke warns her of the "hookman", and in shock, drops her phone. Her hair is caught by a hook, and she tries to get out. The doors close after this, and she slips after her hair is jerked back. The malfuctioning door sensors do not respond to the pressure, and it clamps on her neck. Kat and Clear, who were presumably warned, come rushing to the scene. However, the elevator has moved too far up to try to save her, so the ceiling connects with her neck and eventually pops her head off. Eugene is terrible traumatic about her death and attempts to shoot himself with Burke's gun, but it misfires all six times despite the fact that all chambers were loaded.

• Kat Jennings: Death by Impalement:

After Nora's death, the group (now including Clear) is anxious to get to the hospital to see Isabella have her baby. On the way there, the survivors cross paths with Isabella (in labor), causing them to swerve, blow a tire, and ultimately crash onto a field on a farm. Kat becomes trapped by a wooden post, and as the SUV also rammed into a pick-up truck with PCV piping, the sharp poles fly everywhere. One pierces the back of Kat's seat, but she narrowly dodges it. A fireman tries tearing her doors with with the Jaws of Life, but Kat complains about the noise while smoking. A little peeved, the fireman thrusts it in again, but the force deploys the airbag and the pipe pierces her skull.

• Rory Peters: Death by Dismemberment. As news vans arrive to film the carnage, one van pierced their fuel tank on some rocks. The seeping fuel trails around, and when Kat died her cigarette dropped. It wanders in the wind and hits the fuel. The ignited fuel reverse-travels to the source and blows the van. The explosion also hits a barb wired fence, sending it flying. Travelling at high-speed, the wires of the fence act like a sluice, slicing cleanly through Rory's body in several places and killing him instantly. His body remains standing for a few seconds, face frozen in surprise, he then looks down before eventually falling apart into a dismembered heap.
• Eugene Dix and Clear Rivers: Death by Incineration:

Eugene is in his hospital bed hooked up to an oxygen machine. He watches the news and learns of Kat's death, and he now knows that it's his turn to die. He watches helplessly as his oxygen machine fails but, luckily for him, the back-up batterry kicks in. The survivors have been relying on the hope that Isabella having her baby would save them from Death's list, as "new life defeats death". However, they are mistaken, as Isabella was never meant to die in the pile-up, so Isabella and her baby have nothing to do with Death's design. Kimberly confirms this as she has another vision. Clear leaves the group and searches for Eugene. Lurred into a false sense of security, Clear opens Eugene's door, which hits a wire and jerks the plug from an outlet, creating a spark, which sets off the escaped oxygen, blowing up the entire room. Eugene and Clear die instantly and Clear's charred body is blown backwards and lands in front of Kimberly. Right before Clear's death, it almost looks as if there is a small smile on her face. Eugene previously attempted to take his own life with Burke's pistol, but Death intervened itself and prevented him from dying by replacing the bullets with blanks.

• Brian Gibbons: Death by Incineration:

Months later, Kimberly, her father, and Thomas join the family who helped them during Kat and Rory's death scene for an outdoor barbecue. Brian, who is serving everyone, gets up to get more food, but mentions his close call with the news van . While he is over there, his dad tells the story of how Brian was saved by Rory from the news van. Kimberly and Thomas look at each other, but they are startled by the barbecue grill blowing up in the background, killing Brian. His charred, dismembered arm lands in front of his mother who screams the film into the credits.

• Kimberly Corman: (Interveded) In one of the special features of Final Destination 3, there is an option to read a newspaper article at the subway scene of the movie. It reads that Kimberly and Officer Burke coincidentally meet up at a hardware store. A malfunctioning Camaro (the brakes) smashes into the hardware store and both Kimberly and Officer Burke hide in the back. Kimberly's jacket catches in a wood-chipper, eventually pulling her in. However, this creates a plot hole, as at the end of second film, Kimberly's death and revival erased death's list, so she and Officer Burke were no longer marked for death afterwards. But as it was not a "new life", rather an "old life returning", it may not have been counted.
• Officer Burke: (Interveded) After Kimberly is pulled in to the wood-chipper, it is told that Officer Burke attempted to save Kimberly, but fell in directly after her.

Rating

The film was rated R for strong violence/gruesome accidents, language, drug content, and some nudity.

Trivia

• Once again, characters are named after actors and directors from classic horror movies, including Roger Corman and John Carpenter.
• Mary Elizabeth Winstead auditioned for this movie, but did not make it. She later starred in Final Destination 3 instead.
• Nora's death scene was originally going to be longer and more gruesome, having the elevator going up and down repeatedly. The filmmakers decided against it and just had the elevator go up. Nora's death scene was similar to an incident at St. Joseph's Hospital in Houston, Texas where a medical intern was decapitated in an elevator. This scene also bears a resemblance to a death in the Dutch movie De Lift
• The crash in the beginning was based on the March 14, 2002, 125-car pile-up in Ringgold, Georgia.
• This movie, like the first, takes place on Long Island. The mental ward where Clear lives is in St. James.
• At the start of the movie during the opening credits, a model plane can be seen. This is the same model plane that was in Alex's room in Final Destination's intro.
• If one listens closely when Rory gets sliced by the barb wire, people cheering can be heard in the background.
• As Kimberly looks at the sign that says "Construction next 180 feet", if you look behind her, there are barely any cars on the road, but seconds later, Shaina, Dano and Frankie are hit by a speeding truck.
• All three Final Destination films were shot in Vancouver.
• So far in the series Kimberly has proven to have the strongest psychic abilities. In the first film Alex would occasionally get hints of oncoming events through reflections in windows and mirrors while in the third film Wendy relied on photographs. Kimberly was the only lead character who would continually have psychic visions aside from the opening premonition.
• In the first Final Destination movie the students enter the plane through gate 46 in the second movie Final Destination 2 the pileup occurs on route 23; note that 23x2=46, 2 here could refer to the second movie in the series.
• In Evan's Death scene, you see the fridge magnet fall off the fridge and into the food. You see the remaining letters spell "EYE", and this is where the ladder hits him.
• Clear Rivers' padded cell in the Stonybrook psychiatric institution does not have a toilet, sink, and shower. Therefore, being locked in and unable to answer the call of nature would have been some sort of an operating code violation for a medical establishment.

External links

• Official site
• Final Destination 2 at IMDb