Thomas Burke

Thomas Burke
Full Name	Thomas Burke
Gender	Male
Height	5'10”
Weight	138 lbs.
Place of Origin	White Plains, New York
Born	Tuesday April 13 1975
Died	Sunday November 13 2005 (Non-Canon)
Cause of Death	Killed by a woodchiper with Kimberly Corman (Non-Canon)
Occupation	New York State police officer, later moved to desk job after the events of the film.
Relations	Kimberly Corman－Friend; Determinent Clear Rivers－Friend; Deceased, Detective Suby - Superior
Actor	Michael Landes
First Appearance	Final Destination 2
Last Appearance	Final Destination 5 (closing credits)

Listen, I know you've gone over all this with Detective Suby, but would you mind telling me what happened? Burke, Questioning Kimberly on how she knew about the pile-up.

Thomas Burke is a main character and the deuteragonist of Final Destination 2. He is a New York State Trooper, and a survivor of the Route 23 pile-up.

If the DVD bonus of Final Destination 3 is considered canon, Thomas was the eighth, and long lasting final survivor of Route 23 to die, being 1645 days since the Route 23 disaster, outnumbering Clear. If not, he is one of the only two characters in the movie series to have successfully cheated Death, the other being Kimberly Corman.

Biography

Thomas was born on April 13, 1975 in White Plains, New York. He resided in Westchester County, and is one of the stationed Troopers in the Route 23 sub-station. Besides highway patrol, Thomas also performs secondary tasks such as police investigation and crime scene cleanup. During a stake-out with his partner, Thomas was reassigned to clean up the remains of Billy Hitchcock, avoiding a fatal shoot-out which took his partner's life.

Final Destination 2

Thomas looking the news on Flight 180 in his computer.

When Kimberly Corman stalls her SUV in the middle of the road after having a premonition of a pile-up on the highway. The drivers behind her, including Burke, complained about her interruption until vehicles ahead crash one another and explode on the highway. As a result, Kimberly is later interrogated by Burke at a police sub-station, where Kimberly explained that her vision was very similar to Alex Browning's vision, and that they are now all on Death's List.

Thomas, remembers his previous event.

Burke and the other survivors disregard this until survivor Evan Lewis dies the next day, alarming the survivors about the incoming danger. After researching the Flight 180 disaster, Burke willingly agrees to help Kimberly save the group from death, now with the aid of Clear Rivers, the last survivor of Flight 180.

At Clear's suggestion they meet with mortician William Bludworth, who helps the latter by telling her new life can defeat Death. Kimberly believes that pregnant survivor Isabella Hudson can save them, however this proves false since Isabella was meant to live even in the premonition.

Thomas, after he saves Kimberly.

After Clear and Eugene's deaths, Kimberly sacrifices herself for Burke' safety by driving a van into a lake, however Burke rescues her and sends her to a hospital for recovery where she is revived and granted new life. This completely ruins the design and saves her and Burke. Having finally cheated Death, they go to a picnic with the Gibbons family, who tell them how their son Brian Gibbons was saved from Death by one of the survivors. To everyone's surprise, Brian is incinerated nearby due to a barbecue grill malfunction.

It is likely that Thomas still works as a highway patrol officer after cheating death with Kimberly.

Possible Death

A newspaper clipping shows that five years after Brian Gibbons' death, Burke went to a hardware

The Newspaper about an article of Kimberly and Officer Burke's accidents.

store to buy supplies, and met Kimberly inside. As they greeted each other, an unmanned vehicle began to drive down the road until it crashed into the store, nearly killing Kim and Burke.

They rushed outside the back door at the last minute only to come into contact with a woodchipper, which failed to shut off. Kimberly got her coat caught inside the machine and was slowly sucked in. Burke tried to save Kimberly, but in the process, he got caught in the machine too. Both of them were hacked to bits by the woodchipper, their blood splattering all over the wall.

The newspaper article on his death:

Survivors of deadly crash die in bizarre accident REPORT - Faulty woodchipper to blame White Plains, NY (AP) - In a strange end to a long running mystery that has kept conspiracy theorists and supernaturalists occupied for years, New York police Officer Thomas Burke and Ms. Kimberly Corman - the last survivors of the infamous Route 180 Pileup - died instantly yesterday when they were pulled into a malfunctioning industrial woodchipper. Both were pronounced dead at the scene by local paramedics. According to eyewitnesses, Ms. Corman stopped at Goldstein's Hardware on North Way for directions. She was surprised to find Mr. Burke also in the store, having stopped by to purchase a fire extinguisher. Neither had seen each other since they were witnesses at the death of Mr. Brian Gibbons, a young man associated with the Route 180 mystery. At the same time, the brakes failed on an unmanned Camaro parked at the top of the hill, which rolled down and crashed into the front of the store. In their effort to escape, Mr. Burke and Ms. Corman ran out the back door, where a large industrial woodchipper was being serviced for a malfunctioning safety guard. Subsequent details are unclear, but apparently Ms. Corman's coat got tangled in the woodchipper's spinning blades, and when Mr. Burke tried to save her, they both fell into the machine. "I'll never recover from seeing what happened to those two, said a shaken Mr. Norman Goldstein, owner of the hardware store. "And I don't think I'll ever get the side of the building cleaned off." Mr. Burke and Ms. Corman were the last survivors of the highway pileup on Route 180 five years ago. Several people were prevented from going on the highway by Ms. Corman, who allegedly experienced a premonition that the crash was about to occur. Soon after, however, each of the survivors was killed in a series of odd accidents. This fueled speculation by some that dark forces were at work to make sure they died. While both Mr. Burke and Ms. Corman were exonerated of any involvement in the deaths, the stigma impacted them severely. Mr. Burke was reduced to a desk job in the sheriff's department while Ms. Corman dropped out of school to pursue "other interests." Their deaths might have signaled the tragic conclusion to the Routh 23 Pileup mystery, but several facts surrounding the deaths of Mr. Burke and Ms. Corman seem to ensure that it will be discussed for years to come. The camaro that rolled into the front of the store used to be owned by Mr. Evan Lewis, one of the other survivors from the Route 180 pileup who had been killed outside his apartment. The woodchipper belonged to Mr. Roger Gibbons, who owns the farm where several of the other survivors of the Route 180 Pileup perished in a strange car accident. He is also the father of Brian Gibbons, at whose odd death both Mr. Burke and Ms. Corman were present. Finally, the attending physician who signed the death certificate was Dr. Ellen Kalarjian, who delivered a baby whose mother was near, but not involved with, the Route 180 Pileup. These coincidences were not lost on those close to the victims. "This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen in twenty seven years on the force," said Sheriff Mortimer Perry, who was Burke's commanding officer. "Thomas was a good man who deserved better than what fate clearly had in store for him." Ms. Corman's father Michael Corman released a statement which stated "My daughter lived a full life, and in death has hopefully escaped whatever it is that haunted her." Funeral services will be held at the Bludworth Funeral Home this Sunday.

The scene that reveals their deaths is only featured as an optional part of the Choose Their Fates special feature on the "Thrill Ride DVD Edition" of Final Destination 3, that allows the viewer to choose between variations of scenes playing out, which can result in a substantially different viewing experience.

Signs/Clues

• At the top of the page of the newspaper, there is a heading that says "COST OF COMMUTING | B2-3" which could possibly be referencing the Route 23 pile-up.
• The woodchipper that sucked Thomas and Kimberly in is owned by Brian Gibbons' father.
• When Kimberly's diary is shown it says "Road Trip" but her keys are blocking the T making it say: "ROAD RIP"
• When Sam and his friends are on their way to the bridge Sam sees a log truck, foreshadowing the pile-up and Thomas' death.
• In the opening credits for Final Destination 5, logs and his coffee are seen crashing through glass foreshadowing his premonition's death.
• Burke's police call sign is Unit 13.
• Ironically, the machine that kills him is designed for breaking down logs and wood into smaller chips.

==

Appearances

• Final Destination 2 (portrayed by Michael Landes)
• Final Destination 2 (novel)
• Final Destination 3 (photograph) (portrayed by Michael Landes)
• Final Destination 5 (archive footage in ending credits) (portrayed by Michael Landes)

Trivia

• He is the only survivor to be the officer and interrogate other survivors himself.
• Kimberly and Thomas' possible deaths are based from a real life death by Brian Morse who was trimming birch trees in Loveland, Colorado, when his gloved hand got caught in a wood chipper. He was pulled through the machine before anyone could help him, and his body was found inside completely mutilated.
• It is possible Thomas was to have died by the flying gurney in the hospital explosion, killing Clear and Eugene. If Kimberly has pulled him down at the last second, and the gurney passed right over them, exactly where Burke's head would have been since he was next on the list.
• In the script of Final Destination 2, he is described as: 30, rookie cop.
• In the opening of Final Destination 5, Officer Burke's death in the premonition is referenced by having the drink that spilled distracting him from the road crash into the screen.
• His death in Kimberly's premonition won the 'Primo Premonition' in Dead Meat’s Kill Count of Final Destination 2
• He is the only survivor to cheat Death completely without having to kill himself and be revived.
• Thomas is one of only eight characters throughout the entire Final Destination franchise who have cheated Death using the New Life method. The others are:
  • Kimberly Corman, another survivor of the Route 23 pileup who drowned herself.
  • Jessica "Jess" Golden, a survivor of the Club Kitty collapse from Final Destination: Dead Reckoning who was revived after being electrocuted by a stun gun as she was crawling through a puddle.
  • Jamie, another survivor of the Club Kitty collapse who was saved when he was revived alongside Jess after being shot in the chest.
  • Juliet Collins, a survivor of the Mornington Crescent explosion from Final Destination: Destination Zero who was saved after drowning in the Thames River. She is also the only survivor who is known to have survived long-term, having mothered at least one child since her revival.
  • Patricia Fuller, a survivor of the South Hill Metroline bombing and the great-granddaughter of Juliet Collins. She was revived after giving herself a fatal dose of anesthesia.
  • Louise King, a survivor of the subway collision in Final Destination: End of the Line who was revived after being accidentally given a fatal dose of lidocaine by Kate Shelley.
  • Abigail "Cabernet" Foster, a survivor of the Coral Clipper sinking from Final Destination: Looks Could Kill who cheated Death permanently after giving birth to her son Sky, who was supposed to have died along with her in the sinking. She is also the only person to have cheated Death in this manner.