Train 081

Train 081
Full Name	Train 081
Location	Booth Street, Pennsylvania, USA
Purpose	Subway Train
First Appearance	Final Destination 3
Last Appearance	Final Destination 5 (closing credits)

Train 081 is a subway train that runs on a line between McKinley, Pennsylvania and Oswald Street as part of the Inter-City Transit Subway system. In a premonition received by Wendy Christensen in Final Destination 3, the train derailed as a result of a track misalignment in November 2005, killing at least 15 people including herself, though it's unknown if the crash occurred in reality, as the premonition occurred early enough for Wendy and her friends to attempt to stop it.

Disaster

While stopping at a station, a man throws a half-eaten chocolate bar at a trash can, but misses and it drops to the ground. The wind from the passing trains causes the bar to fall on the tracks, where a rat finds the bar and begins to eat it. The track is switched over so that the train may safely pass.

Premonition

Train 081 hitting another train.

While eating the chocolate bar, the rat accidentally touches two electrical contacts that control the switchover mechanism, completing a circuit and switching the track back to its original position and misaligning it. The train immediately drives over the unaligned tracks and begins to derail, hitting the tunnel walls and several girders in the tunnel, splitting the train apart car-by-car. During the derailment, Julie is thrown to the back of the train, and witnesses many cars crashing. The back end of the train is hit by a car, and is destroyed, forcing Julie to stay in the back. Julie struggles to make it to the front of the train, but a dislodged train wheel knocks loose, strikes Julie and projecting her out of the train, killing her.

The train begins to grind against the wall and Kevin is thrown against a cracked glass window. Unable to move, Kevin lies on the window until it breaks and he screams as he is sucked outside and crushed between the wall and the train itself. The remaining car runs into a girder and throws Wendy outside and onto the tracks, where she breaks her leg and is stuck onto a set of adjacent tracks. As she looks at the wreckage and her bloody broken leg she begins to cry, she hears faint screeching in the distance. To her horror, another train appears on the tracks heading right for her, and she screams as the train barrels down on her.

Real Life

Wendy attempting to escape the train.

Wendy comes out of her premonition and realizes she's standing on the train, safe and sound alongside Kevin and Julie. When she warns them that the train is about to derail, they desperately try to escape. The screen goes black and loud metal screeching can be heard shortly before the credits roll.

Signs/Clues

• The train's number is 081, which is 180 backwards.
• The chocolate bar eaten by the rat which caused the tracks to become misaligned was dropped by a Bruins fan. Lewis Romero and his gym mates were bitter rivals of the Bruins.
• In a deleted scene, Wendy observes the train schedule and notices the last stop says END in bold, red letters.
• A subway musician starts singing "Turn Around, Look At Me," which is the warning song in this movie.
• In Wendy's photo, Jason's face is blurred. On the train, the people speed past Wendy and all of their faces are blurry.
• While looking in the mirror, Wendy notices the train's number. Backwards, it reads 180.
• Wendy sees several ominous signs and advertisements within the subway car, including:
  • A sign advertising the restaurant where Frankie Cheeks died.
  • A sign advertising the hardware store where Erin Ulmer died.
  • Two signs advertising the tanning salon where Ashley Freund and Ashlyn Halperin died and the drinks they had prior to their deaths.
  • A sign stating "There is no escaping DEATH and taxes".
  • In addition, there is a sign that says "Today could be your lucky day" and another advertisement containing the words "Blaze Unsweetened", possibly alluding to the impending derailment as well.
• The train conductor menacingly states that "The next stop is the end of the line".
• One of the men boarding the train is bald and sports a white and red tattoo, with the tattoo on the left side of his head - which makes him eerily look like Frankie Cheeks when he died.
• The end of the subway line is Oswald Street, while the stop preceding it is Booth Street. These stations share the names of Lee Harvey Oswald and John Wilkes Booth, two men who were responsible for assassinating Presidents John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, respectively.
• The rollsign on the front of the train that kills Wendy in her premonition displays the words "END OF LINE".

Casualties

• Wendy Christensen (unknown might use her knowledge from the vision to escape)
• Kevin Fischer (unknown)
• Julie Christensen (unknown )
• Laura (possibly)
• Sean (possibly)
• At least 10 unnamed people (possibly)

Trivia

• The Train 081 derailment is one of only two non-opening disasters in the entire film series that was foreseen by a visionary, the other being the Tagert Theatres explosion in The Final Destination.
• Though no official location is explicitly established, the signage and graphics in the subway car suggest that it runs on a line that includes McKinley, Pennsylvania and possibly New York City. The subway car itself is nearly identical to the ones that historically ran within the New York City subway system (more specifically, Train 081 appears to be an R32 model), and several of the advertisements featured show businesses in McKinley and area codes for northeastern Pennsylvania. In addition, a subway map within the car explicitly shows that the line Wendy is riding on has a terminal in McKinley.
  • Because the rewritten ending showing the subway derailment was shot 5 months after principle photography completed in response to negative test screenings, later scripts containing this scene are elusive and might explicitly list a locale. Ultimately, there is no way to tell exactly where the derailment takes place, as the film leaves the locale ambiguous.
• In addition to Booth and Oswald Street, there are numerous other stations shown on the subway map, many of which reference various other infamous killers in history. They are:
  • Ruby Drive (refers to Jack Ruby, the man who fatally shot Lee Harvey Oswald)
  • Earl Way (refers to James Earl Ray, who assassinated Martin Luther King Jr.)
  • Koresh (refers to David Koresh, a cult leader who played a central role in the 1993 Waco siege)
  • Mambro (refers to Francesca Mambro, a far-right terrorist responsible for the 1980 Bologna bombing)
  • Chapman (refers to Mark David Chapman, John Lennon's assassin)
  • McKinley
  • Hidell (an alias used by Lee Harvey Oswald)
  • Berkowitz (refers to serial killer David Berkowitz)
  • Manchester (possibly refers to the Beast of Manchester)
  • Jim Jones (cult leader who organized the Jonestown massacre)
  • Hinkey (a possible misspelling of the name of John Warren Hickey Jr., a Secret Service agent present at JFK's assassination)
  • Hubbard (possibly refers to James Hubbard, an Alabama murderer)
  • 63rd (the year JFK was assassinated)
  • McVeigh (refers to Timothy McVeigh, the perpetrator of the Oklahoma City bombing)
  • Bundy (refers to serial killer Ted Bundy)
  • Jonestown Transfer (also refers to Jim Jones)
  • Czolgosz (refers to Leon Czolgosz, President William McKinley's assassin)
  • Carcano (the rifle used by Lee Harvey Oswald)
  • Gein (refers to Ed Gein, the Butcher of Plainfield)
  • Applewhite (refers to Marshall Applewhite, a cult leader who organized the mass suicide of the Heaven's Gate religious group
• There is strong controversy about the train crash and whether or not it killed Wendy, Julie, and Kevin. There's a possibility that the derailment or at least their deaths were successfully averted, but this is highly doubtful, as their presence on the train would've been a great opportunity for Death to finish up the list. Also, no one has managed to successfully cheat Death in any of the Final Destination films without the "New Life" concept, so it is unlikely that they would have been able to escape.
  • A strong theory also states that even though Kevin successfully pulled the brakes, the train might have stopped during the beginning of the derailment, resulting in an early crash.
• It should be noted that the Train 081 derailment never occurs in the novel, as it ended right after Ian McKinley's death. This is because in the earliest script of Final Destination 3, the movie was supposed to end after Ian's death.
• In the original script, Kimberly Corman and Thomas Burke from Final Destination 2 were going to be killed along with Wendy, Julie and Kevin on the train. However, this plot was scrapped, and the two don't make an appearance in the official film at all.
  • In an alternate ending, Kimberly and Thomas are shown to have died in a woodchipper accident around the same time as the derailment, though this takes place in an alternate ending, so it is unclear whether or not their deaths are canon.
  • In another alternate ending, the derailment happens without the premonition and Kevin, Julie and Wendy all die outright.
• It is interesting to note that the Train 081 derailment is similar to a train derailment in the 2009 movie Knowing, where a man uses premonitions, to stop the end of the world.