Final Destination 2 is the second installment of the Final Destination series released in 2003. It gained superior critical reception than it's predecessor; with most critics applauding the improved special effects and inventive deaths.
It has since gained recognition as one of more critically acclaimed films of the franchise. The tag line was "You can't cheat Death twice".
Plot
One year after the explosion of Flight 180, Kimberly Corman is going on a vacation to Daytona Beach with her three friends, Shaina, Dano and Frankie. While waiting on the entrance ramp to Route 23, she has a horrifying vision of a deadly pile-up, caused by a truck carrying logs. She stalls her car to block the road and prevents 8 of intended victims from entering on the highway. Officer Thomas Burke comes and asks Kimberly to get out of the car due to her erratic behavior. As the people being blocked get out of their cars to complain, the pile-up occurs. An 18-wheeler truck drives into Kimberly's SUV killing her three friends, but Thomas manages to save Kimberly from being killed as well.
Back at the police station when Officer Burke is talking to them, Kimberly mentions the Flight 180 explosion, which Eugene Dix tells the group about. The other survivors of the pile up don't believe it and all leave. Later that day lottery winner and pile up survivor Evan Lewis dies after being impaled by the fire escape ladder on his building after an attempt to escape his apartment fire. Kimberly seeks help from the only surviving member of Flight 180, Clear Rivers.
Clear refuses to help Kimberly, saying that if Kimberly was smart she would forget about the others and save herself. Before Kimberly leaved, Clear tells her that noticing death's signs can mean the difference between life and death. Kimberly then realizes that the next to die is Tim Carpenter, and pigeons will cause his death. They arrive at the scene, but are too late when Tim chases some pigeons, which causes a construction worker to drop a glass panel on Tim, crushing him. Once this happens, Kimberly and Thomas call a meeting with the rest of the survivors.
Clear eventually decides to help Kimberly and meets her shortly after Tim's death. They go off to see William Bludworth who informs them that "only new life can defeat death", giving them a quest to find Isabella Hudson, who was at the scene of the pile up and pregnant. Kimberly, Clear and Thomas then go to Thomas's apartment for the survivors meeting. The grieving Nora Carpenter leaves the meeting before it is over. Eugene Dix leaves shortly after, saying he doesn't believe any of their stories about cheating death.
Once they have left Rory Peters sees a shadow that looks like a man with hooks. As Nora enters the elevator to prepare for her son's funeral, she gets her hair caught in hooks carried by a man, but when she attempts to leave the elevator, she gets her head caught in the malfunctioning doors. Eugene, Kat Jennings, Clear, and the man try to save her, but she is decapitated. This causes Eugene and Kat to believe Clear's stories.
On the way to the hospital to find Isabella as she has gone into labor, Clear mentions how death is working backwards, Eugene, Kat, Rory, Thomas and Kimberly all mention how they have already avoided death once, and because of the deaths of the Flight 180 survivors, Clear realizes that death is trying to "seal the rift", as they should have been dead anyway if it wasn't for the late deaths of the Flight 180 survivors. There is suddenly a van coming up quick, Kat
Clear, Thomas, Kimberly and Rory helps Eugene get into the hospital.
swerved and so did the van (which had Isabella in), Kat's car swerves off the road a log impales the car trapping Kat, the car spins backward and a large sharp pipe narrowly misses Kat's head.
Kat and the pipe that missed her head.
Eugene although has had his lung punctured, and is rushed to hospital.
It's at this point where Rory saves Brian Gibbons from being hit by a news van traveling at high speed. When the news van stops it puts a hole in its petrol tank, causing the petrol to run down a pipe past Kat's car. Fire men work on getting Kat out of the car, but when a fireman attempts to remove the log with the jaws of life, the airbag is released, forcing Kat's head into the large sharp pipe, instantly impaling her.
The cigarette Kat was holding drops out of her dead hand and it blows into the pipe where the petrol spilled, igniting the petrol and causing the news van to explode. The explosion sends a barbed wire that was attached to a nearby fence to Rory, slicing him into three parts and cutting off his left arm. Thomas, Kimberly and Clear all go to the hospital, where Isabella's baby is born. They think they have defeated death, but Kimberly has another vision, and then realizes Isabella was never supposed to die in the pile-up.
Burke and Kimberly after Eugene's room blows up.
Clear then runs to find Eugene, and finds him in a hospital room. She opens the door, which pulls the plug out of an outlet, causing a spark, and an explosion, which expands through the hallway. The explosion nearly kills Burke when a shelf flies in his direction, but is skipped when Kimberly pulls him down. Kimberly turns around to see the dead corpses of Clear and Eugene. Working off an earlier vision, Kimberly gets in a van and drives it into a lake, when she believes that she is the "New life".
In the lake, she drowns, thus skipping Burke as she is the last in line. Doctor Ellen Kalarjian resuscitates hers, thus making her cheat death. Making her and Thomas the only survivors of deaths design as Kimberly cheated it. Invited by the Gibbons' to their house for dinner, they talk about how they are returning to normal life. This is when Mr. Gibbons mentions how Brian was saved by Rory, Kimberly, and Burke look at each other, then the BBQ with Brian in front explodes, with his arm landing in front of Mrs. Gibbons. Then the credits roll.
Cast
| Clear Rivers | Ali Larter |
| Kimberly Corman | A.J. Cook |
| Thomas Burke | Michael Landes |
| Evan Lewis | David Paetkau |
| Tim Carpenter | James Kirk |
| Nora Carpenter | Lynda Boyd |
| Kat | Keegan Connor Tracy |
| Rory | Jonathan Cherry |
| Eugene Dix | T.C. Carson |
| Isabella Hudson | Justina Machado |
| Mr. Bludworth | Tony Todd |
| Shaina | Sarah Carter |
| Dano | Alejandro Rae |
| Frankie | Shaun Sipos |
| Mr. Corman | Andrew Airlie |
| Administrator | Christina Jastrzembska |
| Anesthesiologist | Eileen Pedde |
| Anchorwoman | Jill Krop |
| Anchorman | Marrett Green |
| Biker | Don Bell |
| Biker's Girlfriend | Odessa Munroe |
| Brian Gibbons | Noel Fisher |
| Dental Receptionist | Benita Ha |
| Deputy Steve | Aaron Douglas |
| Detective Suby | Eric Keenleyside |
| Dr. Kalarjian | Enid-Raye Adams |
| Doctor Lees | Fred Henderson |
| ER Nurse | Veena Sood |
| Guest | David Purvis |
| Host | Marke Driesschen |
| Man in Elevator | Darcy Laurie |
| Man with Hooks | John R. Taylor |
| Mr. Gibbons | Alf Humphreys |
| Mrs. Gibbons | Chilton Crane |
| Nurse in Delivery Room | Sarah Hattingh |
| Obstetrician | Klodyne Rodney |
| On-Ramp Lady | Rheta Hutton |
| Paramedic at Farm | John Stewart |
| Paramedic at Hospital | Cam Cronin |
| Physician | Alison Matthews |
| Rescue Worker | Mark Lukyn |
| Skate Punk | Lorne Stewart |
| Young Woman | Jenny Lang |
Alternate Ending
The original movie was supposed to end with Kimberly and Officer Burke embracing in the hospital after Kimberly was revived.
Posters
There are 2 different posters, one featured the cast's face, and the other one is a cast poster.
The first poster
The second poster
The first poster featured 6 characters, from left to right: Kimberly, Eugene, Clear, Nora, Kat and Thomas. At the middle of the poster, right under Clear and Nora, there is a car with it's light flashing on a road. The car and its shadow makes it looks like a skull with its eyes flashing. There also a tagline at the top of the poster:"For every beginning there is an end". The movie's name "Final Destination 2" is under the cast, with all capital letters. This poster is mainly in black, except the cast's face are obviously over white.
The second poster is a cast poster, which also featured 6 characters, from left to right: Eugene, Kimberly, Clear, Thomas, Rory and Kat. Nora from the first poster didn't appear in this poster, and Rory replaced her. There is a skull face at the top of the background, and there are lighting too. Several buildings are seen next to Eugene and Kat, and the cast are seen standing on a road. The movie's name "Final Destination 2" is at the middle of the poster, with all capital letters. There also a tagline under the movie name: "You can't cheat death twice". This poster is mainly in dark blue and black, except the cast are in their normal color.
Trivia
- The characters in this movie (except Shaina, Brian, Dano, Frankie, Evan, Tim and Nora), are somewhat involved or witnessed, the deaths of the characters in Final Destination.
- The original script to Final Destination 2 revealed that Alex Browning and Clear Rivers both survived, and both decided to help Kimberly Corman save the survivors of the Route 23 pile-up. However, the idea was changed so that only Clear survived and Alex was written out and killed off in between movies.
- Kimberly Corman was originally supposed to die a year before the pile-up outside a mall, where some street thugs carjacked her mother's car. Her mother tried to fight them off but she wound up being shot dead. Kimberly, on the other hand, was too distracted watching the news about Tod Waggner's death when she should have been involved with the shooting.
- Thomas Burke was originally supposed to die via a shootout, however he was called at the last minute to clean up the remains of Billy Hitchcock who was originally meant to die on Flight 180.
- Kat Jennings was originally supposed to die via a gas leak at a hotel she was meant to stay at, however it was postponed due to the fact the bus she was traveling along hit a girl, which was Terry Chaney, a survivor of Flight 180 .
- Eugene Dix was a teacher who was originally meant to be murdered by one of his students. However, he was called to replace another teacher, who just died. The teacher he replaced was Valerie Lewton, who survived Flight 180 and taught at Mt. Abraham High.
- Rory Peters was originally meant to die at a play in Paris, France, when the theater at which the play took place collapsed. However he returned home after seeing a man being crushed by a sign. The man was Carter Horton who again, was a survivor of Flight 180.
- Final Destination 2's opening disaster is referenced in the opening credits of Final Destination 5 by logs crashing into the screen.
- This movie has the largest amount of explosions. There are five individual scenes in the movie with explosions. This is significant because the explosions in each scene are caused by forces independent of each other.
- Before Evan dies there are lots of signs showing how he will die, for instance: the doll in the hallway is missing its right eye, the fridge magnets spell out H-E-Y-E, and the H (signifying the ladder) falls off, leaving the word "eye" and lastly he has just bought an 'i' mac computer.
- When Kimberly blocks the off ramp she sees a road works sign reading 'Next 180 feet'. The car crash at the farm occurs next to the 180 marker (according to the cop reporting it). These are both references to Flight 180, the plane that crashed in FD1.
- In the morgue you can see William Bludworth wearing Evan's diamond studded Rolex. How he obtained the watch is unknown, unless no one took off his watch prior to the autopsy
- When the people are on the on-ramp, you can see Eugene turn off his motorcycle and look at his keychain. It is an unlucky thirteen.
- When Kimberly leaves the room that Clear is locked up in one shot shows her in the video camera giving Clear the finger, if you look at the rest of the hallway it looks like a road.
- At the beginning of the movie, notice when the camera is scanning over all of Kimberly's belongings on her desk, there is a book that says 'Road Trip" with a keychain over the T reading 'Road rip'.
- In the beginning, when Kimberley wakes up suddenly, listen carefully. You can hear Tony Todd's voice saying "Kimberly". Considering the conductor of Train 081 was also voiced by Tony Todd it is unknown whether this is the voice of William Bludsworth or a supernatural force.
- When Tim is about to get crushed by the pane of glass if you'll look the pattern of bricks he is standing on form a giant X that he is standing right in the middle of.
- At the beginning, in the scene in Kim's bedroom, the plane on her bed side table is the same one from Alex's bedroom in the first Final Destination.
- In the beginning, Kimberly and her friends pass a bus in her car. The people in the bus are yelling 'pile-up,' which foreshadows the imminent car crash.
- Just before Nora goes into the elevator, the floor light shows a down arrow and a 3. Unlucky 13.
- If you listen to the song playing in the elevator, it is Rocky Mountain High by John Denver, the song from FD1.
- The actor playing the anchorwoman during the short scene showing a news broadcast is a real life news reporter for the Canadian Global television network in Vancouver, British Columbia. This is likely due to the fact that Final Destination 2 was filmed in Vancouver.
- It is a common misconception that Death only realized Isabella was never going to be in the crash when Kimberly did. She was never targeted at all. It is likely that Death just made it look like she was so that Kimberly and the others were off guard and easier to kill.
- The tagline "You can't cheat death twice" is rather nonsensical considering Clear Rivers has cheated death multiple times. For example, her death on Flight 180 and electrocution death in Final Destination were both intervened by Alex Browning. Her actual death is at least the third life threatening situation that she had been in. This could be justified by the ending of The Final Destination, as death always intended for her to die in the Hospital explosion. However, this proves the concept of "Cheating death" completely moot.
- All of the main characters (with the exception of Kimberly) appear in the ending credits of Final Destination 5.
Reception
Critical response
The film received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reports 47% of critics gave the film positive write-ups based on 107 reviews, with an average rating of 5 out of 10. It's consensus is, "This sequel is a little more than an excuse to stage elaborate, gory scenes of characters getting killed off." While most praised it for its special effects and inventive death sequences, some dismissed it as being 'an average sequel to an average movie'. Nevertheless, this film has received the second highest score amongst the five films in the franchise on Rotten Tomatoes, the first being Final Destination 5 with a score of 61%. In Metacritic website the movie scored an unfavorable 38 based on 25 reviews and the third highest rating of Final Destination series. The First is Final Destination 5 with 50% and Final Destination 3 with 41%.
The film has landed on many "best car crash/accidents" lists including one by New York Magazine which cited the highway pile-up scene as the greatest car crash in movie history, calling it "the new gold standard for car-related chaos in cinema". Even acclaimed director Quentin Tarantino was quoted as saying that the opening scene was "a magnificent car action piece". The highway pile up was nominated for "Best Action Sequence" at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards.