| The mortician said that Death has a design, right? Now, what if you, me, Tod, Carter, Terry, Billy, Ms. Lewton messed up that design for whatever reason; I saw Death's plan and we cheated him. But what if it was our time? What if we were not meant to get off that plane? What if it still is our time? If it is, then it's not finished, and we will die, now, not later - unless, unless we find the patterns and cheat it again.
|
Alex Theodore Browning is the protagonist of Final Destination, and the visionary of the Flight 180 explosion.
Alex was the sixth survivor of Flight 180 to die. In the alternative ending (which isn't canon), he was the fifth and last survivor.
Alex's premonition at Flight 180.
Biography
Alex was born and lived in the fictional town of Mt. Abraham, New York to Ken and Barbara Browning. He has been friends with siblings Tod and George Waggner since childhood, and has been their classmate since then. He studied at Mt. Abraham High School, and was the rival of Carter Horton, who frequently fought with Alex whenever they were together. Alex was one of the students qualified for the school's annual field trip to Paris, France.
Final Destination
Alex in bed the night before the accident.
Alex boards Volée Airlines Flight 180, with his classmates and teachers for their senior class field trip to Paris. Before take off, Alex has a vision that the plane will explode in mid-air, killing everyone on board. After the events from his vision begin to repeat themselves in reality, Alex panics and attempts to stop the Flight, however, his warning is ignored. Carter believes Alex is making the whole thing up as a joke, and attacks him, which leads to seven passengers being removed from the plane.
While waiting at the airport, Alex witnesses the plane explode as he predicted. He is later interrogated by FBI Agent Schreck and Agent Weine, who believe that Alex is responsible for the plane explosion. While attending a memorial service for the victims, Alex develops a relationship with fellow survivor Clear Rivers.
Alex visits Clear.
After the service, Tod is killed in an apparent suicide, although Alex doesn't believe that Tod killed himself. With Clear's help, Alex breaks into the funeral home, to see Tod's body, and encounters mortician William Bludworth, who is more knowledgeable about Death than anyone else. Bludworth tells them that they have ruined Death's plan and warns them that Death is now taking the lives of those who were meant to die on the plane. The next day, Alex and Clear discuss what the mortician said at a cafe, where they encounter the rest of the survivors, and witness Terry Chaney's death. Later that night, Alex realizes the survivors are dying in the order they were meant to die on the plane, and deduces that Ms. Lewton is next. He rushes to save her, but thinking that Alex is up to no good, Ms. Lewton calls the FBI agents who take him in for questioning. Although Alex fails to convince the agents of what is going on, they decided to let him go. Nonetheless he is too late to save Ms. Lewton.
Alex & Clear, during their visit to Bludworth's morgue
The remaining survivors reunite and Alex explains what's going on as they drive through town. When Carter learns that he is next on Death's list, he parks his car on railroad tracks, wanting to die on his own terms. He changes his mind at the last minute but can't exit the car. Alex manages to save Carter just before his car is smashed by an oncoming train, butBilly Hitchcock is killed shortly after by flying shrapnel from the wreckage.
Alex concludes that since he intervened Death skipped Carter, meaning he is next on Death's list. While hiding out in a fortified cabin Alex remembers that he changed seats with two girls Christa Marsh and Blake Dreyer in his premonition, meaning Clear is actually next, and he rushes to save her while being chased by agents. Along the way Death attempts to slow Alex down, but can't kill him since its not his turn to die. He arrives in time to save Clear who is trapped in a car with a leaking gas tank, and surrounded by loose live wires, and grabs the wire, allowing Clear to escape from the car seconds before it explodes, leaving Alex incapacitated.
Six months later, Alex visits Paris with Clear and Carter to celebrate their survival. However, after explaining that Death never skipped him, Alex begins to see more omens, and leaves the table. A chain reaction causes him to nearly be hit by a falling neon sign, but Carter saves Alex at the last second, and Death skips him. When Carter asks whose next on Death's list the sign suddenly swings back down towards Carter, meaning that Death's plan is still in action.
Death
A news article about Alex's death.
A news article in Final Destination 2 reveals that Alex didn't leave his house for months after the events of the first film. It also reveals that Alex was bludgeoned to death by a falling brick while standing in an alley. Alex's body was found next to a horrified Clear, and a local merchant called the police after hearing her screams.
Signs/Clues
- After Terry Chaney's death, blood sprays on Alex's face. One of the blood stains looks like a 7, implying Alex is seventh on Death's list.
- At the end of the movie, a man is singing "Rocky Mountain High" in French.
- At the end of the movie, Clear's wine spills over Alex's drawing of the Flight 180 seats. The stain looks like blood, and it's over Alex's seat.
- Alex almost got killed seven times, which is the most times a character has evaded death. He was almost run over by a train, nearly electrocuted saving Clear, nearly killed in an explosion, nearly impaled in the face by blunt branches, almost drowns when a tree falls on him, almost run over by a bus, and was almost crushed by a neon sign. This is the same number in the order he was supposed to die.
Final Destination 2
Clear shows Kimberly a picture of Alex's body.
| And this is what happened to Alex, when I was responsible for him.
|
In Final Destination 2, Kimberly Corman, the visionary of the Route 23 pile-up, visits Clear at the Stonybrook Mental Institution. During an argument Clear reveals that she blamed herself for Alex's death, and shows Kimberly a picture of Alex's body lying face down in a small pool of blood. She later mentions that she and Alex cheated Death "dozens of times" after the first film, meaning Death went back and forth between the two of them before finally getting Alex.
Final Destination 3
| Okay, look, I went online looking for an explanation about what happened, and I found out about this high school French class from New York. Six years ago, they went on a trip to Paris. When they were boarding, a kid had a vision that the plane was gonna explode. Just like you did. He freaked out, and seven people got off the plane. Just like us. And on takeoff, Flight 180 blew up. And over the next several months, everyone who got off that plane started dying in weird accidents. They died in the order they would've if they had stayed on the plane. Unless someone intervened, then it skipped them.
|
In Final Destination 3, Alex was mentioned by Kevin Fischer, a survivor of the Devil's Flight Roller coaster derailment, while he explains to Wendy Christensen about the explosion of Flight 180 and the deaths of the survivors of the plane.
Final Destination 5
Alex in Final Destination 5.
| ''Oh, excuse me. Um... those passengers who got off the plane earlier, what was that all about?
Passenger to the Flight Attendant. A kid had a panic attack and wanted off the plane. Said he had some kind of vision. Flight Atttendant, in reply. No... Sam Lawton, overhearing the two in conversation and realising what has happened. |
In Final Destination 5, Alex and the rest of the survivors are seen being thrown off of Flight 180, moments before its destruction.
Little did he know he was directly across the isle from Sam Lawton who also had experienced Death-related premonitions of his own just a couple of weeks earlier. Momentarily noticing Sam, he reached his hand over to him as he shouted across for him to 'get off the plane'; Sam was visibly shaken by this but remained on the plane, only realizing what Alex was trying to warn them about after it was too late to escape.
Appearances
- Final Destination (First appearance) (Devon Sawa)
- Final Destination (novel)
- Final Destination 2 (mentioned and photo) (unknown body double)
- Final Destination: Dead Man's Hand (mentioned)
- Final Destination: Looks Could Kill (mentioned)
- Final Destination: Death of the Senses (mentioned)
- Final Destination 2 (novel) (mentioned)
- Final Destination 3 (mentioned)
- Final Destination 3 (novel) (mentioned)
- Final Destination 5 (archive footage) (Devon Sawa, unknown body double)
Alex's death in an alternate ending
Trivia
- In the original ending for Final Destination, Alex dies in an explosion after saving Clear, but not before Clear becomes pregnant with his child, as implied by another deleted scene showing the possible moment of conception.
- In another ending, which was filmed, but never used, Alex is decapitated by a helicopter blade.
- In the novel, Alex's full name is Alexander Chance Browning, while his full name is listed as Alex Theodore Browning on his passport in the movie. Since the novels are considered non-canon, the second one is considered to be his canonical full name.
- Since it is practically impossible for a passport to leave out the complete spelling of a first name, it is confirmed that his legal first name is simply Alex, and not Alexander as what has been generally believed. As support, he has never been referred to as Alexander throughout the movie.
- "Theodore" evokes the origin of his surname, Tod Browning, director of Dracula and Freaks.
- Tobey Maguire was originally considered to play the role of Alex Browning along with Kirsten Dunst as Clear Rivers. Two years after the film, they would go on to play the main characters and love interests, Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson, in the critically acclaimed Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy (2002-2007).
- Alex is 17 at the start of the film, by the end of the film he is 18, and at the time of his death he is 19.
- The original script to Final Destination 2 revealed that Alex and Clear both survived, and both decided to help Kimberly save the survivors of the Route 23 pile-up. When it became clear that Sawa would not be returning to the role, still off-screen, Alex was going to be killed by a flesh-eating bacteria. This was later changed to a ceiling fan, and then finally to a falling brick. [1]
- The discrepancy in the cause of Alex's death is seen in the final cut of Final Destination 2. Clear's vision board in her cell includes a note that reads "killed by a ceiling fan" However, the articles that Thomas Burke reads online state that he was killed when a dislodged brick falls on his head. The polaroid photo that Clear flashes Kimberly of Alex's corpse also suggests the death by brick as no fan blade is seen in his head, as originally referred to in deleted dialogue.
- It is rumoured that Devon Sawa declined to return due to non-payment issues or a contractual dispute with New Line. The producers have stated the decision to kill off his character was a narrative decision.
- Recently Creator Jeffrey Reddick said he did plan to have Alex return in Final Destination 2 and hoped to use him long term throughout the franchise, but Devon Sawa wasn't available due to scheduling conflicts and to Reddick's disdain, Alex was killed off. Reddick also said had he known he wouldn't get Alex back ahead time he wouldn't have killed Clear Rivers off as he likes to bring characters back without killing them.[1]
- Alex's death is based on the real-life death of Yan Zhen Zhao, when a brick fell onto her head back in 1998. The 16-year-old was walking past an elementary school in Brooklyn when the brick tumbled from a roof that was under construction.
- Alex's death creates a major plot-hole for the second film: Kimberly says that Flight 180 was exactly a year before the pile-up of Route 23, and it is mentioned that Clear has been in the asylum for a year. However, Clear could not have been in the asylum for anywhere close to that long. The funeral in the first film takes place about a month after the plane explodes, and furthermore, the trip to Paris where Carter dies takes places at least six months after that. A news article states Alex remained in his home for three months after Carter died, which would have been at least ten months after the plane incident. Therefore, Clear locked herself in the asylum either ten months after the disaster when Alex died, and was in the asylum for two months at most, or sometime between then and when they were in Paris, which is between two and five months.
- In the script of Final Destination, Alex is described as: ALEX BROWNING, 18, an average kid; handsome. A high school "everyman."
- According to Devon Sawa, he was never informed about his appearance in the fifth film ahead of him being invited for the film's premiere. Sawa assumed this was due to a clause in the first film's contract where it stated that the studio could use the footage forever.[2]
- Alex was born on September, 25 (9/25), Flight 180 was to leave at 9:25, and Alex sat at seat I25 (Ninth letter of the Alphabet, 25th seat)
- Alex's premonition death was almost exactly the same as Sam's real life death.
- Alex is the only visionary who didn't die together with another survivor as Wendy, Nick and Sam did (and if we count the DVD bonus for Kimberly as the canon)
- It was rumoured that if Alex returned in Final Destination 2 he would of been killed by a power drill, though this could be referencing the McKinley Speedway or Andy Kewzer's death
- The death in his vision won the Primo Premonition award in Dead Meat’s Final Destination Kill count. In contrast, his real death won the Dull Machete award in Final Destination 2 Kill count.
References
- ↑ At once, Clear, enraged, is in her face, speaking through clenched teeth. CLEAR: "My family is dead. My friends are dead. And Alex..." Clear angrily peels a Polaroid off the wall and shows it to Kimberly. While we don't see the photo, Kimberly's horrified face paints a gruesome picture on its own. CLEAR: "And yes, that's the blade of a fucking ceiling fan in his head." Clear pounds on the door, apparently done with Kimberly. A GUARD opens the door. Kimberly, devastated, turns to leave, then summons her courage and turns back to Clear. This information is revealed in this link: http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Final-Destination-2.html
- ↑ Devon Sawa's Tweet