Ashley Freund

Final Destination 3 (Main)

Coin Flip: Tails

76 Degrees

Ashley Freund
Full Name	Ashley Brooklyn Freund
AKA	Jennifer Halperin (originally)
Gender	Female
Hair Color	Blonde
Eye Color	Blue
Place of Origin	McKinley, Pennsylvania
Age	17
Status	Deceased
Died	May 27, 2005
Cause of Death	Incinerated in a malfunctioning tanning bed
Occupation	High school student
Relations	Ashlyn Halperin－Best friend; Deceased Frankie Cheeks－Batchmate; Deceased Wendy Christensen – Friend; Deceased Steinmetz - Boyfriend; Alive
Actor	Chelan Simmons
First Appearance	Final Destination 3
Last Appearance	Final Destination 3

Maybe it's supposed to be colder for the machines or whatever. Ashley, guessing why Yuri keeps the tanning bed room cold.

Ashley Freund is a protagonist in the film and novel Final Destination 3. She is a high school student and a survivor of the Devil's Flight derailment. She was incredibly beautiful and took great pride in her appearance. Ashley is the first survivor of Devil's Flight to die, alongside Ashlyn Halperin.

Biography

Ashley lived in McKinley, Pennsylvania, and attended McKinley High School. She and Ashlyn Halperin were two ditzy best friends who were very popular among their classmates. Ashley and Ashlyn cared a lot about each other, as shown in the rain scene when Ashley was giving her phone number to Wendy, and Ashlyn covered her head with a notebook instead of covering her own. As stated by Ian McKinley during her and Ashlyn’s funeral, she never did anything bad to any of her classmates, and he was adamant that her death was unfair. Although it seemed like Ashley and Ashlyn were the typical high school mean girls, they were both very deeply sympathetic people, as they both saw that Wendy was emotionally suffering after the disaster, and offered her to come with them to the tanning salon to talk about it.

Final Destination 3

Ashley and Ashlyn visit the carnival for their senior class field trip and win a prize in the water game. A short while later, they boarded Devil's Flight together, and they are harassed by Frankie Cheeks, who was recording them. Before the ride starts, Wendy Christensen has a premonition that the ride will crash, killing everyone on board. When she panics, a fight breaks out between several other students, and Ashley and Ashlyn leave in annoyance, shortly before the ride crashes as Wendy predicted, killing the remaining passengers on board.

Weeks later, Ashley and Ashlyn are at school signing yearbooks when they see a distraught Wendy walking alone in the rain. They decide to invite her to the tanning salon to help take her mind off Jason Wise, but she declines the offer. Later, Ashley and Ashlyn went to the tanning salon. They impatiently wait for Yuri, the manager, to stop yelling on the phone about his boss. Yuri sends them to the room and tells Ashley to throw the drinks away. Ashley dumps Ashlyn’s slushie instead of hers.

Death

When Ashley and Ashlyn enter the tanning bedroom, Ashley leaves her iced beverage on a table, unaware that the VAC machine controlling the tanning beds is right underneath it. Ashlyn decides to turn up the heater to 73 degrees, stating that a few degrees won't hurt. Ashley then decides to look through the CDs on a wooden shelf above one of the tanning beds. While doing so, she accidentally pulls the shelf loose.

Ashley and Ashlyn proceeded to undress and lie in their tanning beds. They dance and sing to the song “Love Rollercoaster” as it plays. Over at the desk where Ashley left her drink, it started to condense and form a small puddle. As the temperature in the room rises, the iced beverage cup starts to condense and begins to drip onto the VAC machine under it, causing it to malfunction, and making the beds warmer. After a few minutes, the girls started to sweat, but only Ashlyn noticed. The air was turned on and knocked over a coat rack. Ashley took off her earphones. Ashlyn opened up her tanning bed and went to get up as the coat rack hit the shelf, which fit into the opening in the handle for both beds. Ashley banged her head against the lid of the tanning bed, which was suddenly and unexpectedly not opening. The other side of the shelf fit in the now closed lid of Ashlyn's bed, and things started to get toasty.

Glasses breaking.

Ashley started sweating and breathing hard, and her hair was sticking to her head. She was worried that someone was going to have to come in there and help them out. Ashley tries opening her bed again and burns her hand against the top of the bed. The lights get very bright. Suddenly, Ashley starts screaming as she starts burning up. She winces, panicking, struggling to get out of her bed. Ashley tries getting out through the top, but a fan meant to keep the occupant of the bed cool blocked the way. Panicking and burning up, Ashley continues screaming in alarm to get someone's attention. A look of terror on Ashley's face as the glass above her cracked and shattered, which sent thousands of tiny pieces of glass upon her, slicing into her skin. The bottom glass cracks and bursts, sending Ashley to the bottom panels and setting her on fire.

Ashley burned alive.

While Ashley screams in sheer agony and shakes violently, the flames melt the flesh from her body. She looks through the slot, but the flames engulf her. The fire set the entire tanning bed ablaze, with Ashley's blood-curdling scream echoing as she burned to death.

Signs/Clues

• Wendy's photo of Ashley and Ashlyn is overexposed, making it look like they're on fire.
• In the same photo, it almost looks as if the two are screaming.
• After Ashley wins at the water gun booth, her prize is an inflatable palm tree, which represents the potted palm that knocks over the shelf, which locks the tanning beds, trapping Ashley and Ashlyn.
• The water gun booth can be seen as a foreshadowing of the slushy (liquid) that causes the bed's VAC to malfunction.
• Ashley and Ashlyn listen to "Love Rollercoaster" before the beds burn.
• The word "ash" is in her name.
• Ashley's number, written on a piece of paper, lies beside Wendy's overheating lamp.
• When Wendy is in her room, her lamp's light bursts at the same time Ashley and Ashlyn get incinerated.
• Before they can even go to the tanning room, the camera shows a canister containing an alcoholic (flammable) liquid, foreshadowing the eventual fire that engulfs the girls.
• In the opening sequence, there are two women, known as The Electric Sisters, who were electrocuted in their electric chairs, causing their skins to be overexposed.
• When Ashley's phone rings, it plays a horror tune from The Town That Dreaded Sundown.
• On one of the tanning beds, there is a sign that says, "This bed has been cleaned and is ready for tanning. Are YOU?"
• During the song "Love Rollercoaster", you can hear one of the singers say "high!" again and again in the scene where the tanning bed temperature rises higher and higher.
• The song "Love Rollercoaster" by The Ohio Players is the subject of a very popular urban legend, where the screams of the model who posed for the band's Honey album cover were heard in the song as she was being stabbed by the studio's owner for threatening to file a wrongful injury lawsuit against them. This legend is false, and while the scream was indeed faintly heard during part of the song, it was in fact caused by microphone feedback.
• The name of the salon is "Phoenix Tanning Co.". According to mythology, Phoenixes are associated with fire and arise from their ashes after death. Quite fitting, considering the girls' first names.
• Right before their deaths, Wendy leaves a message on Ashley's phone saying, "Sorry I was too late," confirming their fates.
• Frankie tells both girls that they are "smokin' hot".
• Ashley's last name is German for Friend, and she dies together with her best friend.
• The slushy drinks that Ashley and Ashlyn drink resemble blood.
• While the temperature is increasing, the number 350 is seen. The number 350 is associated with divine guidance, transformation, and growth.

Quotes

• "Yeah, you graduated, like, two years ago." - Ashley to Frankie.
• "Maybe it's supposed to be colder for the machine or whatever." Ashley regarding the low tanning room temperature
• "Sucks, bitch! They got CDs." Ashley to Ashlyn
• "Ew, Celine! Britney! Are we the only cool people who come here or what?" Ashley to Ashlyn
• "That was so nice of us." Ashley after inviting Wendy to the Tanning Salon
• "Wen? Um....so we're ready for graduation tonight, we're going to the tanning salon after this, and we are so cool if you wanna come with us." Ashley invited Wendy to the tanning salon

Appearances

• Final Destination 3 (portrayed by Chelan Simmons)
• Final Destination 3 (novel)
• The Final Destination (opening credits) (CGI image, not actor)
• Final Destination 5 (archive footage in ending credits) (portrayed by Chelan Simmons)

Trivia

• Ashley's death (along with Ashlyn's) appears in the opening sequence of The Final Destination.
• Ashley and Ashlyn are referenced in the opening credits of Final Destination 5 by the tanning bed bulbs breaking on the screen.
• Ashley and Ashlyn were going to be sisters, according to the direction commentary. This was also mentioned in an early draft of the script: Two fraternal twin sisters, JENNIFER and JESSICA HALPERIN are perfectly tanned wearing low-cut spaghetti strap Von Dutch drift T's and low-riding shorts exposing whale tails.
• The song played during Ashley and Ashlyn's funeral is the same song as the one played during the memorial service of Flight 180 in Final Destination.
• Ashley and Ashlyn are the only survivors in the movie series to get a funeral on-screen.
• The scene taking place in the tanning booth was a closed set. Only the camera operators were in the same room with Chelan Simmons and Crystal Lowe, and black curtains were draped to keep onlookers out.
• Ashley's surname is derived from Karl Freund, director of ''The Mummy'' (1932) and cinematographer of ''Dracula'' (1931).
• Ashley was seemingly the leader of the two, with Ashlyn as her follower. This is implicated during a few scenes when Ashley says something, and Ashlyn will blindly agree with her or follow her commands, such as when Ashley tells her to look around to see if she's winning during the carnival scene.
• Ashley's zodiac is Libra.
• In real life, tanning beds have on and off buttons inside.
• Ashley died a less painful death compared to her best friend, Ashlyn. Ashley had fewer burns and cuts on her face due to the tanning machine heater breaking on her face, which didn't happen to Ashlyn.