Final Destination 3

Final Destination 3
Full Name	Final Destination 3
Director	James Wong
Producer	James Wong Craig Perry Glen Morgan Warren Zide
Music Composer	Shirley Walker
Company	Hard Eight Pictures Practical Pictures Matinee Pictures Zide/Perry Entertainment KUMAR Mobiliengesellschaft mbH & Co. Projekt Nr. 1 KG
Distributor	New Line Cinema
Starring	Mary Elizabeth Winstead Ryan Merriman Kris Lemche Texas Battle Alexz Johnson Jesse Moss Sam Easton Crystal Lowe Chelan Simmons Maggie Ma Amanda Crew
Release Date	February 10, 2006
Running Time	93 Minutes
Preceded by	Final Destination 2
Followed by	The Final Destination

This ride will be the death of you. Final Destination 3 Tagline

Final Destination 3 was released in 2006. It is the third installment in the series, and revolves around a group of high school students, celebrating their graduation, who manage to escape Death at a derailing roller coaster attraction due to a young girl's premonition.

The film has a separate storyline from the previous films and doesn't have any characters return, but Flight 180 and Route 23 are mentioned by the characters while Kimberly Corman and Thomas Burke are mentioned in an alternate ending. Tony Todd, who played the mortician in the first two films, returns as the voice of the Devil's Flight devil and the subway conductor. The film is considered a "fan favorite" and is notable for spawning a cult-like fan base.

Plot

In 2005, years after the Flight 180 explosion and five years after the Route 23 pileup, teenager Wendy Christensen and her friends go to an amusement park, celebrating their graduation from high school. Her friends decide to ride a roller-coaster called Devil's Flight. Before boarding, Kevin Fischer and Jason Wise have a coin toss to see who will sit in the front and in the back. Kevin ends up sitting in the back with Wendy, who was initially unwilling to go on the ride, and Jason, Wendy's boyfriend, sits at the front with Carrie Dreyer, Kevin's girlfriend. 

Wendy after her vision.

Upon getting on the ride, Wendy has a premonition of the roller-coaster hydraulics failing, causing the cars to derail, killing everyone onboard, including her. The vision ends and Wendy hysterically yells at the staff to let her off the ride. The attendants open the back cars, letting Wendy and Kevin off. Hot-headed fellow graduate Lewis Romero starts a fight, forcing an attendant to kick them out while several others get off the ride due to their impatience. Before the ride starts Jason tries to get off to help Wendy but the attendant ignores him and starts the ride without the others. Wendy desperately tries to stop the ride, but it is too late and Wendy's fears are confirmed when she and the others witness the cars fly off the tracks.

Kevin tells Wendy about the Flight 180 tragedy.

Several weeks later, a glum Wendy is shown carrying her books out of her locker at school. Kevin tries to cheer her up, but she had refuses to go to the graduation ceremony. Two of the survivors, Ashley Freund and Ashlyn Halperin, also try to cheer her up by inviting her to a tanning salon, but Wendy turns them down. Wendy walks to her car, but is stopped by Kevin, who then tells her about the events of Flight 180. As he tells her that this could be the same thing, she responds "F**k you, Kevin" and drives off.

Ashley burning in her Tanning Bed.

When she gets home, Wendy looks over the photos she took with her camera on the night of the accident. Meanwhile, Ashley and Ashlyn are shown at the tanning salon. At the same time, Wendy spots some ominous things in the photos, when suddenly Ashley and Ashlyn are incinerated to death when the tanning beds unfortunately malfunction due to a chain reaction and burn them alive.

After the funeral, Wendy confesses to Kevin that she now believes that Death, once again, has come back for the lucky survivors of the roller-coaster disaster. Wendy and Kevin learn that Frankie Cheeks is next since he sat behind Ashley and Ashlyn on Devil's Flight. As they pull into a fast food drive-through, a giant truck behind them starts rolling down a hill and starts heading right for them. Wendy and Kevin escape from the car before the truck runs into Kevin's car, causing the motor from his car to fly forward into the car in front of his and the fan slices a chunk of Frankie's head, splattering his brains all over the place.

Wendy and Kevin look in horror as they realize that the driver was a half-headed dead Frankie. Wendy and Kevin learn that the clues to the survivors' deaths are hidden in Wendy's photos taken at the night of the roller-coaster disaster. Wendy and Kevin realize that Lewis is next and finds him exercising at a weight room. Lewis refuses to believe that Death is after him as he claims that "Death fears him". While exercising with some weights, two model swords cut the safety wire from the weight machine. The three are unaware of the severed safety wire and Lewis lifts the two weights. Without the wire holding them the two weights fall, the bowflex machine ultimately falls and crushes Lewis' head, spraying his blood on Wendy and Kevin. Afterwards, Wendy realizes that Ian McKinley is next.

Ian and his girlfriend, Erin Ulmer, are working at a hardware store and Wendy and Kevin arrive to warn them. Ian and Erin scoff at the idea, just when Wendy figures out the clues to Ian's death and pushes Ian out of the way before he is impaled by wooden stakes and plywood. After Ian is saved death moves on to Erin as she falls back onto a nail gun, activating it and shooting nails through her head repeatedly, killing her and leaving Ian devastated. Later, Kevin is shown working as a security guard at the 300th Anniversary McKinley Tri-Centennial Fair. Wendy, at her house, tries to look for clues to prevent Kevin's death and her death. While looking through more photos, she is horrified to discover that her sister, Julie Christensen was on Devil's Flight and is next on death’s list. Kevin finds her at the fair when a white horse breaks loose and the rope on its neck wraps around Julie's neck. The horse gallops, dragging her all over the place, while Wendy and Kevin try to save her. Julie is nearly killed by a harrow, but Kevin intervenes by cutting the rope, saving her and skipping her on Death's list.

Julie after she is saved from being impaled on a Harrow.

Wendy arrives and asks her who was sitting next to her on Devil's Flight. Wendy's question is answered when Julie's best friend, Perry Malinowski, is impaled by a flagpole launched by a rope from the horse like a missile launcher. The people at the fair panic and flee from the gruesome sight. Death then moves on to Kevin, but his death is intervened as Wendy pulls Kevin out of the firework's path, nearly burning his face. As the crowd flees, Ian McKinley arrives and is shown to have gone mad after Erin’s death. Wendy then realizes that on the night of the roller-coaster disaster, she was wearing a McKinley High School shirt, leading her to believe that Ian causes her death.

Wendy escapes the fireworks along with Kevin and Julie.

Wendy tells Ian to stay away, but he continues to block their escape. As Ian, believing that he is safe since Death has skipped him including Julie and Kevin, wants it to end on Wendy as he blames her for Erin’s death. Wendy then sees that the fireworks are actually going to kill her. She ducks under the fireworks which pass Ian and hit a giant cherry picker. Ian laughs while claiming that he is invincible. He shouts "I'm not gonna die! It's you, Wendy! YOU'RE DEAD!" However, after he says that, the cherry picker begins to fall. Ian looks up and the cherry picker falls on Ian, crushing and bisecting him, with the last of his strength he sticks out his middle finger. Wendy believes that Ian inadvertently took her place in death's list, which leads her to believe that it is all over.

Wendy about to be run over by a train in her last vision.

Wendy after her second vision.

Five months later, Wendy is at a subway station and begins to see signs of Death. Julie and Kevin then meet Wendy on the subway, when suddenly Wendy has another premonition of the subway train crashing, killing everyone including Julie, Kevin, and Wendy. Wendy then snaps out of her vision and tells Kevin about the doomed train. She and her friends try to stop the train and escape but it's too late, the train is already in motion. Wendy's panicked face is shown through a window seconds before the screen fades to black followed by the sound of screeching metal, leaving their fates unknown, and ending the film.

Deaths

Premonition Deaths

Premonition 1

• Carrie Dreyer, Jason Wise, Ashley Freund, Ashlyn Halperin, Frankie Cheeks and other Devil's flight riders - fell to their deaths
• Lewis Romero - spine broken after hitting a metal bar
• Ian McKinley, Erin Ulmer, Julie Christensen and Perry Malinowski - fell to death after the carts got stuck on the loop
• Kevin Fischer - horizontally split in half by a bended metal bar
• Wendy Christensen - fell to death after the carts get fully destroyed

Premonition 2

• Julie Christensen - obliterated by a flying train wheel
• Kevin Fischer - splattered in between a wall and the train
• Other subway train crash victims (including Sean & Laura) - killed in the crash
• Wendy Christensen - hit by a subway train

Deaths

• 7 Devil's flight riders (including Carrie Dreyer & Jason Wise) - fell to death
• Ashley Freund & Ashlyn Halperin - incinerated in a fire caused by a malfunctioning tanning bed
• Frankie Cheeks - back of head chopped off by an automatic engine fan
• Lewis Romero - head crushed by 2 gym weights
• Erin Ulmer - shot in the head repeatedly by a nail gun
• Perry Malinowski - impaled in the chest by a U.S. flagpole
• Ian McKinley - split vertically in half by a collapsing cherry picker
• Kimberly Corman & Thomas Burke - shredded by a woodchipper (Non-Canon)
• Julie Christensen - obliterated by a flying train wheel
• Kevin Fischer - splattered in between a wall and the train
• 12 subway train crash victims (including Sean & Laura) - killed in the crash
• Wendy Christensen - hit by a subway train

Cast

Wendy Christensen	Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Kevin Fischer	Ryan Merriman
Ian McKinley	Kris Lemche
Erin	Alexz Johnson
Frankie Cheeks	Sam Easton
Jason Wise	Jesse Moss
Carrie Dreyer	Gina Holden
Lewis Romero	Texas Battle
Ashley Freund	Chelan Simmons
Ashlyn Halperin	Crystal Lowe
Julie Christensen	Amanda Crew
Perry	Maggie Ma
Amber	Ecstasia Sanders
Bludworth	Jody Racicot
Colquitt	Patrick Gallagher
Ethan	Dylan Basu
Harry	Alberto Ghisi
Launch Attendant	Stuart Cowan
Ride Attendant	Harris Allan
Yuri	Alexander Kalugin
Clark	Nels Lennarson
Polanski	Jacob Rupp
Minister	R. David Stephens
Payton	Andrew Francis
Kahill	Cory Monteith
Ben Franklin	Grahame Andrews
Husband	Tony Morelli
Wife	Nesta Chapman
Marcus	Dustin Milligan
Paul Revere	Jim Shield
Tow Truck Driver	Lou Bollo
Lineman	Colby Johannson
Offensive Lineman	Keith Dallas
M-80 Boy #1	Michael Stewart
M-80 Boy #2	Victor Ayala
Devil's Voice	Tony Todd
Laura	Agam Darshi
Sean	Dylan Basile
Subway Performer	Matt Ellis

Choose Their Fate

Choose their fate is a special feature on the "Thrill Ride DVD Edition." It allows the viewer to choose what happens to certain characters, with seven moments where a choice must be made in the movie. The choice of a character either makes a minor change to their death, shows an alternate death, makes them live, or changes the movie completely. 3 of the 14 original choices also lead to another 3 options that the viewer has to choose from.

Alternate Beginning

Everyone's Except Wendy's and Kevin's Fates. Choosing Heads or Tails.

If the viewer chooses Tails, after the premonition Wendy snatches the coin while it's in midair and freaks out, not even getting on the coaster. When Jason, Carrie and Kevin follow her out, the coaster crashes with the other 8 characters on it, killing them. An epilogue explains what ultimately became of all of them (none die) and the movie ends. If Heads is chosen, the movie continues as normal.

Alternate Beginning's Ending

During the alternate beginning credits, another option is shown which asks if the viewer wished to choose heads. If Yes is chosen, the movie goes back to the premonition and makes the movie choose Heads. If No, the movie continues with the credits and ends, taking the viewer back to the main menu.

Alternate Ending #1

Ian's, Julie's, Kevin's, and Wendy's Fates: Jumping Left or Right.

If Jump Right is chosen, there is an alternate ending in which Ian is fully crushed by a cherry picker. Wendy, Kevin and Julie slowly get up and walk towards the camera. Julie tells Wendy that she didn't take any pictures. Wendy throws the camera and stomps on it. She tells Julie that it's broken and asks Kevin if everything is alright.

Kevin calmly confirms that everything is under control. Then, all three slowly proceed to safety, with Julie and Wendy carrying an injured Kevin. As police sirens are heard in the distance, the view pans to the broken camera, which comes to life and snaps a final picture of Wendy, Julie, and Kevin, but they still live as the movie ends.

Alternate Deaths, Alternately Surviving, and Alternate Train 081 Ending

Ashlyn's and Ashley's Fates: 73 or 76 degrees.

Ashley being electrocuted in her alternate death.

By choosing to have Ashlyn set the temperature of the tanning beds to 76 degrees, an alternate scene is played where she gets out of the booth, but is knocked out by the board, which still traps Ashley inside her booth. Ashlyn frees her, but as she grabs her hand, Ashley falls through the bed and is electrocuted, transferring the current to Ashlyn, killing her as well.

Frankie's Fate: Wendy honking or not honking again.

By having Wendy choose to honk the horn again at the drive-thru (Yes), an alternate scene is played where Frankie turns around and sees Wendy and Kevin. Kevin manages to pull Frankie to safety. If No is chosen, the movie continues normally and Frankie dies.

Frankie's Alternate Fate: Worth or not worth saving.

In the next alternate scene, he is being carted off on a stretcher, happily declaring he is going to sue for what happened and become rich. Later, when Kevin and Wendy leave the Police Station after the Department Store scene, Frankie is pulled out of a police

Choose Ashley and Ashlyn's fate.

car for soliciting an undercover officer. The option as to whether or not he was worth saving appears, and if Yes is selected, a 10 minute clip of Frankie's exploits with his camera before, during and after the carnival is played, including how he got arrested. If No is selected, the film continues as normal.

Choose Frankie's fate.

Lewis' Fate: Wendy taking or not taking another look.

If Wendy looks at Lewis' carnival picture again, an alternate scene plays where Kevin and

Choose Lewis' fate.

Wendy are walking on the field, discussing how they are going to convince Lewis to believe them. Once inside, Lewis is already using the machine that kills him in the original cut. He yells out "Fisher! What the fuck are you doing here?!" and then his head is crushed just as it was in the original cut. If No is chosen, the film continues normally.

Erin's Fate: Ian shooting a kill shot or a warning shot.

By choosing to have Ian fire a warning shot at the pigeons, the hardware store scene is slightly altered. Erin is still killed by the nail gun, but this time she loses

Choose Erin's fate.

her balance when the pigeons (who didn't leave because Ian didn't kill any of them) fly in her face and cause her to stumble backwards. The scene ends, showing a pigeon pecking away at Ian in the photo Wendy took at the carnival. By choosing Kill Shot, the film continues normally.

Alternate Ending #2

Julie's, Kevin's, and Wendy's Fates: Reading or not reading the map.

If Jump Left is chosen, Ian is killed normally, and the film continues. If Map is selected, the film ends normally, but minus the train premonition. If No Map is selected, the film ends normally.

Alternate Ending #2 Option: Reading or not reading the newspaper.

If Map is chosen, an extra scene, where a newspaper blows off of a homeless man who was using it as a blanket, is shown. It allows the viewer to read or not read the newspaper. If Yes is chosen, the newspaper reveals that the remaining survivors of Final Destination 2 were killed and the viewer is given the option to read the paper and get the details. Kimberly and Thomas were sucked into a faulty wood chipper owned by the farm owner in the second film, after they tried to escape a runaway car that was owned by Evan Lewis from the previous

film. The death certificate was given by the doctor from the previous film. They had met at the area by coincidence and according to the article, were haunted by the whole incident, with Kimberly dropping out of school and Thomas being sent down to desk duty. After the newspaper sequence, the film ends as normal, except that the train wreck concludes the film, with the final shot being Wendy getting smashed by the oncoming train. If No is chosen, the film ends as normal.

Posters

There is only one movie poster, which features the cast on a roller coaster, but the color change and the roller coaster reverse poster make 2 different versions. Both posters have a red and blue color.

The original poster

The reversed version poster

Both posters feature 10 characters, From left to right, first row to last row, in the reversed version, the characters are: Wendy, Kevin, Ashlyn, Ashley, Ian, Erin, Frankie, Lewis, Jason and Carrie. The poster features the cast on a roller coaster with the track visible in the background. Similar to one of the posters from the first movie, Final Destination, the cast has half of their face as a skull.

It should be noted that two passengers of the roller coaster who are chased by Death in the movie aren't in the poster. Julie and Perry aren't featured in this poster since the poster is trying to hide the fact that they were on the roller coaster. Julie and Perry are replaced by Jason and Carrie on the poster, who were killed during the opening disaster.

The movie's name Final Destination 3 is at the bottom of the poster with all capital letters in the original version, but it's on the top of the cast in the reversed version. There is also a tagline above the movie name in the original version: "This ride will be the death of you", but there is no tagline in the reversed version. This poster is mainly dark blue with a little bit of white, except the cast is in their normal color. In the reversed version, the poster is mainly dark blue and somewhat dark red.

Trivia

• This is the first movie in which William Bludworth does not appear, however, Tony Todd voices the Devil at the entrance of the Devil's Flight roller coaster.
• This is also the first movie to have an opening and closing premonition.
• Final Destination 3 has only 1 poster (as well as a reversed version), the least of the series.
• This movie has the fewest number of explosions.
• Before the filming began, Ashley Tisdale and Zac Efron were auditioned to play Erin and Kevin, but were respectively replaced by Alexz Johnson and Ryan Merriman because the former were filming High School Musical.
• Since Frankie is pulled off of the coaster, many viewers are confused as to how the crash still took place, as Frankie dropping the camera seemed to trigger off the event. This is incorrect; the actual cause of the accident was the hydraulics rupturing after Lewis' harness is forced down (this took place before the premonition, so it still counts in "real life") the camera only causes the hydraulics to be damaged further, causing the ride to crash. While Kevin, Lewis and Ian are fighting after Wendy has her premonition, the hydraulics are still rupturing, so by the time the ride restarts, there was no need for Frankie's camera - the hydraulics were damaged enough by then.
• The opening sequence is a foreshadow to a few of the deaths in the movie. The pinball-like game shows a picture of a woman with nails in her face (Erin), twin "electric sisters" (Ashley & Ashlyn), and daggers/swords (Lewis).
• In Japan, the films title was changed from "Final Destination 3" to "Final Deadcoaster". All of the other films in the franchise kept their original title.
• Notice how on the final subway they pass Booth Street (a reference to John Wilkes Booth, who killed Abraham Lincoln) and are supposed to get off at Oswald St (referencing Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated John F. Kennedy.)
• Director James Wong noted that two characters were composed into the script. Two boys sneak onto the coaster, while Wendy and Kevin sit behind them; the boys are then removed by a ride attendant, leaving an empty car between Wendy, Kevin, Julie, and Perry. This was done to give Wendy and Kevin a reason not to know who was sitting in front of them, and to give a sense of relief that two innocent lives were saved from the crash.
• Kris Lemche (Ian) had to take forklift driving lessons for two days to learn how to drive one. Dustin Brooks, who portrayed Dustin in the first film and also did the stunts, taught Kris how to drive one, as revealed in "Kill Shot: The Making of FD3".
• Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Wendy) had to have a stunt double for the scene where she drives away from Kevin.
• 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.
• There is a sign at the entrance of the roller coaster that says "I'll see you soon" which is what Tony Todd's character says to Clear and Alex in Final Destination.
• In Final Destination 2, Kimberly talks about a subway. Even though it was probably unintentional this could be a reference to Train 081.
• Final Destination 3's Devil's Flight is referenced in the opening credits of Final Destination 5 by roller coaster parts flying to the screen.
• All of the main characters (with the exception of Jason and Carrie) appear in the ending credits of Final Destination 5.
• Right after Frankie died when Kevin and Wendy stand up behind them there is a truck with an advertisement that says drink responsibly; the same advertisement that Kimberly and her friends saw in Final Destination 2.
• The final train crash scene is supposed to be based on the events of Amagasaki Rail Crash in Osaka, Japan, which occurred on April 25th 2005, one year before the making of the movie.
• Also at the final part, the subway rolling stock is not accurate to the era. The Subway train is an R36 train that served from 1962 until it was scrapped in 2002-2004 and replaced by R142 and R62. In the movie, an obsolete R36. So it concludes that the scene was filmed in real train but not the latest. Probably a pre-scrapped train that was allowed use by the MTA.
• In Final Destination, at the funeral for the deaths of the students of Flight 180, there is a song being played while everyone is paying their respects, and the same song is played at Ashlyn and Ashley's funeral, but less prominently.
• This is the only movie with a special feature that allows the viewer to choose a character's fate.
• The film has 34 uses of "fuck" making it the movie with the most uses of that word.

Reception

Critical reviews

Final Destination 3 has received mixed reviews from critics. Rating site Rotten Tomatoes reports that the film holds a 44% approval rating, based on 117 reviews. The consensus is, "Final Destination 3 is more of the same: gory and pointless, with nowhere new to go." BBC film reviewer Stella Papamichael described the reference to the 9/11 attacks as tasteless and gave the film a rare 1 star out of 5, after awarding the first installment four stars and the second three. The movie was criticized for containing unnecessary nudity (notably Ashley and Ashlyn's tanning bed sequence). Critics said that they could have been shown in bikinis instead of being naked.

Most critics agreed that the film was "running out of ideas", that there was nothing new the series could offer, other than the theme of death. Positive reviews praised the death scenes, such as the tanning bed and nail gun deaths, describing them as "gruesome" and "painful". Most of the critics praised Winstead's performance, stating: "...the real tragedy is that promising young actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead must endure this torture." In terms of reviews, the movie is considered the third best reviewed movie in the series, scoring an average 41 on the Metacritic website.