The North Bay Bridge is a suspension bridge in New York that collapsed on April 26, 1999, due to high winds and flawed construction projects, killing 86 people, including 17 employees of Presage Paper.
It is the third-earliest known major disaster in the series, as seen in Final Destination 5 (the first being the Mornington Crescent explosion and second being The Sky View collapse), and the third chronologically, given William Bludworth's words[1].
Disaster
Premonition
Death tampers with the bridge.
Qualified members of Presage Paper travel on Rolland Coach Line Bus 1282 on the North Bay Bridge to attend their corporate retreat. As a dark shadow passes over Sam Lawton and uses high winds to sway the bridge, it also loosens one of the cables. This creates a sudden jolt, which only Sam can feel. Construction workers further weaken the bridge, with the road cracking open due to their machinery.
Seeing that the bridge is about to collapse, Sam evacuates his girlfriend, Molly Harper, his friend Peter Friedkin, and the rest of his colleagues from the bus. Candice Hooper, Peter's girlfriend, runs to the railings and screams for Peter as she tries to hold on. The road beneath her collapses, causing her to fall off the bridge. Candice wails and screams until she is suddenly impaled by the mast of a yacht.
This gruesome death shocks Peter and Molly, but Sam tells them to get away. Their bus also hangs over the bridge, trapping Isaac Palmer, who just finished his phone call in the bus' bathroom. Isaac is hurled to the windscreen, killing him instantly as the bus crashes into the bay below. Sam and the rest of his colleagues run for their lives as a passerby knocks Olivia Castle's glasses off, partially blinding her.
The middle section of the bridge suddenly collapses, leaving behind a beam on the left side that crosses over to the other side of the bridge. Sam tells Molly to cross over it, which she successfully does. Seeing that Olivia is struggling to see, Sam also helps her cross. However, Death knocks her off into the bay after shaking the bridge twice. Olivia resurfaces, but a red car falls off the bridge and lands directly on her, killing her instantly.
Chaos further ensues as one of the bridge's cables loosens and swings towards Nathan Sears, striking him and leaving behind a bloody mess. A tanker topples over, spilling hot tar directly into Dennis Lapman's face, painfully degloving his hand as he falls off into the bay. Peter arrives and leaps onto the suspended railings, with Sam following suit, as the section of the bridge both men previously stood on completely collapses, killing everyone who remained.
North Bay Bridge completely collapsing
Peter and Sam cling to the railings, but a truck on Molly's side of the bridge suddenly hangs over the bridge. This causes iron bars from the truck's trunk to fall off and land in Peter's direction, impaling his left eye, abdomen, and stomach. Peter's blood corpse falls onto the base of the bridge below and later bounces off into the bay. Molly reaches for Sam, but a metal sheet slides off the truck's trunk and bisects Sam.
Reality
After his premonition, Sam awakens and begins to notice several events of his premonition come to pass. He tells everyone that the bridge is going to collapse and brings Molly outside. Despite some of his colleagues questioning his paranoid behavior, they follow him. This includes Olivia, Nathan, Candice, Peter, Dennis, and Isaac, while the rest of their colleagues remain on the bus.
Suddenly, high winds cause the bridge to tremble and one of its cables to loosen. Dennis notices a large crack forming on the road and tells everyone to get off the bus. Dennis, Olivia, Nathan, Candice, Peter, and Isaac flee to a safe area, where Sam and Molly stayed as the bridge begins to fall apart. Then, they witness the bridge collapse, killing everyone, including those who stayed on the bus. After the bridge collapse, the survivors (which included a few passersby who were not part of Death's list) look at Sam with shock and bewilderment at his ability to predict the tragedy.
Signs/Clues
- The bus passes a sign that says "Danger: Construction", and a picture of a bridge. Part of the picture is scratched off, hinting at the bridge collapse.
- Sam, along with everyone else, watches a video about corporate retreats. The title of said video has 180 in it.
- The logging truck on the road is from a company called "Tagert", making a nod to Tagert Theatres, which would be the second premonition had by the visionary Nick O'Bannon nine years after the bridge collapse (movie continuity).
- The song "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas plays on the bus.
- The bus number is 1282. Adding the numbers together (1 + 2 + 8 + 2) equals 13, the number known to bring bad luck.
- Sam sees a truck loaded with logs, a reference to the Route 23 disaster from the second movie.
- At certain points of the bridge renovation, cracks are visible on the asphalt. The crack that started the collapse was the result of two simultaneous cracks created by two construction workers.
- Before getting on the bus, Sam spots a sign reading "watch your step".
- While on the bridge, a worker holds up a sign reading "slow".
- While crossing the bridge, a construction bucket falls off the bridge, hits the concrete, and splashes into the water, foreshadowing Peter's fate during the collapse.
- A dark shadow passes over Sam before he pricks his finger.
- The strong winds, later said to have caused the disaster, shake the bus in a manner that only Sam can hear and feel.
Intended Survivors
- Molly Harper (deceased)
Unintended Survivors
- Nathan Sears (deceased)
- Sam Lawton (deceased)
- Peter Friedkin (deceased)
- Dennis Lapman (deceased)
- Olivia Castle (deceased)
- Isaac Palmer (deceased)
- Candice Hooper (deceased)
Casualties
Presage Paper employees
- Jennifer Alcott
- Armond Babaian
- Bradley Breyer
- Chris Boylan
- David Buckler
- Kathy Fulton
- Kelly Gaither
- Marie Green
- Bruce Higgs
- Robert Johnson
- Clive Morin
- Stacy Nadu
- Richard Sanchez
- Heather Slay
- Debbie White
- Trevor Winn
- Jane Woo
Others
- The unnamed bus driver (possibly)
- 69 unnamed people
Trivia
- The North Bay Bridge is modeled after Canada's real-life Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver. Filming took place on the bridge, and the actors were filmed later at stunt stages. Editing was done to make it look like the bridge was really collapsing.
- The collapse itself is loosely based on the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940, which was caused in part by high winds, but mainly due to poor construction, though no lives were lost, except for a dog.
- The reason that this disaster is never mentioned again during the franchise is that all the people who knew about its link to Death's list- namely, Sam, Molly, Nathan, Peter, Dennis, Olivia, Isaac, Jim, and Candice - had died. Everyone else, who wasn't associated with the list or investigating it, had believed this disaster to be normal; the only person who remained and knew about the link was William Bludworth. In contrast, it was widely believed that Flight 180 was an act of terrorism for almost a month, drawing more attention to the case.
- The news reporter describes the survivors of the disaster as having an "uncertain future", alluding to their status on Death's list.
- This is, so far, the third disaster in a series (the first being Final Destination 2 and the second, The Final Destination) to show the characters attempting to escape from the disaster, except for Final Destination and Final Destination 3, as no escape could have possibly been made from the event.
- After the survivors look at Sam in horror, if you look closely in the back, you can see a character that looks similar to Hunt from the 4th film.
- The bridge collapse may be the earliest disaster seen in the film series, but according to William, he has seen a similar disaster before, making the bridge collapse the second disaster to occur chronologically.
- It's possible the disaster he witnessed was the collapse of the Sky View restaurant in Final Destination: Bloodlines.