Ranking Every Final Destination Movie

Noughties horror franchise Final Destination has been brought back from the dead, revived in 2025 with the release of Final Destination Bloodlines. A critical and commercial success, Bloodlines reminded me of how fun the franchise could be, breathing new life into the film series known for imaginative death scenes and… well, more imaginative death scenes. Starting with a great concept movie, which began life as an X-Files spec script, and quickly morphing into a horror franchise, Final Destination refined its formula right up until the moment it began regurgitating it. But the great new instalment made me want to go back and rewatch all the films, reminding me of watching them on TV late at night as a kid, the sound on low so not to get caught, and its been an enjoyable endeavour. Here’s my ranking of all six Final Destination films.

6) The Final Destination (2009)

There is one constant to be found in all rankings of this franchise: the fourth film is the worst. It’s terrible. Every aspect feels cheap and uninspired: even the title is meant to trick the audience into thinking it’ll be the final film when in fact it feels like the most disposable entry. It’s barely a movie. The credits roll after 75 minutes of going through the motions, following the formula while adding nothing to it. The acting and dialogue is poor and the characters are unlikable stereotypes. Many don’t even have names, credited as ‘Racist’, ‘MILF’, and ‘Mechanic’. The film is a barely disguised excuse to watch characters die, which is a complaint thrown at the entire franchise but this is the film it only truly applies to.

There are very few memorable or imaginative deaths, with the reliance on 3D becoming an irritating crutch. Every death has to have something fly at the camera for little reason. The opening catastrophe is awful. A stock car race lacks any relatability for much of the audience and there’s no grit or realism because of the terrible CGI. The protagonist is so dull I can’t remember or be bothered to look up his name. We don’t know anything about him nor given a reason to care. The security guard would have been a better protagonist, still trying to save people after feeling he’d failed the first time. As with every element of the film, the lead character is an empty vessel to propel us to the next death. I also don’t like that he continues to have premonitions of each death. Characters should see death’s design, be able to uncover it, not simply be shown it. It’s all incredibly lazy.

5) Final Destination (2000)

Perhaps controversially I find the original film to be just okay. It’s a concept movie, introducing the mechanics decently well before the sequels open it up and have a bit more fun with it. The characters and deaths are fine, competent enough, and as an original story it’s solid. It can take its time in the set-up, not having to rush to the deaths we all know are coming, a true story rather than just a framework to hang fatal set pieces on like the sequels threaten to become. It’ll just become more refined later on. For example, while cheating death should be a simple concept I think this is the film that treats the order of deaths and breaking the chain as more convoluted than it needs to be. The deaths are effective without becoming overly elaborate but the film often takes itself a little too seriously. The plane crash is good but surprisingly low key, with no exterior shots of the plane. And as an X-Files fan it was fun to see the connections with that series, like several of the actors, considering the film began as a spec script for the show.

4) Final Destination 3 (2006)

The Final Destination films usually start big and fade out towards the end. The third film is the only one that dramatically improves as it goes along. It begins poorly but by the end I was really digging it. The rollercoaster crash at the beginning is disappointing, with poor CGI and no memorable deaths. Main character Wendy acts like her premonition was her watching the film rather than being specific to her perspective. She claims “the hydraulics will rupture!” when she shouldn’t know what’s going on inside the mechanism. The supporting cast begin as very irritating clichés, including one, Kevin, committing a sex crime, upskirting, in his introductory scene yet he’s meant to be likable. And while in the previous films the enjoyment came from seeing Death’s Rube Goldberg design, here it’s all from the deaths themselves in a way which feels mean. Come and see these awful people suffer… with their boobs out!

And yet, it quickly evolves into something very entertaining. All the most annoying characters are killed off first, which helps a lot, and Kevin acts totally differently for the rest of the movie as if possessed by a better character. It was a wise decision to bring back the original film’s creative team of Morgan and Wong because they do put more effort into the characters. Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Wendy is by far the best protagonist the franchise has ever had. She’s likable and relatable and has an interesting personal dilemma to overcome: she’s a control freak coming to terms with death, something uncontrollable. The scene in the hardware store is great and the photos teasing the future deaths is the best example of premonitions, being a neat visual idea and capable of misinterpretation. And then it ends with a fantastic subway crash, which I think is far superior to the rollercoaster at the start. The film begins poorly but ends very, very well.

3) Final Destination 5 (2011)

There’s a real confidence to the fifth film and a clear attempt to set things right after the weak fourth entry. Tonally, I think the film nails it. At times it can be funny, there are some great comedic moments, and yet it’s also the film in the series which made me squirm the most. The deaths are gnarly and brutal without feeling mean or totally exploitative. They’re visceral and tense with dark ironic humour rather than mere cartoon silliness. The gymnastics sequence might be the tensest of the franchise, all because of a single screw on a beam. That’s the real horror: stepping on something sharp rather than some giant bridge collapse. And the addition of taking a life to save one’s own is a great escalation of the concept. Turning survivor against survivor makes for a refreshing finale.

The cast is made up of the regular barely-competent young actors but they are assisted by some excellent supporting actors to give the film more weight, including P.J Byrne, David Koechner, Courtney B. Vance (who gets a very Dick Hallorann style death) and thankfully an expanded role for Tony Todd. I think the characters being work colleagues is a good choice. It allows for some prior relationships and conflict, and a reason for everyone to stay in touch. And while the protagonist isn’t that interesting, the characters support the film well enough that I was never bored despite them not learning of the central conceit until 52 minutes in. The weak link however is Molly, the main character’s girlfriend, who makes very unclear decisions. And, of course, the ending reveals that the film is a secret prequel to the original. It just about works, with the film not feeling or looking like its set in 2001, but it’s a fun twist that brings the franchise full circle.

2) Final Destination Bloodlines (2025)

14 years after the previous movie, Final Destination Bloodlines releases and proves, perhaps ironically, that there’s still some life left in the franchise. It’s almost as if the extended hiatus never happened, Bloodline slipping right back into things with conviction and purpose. But this isn’t just another film churned out by the sequel machine, or a self-obsessed legacy sequel, it is quite simply a new, well made Final Destination film that balances following the formula with adding some new twists to it. I was shocked by how strong it was. I think the generational aspect of the plot, that whole family units are being targeted for the actions of a grandmother, is such a great new dynamic, expanding the scope of the concept. The opening premonition being experienced by the granddaughter was a great twist that caught me offguard early on, and not the film’s last.

The opening sequence is great, and kinda made me want a whole film in the franchise set in the sixties. The film plays with the continuity of the series: it is still standalone and yet finds fun ways to reference back and embrace the past. The kills are great and it struck me at the end how few of them there are. The film has the confidence to go long stretches without murdering people, and when it does that wait makes it all the more tense and satisfying. Having said that, a flaw might be that Bloodlines is a tad too long, with some scenes going on longer than necessary. That and the protagonist is merely fine. Another dull, wide-eyed lead. The last thing for the franchise to conquer is creating an interesting protagonist. Wendy in 3 is the best we’ve had. Thankfully, the supporting cast is strong and it was nice to get one last appearance by Tony Todd, delivering some fitting, emotional final words. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that the film in the franchise Bloodlines most resembles is Final Destination 2. Iris is essentially an older version of Clear from that film, the concept of dying and being revived is revisited, and we get the cameo we all wanted: logs!

1) Final Destination 2 (2003)

Those logs. Those damn logs. I know everyone talks about the logging truck and the loose trunks smashing through the car windscreen ad nauseum to the point it’s become more of a meme than a moment (and a marketing campaign for Bloodlines) but there’s a reason for it: it’s so damn effective. The entire opening crash is an exceptional sequence, both the build-up introducing all the various vehicles and characters and, of course, the destruction, which still looks great because of the practical effects. The franchise has been trying to top it ever since and has yet to come close. And everyone else in Kimberly’s car dying in the opening is such a great twist. I was shocked and suddenly these strangers are the core cast rather than a group of friends. It’s the perfect set-up to a Final Destination movie.

Because the cast are a collection of strangers, there are fun cliques that form and character conflict which feels genuine. It’s the strangest and most consistent cast of the series, including the return of Clear from the first film being handled well. Everyone seems to be familiar with the events of the first film meaning there’s very little wasted time in rediscovering what’s happening and so the film flies along. The concept has been refined since the original, although connecting everyone directly to the plane crash from the first movie is an unnecessary move, and the tone has improved, able to have creepy moments but balanced with dark humour, too. It’s funny but crucially not a comedy. The deaths are consistently great and have the right level of scale and complexity. The film is clearly having fun playing with expectations, not killing characters how and when we expect. And Final Destination 2 manages to have its cake and eat it too. There are plenty of deaths and a final dark twist but it’s the only film where the lead characters manage to win, to survive, and it feels earned. It remains the franchise’s best film.