Every Final Destination Movie Ranked

For the most part, horror franchises tend to center around a singular entity like a masked slasher, recognizable monster, defiant survivor, or a specific location. And then there's the "Final Destination" franchise, a series of films that has continued to thrive without easily merchandised iconography or the same stable of characters returning each time that are instead connected by the premise that no matter who we are, where we're from, or what we do ... death is going to get us one way or another.

It's a morbid thought, sure, but one that has more basis in reality than men who just won't die, serial killer-possessed dolls, dream predators, BDSM hell demons, rural cannibal families, torturous masterminds with a legion of acolytes, or supernatural entities. Death is coming for us all, and the only difference is when and how it's going to happen. As the mortician Bludworth (Tony Todd) explains in the first film:

"What you have to realize is that we're just a mouse that a cat has by the tail, every single move we make from the mundane to the monumental, the red light that we stop at or run, the people we have sex with or won't with us, the airplanes that we ride or walk out of, it's all part of Death's sadistic design. Leading to the grave."

And yet the "Final Destination" films are bold enough to have fun with the concept, crafting some wild-as-hell kills and producing one of the most consistently entertaining horror franchises in existence. With "Final Destination 6" in the works with Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein at the helm, it's high time we at /Film came up with a definitive (aka, based on my opinion) ranking of the existing five films.

Okay, maybe there is such a thing as a bad "Final Destination" movie. Admittedly, while "The Final Destination" is unquestionably the weakest of the franchise, I've come around to appreciating this installment far more than I did when it first arrived. Originally slated to be the end of the series, "The Final Destination" follows the golden rule of franchise horror — the word "final" guarantees anything but. Caught up in the revived 3D craze of the late aughts, "The Final Destination" starts at the McKinley Speedway, with the premonition opening displaying racetrack carnage of the highest order.

Unfortunately, the film was so preoccupied with imagining kills that would play well in 3D (including a meta moment taking place during a 3D movie screening), that the story and characters suffered. With the exception of Justin Welborn as the violently racist Carter Daniels, none of the characters are able to thrive beyond adding a tally to the body count.

However, the film does get credit for a fantastic fake-out scene at a beauty salon, where the Rube Goldberg-style tension building is one of its best. Audiences spend the entire moment wondering if Samantha Lane (Krista Allen) is going to be stabbed by haircutting scissors, skewered by a broken chair pump, stabbed under the toes during a pedicure, crushed by a spinning ceiling fan, or blown up by a bottle of hairspray in a flat iron. Alas, Samantha dies leaving the salon after a groundskeeper runs over a rock with a riding lawnmower, impaling her through the eye, and killing her instantly. Otherwise, it's a sadly forgettable entry outshined by the greatness of the others.

For the record, the only reason "Final Destination 3" is this low on the list is because I couldn't do a two-way tie for third, and hardcore "FD3" fans are already used to people writing off this film as "bad." Meaning, there's a lower possibility of people whining at me on Twitter about its placement. Anyway, the third entry is without question the most underrated film in the series, with vocal fans having to fight tooth and nail to make haters see what we've always known — "Final Destination 3" absolutely rips. With Mary Elizabeth Winstead taking over as the protagonist, the third film gets back to killing teens in increasingly ridiculous ways, including the now infamous tanning bed scene that I'd wager had a direct influence on the decline in tanning bed usage in America.

Of all the "Final Destination" films, the third installment is the one that lives and breathes 2000s-era horror, with campy editing, sardonic dialogue, borderline cartoonish characters, and a mean streak that could only exist in a decade that saw cruelty used as a form of currency. This makes the film a fun time capsule, and the ultimate "f***-off" movie in the series. Do you need to pay attention to the complex story of death's design? No. Can you sit back and just watch someone's head get smashed between falling gym weights or take a nail gun to the face? Sure can!

"Final Destination 3" is a rip-roaring good time with great kills and is the first film unafraid to embrace the absolute absurdity of the idea that Death has a personal vendetta against those who cheat the plan. Death is inevitable, and the film doesn't waste time musing about why it's happening to these characters, specifically. In my opinion, it only works to the film's benefit.

There was no way in hell that this franchise would go out on the flat note of "The Final Destination," and it's a good thing the series course-corrected because "Final Destination 5" totally rules. It is, by my estimates, ("Prey" from the "Predator" franchise excluded), the best fifth entry of a horror franchise, ever. (Sorry, "Scream V" stans.) Rather than open on a crashing disaster like the other films, "FD5" centers on a bridge collapse — an uncontrollable fear just about everyone who has ever driven over a bascule bridge has for at least half of a second. Everyone spared by the premonition knows one another, as the core characters are coworkers heading to a company retreat. This adds an interesting dynamic, as some characters are in relationships while others cannot stand one another.

This means that discovering death's design becomes personal. Not only are these characters trying to survive the inevitable, but they've also got Peter (Miles Fisher) going on a rampage after Death takes his girlfriend Candice (Ellen Wroe) in a gymnastics accident that is considered by many to be the best solo death in the entire franchise. This film also boasts the Lasik-gone-wrong death, which I'll fully admit is the reason why I'm still rocking glasses instead of getting my eyes fixed ... and I know I'm not alone.

"Final Destination 5" ranks above "Final Destination 3" on this list solely for the huge twist at the end that reveals the film is actually a prequel to the very first "Final Destination" film, and that all of these characters cheating Death is responsible for the crash of Volée Airlines Flight 180, complete with showing Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) freaking out and getting removed from the plane. It was a bit of storytelling genius that fans still talk about to this day, and helped elevate this prequel to being one of the best in the series.

It seems blasphemous not to name the first film as the best, but I've never been a reverent horror fan. Without this film, we wouldn't have the franchise as we know it today, and I am grateful every day that screenwriter Jeffrey Reddick's "X-Files" spec script was instead used to make this film. Arriving in 2000, "Final Destination" came as the "Scream"-led slasher resurgence was starting to slow down, and audiences were looking for something different out of a teen horror film. The voice of the film sounds like it's trying to capture the trademark Kevin Williamson snark but with the seriousness of a sci-fi episodic starring adults. Despite the character names all reflecting horror icons of years gone by, "Final Destination" is instead a story about looking Death directly in the eyes, and navigating the guilt that often accompanies surviving.

That said, the first "Final Destination" film hadn't dialed into the formula that the films are now known for. This isn't a bad thing by any means, but it's lacking the elaborate chain-event chaos that would become a staple. It does, however, have some truly great kills. There's the shocking bus hit that takes out Amanda Detmer's Terry Chaney that later horror movies would shamelessly rip off for decades, Valerie Lewton's (Kristen Cloke) elaborate knife-in-a-house-fire demise, and the decapitation of Billy Hitchcock (Seann William Scott).

But most importantly, it's the film that gave us Alex Browning and Clear Rivers (Ali Larter), the bleeding, beating heart of the franchise and whose spilled blood continues on throughout all of these films. Yes, part of the enjoyment of "Final Destination" films is watching the unique and ridiculous ways people meet their maker, but they'd be nothing without characters we want nothing more than to see survive. Alex and Clear set the bar, and they've yet to be topped.

Plenty have made the argument that the logic of "Final Destination 2" is too convoluted and clunky to make this film deserve the top spot, and to that I say — "Okay, then tell me with a straight face that you don't switch lanes when behind logging trucks because of this movie." Yeah, okay, this movie has the truly absurd plot point of trying to save a pregnant woman to defeat death or killing yourself and being revived to pull a fast one on the Grim Reaper but I, and I cannot stress this enough, do not care how banana pants-nonsensical those plot points are because "Final Destination 2" changed the way people live their lives. The logging truck highway pile-up is synonymous with the series and turned the idea being "Final Destinationed" into a cultural verb.

But there's also the new fear of getting crushed by a pane of glass, getting ripped in half by an elevator, being impaled thanks to a delayed airbag deployment, being blown up by a BBQ grill, and being trisected by fence shrapnel. All of the deaths in "Final Destination 2" are extreme, but all of them feel deeply rooted in the realm of possibility. From the third film onward, the deaths get increasingly creative and almost silly, but "Final Destination 2" takes fears that seem paranoid or irrational and validates them as real.

Taste is subjective, and determining the "best" film in a franchise will always be reflective of a viewer's personal feelings, but the cultural impact of "Final Destination 2" firmly solidifies the film's place at the top of the ladder ... which will most certainly fall and impale us too.