The ‘Final Destination’ Kill Rankings and ‘Bloodlines’

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Big Picture — Episode: The ‘Final Destination’ Kill Rankings and ‘Bloodlines’

Release Date: May 20, 2025
Host/Authors: Sean Fennessey and Rob Harvilla
Description: Sean Fennessey and Rob Harvilla delve into the intricacies of the Final Destination franchise, focusing on the latest installment, Bloodlines. They rank iconic kill scenes, analyze the revival's success, and explore the overarching themes that have kept audiences hooked for sixteen films.

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1. Introduction to the Episode

The episode begins with a brief welcome from Sean Fennessey and Rob Harvilla, setting the stage for an in-depth discussion about the Final Destination franchise. They announce their focus on the latest film, Final Destination: Bloodlines, and introduce the primary topics: the film's success, kill rankings, and the revival of a once-dormant horror series.

2. Revival of the Final Destination Franchise

Sean and Rob express their surprise and enthusiasm over the unexpected success of Bloodlines. They discuss how the franchise, originally born from the early 2000s horror wave, has resurged with the sixth installment making $50 million in its opening weekend.

Rob Harvilla [04:01]:
"No, we're back. Like, this is the most back you can be when Final Destination: Bloodlines, the sixth film in a basically dead horror franchise, is making $50 million."

They highlight the film's ability to blend nostalgia with fresh elements, bringing back familiar faces while introducing new characters and settings.

3. Final Destination: Bloodlines — Movie Overview

The hosts provide a synopsis of Bloodlines, explaining that the story revolves around a college student experiencing recurring nightmares about her family's history with death. This premonition leads her to uncover her grandmother's past and set off a chain of events where death hunts her and her relatives in increasingly elaborate ways.

Sean Fennessey [07:20]:
"This is a series of movies about near and certain kills. This one's no exception. It's pretty smart, though. The storyline gives us new lore without needing to revisit the first five movies."

4. Ranking the Kill Scenes

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to ranking and analyzing the kill scenes from each film in the franchise. Sean and Rob delve into the creativity, execution, and impact of these scenes, offering their personal favorites and explaining their choices.

Final Destination 1

• Plane Crash:
  The opening sequence where 287 people die sets the tone for the series, featuring one of the most dramatic and high-toll disasters.

  Rob Harvilla [33:09]:
  "The plane crash has to be in there because it's so important."

• Bathroom Choke Out (Todd's Death):
  An elaborate setup with liquid on the floor and a sudden, unforeseen death.

  Sean Fennessey [36:56]:
  "This one shows a lot of creativity. It's got the fake out, it's got the liquid on the floor, it's got the death right behind him."

Final Destination 2

• Logging Truck Accident:
  Considered the signature sequence, depicting a horrifying accident with a logging truck decimating multiple characters.

  Sean Fennessey [38:07]:
  "The logging sequence is the best premonition. It's effective and still holds up as incredibly creative."

• Terrace Ladder Kill:
  A dramatic escape from a burning kitchen leading to a ladder sliding dangerously close to a character's eye.

  Rob Harvilla [40:09]:
  "It's a perfect fake out. He escapes the burning kitchen only to face death again through the terrace ladder."

Final Destination 3

• Roller Coaster Disaster:
  A terrifying premonition involving a roller coaster malfunction leading to multiple deaths.

  Rob Harvilla [47:34]:
  "This is one of the most infamous kills. The roller coaster scene is both thrilling and horrifying."

• Tanning Bed Explosion:
  Two girls are accidentally killed by explosive tanning beds, showcasing the blend of beauty and brutality.

  Sean Fennessey [50:00]:
  "The tanning bed has to go into the FD Hall of Fame. It's a gruesome yet memorable death."

Final Destination 4

• Subway Collision:
  An elaborate subway crash that results in multiple fatalities, including the main characters who thought they had survived.

  Rob Harvilla [67:40]:
  "The subway derailment sends freight flying, ensuring no one is truly safe."

• Internal Organ Suck-through Punch Drain (Hunter Winorski's Death):
  A unique and graphic death where a character's organs are sucked through a pool drain.

  Sean Fennessey [56:47]:
  "Hunter Winorski getting his insides sucked out is an amazing kill."

Final Destination 5

• Bridge Collapse:
  A catastrophic bridge failure leading to numerous deaths, emphasizing the unstoppable nature of death.

  Sean Fennessey [62:07]:
  "The bridge collapse is a terrifying event that showcases death's relentless pursuit."

• Gymnastics and Acupuncture Kills:
  Innovative deaths involving a balance beam and an acupuncture needle, blending athleticism with fatal accidents.

  Rob Harvilla [62:34]:
  "The balance beam kill is incredible. It combines athleticism with lethal consequences."

Final Destination: Bloodlines

• Family Barbecue Explosion:
  A massive explosion at a family barbecue serves as one of the film's top kills.

  Sean Fennessey [63:13]:
  "The family barbecue and the MRI machine kill are my top picks for Bloodlines."

• MRI Machine Incident:
  A character's piercings are ripped off by an MRI machine, leading to their gruesome death.

  Rob Harvilla [63:33]:
  "The MRI machine scene is world-class, combining CGI with creative storytelling."

5. Themes and Analysis

Sean and Rob explore the recurring themes within the Final Destination series, emphasizing the inevitability of death and the meticulous design of each kill. They discuss how each film builds upon the lore, introducing new elements while maintaining the core concept of a predetermined death order.

Sean Fennessey [24:40]:
"The war on terror had a profound effect on Final Destination. It launches with a plane crash in 2000, which wouldn't work post-9/11."

Rob Harvilla [23:29]:
"The franchise has evolved, integrating cinematic astrology and interconnected universe elements, similar to Star Wars."

6. Notable Performances and Characters

The hosts commend the performances of key actors, particularly Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Final Destination 3 and the iconic Tony Todd, whose final performance in Bloodlines adds depth to the franchise.

Sean Fennessey [65:05]:
"Mary Elizabeth Winstead is the greatest actress in these films. Her performance in Final Destination 3 is outstanding."

Rob Harvilla [65:10]:
"Tony Todd's portrayal is a connecting thread throughout the series. His final performance in Bloodlines is moving and iconic."

7. Comparative Analysis with Other Franchises

Sean and Rob draw parallels between Final Destination and other long-running franchises like Mission Impossible and James Bond, noting the unusual trend of a franchise reaching its peak in later installments.

Rob Harvilla [69:27]:
"It's very unusual for a franchise to level up in its sixth film, but Final Destination and Mission Impossible have both achieved this."

8. Concluding Thoughts

In their closing remarks, the hosts reflect on the enduring appeal of Final Destination, attributing its success to the creative and elaborate kill scenes that keep audiences engaged. They express hope for future episodes and continue to tease upcoming discussions, such as comparing Final Destination's Final Reckoning with Mission Impossible's latest installment.

Sean Fennessey [69:01]:
"I hope we get another one of these in a couple of years."

Rob Harvilla [69:40]:
"We're happy about the revival. It's gonna last forever."

Notable Quotes

• Rob Harvilla [04:01]:
  "No, we're back. Like, this is the most back you can be when Final Destination: Bloodlines, the sixth film in a basically dead horror franchise, is making $50 million."

• Sean Fennessey [65:05]:
  "Mary Elizabeth Winstead is the greatest actress in these films. Her performance in Final Destination 3 is outstanding."

• Rob Harvilla [63:33]:
  "The MRI machine scene is world-class, combining CGI with creative storytelling."

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Conclusion

Sean Fennessey and Rob Harvilla deliver a comprehensive and entertaining deep dive into the Final Destination franchise, celebrating its revival with Bloodlines and meticulously ranking the most memorable kill scenes. Their insightful analysis and passionate discussions provide both fans and newcomers with a thorough understanding of what keeps the series compelling. With notable quotes and structured segments, this episode of The Big Picture is a must-listen for horror aficionados and film enthusiasts alike.

Transcript

[Rob Harvilla]

Look, it's not that confusing. I'm Rob Harvilla, host of the podcast 60 Songs that Explain the 90s. Except we did 120 songs and now we're back with the 2000s. I refuse to say aughts. 2000 to 2009. The Strokes, Rihanna, JLo, Kanye. Sure. And now the show is called 60 Songs that Explain the 90s. Colon, the 2000s. Wow, that's too long a title for me to say anything else right now. Just trust me. That's 60 songs that explain the 90s. Cole in the 2000s. Preference on Spotify.

[Sean Fennessey]

This episode is brought to you by Lionsgate. From the world of John Wick comes the movie Ballerina. Only in theaters June 6th. The greatest action franchise of the past decade is back, starring Ana de Armas and Keanu Reeves returning as John Wick. Everything you love is here.

[Rob Harvilla]

The mythology, the characters, the high intensity action.

[Sean Fennessey]

But this time, universe expands with new faces, new settings, and even higher stakes. Ballerina Only in theaters June 6th.

[Rob Harvilla]

This episode is brought to you by Cognigy. Customer service can be so frustrating. Waiting on hold, being transferred around, repeating yourself. So flip the script with Cognigy's AgentIQ AI. Their AI agents do more than automate. They collaborate seamlessly, integrating into any system. AgentIQ AI works alongside your customer care team to deliver service, support and experiences at scale, reducing costs and making customers happy. Experience Cognigy's agentic [e-mail] Happy. I'm Sean Fennese and this is the Big Picture, a conversation show about the flaw in death's design. CR is here. And today we will be discussing the fantastic success of Final Destination, Bloodlines and Rank, our favorite kills in this newly revived six film series. But first, Chris, we've just come back from a journey looking death right in the eye. Actually, how are you feeling?

[Sean Fennessey]

Honestly, I feel fantastic. I think every man in America should be forced to play 90 holes in.

[Rob Harvilla]

Two and a half days.

[Sean Fennessey]

In two and a half days.

[Rob Harvilla]

We did it in Oregon. We're back. That's how we maha we are. I do feel healthy again. I know. I feel like I am rejuvenated, reborn in so many ways.

[Sean Fennessey]

It turns out being hunched over our laptops furiously, like reading takes and banging out outlines for movie podcasts is not the healthiest way to live your life.

[Rob Harvilla]

I watch zero films on Friday, zero films on Saturday and zero films on Sunday.

[Sean Fennessey]

That's actually a lie because I was. Well, on Monday, you watched films.

[Rob Harvilla]

On Monday I watched films. I watched not one, but two Final Destination movies to prepare for this conversation.

[Sean Fennessey]

Also, you watched Final Destination on a plane. I did, which was incredible. I watched Final Destination on a roller coaster when we got back to Los.

[Rob Harvilla]

Angeles, straight to Magic Mountain.

[Sean Fennessey]

Though it did feel like Death, who in the earlier Final Destination films is. Is almost realized as like a.

[Rob Harvilla]

Almost a character walking around. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

As we were driving to a place out on the Oregon coast to play golf out in Bandon, we were sitting in the back seat of a large Chevy Suburban and two furiously speeding logging trucks went flying by us in the other direction. And it almost felt like Death was with us.

[Rob Harvilla]

I fully agree. And you and I in the backseat were making a lot of in jokes about Final Destination to our two other pals, who have probably seen a collective zero minutes of this deranged franchise. But we were looking for every opportunity, every gorge we passed, every plane overhead, every rampant golf cart racing across the landscape. I was thinking, this could be it.

[Sean Fennessey]

And I thought, I think, you know, I have some trouble with forced carries. I'm not the longest driver of the bunch. But knowing FDBL was number one at the box office, I think gave me a little boost.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, you could say, oh, it's so great. Minecraft, sinners, we're so back. Yada, yada. No, we're back. Like, this is the most back you can be when Final Destination Bloodlines, the sixth film in a basically dead horror franchise that was born of the ashes of the Limp Bizkit Shitcore 2000s, is making $50 million. Oh, my God. America loves horror. They love to watch teenagers get their throats slashed and their heads cut off.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

What an amazing country, honestly. I know it's terrible, but it's so good.

[Sean Fennessey]

Do you think that this is, like, our true id?

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Like, it's like this is the thing that we all can agree on, aside from the two guys we were driving around with all weekend. This is the thing that, like, my wife was next to me giggling with glee as people toppled out of space needles and stepped in glass and got their faces run over by lawnmowers. I think that this is actually. I would actually recommend to any fan of cinema, any fan of movies. I would say you will not remember a single character, with the exception of Ali Larder's Clear Rivers character from the early Clear Rivers. But if you go, you watch this, it's like watching. It's like watching To Palma Coke, man. It's like watching Bertolucci make the Conformist. This. That's the bloodline I'm talking about. It's Pure cinema.

[Rob Harvilla]

It really is, in so many ways. It's such a strange artifact of a certain time. So the fact that it has come back. The producer of this movie is Jon Watts, who is best known for directing some very successful Spider man movies and the less successful Wolfs. I guess he and his wife and producing partner were fans of this movie. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Daniel McGonagall.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

So they revived this franchise.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. They identified Zach Lepovsky and Adam Stein, who got us off a script from Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor.

[Sean Fennessey]

And worth noting, Guy Busick also helped revive the Scream franchise with the radio silence.

[Rob Harvilla]

That's right. And so shout out to him because he knows what he's doing. Because Final Destination Bloodlines. Not only has it been a massive success, $100 million around the world in one weekend, but I think there's a case to be made. It's the best movie in the franchise. And we can kind of talk through that. What that actually means for this to be the best movie is kind of debatable because as you said, character names and emotional complexity is not really a part of what this is all about. This is a series of movies about near and certain kills. You know, there is just a raft of impending doom awaiting every figure that you meet in these movies. This one's no exception. It's pretty smart, though. So the storyline is basically a college student is having these recurring nightmares, which is a little bit different from the typical visions that we see ahead of a natural disaster in the previous films. But that leads her to then sort of track down her family history and see the role that her grandmother played in a catastrophic incident some 50 years.

[Sean Fennessey]

Earlier at a Space Needle esque restaurant.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes, the Skyview restaurant. Do we know what city this is taking place in?

[Sean Fennessey]

I read. I read. Pnw. Some. Some sort of Seattle, Portland, possibly Eugene, where we just spent a Monday afternoon.

[Rob Harvilla]

Could be. And after she survived this insane event in the 1960s, she's lived her entire life ducking death.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

And in doing so, her entire family has been able to avoid, you know, death's recompense, basically. And this college student becoming aware of this and encountering her grandmother after so many years, and then later her estranged mother and her cousins and the way that they all get sucked literally into the vortex of pain that this movie series shows us, I thought was a smart twist on it because it gave us some like. It gave you new lore and you didn't have to go revisit any of the first five movies to really get it. But if you are a fan of the franchise. There are a lot of nods.

[Sean Fennessey]

There's a surprising amount of connective tissue in these films. Not only are characters referenced many times, but in the previous, I guess that would have been Final Destination 5.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

Right. No, not to spoil the entire franchise, but please, just do the work before you listen to this podcast. But I believe at the end of five, the main two characters board a plane that becomes the plane crash in Final Destination 1. So we find out that Final Destination 5 is a prequel to Final Destination.

[Rob Harvilla]

And that movie came out 14 years ago. And this movie feels like a prequel to that prequel in some ways.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, because it starts the bloodline right. Because basically, Steph, the main character's grandmother, her staying alive, I think, is what has kept death at bay.

[Rob Harvilla]

Correct.

[Sean Fennessey]

She lives in a cabin in the woods that she is death proofed. And then when she and Steph meet and she's like, okay, we're gonna step out and greet the world, she's greeted by death.

[Rob Harvilla]

The movie opens, as all of these movies do, with this. The premonition, Extraordinary premonition. And this one in particular, you could make the case that this is up there with the plane crash in the first film in terms of the scale and the devastation. There's not as many deaths as there are in that first film. But the destruction after the flooring of a glass dance floor in an elevated restaurant cracks, shifting the entire balance of this massive edifice, leading to, like, dozens of deaths.

[Sean Fennessey]

When we were coming up on that opening sequence and you saw the Skyview restaurant for the first time, did you immediately start envisioning, like, how people were gonna die?

[Rob Harvilla]

Pretty much, yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

I think part of one of the most fun things is when the setup starts and you're like, oh, I bet this is going to happen.

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, all of these movies nudge you so specifically toward that feeling of danger where you can almost always hear an exacerbated sound design where, like, a piece of wood is breaking or a bolt is loosening, or there's a jarring sound of a whirring fan or a lawnmower. There's always some machinery that is about to break. And the Skyview restaurant, in particular has a series of events. It's often described as, like, a Rube Goldberg machine, you know, sort of like the opening segments of Pee Wee Herman's Breakfast, where, you know, you've got the mousetrap circumstance where everything unfurls. The level of creativity in this one is just as good as the very best of this franchise. I'm like, Kind of surprised and yet not. This also just kind of feels like James Bond or Abbott and Costello movies where I'm like, just give me one of these every four years and I'm going to enjoy it, you know?

[Sean Fennessey]

Absolutely.

[Rob Harvilla]

Kind of weird that it went away for as long as it did.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. And I really appreciate the fact that they make so little gestures towards, like, making this, like an interconnected universe that you have. I mean, like, there are obviously, like, you know, I think they reference characters in Bloodlines, they reference Clear Rivers, they reference Devon, saw his character from the first one. I believe a lot of the times people are like, it's the anniversary of the plane crash where that kid had the premonition. But for the most part, this is like, you go in, you pay your money, you get six kill sequences, there is some chatter in between, and then you leave. Deeply, deeply satisfied. With, like, few exceptions in this franchise, I've seen most of these in the movie theaters. It's kind of making me feel a bit my age that I remember seeing Final Destination when it came out. And then also really, really, really loving three. That's Mary Elizabeth Winstead one, two I really enjoyed, but was pretty stupid. But, like, we can get into ranking the movies and ranking the kills. Other bloodline stuff you want to get into, like, in terms of the story.

[Rob Harvilla]

No, I mean, I think if you really want to see this movie and we're not among the paying public in the first weekend, you probably don't want to hear any more about the kills. Yeah. But we should talk about the kills in the, in this one and talk about how they work. The movies are defined by the kills. Yeah. They're not defined by character development. And so if the kills are creative and there are a handful in bloodlines that are as, like, fun as anything that we've seen, then you're probably going to dig this movie. This one has, of course, that Skyview instance that we're referring to.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yep.

[Rob Harvilla]

When we were in Las Vegas, Amanda and I got a chance to see the 10 minute sequence that takes place in a hospital.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

That opens with the attempt to acquire a peanut snack from a vending machine to send one of the characters into kind of anaphylactic shock to stop their heart.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. One of the things you need to know about FD is that if you take a life, you give life. So there's even a very funny morbid moment in this hospital where two characters consider killing a baby to gain that character's lifespan.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

But what they really decide to do is to do a little flatliners action where they're going to like, kill a guy, bring him back to life easily, and then they'll like. They'll basically skip the line on death. And the character who has got this idea and who is going to do the running of this patient back and forth. Is my favorite character in Bloodlines. And I was just about to say his name, but one of the things that I can't do, Sean, is remember the names of any characters in any Final Destination movie outside of, like three.

[Rob Harvilla]

People, I'm happy to tell you. His name is Eric Campbell.

[Sean Fennessey]

And his brother, his half brother, is named what?

[Rob Harvilla]

Bobby Campbell. And they're played by Richard Harmon and Owen Joyner, respectively.

[Sean Fennessey]

Richard Harmon plays Eric.

[Rob Harvilla]

Richard Harmon plays Eric.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. I saw some people commenting online that he is very Kyle Gallner coded.

[Rob Harvilla]

He is. He's very Final Destination coded. And by that I mean, well, Ian.

[Sean Fennessey]

McKinley from Final Destination 3 is certainly in this dude's bloodline.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, there's a kind of like goth urban outfit, outfitters. Goth urban, like dipshit that is just kind of recurs in these movies. There's always a guy, favorite guy. Jet black hair, earrings, nose, ring, a lot of tattoos, eye black and just like a generally bad attitude.

[Sean Fennessey]

And has, like. Is either really cynical about everything or is like, this is exactly confirming my worldview that death is like, hunting us.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes. I mean, and these movies are very post Scream. So like you said, with Guy Busick having a writing credit on this. These films being revived in the aftermath of the Scream revival and in the same summer, when I Know what yout Did Last Summer is coming like that roughly late 90s through mid 2000s wave of horror kind of brought horror back. I mean, horror in the early 90s.

[Sean Fennessey]

Was not great when the last scre. I mean, I do this pretty frequently anyway. But when the last Scream came out, my wife and I went on a crazy deep dive, you know, of like, all the horror we could find from the late 90s. And this definitely was a throwback of like, basically, like broads wearing very little guys who are absolute dirtbag scumbags.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

Two normal people at the center of it, but they're just inexplicably surrounded by the worst fucking friends in the whole world. But they're just so enjoyable. Like the group dynamic.

[Rob Harvilla]

These movies are really gnarly, but they're also really silly. Like, they're the wave that you're talking about that includes urban legends. And then ultimately what I think kind of culminated in Platinum Dunes sort of Reviving all of the classics. Nightmare on Elm street, Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Last House on the Left. Those movies were really grim. They were stylish, but they were really violent and nasty. The Final Destination movies are really fun, and this movie, Bloodlines, captures the fun aspect of it. And this kill that we're talking about that takes place in the hospital is just tremendously creative and strange and gross.

[Sean Fennessey]

Let's for we've given our spoiler warning, let's describe what happens to Eric.

[Rob Harvilla]

They capture the peanut snack.

[Sean Fennessey]

And it's worth noting that Eric is a big fan of body art and piercing. Yes, he is a. He is a tattoo artist and a piercer himself. Lower down on the professional ladder than maybe he would like to be. But he, we find, has many body piercings, including ones we didn't know about. Like the ones in his nipples and the ones in his dick.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

And when the MRI machine is turned onto what I did not know existed, which is research level, it apparently emits a fucking magneto in Ganosha level tractor beam and rips all of the rings out of this dude's body. And then when his dick ring gets yanked, he himself flies into the MRI.

[Rob Harvilla]

Machine, in part because a wheelchair is also sucked into the machine, carrying him forward.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes, but he goes dick first into the MRI machine and gets folded up and sucked in. And then while all this is happening, Bobby finally gets his hands on his epipen, stabs himself, comes back to life, stands up, the nurse opens the door and what decapitates him?

[Rob Harvilla]

The ring from the vending machine that has been broken and shoots through the glass and is sucked towards the MRI machine into his forehead and murders him.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Now, they showed us this scene in Las Vegas at Cinemacon, and in the immediate aftermath of that, the head of New Line said, see you at the Oscars. It was easily the funniest thing that was uttered at that entire convention. You know, Cinemacon is just full of 50 something theater owners. I. Some of them, I'm sure, loved it, and some of them were absolutely horrified. But when that scene, when they showed us that scene, I was like, this is going to be a top 20 movie of the year for me. Like, there's just no way you can just tell when you have a handle on these kinds of kids kills that they're very, very comfortable with what they're doing.

[Sean Fennessey]

It doesn't really overwork itself too, because one of my favorite things to compile is reactions to deaths in Final Destination from other characters, which is often either Incredibly funny or way over dramatic. So it's either like lots of tears and then a, like a rainy funeral or characters like no and then instantly are like just going on with their lives. It's like at any given point, anything that's ever happened in a Final Destination movie would be the craziest and worst thing that ever happened in my life. And I would be in therapy. I would be taking like sabbaticals from my job. These people are all like, oh God, I guess I have to go back to school the next day even though a nail gun exploded my girlfriend's skull.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's completely true. And it's because in addition to being these kill fests, the movies are sort of these like tiny little detective stories where the protagonist of the story needs to sort of hunt out the truth of the order of the they're doubted.

[Sean Fennessey]

At first, everybody's just like, you're crazy. You probably had something to do with this NASCAR race going wrong. And then they ultimately, I mean, it's a really ingenious little idea where like at the premonition, you know, so this person experiences their vision and then they save kind of a random collection of people who listen to them or happen to step aside or get caught up in, you know, whatever. And so that you're left with is a kind of ragtag group of people who aren't actually friends or don't really believe each other. So they're always like, I'll be doing this on my own, thank you very much. As they walk into like a plane of glass.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's an ingenious little design. In addition to that kill in bloodlines. There's an extremely memorable family barbecue sequence which is spotlit in the trailer. If people haven't seen it. It features a str piece of glass and the way that it kind of like skips around the backyard and signaling that someone is going to get ens snared by this little shard of glass.

[Sean Fennessey]

Say something here. This family has been afflicted with multiple instances of incredible me mental health struggles. The grandmother is living in a death proof cabin. Steph's mother abandoned her at a young age because she wanted to take death away from her. There is like a very interesting mixture of, of of families but like adoptions and like all these kids, but they're all like high school, college age. And I have never seen so many like frozen margaritas and beers getting popped at a party with like 19 year olds.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's a really good point. There's some young kids there.

[Sean Fennessey]

He has all of his kids making blended drinks now. They also all made like. I think the actors may all be like 32. And I. Maybe it just. But it just threw me off that it was like they just come from their grandmother's funeral and they were in a sunny garden getting, like, plowed, like the next beat. And the dad is just like, well, we're all together.

[Rob Harvilla]

This is what it's all about. This is what it's all about. Family and getting fucking killed. The kill related to the glass is also awesome. A lawnmower yet again wreaks havoc in this series. Not the first time a lawnmower has triggered a truly gruesome death in this franchise. And then there are a few others in the film that are, you know, very effective. The trash compactor in particular is very funny because of the way that it is predicted. If not, there's not a premonition per se. There's more like the understanding that, in fact, she may have a power that many characters exhibit in the series.

[Sean Fennessey]

Got a clarity about death's design that is pretty unprecedented in this film. So she can tell something is going to happen with a leaf blower and a soccer ball and a trash truck. And it's just she gets it in the wrong sequence and with the wrong person.

[Rob Harvilla]

Kind of a little homage to Star Wars. A New Hope there as well. Did you notice that?

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, that's right. And Julie winds up getting her melon exploded by a trash compactor in the back of a trash truck. Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

If you're into heads being crushed, this is really the franchise for you. There are a few other ones. There's a particular callback at the very end of the movie that is extremely amusing. The other thing is, when these movies end, they tend to end on the most utterly brutal death. And then a hard cut to black followed by some anonymous rock band being.

[Sean Fennessey]

Like, yeah, I think you can spoil it. Because it's one of the things that's been emergent in the discourse around Final Destination is the power of the premonition in FD2. So that is the logging truck aforementioned. Sean and I driving by those logging trucks and just being like, what if this is it?

[Rob Harvilla]

Yep, we were in FT town.

[Sean Fennessey]

I still, to this day, when I am driving the five, like, am fixated on what is in the back of a truck and thinking about what would happen if a refrigerator jostled loose from this pickup and went flying into my face. The logging highway truck thing has gotten so big, I think in the minds of people who watch these movies, that now it seems like the logging truck is taking on a character of its own and is popping up in the films and especially in bloodlines.

[Rob Harvilla]

At the end, the logs have become a character. It is one of the best in jokes. That is actually an essential part of telling the story. So before we get into the actual kills across the series themselves, I do want to cite a few more things that recur throughout the franchise because this is in some ways like Star wars as well. There is an extended kind of cinematic astrology.

[Sean Fennessey]

It is a lot like Star Wars.

[Rob Harvilla]

It certainly gets me excited.

[Sean Fennessey]

Should we pitch Disney? Well, who does these movies? Warner Brothers.

[Rob Harvilla]

Warner Brothers.

[Sean Fennessey]

Now another Mike and Pam triple.

[Rob Harvilla]

You know, I mean, they're crushing it.

[Sean Fennessey]

They're so good.

[Rob Harvilla]

They're. They're actually exactly what movies needed. I don't really know what else to say. The biggest hit of the biggest movie of the year for kids, the biggest movie of the year for adults, and the biggest movie of the year for shitlords. Like, that's their three for three.

[Sean Fennessey]

Do you think we should pitch them on a max. An HBO streaming series that's like the. And or of Final Destination. Like the heady, revolutionary, in depth novelistic take on what's happening in between the kills.

[Rob Harvilla]

I want like the Celine Sciamma version, you know, where she like really explores a relationship between a mother and a daughter that culminates in them both being decapitated. That's really what I'm most interested in. There's a lot of different ways you could go with these films. I'm really glad that honestly, Portrait of.

[Sean Fennessey]

A Lady on Fire would be a good kill.

[Rob Harvilla]

Very good point. There are several burnings in these movies as well. So I mentioned that, like this really comes out of a very discreet time in history that I'm sure many of the listeners of this show were very young for. I remember not very fondly culturally when flip phones hit the world.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yep.

[Rob Harvilla]

Rap rock news on the charts. Yes. Was all the Rage. Stained and Limp BizKit and Powerman 5000. And lots and lots of bands like that. Disturbed. And this idea of like everything being kind of shitty and happy about it.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Kind of smugness in our own filth. And the film. This Franchise is a pre 911 franchise. It launches in 2000.

[Sean Fennessey]

It is.

[Rob Harvilla]

And it, you know, it really launches.

[Sean Fennessey]

The war on terror had a profound effect on Final Destination.

[Rob Harvilla]

But my point is that it launches with a plane crash.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

And it probably doesn't exist. If the movie has to wait one year. You wouldn't build a Horror franchise on the back of a plane crash in the fall of 21,001.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

But in 2000 it was like, this is great. We're going to kill a bunch of teenagers in a plane crash.

[Sean Fennessey]

And it did tap into. When you rewatched Final Destination 1. I remember. When did it come out? It came out in 2000.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes, 2000.

[Sean Fennessey]

I remember rewatching it on DVD after I've. I can't believe I'm saying this after 9, 11 and just being like, man, it does hit different. And it does, like, you do get a little bit more nervous about, you know, I think now my consciousness of flights have gone, like, all the way back around to where I'm like, as long as I just arrive somewhere. But there was like a solid couple of years there. I was like, wanted to see the mechanic and be like, did you. Did you give this a good once over this up? The lug nuts are all good. And it's wild that that's what I mean. I still think I'm more scared of roller coasters than I am planes because of these films.

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, bridge disaster is a personal fear of mine.

[Sean Fennessey]

Is it really? Yeah, we can get into that. So keep going through the hallmarks here.

[Rob Harvilla]

So one, almost all of these movies are centered on one, if not more, disenchanted teenagers. And they all ultimately avoid, like, a very grisly death. And then that leads to them coming together. Most of these kids are very attractive, but they're kind of awful. There's usually one woman, occasionally a man, but usually one woman who seems like a decent person at the center of the story. Maybe not, you know, the. The valedictorian of their class, but like a normal girl. And for whatever reason, all of her friends and her, you know, her girlfriend's boyfriend, who died tragically, you know, wants to her too. But they all kind of deserve to die. So you don't really have to worry too much about getting too invested in them because, you know, when you start, these kids are doomed.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

They all have to relearn the premise of the film. So in the first film, Devon Sawa's character, along with Ally Larder, kind of discover the arc of death.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

You know, the fact that death exists and the death is kind of taking his or her time, that there's an order to death plowing through the order that he has set. But when you watch 2 and 3 and 4 and 5, they all have the same realization at roughly the end of the first act and beginning of.

[Sean Fennessey]

The second act that their political Journalism matters, honestly. Like, we need storytellers.

[Rob Harvilla]

And a lot of the time it's usually like, I've just found this story on microfiche from the Seattle New Times. It appears there was a girl in 2000 who was decapitated. This girl set off the flaw in death. You know, like they always are repeating. It's like a local news story.

[Sean Fennessey]

I have to admit, though, I. I find that when I try to tell you about stories that I've read, you're either dubious or you're like, sounds good. Thanks for letting me know.

[Rob Harvilla]

But you've always sourced it from Truth Social. Like, I can't trust you.

[Sean Fennessey]

I think when I told you about the Qatari plane, you were like, okay, man.

[Rob Harvilla]

No, that's not true. I just said I didn't know about that.

[Sean Fennessey]

But I was like, sean, did you hear about this bridge collapse? I think death is embodied in like, a wisp of wind that surrounds us. And that there is like a prem. Like, there's like an order to, like, who's going to die next. So just be careful out there. Would you would want me committed? Would you think that I was telling you the truth? What?

[Rob Harvilla]

I would probably just go home and be like, Eileen. Sierra was a little off today. I don't know. I don't know what kind of. Maybe the milk was spoiled in his coffee. Not sure. Will you take oat milk?

[Sean Fennessey]

Oat milk?

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. We talked about this a lot over the weekend. So that premonition that they see of the natural disaster usually leads to these five or six teenagers avoiding this disastrous event, which then leads to this kind of unfurling of death's plan where one by one, these characters are killed. But before they're killed, there's always some sort of cosmic metaphysical sign. Wind swirling, those ratcheted up noises, a radio on the fritz, and one of.

[Sean Fennessey]

These kids being like, it's not my time to die.

[Rob Harvilla]

See, right. Right before a helicopter blade slices them hat tricked death. You'll also see a lot of accidental dripping on electrified devices.

[Sean Fennessey]

That's honestly the laziest part, is a lot of. A lot of the liquid so that the guy slips and accidentally hangs himself stuff. I'm more of a like, put me in a Home Depot and just let me see what happens.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, you just. You never want to see somebody plug anything in in this movie. Yeah, you know, if somebody plugs something into a wall outlet, that person's getting fried. And if not, that's just the setup for the fake out, which is the other thing that you see it makes these movies a little less fun to watch, I think, to identify all of these things. But watching them in succession as I did, it's very clear that there is a very specific rhythm to how they show us these deaths.

[Sean Fennessey]

Final Destination Bloodlines has a really great fake out in the barbecue scene where there is somebody has left a rake underneath a trampoline and multiple people are just bouncing up and down on this old, worn out trampoline. And finally a character is just like, wait and spots the rake. But it's such a tease because I really wanted to know what happens when you hit a rake while you're on a trampoline.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's a really good question.

[Sean Fennessey]

Does it just get your foot? Does it go flying out? And.

[Rob Harvilla]

I don't know. I think foot pain comes second to eye pain. You know, eye pain. The idea of like a needle going into the eye is terrifying, but then following by like a shard of glass or rake going through your foot. That's. That's a problematic one. The fake out is always followed within a minute by a gnarly unforeseen kill.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

And usually not the character that you were expecting it to be. This usually comes as well, with a counterintuitively peppy pop song soundtracking the circumstance. I was reminded of this last night while I watched the Final Destination, the fourth film in the franchise when why Can't We Be Friends? Is blaring out of a tow truck while a racist is dragged down the street after trying to put a cross on a black man's.

[Sean Fennessey]

I forgot. Michael T. Williams.

[Rob Harvilla]

Michael T. Williams. Front yard. Again, this was the fourth film in the franchise where they decided to introduce white supremacy. So this is a fucking crazy franchise. They were just like, oh yeah, by the way, this B tier character is a hardcore racist.

[Sean Fennessey]

He's in the kkk. Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

And then just the number one signature of the franchise is wildly elaborate, gruesome death. That is the thing. Death after death. After death. You know, you're watching Final Destination.

[Sean Fennessey]

I have one more note just to characterize, to kind of just embellish on your thing about the mean spirited characters and the guys listening to Biscuit. Some true Chester the Molester scumbag behavior on the part of the. The male characters. Guys who I feel like were early adopters of Internet pornography.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

And there's most of the first three films are like guys named Frankie Cheeks trying to take digital photography. Upskirts of women as they get on roller coasters.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

And be like. And then they get fucking killed. So hard but it's really funny to go back and revisit this level of like. Of like commercial misogyny.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's not to sound like a snowflake about fd. I'm like, I actually enjoy it. It's not like anybody gets out of these movies. So it's pretty funny.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, it's. What is the name of the American Pie character? Sherman. The Shermanator. Yeah. There's like everyone is kind of the Shermanator in this movie. And that was an archetype. It was an archetype. We were growing up and they managed to find a way to kill all these kids. So let's go through the kills. Okay, so six films total.

[Sean Fennessey]

Do you want to just do.

[Rob Harvilla]

Let's ID our two favorite from each.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

And. And have a little personal vote. And then I think we should take those six and rank those top six from each film. Sound good?

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

So FD1, of course, you've got the plane crash. Plane crash is extremely dramatic. It's easily the highest death toll in the history of this franchise. 287 people die on that plane in that opening sequence. That includes a high school class that Devon Sawa and Ali Lard are Kerr Smith and a few handful of kids avoid right on their way to Paris. So there's one. There's a very famous bathroom choke out.

[Sean Fennessey]

I think this probably has to go in because of the elaborate nature of it. I think it shows you a lot of. It's got the fake out, it's got the liquid on the floor. It's got a little bit of the death is right behind him. He can't see.

[Rob Harvilla]

It kind of invents the franchise in a way because the franchise is always open with these big multi person kills, but they're defined by the single act, the single, you know, mouse trap kill. This one's pretty good. Todd rip.

[Sean Fennessey]

Todd rip.

[Rob Harvilla]

Any other ones you want to cite?

[Sean Fennessey]

Just before we go off of Todd's death. That then concludes Todd and his brother have now been killed in the first 30 minutes of this movie. And we do get one scene with their dad being like, God damn you, Alex. And then he disappears. Which is the same thing that happens in bloodlines is that the woman whose entire family has been decimated like is never seen again.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's a good point.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. The mom, Brenda.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

Did she just go stay with her sister or something? All of her children die.

[Rob Harvilla]

That's a really good point. We never see her again just because she's not a.

[Sean Fennessey]

Characters are like, we should check on Brenda she's had, like, probably the worst.

[Rob Harvilla]

Right. Her husband and all three of her children are dead.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. And she also revealed to one of those children that he was adopted out of wedlock.

[Rob Harvilla]

That was a great twist, too. These movies are fucking great. Other deaths in one that I enjoy, especially the train moment for Billy. Billy. Sean. William Scott's character, Billy Hitchcock, takes after a speeding train, nearly misses Alex. Billy is decapitated by shrapnel as the train races by. Moments before that, he says he wants to live to see the jets win a Super Bowl. For the record, the first film takes place on Long Island. I've never felt more seen than Billy being killed.

[Sean Fennessey]

Is he wearing an Islanders jersey the entire movie?

[Rob Harvilla]

I think he is. Just want to note that this film was made in 2000. The jets have not been to the super bowl since this movie was made. Actually, I've been in the Super bowl in 60 years.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, my God.

[Rob Harvilla]

I really enjoyed Billy. And then the conclusion of the film is the introduction of this idea of, like, the end kill, you know, the heart. The fade to black kill, which comes when Carter saves Alex's life. The Devon Sawa character, which means it skips Alex, and then immediately Carter is crushed by a giant sign in Paris. 294 deaths total.

[Sean Fennessey]

The plane takes up a lot.

[Rob Harvilla]

The plane takes up. Yeah, yeah. There's only actually six kills in the movie otherwise, which sounds like a lot, but it's weirdly not.

[Sean Fennessey]

This is gonna sound weird, but this movie is almost a little bit more, like, thrillery. Like, the. Even the plane crash is like, kind of Finchery, where it's like everything is insert shots of, like, a bolt loosening or, like, the vent. It's a really good job of depicting that feeling you get when you walk on. And the plane is a little decrepit.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

You ever get on and you're just like, man the car.

[Rob Harvilla]

Are you saying something about the flight yesterday?

[Sean Fennessey]

No, I just mean that you can tell sometimes when this is a plane from, like, 2006, you know, or 98 or whatever.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. I mean, one other thing that the film, the first film does is every character is named after a significant figure in horror history. So you've got Alex Browning, the sour character. After Todd Browning. You've got Valerie Lewton as the teacher after Val Lewton, the famous horror film producer. You got Billy Hitchcock, of course, a very recognizable one. You've got Terry Chaney, Lon Chaney. You've got, you know, lots and lots. Larry Murnau. You've got all of these Examples of great cinematic horror meisters being recognized in these films. These films are weird. They're weirdly like they're junky, but they're perfect. You know, like. And that is also a great tradition of horror. This sort of like exploitation low budget movie that just kind of has something special in its DNA. Okay, so for the first film, let's go. You say bathroom, you say Todd.

[Sean Fennessey]

I say Todd. Do you want to put plane crash or train shrapnel? I think plane crash has to be in there because it's so important. I agree. So the first two, Todd and the plane crash.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay. Final Destination two.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, my God.

[Rob Harvilla]

I can't even really remember the plot of this movie very well. Obviously it hinges on this extraordinary car crash sequence.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. And because of where it takes place. So basically this woman who's the main girl character, is it Nora or something like that?

[Rob Harvilla]

Sounds right.

[Sean Fennessey]

I don't know. But she has a vision as she's about to pull into a highway to go on a road trip with her girlfriend and two of the worst guys of all time, which I guess are their boyfriend.

[Rob Harvilla]

Kimberly.

[Sean Fennessey]

Kimberly. Sorry.

[Rob Harvilla]

Kimberly Corman, named after Roger Corman.

[Sean Fennessey]

Now she sees this incredible accident take place where a logging truck has an accident, loses all of its timber, that everybody gets decapitated. There are people on fire who then get hit by trucks. There's a really like bitchy ad woman who's like smoking Virginia Slim. She dies, all this stuff. So the premonition brings together a very interesting, diverse group of people, including the coked out guy. Is that Burke? What's his name?

[Rob Harvilla]

Thomas Burke.

[Sean Fennessey]

Thomas Burke, yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's an odd collection of people. Very different from most of the other movies. It's like more of a ragtag because.

[Sean Fennessey]

Usually it's like, oh, it's a high school class that's brought together somehow.

[Rob Harvilla]

Exactly. And this one features, I mean, the logging sequence is, I think, the signature sequence in the whole series. It still is incredibly effective. And I think what I had forgotten is usually these characters have these extraordinary premonitions and then they see some of the chaos, but not necessarily all of the chaos.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

For example, in the first film, they see the plane crash in the distance through a window after it actually transpires in the race car crash that we'll talk about from the Final Destination, which is four, Right? Yeah. They don't actually witness it. They only witness the carnage of people piling out of the stadium.

[Sean Fennessey]

And then one, the woman who's standing there and then the tire comes at her.

[Rob Harvilla]

That's a tough beast.

[Sean Fennessey]

So for the logging, this is goated hall of fame. I think everybody kind of agrees it's the best premonition. It's got a great follow up like button kill where they think that they've escaped everything. And her friends are still inexplicably sitting in the jeep. And the truck, another truck, like just completely mows them down and kills them. Funny to see Justine Machado, who has gone on to bigger and better things as like a random pregnant lady in this. Not a lot. I would say, with the exception of Ali Larder, not a lot of. And Sean William Scott of people going on to great things after a Final Destination movie.

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, there's. There's a notable exception in three.

[Sean Fennessey]

Well, yeah, obviously we will get to her.

[Rob Harvilla]

So lot. The logging to me is a clear cut. 1a additional kills. The terrace ladder, which is presaged by a dramatic escape from a burning kitchen in which several appliances go haywire.

[Sean Fennessey]

Is this is also where that guy has his hand in his food disposal drain for like a solid two minutes. Where you're like, this is gonna be so epic when this disposal somehow goes on.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

And he loses his hand and then whatever happens, and it never happens, and they just fake you out.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's a perfect fake out. And then ultimately he escapes his burning kitchen only to be laid on his back as his. The terrace ladder in his building slides all the way down to within. I'd say about a foot of his eye and stops.

[Sean Fennessey]

Do you know one of the craziest things about this country is that I do feel like anecdotally, like when I used to go visit my grandma in Florida. I feel like the switch for the food disposal was real close to the kitchen light. Like that was in play that you could accidentally flip on the food.

[Rob Harvilla]

I have. I have one of those now.

[Sean Fennessey]

How close is it to like your kitchen light, though?

[Rob Harvilla]

Not close.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay. I think technically we used to get a little.

[Rob Harvilla]

Why would your kitchen light be over the sink?

[Sean Fennessey]

Because. So you walk in door, kitchen to the left. Right. You walk and you feel over there. I think they only had like one panel for the like, electrics.

[Rob Harvilla]

Do you like it to have your rooms, like, cordoned off or do you like to have an open. You like cordoned off. You want to be like in the kitchen?

[Sean Fennessey]

I like a warren of rooms.

[Rob Harvilla]

A warren of.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, like a lot of rooms. You know, I don't like open floor plans.

[Rob Harvilla]

So you would prefer to live in like sort of an ancient castle.

[Sean Fennessey]

I mean, I think castles have open floor Plans, don't they? You walk into. Great.

[Rob Harvilla]

They have a. Yeah, they have a great hall, but then they have the. I like.

[Sean Fennessey]

I want to live in the house.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, the house from Clue.

[Sean Fennessey]

Lots of secret passageways.

[Rob Harvilla]

You know what I like as a drawing room? Wouldn't you like to have a drawing room? I really want to study. When I'll know that I've made it. When I have a home that has a study.

[Sean Fennessey]

Will there be a TV in the study or will this film room be separate?

[Rob Harvilla]

Let's see how this YouTube thing keeps going. You know, like, if it keeps. If we keep having success with this, then, yeah, I'll definitely put a TV in my drawing room. Hot rod guy gets his eyes blasted out by a terror slider. Yeah, that's awesome. Very violent. Super fun. Kill the plate glass. Smash. So Tim, one of the characters escapes the dentist's office, where it looks like for sure he's going to be somehow decapitated or have his mouth torn apart.

[Sean Fennessey]

He escapes to death because, like, a goldfish jumps in his throat.

[Rob Harvilla]

That's right. They got the goldfish. Thank you. Only to be crushed by a plate glass window that falls from the sky.

[Sean Fennessey]

In front of his mom while being.

[Rob Harvilla]

Transported by a crane.

[Sean Fennessey]

He dies in front of his mom and she's like, no. Then she gets her head decapitated by an elevator door.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes. In the next scene, she literally is. Her hair is caught by the man with the hook hands. Is that right? In a cart. And she becomes trapped by the neck in an elevator and is decapitated. Super chill franchise. This is. That scene is preceded by nine strangers in a room being like, what do you mean? There's an order. Then there's a car crash. So as a trooper and a pregnant woman swerve gang comes into the rear side into a truck full of PVC pipes. So Eugene gets pierced by the pipes. The ambulance pulls away. A news truck springs a gas leak. The firefighters attempt to free cat from the truck, but when the airbag releases, she's impaled by the piping in the car seat. Rory is then subsequently cut in three by flying barbed wire that is loose somehow.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's pretty amazing because they. This one is like the figure eight of death. It's like, wow, you can't believe. Like, they've brought so many different aspects of death into one scene.

[Rob Harvilla]

I totally agree. It's only two deaths, but it has triple axle energy, so I like that one quite a bit. And then the hospital oxygen explosion.

[Sean Fennessey]

Significant because this marks the end of Clear Clear Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

Clear finds Eugene in the hospital, but also discovers a leaky oxygen tank that immediately incinerates her and him another two deaths. Ali Larder hasn't been seen all the way up until Landman. That was the. It was FD2 nothing for 23 years.

[Sean Fennessey]

It looks like Terrence Malik.

[Rob Harvilla]

And then Landman. Season one is somehow Clear Rivers returned.

[Sean Fennessey]

She came back to do the Thin Red Line.

[Rob Harvilla]

Is Clear Rivers the name of her character in Landman?

[Sean Fennessey]

No, it is not.

[Rob Harvilla]

What is it?

[Sean Fennessey]

I can't remember her first name.

[Rob Harvilla]

Billy Bob Thornton's.

[Sean Fennessey]

You know, I gotta tell you, Landman, one of my favorite shows that I saw last year. Angela is her name.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

Again, the characters are not that memorable in terms of their names.

[Rob Harvilla]

How's she doing? I didn't watch Landon.

[Sean Fennessey]

She is primarily focused on after she gets divorced from her ex and goes back to Billy Bob's Tommy character. Her and her teenage daughter spend a lot of time trying to reawaken the libido of people living in a senior care center. So they, like, want them to feel sexually active again and take them to a male and female strip bar. Like, stripper bar. Exotic dancing. True story. And meanwhile, like, Billy Bob Thornton gets captured by the cartel.

[Rob Harvilla]

Wait, they split up in the show?

[Sean Fennessey]

They're broken up when the show starts.

[Rob Harvilla]

Oh, I see. Okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

Get back together. She moves from, like, Dallas to move in with him or Houston, I don't know. And then, like, over the course of the season, the way she's, like, kind of keeping herself busy is by, like, reaching out to the older community of this town in. In the Perriman Basin.

[Rob Harvilla]

How do you feel about the way that Taylor Sheridan writes sex scenes?

[Sean Fennessey]

I feel like it's pretty vividly realistic. I think he's really in touch with the amount of, like, Viagra guys are taking. Not me personally, but I.

[Rob Harvilla]

How would you know that?

[Sean Fennessey]

I think, like, the first scene, Billy Bob Thorton is, like, shooting himself up with testosterone.

[Rob Harvilla]

Oh, wow. Okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

Or something.

[Rob Harvilla]

That's what you do before every episode of the Watch. Right in the neck.

[Sean Fennessey]

Just like an Alpha Greenwald.

[Rob Harvilla]

Oh, do you, Andy?

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. Oh, you don't like Last of Us now.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay. Last kill in FD2 is the barbecue explosion. After learning that her brother was saved from being hit by the news van, we cut away to him at the grill when he explodes in a fiery blast at the end of the film. The button kill is very funny.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's very good. I think I'm gonna go with the car crash just because it. It brings in so many different elements on top of one of the all time great sequences in film history, which is the vlogging truck.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, so we've got two there. FD3.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay, let's talk about her.

[Rob Harvilla]

Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

[Sean Fennessey]

There's been two really seminal performances by women in film in my life. There's Meryl Streep in the Deer Hunter and There's Mew in FD3.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, she is.

[Sean Fennessey]

She's so far and away the greatest actress who's ever participated in one of these films. Best actor.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

And is so good. I believe I saw a letterbox comment about this movie where it's like, Mary Elizabeth Winstead has chronic back pain from throwing this franchise on her shoulders.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, she is giving a very committed performance. I think she actually has a real depth as an actor. And so this.

[Sean Fennessey]

I love Marielle Winstead. It's just wild to go watch her deal with a character named Frankie Cheeks.

[Rob Harvilla]

I mean, she's just opposite also a lot of actors who you've never seen again.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

You know, like Ryan Merriman and Chris Lemchi and.

[Sean Fennessey]

Who plays Ian McKinley in this movie?

[Rob Harvilla]

Chris Lemchi.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

You know, nothing against those guys. They. They've had perfectly fine careers. But, yeah, MEW is on a different level. This is the rollercoaster film.

[Sean Fennessey]

And I'm going to. I'm going to zag here and say that while I am personally most scared of what is depicted in the premonition, so don't really ride roller coasters because of Final Destination 3. Like, the worst thing that could happen on a roller coaster.

[Rob Harvilla]

You don't ride roller coasters?

[Sean Fennessey]

Not really.

[Rob Harvilla]

Haven't you and I been on a roller coaster before? Doesn't your wife love roller coasters?

[Sean Fennessey]

She does, yeah. But I. I like. I don't really.

[Rob Harvilla]

You came on California Screen?

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, I did it. I, like, I'll do it.

[Rob Harvilla]

You were afraid?

[Sean Fennessey]

I screamed? Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Really?

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

I'm this. I feel. I'm shocked. Were you hiding this from me when we were at California Adventure?

[Sean Fennessey]

Well, I don't know if we talked about FD3. I mean, we went to California Adventure five or six years after this film came out. So I think that. I think I may have suppressed the memory. But for a long time, I have just been like. And when I was in Portland over the summer, one of this, like, Gravitron thing that swings people up and down in the air, got stuck up in the air. It was on the news. So it's like these things happen. They don't tell you about it in the lame street media.

[Rob Harvilla]

The roller coaster.

[Sean Fennessey]

But I'll never ride like Batman. The. The Batman ride at Great Adventure Batman. Or those Kansas rides where they're like this thing drops 300 stories and then does a 360.

[Rob Harvilla]

You wouldn't do that because it's in the Midwest. You don't go to flyover country.

[Sean Fennessey]

Fucking thing goes wrong. And you see these guys who are like, I'm listening to like. I'm listening to like the ovon.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

While I'm supposed to be operating this roller coaster. Like I'm. I assume that the pilot who's flying my plane has had like plane experience, like pilot training.

[Rob Harvilla]

You're assuming that.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. But I don't know what the roller coaster guy has.

[Rob Harvilla]

I mean I think the. These films do a good job of showing you that it's basically a 16 year old kid pressing a button.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. So while I. I think that in terms of its scope and vision, the premonition is incredible. It's like I almost wanted it to be bloodier and more up.

[Rob Harvilla]

They do show a couple of clear head shots where somebody falls out of a roller coaster car and smashes their head against a steel beam.

[Sean Fennessey]

But I will say that there are kills in FD3 that are better than the premonition.

[Rob Harvilla]

I'll go with you on that. Ten riders reportedly died on this particular roller coaster disaster. One of the most famous kills in this franchise is the tanning bed.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

Two high school girls who managed to avoid evade the roller coaster ride because of mew's premonition go to a tanning bed. They bring a beverage with them as they shouldn't. The door accidentally closes to the room because of a fallen sunscreen bottle that gets lodged in the door. And the operator of the tanning bed is nowhere to be seen. And somehow the tanning beds get real hot. Yeah, this is real. Again, shitcore culture where it's like girls.

[Sean Fennessey]

Are topless, naked girls getting fried to death.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes. It's very like 80s slasher, actually glass.

[Sean Fennessey]

Falling on them and stuff.

[Rob Harvilla]

Extremely violent. The girls who are kind of like in the post Paris Hilton Nicole Richie affectation of like hyper fake tan. It's really violent and gross. It is also a fun time at the movies for me.

[Sean Fennessey]

I think the tanning bed has to go into the fdhof.

[Rob Harvilla]

I'm with you on that. I also really like the song choice, which is Love roller Coaster, the 70s funk song with an immediate callback to the rollercoaster disaster that happened eight minutes prior to the next Kill I find to be one of the most confusing in the series.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

So Frankie Cheeks, the aforementioned horn dog pervert who is constantly trying to snap photos of the girls in this series, is at a drive through. Behind him at the drive thru are Mew and her best friend's boyfriend.

[Sean Fennessey]

Her best friend is dead.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes, her best friend is dead. And they are on the trail trying to figure out what's going on with death. There's another car behind them. And then for some reason, a truck perpendicular to Mew's car backs into the side of it.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Is it like a whiskey truck?

[Sean Fennessey]

They're at a drive through. Yeah. I don't.

[Rob Harvilla]

Why is that truck parking there?

[Sean Fennessey]

I. This is where it's like, is death driving the car kind of stuff. And it doesn't have the elaborate setup that I think some of the other kills in this film do.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's just a little less imagine Coherent. Yeah, a little less. And then another truck starts barreling down a hill, bashes into those other trucks. Somehow Mew and her girlfriend's boyfriend escape. Frank catches a motor blade directly in the back of the head. Yeah.

[Sean Fennessey]

I hope that I wanted that character. I have a more gruesome death or a more, like, elaborate one.

[Rob Harvilla]

The camera does hold pretty long on the molding of his, you know, decapitated skull, which is pretty amusing. I thought it was okay, but it just kind of doesn't make that much sense. The next one is the Lewis the football players weightlifting decapitation with the swinging swords. Fake out. Pretty fun.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

Not bad.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes. But nothing compares to the Home Depot.

[Rob Harvilla]

Followed by the Home Depot forklift disaster. Ian McKinley, the aforementioned disturbed fan.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Avoids the falling fence posts that are in the Polaroids that Mew consistently looks back to. But as he does that and narrowly avoids all of the falling objects in this storeroom at a Home Depot esque home goods store, his girlfriend Erin.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

Is accidentally backed into another organizing shelf that has a stray nail gun in it.

[Sean Fennessey]

She slips, falls, winds up getting nail gunned both in the back and front of her head.

[Rob Harvilla]

Just the back.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, just the back.

[Rob Harvilla]

I think the nails are shot through her face.

[Sean Fennessey]

But one of the great things about it is that we find out how many nails are in a nail gun because they all go into her head. And there's multiple cutaways to Ian being like, no. And then back to Aaron as more nails go into her head.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah, that is a good cut.

[Sean Fennessey]

Why would you be in a Home Depot if you were a character in a Final Destination?

[Rob Harvilla]

Wonderful question.

[Sean Fennessey]

I would Never drive, I would never fly, and I would never go to a home repair store.

[Rob Harvilla]

Every one of these films needs an arrogant character. Ian is the arrogant character. Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

He's like, I've cheated death.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes. But of course he hasn't. Next, we go to the 300th fireworks display. Julie's friend Perry is impaled by a flag loosened by a stampeding white horse that nearly strangled her sister Julie with a runaway rope.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

This one's extremely elaborate. Also, when we were talking about the film Havoc and sliding down the harpoon.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

This kind of has a similar action.

[Sean Fennessey]

That was fired by FD3.

[Rob Harvilla]

I hope so. I think that would be nice.

[Sean Fennessey]

I bet you. I bet you Gareth Evans loves these movies.

[Rob Harvilla]

I would be surprised. This one's pretty fun. Then there's Ian's Revenge at the same celebration. Wendy thinks Ian will be the cause of her death at the celebration because she's wearing a McKinley shirt in one of the photos that's taken. Oh. So he confronts her, and then he claims he's beaten Death after fireworks shoot at him, and they narrowly miss.

[Sean Fennessey]

Go right by him. Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

And then large scaffolding falls on him and kills him.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. I really enjoy watching Ian die, but creatively, it's not the most amazing thing I've ever seen.

[Rob Harvilla]

Agreed. Now, the final kill in this series is the subway rendezvous, where, some months later, Wendy Mew's character is in college.

[Sean Fennessey]

Everybody thinks that once they've gotten to the end of this movie, it's time to start traveling again.

[Rob Harvilla]

Are they in New York? They must be. It's certainly a New York City subway. And Wendy meets her sister Julie, played by Amanda Crew, we should say, who did appear on the show Silicon Valley. That's the only other credit I can.

[Sean Fennessey]

I'm not trying to denigrate anybody's achievements. There was plenty of, like, WB stars in the first couple of these movies. Like, everybody does a great job.

[Rob Harvilla]

Julie and Wendy are clearly meeting up for the night, and they see out of the corner of their eye, Kevin, her old friend's boyfriend, is on the same train. And the three of them meet up. And immediately as they encounter one another, Wendy immediately has a premonition again about a brutal subway collision which ends with her being smashed by a subway car. An oncoming subway car, after she's been thrown from the one that she's riding. And then it happens anyway, and they all die. And apparently 10 people died, 31 people dead.

[Sean Fennessey]

I'm gonna go. I'm gonna say tanning bed and Home Depot are my 2 from FD3.

[Rob Harvilla]

I'll rock with you on that. Okay, let's go to the final destination. We already mentioned the raceway. Car crash disaster. Several beheadings, dismemberments, burn victims, and car crash assassinations. Literally cars flying into the crowd and killing people.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes.

[Rob Harvilla]

This is a very gnarly one. This is widely considered the worst film in the franchise.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's literally only 72 minutes or something like that with, you know, 82 minutes with credits.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

The production value is lower. The cgi, there's significantly more in terms of the kills, but there's some clever kills I mentioned. The racist tow truck driver.

[Sean Fennessey]

That was pretty good, actually.

[Rob Harvilla]

Dragged alive while burning.

[Sean Fennessey]

I want to shout out Hunt Winorski, who is probably my favorite character in this film and who gets his internal organs sucked out through a pool drain as he's swimming at the bottom of a pool.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes. Nick Zano, I believe, plays Hunter Winorski. Shout out to Nick. There's also the lawnmower Rock Ricochet, where Samantha, played by the legendary Christa Allen, has just gotten a haircut and is exiting the haircut after a series of sliding.

[Sean Fennessey]

Is this where she's getting her pedicure as well?

[Rob Harvilla]

I think just her hair. Okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, right. And it's always, like, cutting right by her eyes.

[Rob Harvilla]

The scissors are really close to her head. The chair is moving around a lot. We think she's gonna get stabbed with something. And in fact, the door opens to the hair salon and a man with a lawnmower rides over a rock, and the rock shoots forward and blasts through her eye in front of her chest.

[Sean Fennessey]

Before that, she says to her two sons, I've got my eye on you.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's great stuff.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

There's also the mechanic who is impaled by a flying helium tank at his shop as they attempt to warn him of his impending death.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. Another place I wouldn't be working, a garage.

[Rob Harvilla]

Would not. No, certainly not. Jonathan is. Who is the kindly guy sitting in front of them wearing a cowboy hat is sent to the hospital. And whilst in the hospital, it looks like he's going to recover, when, in fact, an elderly man who's getting into a water tank, this in the floor above him in the hospital, overflows and floods the ceiling, and then the bathtub falls from the floor above him and crushes him. Yeah, it's a really bad beat.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's. I like that one. That's a sneaky contender.

[Rob Harvilla]

I agree. I'm a big fan of it as well. And then there's just chaos at the end of this movie where like a series of people are hit by ambulances and then there's like a mall sequence where people are getting hit by trucks inside of buildings. And part of the reason why this movie is like, not very good is because it just kind of like completely loses its air in the last 10 minutes.

[Sean Fennessey]

It kind of. It gets. It trips over itself.

[Rob Harvilla]

It really does.

[Sean Fennessey]

So I will probably say for me, I really like the certain kills in the premonition for nascar. And then one nice thing is that even after they get out of the race and they're like, my premonition came true, still a NASCAR tire comes flying out of the stadium and kills a guy's girlfriend.

[Rob Harvilla]

I would say that one and Hunter Win or Hun Winorski are my two that sucked through the guy getting his.

[Sean Fennessey]

Guts sucked through a pool drain is amazing.

[Rob Harvilla]

We're really doing the work here. I feel like this is what it's all about.

[Sean Fennessey]

FD5 I feel like we're back 2011. One of the most confusing, not the premonition, but the literal setup for this movie starts at an office park and.

[Rob Harvilla]

It'S like a retreat.

[Sean Fennessey]

No, it's so elaborate. It's a guy who has an internship for like a nameless, faceless, purposeless corporation. But he wants to get hired on full time, but also wants to be a chef and might go to Paris to work at like a culinary institute, right? He's there and they're about to go on a retreat and his ex girlfriend is there. His friend who has gotten him this internship is there. Their boss is there who will later die in a fantastic way. David Keckner's there. And also, who else shows up? There's like a guy who's like a sort of operations manager who has some labor strife. Like, there's so much workplace information that's conveyed way before we even get to the bridge. Most of the time it's like we're getting on this plane and it crashes. We got on this roller coaster and it crashed. This is like a whole setup of a different film that then we get into a premonition.

[Rob Harvilla]

In the premonition, all of the people you just identified die in a brutal North Bay Bridge collapse. I don't know if I don't have a fear of bridges, but I do have a fear of dying in a bridge collapse.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

You know what I mean? Like, I don't think the bridge is going to collapse.

[Sean Fennessey]

Did you have. Does that happen for you because of what Bane did to New York, New York.

[Rob Harvilla]

I think it was Pittsburgh. Heinz Ward was there.

[Sean Fennessey]

Remember, Pittsburgh doesn't have that many bridges, does it?

[Rob Harvilla]

What is. What is Gotham supposed to be?

[Sean Fennessey]

Gotham, I think is shot in Pittsburgh, but is in it like spiritually New York.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, I'll take your word for it.

[Sean Fennessey]

You don't want to talk about Bane and what he did to your psyche about Bridges. What about how did Bane affect your viewpoint on a lot of loyalty for a hired gun? Oh, God.

[Rob Harvilla]

The Bay Bridge is going. Is going in.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

The hall of fame. The. The rest of these.

[Sean Fennessey]

No, you're wrong.

[Rob Harvilla]

Are these good?

[Sean Fennessey]

FD3, FD5 is actually secretly good.

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, tell me your favorite. What is the best kill?

[Sean Fennessey]

The balance beam is amazing.

[Rob Harvilla]

The gymnastics kill is great. But that's the first one after. Okay, so Candace dies. Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

On the whole time. Step on a thumbtack on her balance beam.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

But instead she dies doing LeBron James chalk hands.

[Rob Harvilla]

You think that they were Bronnie fans?

[Sean Fennessey]

11. So this is before the decision, right? Or it's right at the decision?

[Rob Harvilla]

No. Yes, it's at the decision. Yeah. You think this was like a shot at him?

[Sean Fennessey]

I'd have to go back to the tape to find out when the decision happened versus when this film was released 2010. Okay, so this is definitely reacting a.

[Rob Harvilla]

Reaction to the decision.

[Sean Fennessey]

So LeBron leaving Cleveland. And then I would just say that the falling Buddha after the acupuncture is really good.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's okay.

[Sean Fennessey]

The acupuncture is great.

[Rob Harvilla]

That part. Yes, Yes. A lot of like. Don't put that needle in my soul.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

I mean, there, there. There is another plane crash callback. Right. Flight 180 falls from the sky and kills several of the key figures that were introduced to in the beginning of this film, leading to this series of dramatic deaths. I think like north of 20 people are killed in the finale of the movie. Over a hundred people die in this movie. You would go gymnastics and bridge and bridge.

[Sean Fennessey]

Gymnastics and bridge. I feel like they. They are much like a Motown album. They put their hits up front.

[Rob Harvilla]

For the most part, I agree with you. Just to put a fine point on it. For the. For the. For bloodlines.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah. 14 years later.

[Rob Harvilla]

Is it now is it possible that it's not the Skyview restaurant master?

[Sean Fennessey]

Actually, I found myself distracted by the CGI in this.

[Rob Harvilla]

Interesting.

[Sean Fennessey]

So I think it.

[Rob Harvilla]

You think family barbecue and the MRI machine.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah, exactly that I think.

[Rob Harvilla]

I'm with you.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

MRI machine is a world class.

[Sean Fennessey]

It's one. It's one of the top five for sure. For me.

[Rob Harvilla]

Okay, so we've got MRI machine and we've got the family barbecue for Bloodlines. Now, six films. We've chosen 12 contenders. Give me your five faves off the top.

[Sean Fennessey]

Just I'm blast shield down. Luke Sabre. I say logging. That's one MRI machine.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yep.

[Sean Fennessey]

Balance beam.

[Rob Harvilla]

Wow. Huge look for final destination. 5 FD, five heads out there. I feel like tanning bed's gotta be up there.

[Sean Fennessey]

I know. I don't want it to seem like I'm a caveman, but because the girls.

[Rob Harvilla]

Are topless, there's nothing wrong with that. It's natural.

[Sean Fennessey]

And then you pick one.

[Rob Harvilla]

I think Hunt Winorski getting his insides sucked out. And then I like particularly when they show you the water meter and then blood shoots through the top of it. That's a great moment. Honestly. That's filmmaking.

[Sean Fennessey]

How do you think that this podcast is going to be received? And do you think we did a good job?

[Rob Harvilla]

Well, I know we did a good job.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

By whom?

[Sean Fennessey]

By Jack.

[Rob Harvilla]

Jack, have you seen any of these films? Watched Bloodlines last night. How'd you feel about it? I thought it was very good.

[Sean Fennessey]

Had you seen any of the others?

[Rob Harvilla]

Not in full, but I vividly remember being 14 and just scrubbing through every.

[Sean Fennessey]

Kill compilation on YouTube, which is probably why I'm normal.

[Rob Harvilla]

That's the other thing, is that you don't actually have to watch the entire film if you don't want to. I want to.

[Sean Fennessey]

You know what we forgot to mention is Tony Todd.

[Rob Harvilla]

Oh, my God. Of course.

[Sean Fennessey]

Which is the other connective tissue throughout this entire franchise.

[Rob Harvilla]

How could we have forgotten?

[Sean Fennessey]

He actually gives a very moving final performance in this movie.

[Rob Harvilla]

Excellent performance. An absolute horror icon. And he's represented in amusing ways throughout the series. For example, he's the voice of the devil in the third film. But he figures prominently in the first film, and he figures prominently in this film. They do sort of stumble upon him in an odd way in Bloodlines.

[Sean Fennessey]

Yes, he's working in the hospital.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yes.

[Sean Fennessey]

In the morgue corner. In the morgue there. But it's his last performance. He was a great character actor. Wonderful.

[Rob Harvilla]

And he died six months ago, and this was. I do believe this was his last performance. And, you know, appeared in several great horror movies. Obviously best known for Candyman and Candyman2. But he is quite good in this movie. Thank you for remembering me. Give him a shout out.

[Sean Fennessey]

You can't. But, like, to Jack's point, it's very easy to just go through the Kill compilations. Part of the B Movie Mystery Science Theater. Fun of this whole thing, though, is walk. Watching these characters try to make some intellectual sense of what's going on and try to, like, come up with a plan, whether it's kill a baby or flatline myself.

[Rob Harvilla]

Yeah. Did you feel that this new one took it to a greater extreme?

[Sean Fennessey]

Well, I did love the. The twist in this one is that Steph drowns, and it is mentioned several times for no apparent purpose until it's revealed at the end that her younger brother is a junior lifeguard. Now, as a junior, as a former lifeguard myself, I'll tell you that CPR is one of the first things you learn. It's one of the ways you get certified to be a lifeguard. You actually do get certified to be a lifeguard. I don't know if you're certified to run roller coasters. And he's able to revive Steph with cpr, which allows us to skip her, they assume. Then, in an amazing moment, the younger brother is taking a girl to the prom, and the girl's dad comes out and is like, steph heard you heard you had, like, a tough beat with drowning. And they're like, yeah, but he brought me back to life. And he's like, well, not really. If your heart's. If your heart was still going and you just lost consciousness, you were always alive. And then his daughter walks out wearing the same outfit as the grandmother wore to the Skyview restaurant, thus bringing it all together.

[Rob Harvilla]

And then there is a brief callback to three where a train.

[Sean Fennessey]

Oh, yeah.

[Rob Harvilla]

Does not completely close its track, leading to a derailment.

[Sean Fennessey]

Right.

[Rob Harvilla]

And the derailment sends all of the freight flying through, like, a local neighborhood.

[Sean Fennessey]

Probably killed 800 people.

[Rob Harvilla]

Could have killed very destroyed homes. Like an absolutely gnarly train derailment disaster, really putting the brutalist to shame in that respect. But what if the logs hit step?

[Sean Fennessey]

It was like.

[Rob Harvilla]

That is how I feel at the end of the movie. And then these logs that are being carried on this freight train fly through directly at us in the screen and kill our two main characters who we thought had survived, ending the film in perfect Final Destination fashion. These movies are so special.

[Sean Fennessey]

Should we bring. Do we just have to, like, insta revive Brutalist? Should we just start talking about that again?

[Rob Harvilla]

No, I'm so on the side of right on that one. I'm not even worried about it. We're good. It's gonna last forever.

[Sean Fennessey]

Okay.

[Rob Harvilla]

We're good.

[Sean Fennessey]

Cool.

[Rob Harvilla]

I mean, what do you need to say?

[Sean Fennessey]

I just think it was like we talked about it a bunch, like when it came out and everything. But, like, I like. I like mixing it into other films. Like in our discussion, like, what could we. How is Mission Impossible the Final Reckoning? Like the Brutalist?

[Rob Harvilla]

Oh, I think we could do that. Like, should we get the score for that film over Happy Gilmore, too, as well? I think that would work. I think it would create that swell of feeling. Any closing thoughts?

[Sean Fennessey]

No. I hope we get another one of these in a couple years.

[Rob Harvilla]

I don't even know what takeaway we should make from it being such a huge hit. This is actually quite unusual. There's been some discussion, like, how many franchises did the best movie arrive in? The sixth one. That's obviously quite unusual, but Mission Impossible, Fallout did just happen. Personally, the first film is my favorite, and Fallout is my second. But a lot of people like Fallout best. You think of any other franchises that get this?

[Sean Fennessey]

No. I mean, Bond was popular upon its inception, I guess. I guess I can't really.

[Rob Harvilla]

It's very unusual for them to level up in this way, but they did. We're very happy about it. C.R. thank you.

[Sean Fennessey]

Thank you so much.

[Rob Harvilla]

Thanks to our producer, Jack Sanders. We'll be back later this week to talk about the film that CR just referenced. Mission Impossible, the Final Reckoning. I need you to trust us one more time.

[Sean Fennessey]

Sa.