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Wednesday, 21 June 2017

Weekly Journal Blog Update Movie Review 3: Final Destination (2000)


Final Destination (2000), a slasher/thriller movie about a young adult man, Alex Browning who takes a trip to Paris along with his classmates from French class. A premonition hits Alex’s mind and in it, Alex sees the plane blow up into pieces after it leaves the plane trail at the JFK airport. He started to be frantic about it and urges everyone to leave the plane and soon 7 people including Alex, are forced down the plane as they cause a chaotic situation in the plane. Watching as the plane go “BOOM ! ” into a fireball, Alex and the 6 people luckily survived and briefly cheated their death, but the inevitable fate of death will come and claim their lives very soon, in a different pattern.

I have selected few scenes that I am amused by from the movie for the way they shot the film and the application of mise-en-shot.

First scene: Plane to France “KA-BOOM !”/ Tod’s Death Scene



This scene takes place in Alex’s premonition. It started out with the plane jerking, sending panic moments to the passengers. Alex was so worried that he sweats out like a waterfall and respiring heavily. As soon as the plane takes off to the sky, they all are more relaxed than before.

 A short while later, the scene shows that the engine of the plane started to have faulty, causing interruption of electricity and power. As the engine condition worsen by every second, the plane started to jerk violently than before. Bags and luggage tumble out from the luggage compartment while the passengers are all screaming with terror.




The emergency oxygen system in the plane released the oxygen mask, indicating that the plane is in serious problem. Everyone was in a chaotic mode, trying to grab and wear the oxygen mask to stabilize themselves while the whole plane is going haywire. The plane started to explode in certain parts which causes some of the passengers to die instantly by flying out through the plane. In the end of the premonition, everyone ends up burnt to crisp by the combustion of the airplane.

The director have succeeded gaining my attention on this movie by using various shots of ECU (extreme close up) and ELS (extreme long shot). One very good example that can be raised is that before any “accidents” occur to cause catastrophic damage, they will film ECU on certain parts of the small details of a larger object to show how such a force of impact can cause just by losing a screw or a warning from a beggar that is not take heed of.



Take Alex’s best friend Tod for an example, in the premonition he was the first to die. Due to the intervention from Alex, he was able to cheat death. Soon after back at his own home, he was doing his usual routine before bed ( according to my assumption ). Little did he know that “death” has plans to take his life. The intention of killing Tod is shown through the use of ECU on the process of how small details lead to bigger catastrophe takes the life of Tod by hanging him dead with the clothes liner.

One scene in particular before the few seconds of Tod’s horrifying death, the camera shot the scene with a high angled shot of Tod being suffocated with the clothes liner wrapped around his neck.With a high angled shot, it creates an effect on audience which is vulnerability and weakness, showing that Tod has no power over his own will as he struggle to survive.

Second Scene: Train and Car Crash / Billy’s Death Scene






After the death of Miss Lewton, Alex and his 3 other friends take off in a black car only to have it stall on the railroad tracks. Carter, Alex’s friend got stuck inside the car as the other 3 get out from the car to escape the oncoming train. He made the decision to get out from the car after being convinced by his friends. Alex intervenes and help Carter to escape his death. Billy, Alex’s other friend on the other hand got his head decapitated by a piece of thin metal from the car wreckage.

The interesting part for this scene is letting the audience feel the impending doom that Carter was experiencing from an oncoming train. The DOP ( director of photography) uses ELS ( extreme long shot) to shot the duration for the train to hit the car, building up audience’s tension and fear. Efficiently using every frame along with pace of editing, the director was able to play with the shots and add more details of the impact between the train and the car, giving the crash more intense feeling.

The ECU shots in this scene further provides the evidence how “death” traps Carter in the car by locking the car door and disable the function of the seat belt to prevent Carter to free himself. The camera position also captured how the black car was stuck in the railroad track, leaving itself vulnerable to be crashed by the oncoming train.


This movie can be considered as a unnatural type of horror film. This can be proved in the movie as there is an invisible external force at work, killing the survivors of the plane explosion slowly one by one. The mortician that Alex and his friend, Clear encountered when they sneak in to the morgue, told them that they have already cheated death by escaping the plane explosion and “death” aka Grim Reaper who’s appearance is unknown now has a new design prepared for them. “Death” this character can be subjected as an unnatural being that sets fatal accident to its victim.

In a nutshell, this movie displayed a various ways of human can die may it be a voluntary action or environmental factors. Many related unexplained death real cases out there can be related to this movie as we would not know the real truth of the whole case. This movie also delivered a hidden message if used another perspective to watch the movie, “You can always run and hide, but you can’t evade the inevitable fate of death when the time comes.”

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