Ranking every 'Final Destination' movie: From the 2000 cult classic to the franchise's surprise prequel (2024)

Nothing in life is more certain than Death, a theme the Final Destination franchise explores with furious brutality. In a world where cheating that demise is a cardinal sin, this force — whether it's karma, evil personified, the Spectre of Death, or the Final Destination curse — circles back, sweeping over survivors with relentless savagery. Freak accidents streak through the storylines with kinetic, electrifying energy, igniting a chain reaction of over-the-top kills that coincide under extreme circumstances.

Five films; a comic book titled Final Destination: Sacrifice; the comic book series Final Destination: Spring Break; and nine novels later, the franchise stays pinned on the map with a sixth movie — Final Destination: Bloodlines — slated for a 2025 release. The film features a new generation of actors like Brec Bassinger and Richard Harmon and, according to Final Destination creator Jeffrey Reddick, "doesn't follow that kind of formula that we've kind of established."

"There's an expansion of the world of Final Destination that I think fans are gonna be really interested in and intrigued by," Reddick teased of Bloodlines to Collider in August 2024. "When I say it doesn't add a layer, it's not just, ‘Hey, if you murder somebody in your place, you'll live.” It kind of unearths a whole deep layer to the story that kind of, yes, makes it really, really interesting.”

Before the sixth installment hits theaters, here are the first five Final Destination movies, ranked.

5. The Final Destination (2009)

Ranking every 'Final Destination' movie: From the 2000 cult classic to the franchise's surprise prequel (1)

Released in 3-D, The Final Destination falsely promised one last celebration for this long-running horror narrative. College students Nick (Bobby Campo), Lori (Shantel VanSanten), Hunt (Nick Zano), and Janet (Haley Webb) are on semester break, cheering in the grandstands of an auto race at the McKinley Speedway when Nick's premonition shifts to reality. The stadium erupts in pandemonium as race cars crash, stray tires decapitate heads, and concrete crushes the crowd — and the surviving characters later perish in a string of poorly executed, straight-to-video-worthy deaths.

As the first standalone sequel after the third installment, The Final Destination is further alone in that the plot seems to go nowhere. After hitting the bullseye with that phenomenal first Final Destination sequel years prior, the mark is missed here with uninspired filmmaking a disoriented screenplay, and anticlimactic scares.

Where to watch The Final Destination: Max

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4. Final Destination 3 (2006)

Ranking every 'Final Destination' movie: From the 2000 cult classic to the franchise's surprise prequel (2)

When high schooler Wendy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) boards a roller coaster called Devil's Flight with her friends and other classmates, a premonition causes her to have a meltdown that persuades nine people to hop off. Then, skeptics who stay on the ride plunge hundreds of feet to the concrete as the hydraulics securing the restraints fail. But those who skipped Death are now targets of ingenious kills in salons, gyms, drive-thru restaurants, and hardware stores.

"One of the reasons why Final Destination is such an enduring franchise is because the audience has a real chance of experiencing the horrors the characters face on screen," director James Wong tells EW. "While it's unlikely you'll have a face-to-face with a serial killer like your typical slasher movie, I can't tell you how many times people have come up and told me a story about how they had a 'Final Destination moment.'"

Where to watch Final Destination 3: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

3. Final Destination 5 (2011)

Ranking every 'Final Destination' movie: From the 2000 cult classic to the franchise's surprise prequel (3)

While riding a bus on the North Bay Bridge, doom flashes before Sam's (Nicholas D'Agosto) eyes and he convinces his colleagues to evacuate before the structure collapses. In classic Final Destination fashion, the survivors inevitably meet graphic deaths — for example, a Buddha statue crushes Issac (P. J. Byrne) during an acupuncture appointment — with some being influenced by real-life events.

But Molly (Emma Bell), Nathan (Arlen Escarpeta), and Peter (Miles Fisher) steal the show, leading us to an unexpected twist: Final Destination 5 turns out to be a prequel, not a sequel. After the disastrous 2009 film at the bottom of this list, Steven Quale's follow-up proves the series has hope, with the director bringing his cinematic flair to the production.

Where to watch Final Destination 5: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

2. Final Destination 2 (2003)

Ranking every 'Final Destination' movie: From the 2000 cult classic to the franchise's surprise prequel (4)

Perhaps the most famous sequence of the entire franchise is Final Destination 2's "log truck scene." Here, Ali Larter returns as Clear Rivers — now in an asylum as the Sidney Prescott-esque survivor from the original film — and her knowledge about last year's events heeds a warning for other players. However, the premonition–turned–highway catastrophe creates a fatal pattern that kills in reverse order, which opens the doors for broken necks, car explosions, and more.

Co-written by J. Mackye Gruber and Eric Bress, this relentless, exhilarating sequel officially launches the franchise into Final Destination fandom. "It was an enormous privilege to be asked to write Final Destination 2 after the success of its predecessor," Gruber tells EW. "But it also meant pressure to make it even better and different enough to allow it to stand out and become memorable."

Where to watch Final Destination 2: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Final Destination star Devon Sawa pokes fun at series' infamous log death scene in ominous holiday post

1. Final Destination (2000)

Ranking every 'Final Destination' movie: From the 2000 cult classic to the franchise's surprise prequel (5)

James Wong's supernatural horror classic reinforced to audiences that true danger isn't a masked villain chasing people through the dark, exploiting fears controlled by unseen forces. Inspired by the Volée Airlines Flight 180, high schooler Alex (Devon Sawa) foresees the plane he's taking on a class trip to Paris crashing and convinces some of his peers to get off. When the plane does crash, Death's dominos start to fall.

"The stories usually start off normal enough, but through a set of improbable events, people end up having a close call with death," Wong tells EW. "I myself still check for signs whenever I board a plane, and nobody wants to follow a logging truck on the highway. Final Destination has made the mundane dangerous, and if you cheated Death, well, anything and everything can kill you."

Where to watch Final Destination: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Devon Sawa's life in horror: From Final Destination and Chucky to Black Friday

Ranking every 'Final Destination' movie: From the 2000 cult classic to the franchise's surprise prequel (2024)
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