“Final destination” turns 25: how a script for “Secret files X” became a millionaire franchise

Directed by James Wong From a script he wrote with Glen Morgan, based on a story of Jeffrey Reddickthe movie Final destination premiered on March 17, 2000. It was a worldwide success, so much so that 25 years later a sixth installment is planned that will reach theaters this year.

Based on the death of his characters following an intricate but apparently worldly sequence of events, the final destination premise would quickly become a cultural synonym of the “Dangers” latent in the places that one can expect.

The film was starring Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Seann William Scott, Kerr Smith, Chad Donella, Amanda Detmer and Kristen Cloke.

From a script for secret files x to a millionaire saga

The original idea was written by Jeffrey Reddick as a possible script for the series Secret files X. Reddick said about it in an interview: “I was actually flying home to Kentucky and I read a story about a woman who was on vacation and her mother called her saying: ‘Don’t take the flight tomorrow, I really have a bad feeling’. She changed flight and the plane she would have been crashed. ‘That is spooky,’ I thought. What if she was supposed to die on that flight? “

Based on his idea, Reddick wrote the script and got an agent, but finally did not send it to the series since a colleague of New Line Cinema He suggested to adapt him for a movie.

One of the greatest erroneous ideas about the project is that it was based on The real Dishes of TWA flight, which occurred in 1996. As in the film, the disaster involved a Boeing 747 that exploded minutes after taking off the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on the way to Paris. In addition, five adults and sixteen high school students from Montoursville, Pennsylvania, were aboard the flight, heading to Paris with their French school of school. However, the television speculative script was written in 1994.

Once the script was finished, New Line Cinema sent it to the directors, including Wong and Glen Morgan. Both writers were willing to turn it into a film, although they rewritten him to meet their standards.

The film premiered on March 17, 2000 in 2,587 film rooms in the United States and Canada, winning US $ 10.015,822 in its first weekend. To the day of the date the series that until now includes 5 films raised more than US $ 665 million worldwide.

The first three films received mixed criticism, while the fourth received mostly negative criticism. However, the fifth film received positive criticism mostly. The franchise has been praised for its Innovative concept of death killing peopleinstead of the typical serial killer; The death sequences have also been praised for their creativity.