
The 10 Best 'Final Destination' Deaths, Ranked

Anushree Arora
It’s been 14 years, but death always finds a way back. Final Destination Bloodlines marks the franchise’s chilling return, bringing back the dread, the build-up, and the over-the-top kills that fans have been dying to see. As fans soak up everything the latest film has to offer, let’s take a look back at some of the most gloriously twisted and ridiculous deaths that make Final Destination the iconic horror franchise it is.
Final Destination changed the horror genre forever by introducing a slasher film where the killer remains unseen, and death itself is the ultimate villain. It ran with the idea that no one can escape their fate, and delivered six shocking, suspenseful, and wildly inventive films packed with elaborate, unhinged, and unforgettable death sequences. From plane crashes and rollercoasters, to escalator mishaps and death by flying glass shards, Final Destination has taken every small, everyday fear about dying and given it the big Hollywood spectacle it deserves. If you have a wildly irrational fear about death, Final Destination probably has a scene to match it. After bingeing all the films back to back, here’s a rundown of ten nightmare-inducing death scenes that top our list.
*This list contains heavy spoilers to the first five Final Destination movies.
1. The Infamous Log Accident From Final Destination 2 (2003)
It’s not every day that you see a lorry carrying gigantic tree logs on a motorway, but the opening sequence of Final Destination 2 is solely responsible for instilling the fear of them falling over on an entire generation of horror fans. The iconic scene is one of the most phobia-inducing and terrifying death sequences in pop culture history. From screeching tyres to shattered glass, and fiery explosions, this scene captures every detail leading up to the motorway accident. The absence of music heightens every scream, every screech of rubber on tarmac, and every sickening thud of the logs coming loose. The film leans all the way into the carnage, showing characters die in the most graphic ways possible, including a particularly brutal death by impalement that still haunts audiences today.
2. Devil’s Flight Rollercoaster Of Death From Final Destination 3 (2006)
Final Destination films are known for their grand, over the top, detailed opening sequences. While a rollercoaster accident may not seem as massive or mass-casualty as an aeroplane bursting into flames or a highway pile-up with tree logs impaling people, the inventive and out-of-the-box setting of an amusement park makes the opening sequence from Final Destination 3 one of the best death sequences in the franchise. Director James Wong understood exactly what makes rollercoasters so terrifying, and chose to stretch that sixty-second adrenaline rush into a long, drawn-out scene filled with blood, screams, and dread.
3. Tim Flattening To A Bloody Pulp In Final Destination 2 (2003)
Nobody likes visiting the dentist, but Tim Carpenter’s death in Final Destination 2 takes that fear to another level. Tim and his mother, Nora, survive the highway log accident, but when other survivors warn them about a deadly pattern, Nora brushes it off and drags Tim to the dentist the next day. While Tim is stuck in the chair, a rogue pigeon sets off a tense, darkly comedic chain of events. Just as they leave the clinic, more pigeons distract a crane operator, causing a massive pane of glass to fall and crush Tim instantly in front of his horrified mother. It's sudden, brutal, and made all the more effective by the relentless buildup of small mishaps and tension leading to the moment.
4. Lewis Romero’s Death Rant In Final Destination 3 (2006)
Final Destination’s film formula always includes one survivor who is sceptical about death personally coming after them, only for them to lash out and later die. These speeches provide good comic relief and balance out the long-drawn string of accidents, almost always standing out as one of the most memorable deaths in the movie. In Final Destination 3, Lewis Romero has been mocking death since the very beginning. His uncaring and selfish attitude makes it hard to root for him, which is precisely what makes this strong, short-tempered, brawny man’s rant, daring death to come after him in a gym, so characteristically hilarious. Just as he finishes his rant, death gets the last word in by dropping heavy weights on him, stripping away his existence by the very machine that define his gym rat personality.
5. Lori’s Death By Escalator In The Final Destination (2009)
Lori’s death in The Final Destination once again proves the franchise’s undying ability to make you fear everyday things. After hearing about all the strange deaths following their initial near-death experience, Nick, Lori’s boyfriend, grows increasingly suspicious that his girlfriend is next in line to die. Desperate to save her, Nick rushes to the mall to warn Lori and their friend Janet, setting the stage for one of the franchise’s signature cartoonish yet graphic death sequences that fans have come to love. Janet succumbs to death in an explosion shortly after refusing to leave the cinema, prompting Lori and Nick to frantically run for the exit as the mall erupts into chaos. As always, the film toys with the idea that they might finally cheat death, only for Lori to quite literally fall into her own demise. She is dragged into an open escalator, which crushes her body and flattens her organs in gruesome fashion, leaving blood splattered across Nick’s face.
6. Ashley and Ashlyn’s Tanning Bed Accident In Final Destination 3 (2006)
Ashley and Ashlyn were pretty inseparable throughout Final Destination 3, so in a twisted way, it’s almost sweet that death didn’t want to sever their bond by taking them out separately. After surviving their near-death experience, the best friends decide to celebrate with a tanning session at their regular salon. There, Ashley places her drink on top of one of the beds. The condensation from the cup causes the machine to malfunction, and the two best friends, who loved doing everything together, end up burning to a crisp, side by side, sealing their fates together forever, courtesy of death.
7. Candice’s Spine Splitting Gymnastics Accident In Final Destination 5 (2011)
Some deaths in the Final Destination franchise are brilliant for how realistic they feel, while others do not care about how plausible the scenario is, as long as it’s gruesome. This one from the fifth movie stretches the limits of what’s possible, and steadily falls into the second category. Candice, a gymnast, is practising her routine when a series of catastrophic events is set in motion. From rattling poles to loose screws, it is the eerie build-up to her death, and her eventual gory, spine-twisting demise, that makes it one of the most talked-about deaths in the franchise’s history.
8. Evan’s Death By Spaghetti In Final Destination 2 (2003)
If there’s one thing the Final Destination films have taught us, it’s that death can be pretty cruel and unforgiving. In Final Destination 2, lottery winner Evan Lewis walks the Earth thinking he’s the luckiest man alive, first for winning the lottery, and second for escaping death in a mass-casualty event and walking out unscathed. But his luck runs out when he starts cooking while distracted. After tossing out stale spaghetti, a series of small cooking mishaps leads to a kitchen fire.Evan gets his hand stuck in the sink, unable to control the fire in time. As the flames spread, the heat intensifies and seals his windows shut. He eventually breaks free and races to the fire escape just before his apartment explodes. But as he climbs down, the ladder jams. Evan jumps, landing safely on his feet—and just as he's about to celebrate, he slips on the same spaghetti he tossed out earlier, falling onto a pile of broken glass. In that exact moment, the escape ladder comes loose and fatally impales him in the eye. If you look closely enough, the film foreshadows his death by planting clues throughout, from the fridge magnets that spell out “eye”, to his snack, which reads “Surefire Snacks.” Evan’s elaborate death isn’t just hilarious, it’s also an important catalyst for the rest of the movie.
9. Olivia’s Botched Laser Eye Surgery In Final Destination 5 (2011)
Olivia is one of the office workers on her way to the retreat during the North Bay accident, which killed dozens of people. We technically get to see Olivia die twice in Final Destination 5. The first death occurs in Sam Lawton’s premonition, where Olivia’s glasses fall, and due to the lack of vision she ends up stumbling into the water, only to be crushed to death under the weight of a heavy car. But after seeing Sam panic and leave the bus, Olivia follows suit and escapes her death. Having escaped her death, Olivia resumes life as usual, and ends up at an ophthalmologist's office to get laser eye surgery to get rid of her glasses once and for all. Unfortunately, death being poetic and all, chooses this exact moment to creep back in. The machine malfunctions and burns through Olivia’s eye and her hand, causing her to fall out of the chair in panic, break a window, and die after plummeting several storeys, landing eye-first on a car below.
10. Terry Getting Hit By A Bus In Final Destination (2000)
By now, Final Destination loyalists have come to expect the occasional jump-scare death that adds shock value, and sometimes much-needed comic relief amidst all the elaborately set-up death traps. But Terry’s death, way back in the first Final Destination film, made everyone audibly gasp and remains one of the most shocking moments in the franchise’s history.
Fed up with their lives revolving around the plane crash they all survived, Terry storms off mid-monologue, declaring that they cannot let this incident define the rest of their lives. As she trails off, seemingly breaking up with her boyfriend and telling him to “drop dead,” only to be hit by a speeding bus. The impact is instant and brutal, splattering her blood on the stunned group of friends. It’s the sheer simplicity and suddenness of the moment that makes this one of the most chilling, unexpected, and brilliantly executed deaths in the entire series.
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