Summary: Wendy and her friends are doing their grad night at a local theme park. They're ready to start the scary roller-coaster when Wendy has a premonition of their deaths. She freaks out, hops off the coaster...few friends go with and the coaster does indeed crash. However she couldn't save her boyfriend...and now Death is coming for everyone else too.
Overall: Well if you're watching this film, I sure hope you saw the prior ones. Not that you need it for the story, but instead so you have an idea what you'll see. The franchise is about inventive scary deaths with really gory ways to die. That's it. Parts 1 & 2 pretended there were actual plots involved but at least this film did not. It's all about how the survivors go from place to place avoiding (unsuccessfully) the death process. What's most interesting is that after the first death (of the tanning girls), the character of Wendy is at every spot as the chosen victim is about to die. In the first 2 films they were either on the way there or simply couldn't find them. By the end of this film, I was wondering if Wendy would just stop trying to help...if anything "Death" seemed to be following her.
Also new to this series was the nudity. We have some over-tanned but good looking ladies. One goes totally nude, other topless in the tanning booths. And we have such a gruesome way for them to die, the camera is practically focused on their chests the entire time. Made my movie experience a tinge more enjoyable. However don't confuse happiness over nudity to equal accepting this cast as having acting abilities. First 2 films are still supreme in all accounts. Better graphics, more inventive, better acting.
Comparison: Mortal Thoughts meet Final Destination
DVD-Choose their Fate:
- courtesy of Wikipedia
The DVD version contains a special feature called "Choose their Fate" that at certain moments in the film allows the viewer to make a decision that could affect the fate of the characters.
Using this feature, alternate sequences are edited into the film, affecting a number of death scenes:
Jason and Carrie: When Kevin flips the coin to determine who sits with Wendy, viewers can choose either Heads or Tails.
The Change: After choosing tails, the movie plays out as it did theatrically, only Wendy's vision ends with her still in line instead of when she is already sitting on the coaster. She convinces her friends to leave, saving Jason and Carrie. The four of them witness the coaster crash, but then the film ends after about 2 minutes with text information about what would have happened to the characters. Surprisingly, even though they escaped death's design, death apparently does not target them in the alternate version because there appears to be other people who took their place on the rollar coaster that wouldn't have died if Wendy hadn't gotten her vision.
- Carrie: Desperate to "start living," Carrie dumped Kevin the day after the incident. She enrolled at Berkeley, dropping out after one semester to travel the world. Presently, Carrie is a groupie for Doctors Without Borders.
- Kevin: After the incident, Kevin's obsession with Wendy grew dramatically. To avoid being slapped with a restraining order dictating he stay one hundred yards away from the Christensen home, Kevin joined the army and was sent to Iraq. Citing "bizarre and erratic behavior," Kevin was discharged after refusing to go on patrol in Basra because three consecutive coin flips landed on "heads." The patrol was subsequently ambushed. Kevin Fischer is presently back in McKinley, staying one hundred and one yards away from the Christensen home.
- Jason: After months of intense contemplation and study of the world's various religions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Orthodox Judaism, Shiite Muslimism, Taoism, Unitarianism and Yoga, Jason emerged from his room and founded the Church of Ultimate Beliefs. Preaching "enlightened preordination," Jason and his followers have built a self-sustaining compound in Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire.
- Wendy: No longer in denial about her "gift," Wendy Christensen changed her name to "Ming". She advices politicians and celebrities and often gives "pro bono" readings to police departments around the country. Last reported seen in Vancouver, British Columbia, her present whereabouts are unknown.
Ashley and Ashlyn: At the tanning salon, viewers can choose whether the room temperature is set to 73 or 76 degrees.
The Change: A setting of 76 degrees apparently gives Ashlyn enough time to leave her booth to answer Ashley's cell phone before the board could trap both girls. However, when Ashlyn opens her bed, the board knocks her unconscious as she falls on the floor, before locking Ashley in her tanning bed. Meanwhile, Ashley starts to scream for help as Ashlyn lays unconscious. Ashlyn soon regains consciousness and manages to open Ashley's bed, but as she is pulling her out, the glass under Ashley gives way, and she lands on some wires, coursing lethal electricity through both girls.
Frankie Cheeks: At the drive-thru window, viewers can make Wendy honk the horn again.
The Change: Wendy honks again, infuriating Frankie, who promptly turns around. Wendy spots him and as she and Kevin escape, Kevin pulls him out.
This also causes a few alterations to the remaining film. Upon seeing the picture of Frankie next to the fan, Kevin and Wendy refer to what could have happened to Frankie had they not saved him. Later, when leaving the police station, Kevin walks by a police car that pulls up, and Frankie is dragged out of the car under arrest. Viewers are then asked if saving Frankie was worth it, by choosing "yes" the DVD unlocks hidden footage of police evidence that consists of Frankie's home movies, including what he filmed at the amusement park.
Lewis: Before visiting Lewis in the weight room, viewers can give Wendy another chance to look at the pictures.
The Change: Instead of the next scene beginning in the weight room with Wendy and Kevin trying to convince Lewis of his impending doom, it features Wendy and Kevin walking across the track stadium to the weight room talking about how they will convince Lewis of the danger. As soon as they walk into the weight room, Lewis sees them, asks why they are there, and his head is immediately crushed by the weights.
Erin: Before Ian shoots the birds, viewers are given the option of a kill shot or warning shot. A kill shot returns to the theatrical version of the movie, while a warning shot changes things up.
The Change: Having failed to kill the birds, Ian mutters menacingly that they cannot escape. The film progresses as it does in the theatrical version up until after Ian is rescued from the falling debris. A falling board flips up a stake, which lands on a higher shelf among some pigeons. They fly out into Erin, startling her, and she falls back into the nail gun.
Ian: After Ian stalks Wendy to the fair and the cherry picker is about to crush him, viewers can make him jump to the left or to the right. Jumping to the left leads to the theatrical version.
The Change: Jumping to the right makes Ian completely crushed by the cherry picker, rather than thrown to the side as it is in the theatrical version. This reveals the original ending in which Wendy crushes the camera.
Kimberly Corman and Officer Burke (From FD2): The fates of these two characters from Final Destination 2 are revealed when the camera pans a newspaper in the subway station. In "Choose Their Fate" mode, viewers are given the option of reading the full article about what happened to them. Note: This option only appears if the viewer chooses to let Wendy examine the rest of the map on the subway.
The Article: According to eyewitnesses, Kimberly stopped at a hardware store to ask for directions but was surprised to see Thomas there who was buying a fire extinguisher. The two hadn't seen each other since young Brian Gibbons was killed. At the same time the brakes failed at an unmanned Camaro parked at the top of the hill, which rolled down and crashed into the front of the store. In their effort to escape they ran out the back door, where a large industrial woodchipper was being serviced for a malfunctioning safety guard. Subsequent details are unclear but apparently Kimberly's coat got tangled in the woodchipper's spinning blades and when Thomas tried to save her they both fell into the machine. The Camaro that rolled into the front of the building used to belong to Evan Lewis, another survivor from the pileup who was killed outside his apartment. The woodchipper belonged to Roger Gibbons, who owned the farm where several other survivors were killed and is also the father of Brian Gibbons who was killed when both Kimberly and Thomas were present. Finally, the attending physician who signed the death certificate was Ellen Kalarjian, who delivered a baby whose mother was near the pileup.
- It is interesting to note that the article contains errors. Evan Lewis drove a Trans Am, which is simular to a Camaro, but not exact. Also, the highway was not Route 180, but rather Highway 23.
Wendy: In the final subway scene, Wendy examines a route map. Viewers are asked if she should continue to examine the map.
The Change: After examining the map further, Wendy sees how it says "End of the line," then gets the strange feeling and sees Kevin and Julie, as she does in the theatrical version. The train crashes, and Wendy finds herself on the tracks about to be run over by another train. Instead of this being a vision, Wendy is hit by the train, and the credits roll.
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