Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025)

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Final Destination loves a good rod going through someone. Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hacker Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. This night is turning into such a disaster. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

A total joke, a waste of time. Or a slash.

SPEAKER_04 0:29

Totally killer. Pun intended.

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We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're writing these movies with a perspective we've gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of A we fancy most. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the classic horror connoisseur Sean.

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I dreamt a hot dog ate me last night.

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And the paranormal paramour beats. Like it ate me. We've just returned home from the theater to share our thoughts on the latest entry in a franchise known for its depiction of Death's elaborate designs.

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And if you support the show, you'll also get to hear our B-side at the end of this episode where we get into some of our predictions of what was going to happen in this bloodline.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

This week's film marks the return of an iconic franchise after a 14-year hiatus and coincides with the 25th anniversary of the original film. The film's marketers leaned into that 25-year legacy of elaborate demise, unearthing the collective trauma we've all endured over the years, like highway billboards featuring mannequin accidents or truck hauling logs positioned just a little bit too close to traffic. While this franchise has certainly left an indelible mark on our anxieties, it's also sparked passionate devotion in legions of fans. Fans like the duo who directed this week's film, a pair who, during their pitch meeting, simulated a freak accident using pre-recorded footage and visual effects. Their stunt involved a fire, a faulty ceiling fan, and ultimately a decapitation. While it was bold and over the top, it put them in the driver's seat of this installment. And this installment follows a college student plagued by recurring nightmares. Hoping to break the cycle, she returns home to find the one person who may be able to stop the fate that's closing in on her family. It also marks the final on-screen appearance of Tony Todd, who reprised his role as William Bloodworth before his passing in 2024. Does this movie live up to the legacy of its predecessors? How does it connect to the previous films? Well, we're answering these questions and more this week, folks, because we're talking about Final Destination Bloodlines. What were you both expecting going into this?

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Man, I was just talking about this. I saw the teaser trailer right when it came out, right? Like I watched the whole tattoo shop teaser trailer right when it came out, the one with that, you know, piercing, the septum piercing and all that. And then I said, man, if they're willing to give basically an entire kill away, like who knows what the fuck is coming in the actual trailer and then what's gonna happen to the movie. So I made it a point to just not watch anything else. And I really hadn't watched anything else until going to see this movie. I never watched the trailer. I think when it would come on, even when we went to movies in the theater and it would be a preview that would come on before, I would literally just like I'd pull my phone up, I'd start talking to my wife, I would do everything to just not pay attention or hear anything and just not allow myself to listen. And I did it because I just want the kills to be a surprise for me. That's really the only reason I did it. I just didn't want to see too many of the kills. That's the fun of the movie for me, and that's what I'm expecting at this stage in the game with a title like bloodlines, a little ominous, right? Is it gonna be family? Is it gonna be something else? But I'm just expecting to see some creative and some great fucking kills.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

100%, Sean. I expected a ton of brutality, and I expected a ton of fun. I expected an expansion of lore, and I really hope that it would do it without overdoing it or getting us stuck in the logistics of everything. And I really want to hone in on what you said about the trailer, right? Obviously, you made the choice not to watch the trailer. I'm a sucker, it can't be helped. Some movies I genuinely don't care about watching a trailer for, but I really enjoyed everything that we were getting for this movie. And really going into that, I was nervous because I had that same feeling of you, right? Okay, if they're willing to show us this, what else are they not showing us? But the closer we got to the movie, I was divided. I wanted to retain that trust, but I also feared maybe we had already seen too much. And I think in addition to that, one of the things that stood out as a big question mark for me was how I'd feel about the characters this time around. And this was just some reflection I was doing based on thinking about all the past Final Destination films we've done. I felt like our present-day horror movies, especially what we have now versus let's say when this original franchise started in the early 2000s, these movies tend to flesh out characters in more nuanced and relatable ways, which helps both their journey and then their ultimate demise feel way more impactful. But Final Destination tends to lack a little bit of that for me. Maybe we get one or two characters who are pretty solid, and then otherwise it's like, okay, everybody's patting the body count. So I was curious to see how the characters would shake out here.

SPEAKER_04 5:11

Yeah, I think that's really fair. And I think about that because when I look at this franchise as a whole that we know I'm a big fan of, the biggest thing I'm expecting is that it's going to be a silly, campy time that doesn't take itself extremely seriously. And a part of that is that character development that the franchise some would argue lacks. And others, it develops okay. The thing about this particular movie that I was hesitant about is that modern rebooths sometimes can be flops, guys, you know? And this is true. You know, I'm just saying, and I wasn't even a fan of Final Destination 4. I did like Five, but it's still a gamble, and it's been a bit since we've obviously revisited this franchise. So I was a little worried, not gonna lie. And I figured that at the very least, with improvements in technology and CGI, it would benefit the franchise. But here's what I wasn't expecting. I was not expecting to like these characters as much as I did. Like you just said, Chris. It really took me by surprise. And I think a big part of that is I want to revisit the fact that I said, you know, the franchise as a whole doesn't take itself seriously. The joke on the internet is kind of like, wait a minute, this movie's charm is that it's bad. And it's like, yeah, somehow this movie felt like it's still like funny bad, but actually really good. Like the pace was great. It still maintained its humor that I feel like runs consistent throughout the franchise, you know, like that. Not even so much the 2000s humor anymore. We're past that, but it's really witty. The characters are really fun. You spend time with them and they actually become very endearing and you love them, even though it gets right to the point. The movie knows what it is, it cuts to the chase, and you're going real fast. But along the ride, you're having such a good time, and you're like, wait a minute, this movie actually feels like a good movie. It's not even campy, yet it is. It's a weird mix of both.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

1000%. Ah, okay. Listen, this movie had me locked in from the moment that it opened. Not only because, like, there's this sweeping sense of scale and tragedy, especially with it subverting some major expectations that I've had based on just what the franchise has given us in the past. But it's exactly because of what you said, Binx, with these characters. This is a movie that decided to have great characters in a really fucking gory, violent movie, which feels really good. And that's why this movie had me laughing. It had me flinching, it had me crying in the moment. I think we all can all acknowledge what that was. But this movie brought the entire package together with this emotional through line. I genuinely wasn't expecting. I expected we might get some nod to it with some family shit, sure. But I didn't expect it to be as effective as it was. And I think it's brought to life specifically because of those characters.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Yeah, I think it was a very interesting turn of events for this installment to have a group of characters that you can get behind that kind of makes you laugh. They're relatable in some ways, right? And you do kind of care about more characters in this movie than you do in any of the other movies. And I think what also adds to the charm, I guess, of this movie, you know, we're talking about the campiness and the humor that's kind of layered in there, but it's also like the humor and the campiness or whatever, the humor of this movie or this franchise has evolved to a point where it's kind of gotten self-aware, you know, like it understands what kind of movie it is, it understands what kind of franchise it is, and it's also understands like its audience, right? And the fans of the franchise. And so it's gonna give you these moments and these little subtle lines that happen just before certain moments and these little visual nods that you you know you might miss if you don't really pay attention or you look away for a second. And I I think that makes it feel a little bit different than some of the ones that we've gotten before it, right? But I will say, outside of all that, from a more of a light-hearted note, I I may or may not have been just like jamming with the songs in this movie because we open it up with some credence. There's that Johnny Cash song, that really you know, that ominous Johnny Cash song. You got the the Isley brothers, you got so many great people. There was even some like old school sounding death metal in there.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

Sean, I need to be very honest with you. I'm not someone who listens to a lot of music, but the music I do listen to, circa 1960s. So I was boping along to every fucking song in the beginning of this film. Oh my gosh, especially when they're dancing to shout.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

Yeah. So good.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

I heard Ring of Fire and I thought, wow, I hope this is the Rocky Mountain High Dust in the Wind moment for this movie. I want to hear this song the rest of the fucking movie.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

Yeah, it really added like it was just fun. Like anything that was coming up, any of these song choices, they just felt like so perfect, and it just added to some of the greater moments in the movie.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

It really did. And man, I'm just like really basking in how good that opening felt, and really just how good this entire movie felt, because it upended my expectations from the very start. I was actually caught off guard in this movie, not because there's an absence of what you would expect from a Final Destination movie, but rather because it was what you would expect emas and more. There was more to enjoy here, more to sink your teeth into, more value to have. And what really impressed me was how much was left out of the trailer. And I was walking in thinking, oh my gosh, I want to purge it from my mind. I feel like we've seen the biggest moments, only to realize the film had that much more to offer, right? It unraveled a story that's so much richer again because of those people. But what specifically stood out to me and what was so surprising to me is how it lands the relationships between each other. So often in a Final Destination movie, we get maybe a close friend group, maybe we get strangers, maybe we get classmates. But there's something so distinct about the family unit and the way that it's approached in this movie particularly that made it feel more whole and made it feel much more compelling. And I think, okay, maybe this is just my brain getting stuck on this because I grew up the youngest in a big family. And I'm curious, does it hit the same as someone who was an only child growing up? I don't know, but it fucking slammed for me.

SPEAKER_04 12:01

Well, I think that it just calls for more creative writing in the script, right? You have to write differently for characters when they're in familial settings versus if they were with classmates that maybe they're needing to get to know. So there's that kind of banter between them, you know, or like love interests, all of these different things. But family knows each other, but family also knows each other a little too much, right? So I think that that really was like so compelling for this cast in particular, and this ensemble rather. But for me, what I found to be the most surprising, a little more on the superficial level, was the kills, shockingly, I guess. Because here's the thing like you expect that the kills are going to be crazy, but we're already on the sixth film, you know? And I think I even shared this in the B sides of our previous episode for uh Final Destination V that I was like, well, you know, how much more could they be doing? I think that's always the question. Like, what else can they invent? What's next? What can they do? And it's not only that they got more creative, but it's so much more gruesome. They definitely up the ante in some scenarios while also subtly, you know, referencing Easter eggs to other films in the franchise too, not too much in your face, but just enough where you kind of recall if you're a big, big fan or you had just done the marathon binge, right? Then there's others that are very niche fears that really don't get talked enough about that made me think of my own family, like my own father in particular, who's terrified of one of the things that is shown in the film. But I mean, you just never bring that up in conversation. It's not something that you even commonly interact with. So I really liked there was a little bit of everything in terms of opportunities for kills, jam-packed in a really fast runtime.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

Yeah, this motherfucker's elaborate. This movie is elaborate as hell. And I think what's really cool here is that it actually allows you to linger in the death, not where, like in past Final Destination movies, we've gotten a quick slam, a quick you're crushed by a bus. In this movie, yes, there's some fast things that happen, but you're also made to look at it a little bit longer. But I think that's also more reflective, I think, of how our society, maybe our audience within horror, has been able to tolerate more and stomach more of that. You cannot have Final Destination 2 after you have the audience that has seen Terrifier 3. You just can't do it. You just can't do it. You gotta up the ante a little bit. And they rose to the occasion.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

That's so true. Like, yeah, we it's a different time. It's a different time. We've been through too much, you know. We've seen too many things, so you really do have to kind of up the ante.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

I've seen some things, man, and some stuff. I wouldn't recommend it.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

But yeah, and I think for me, it's really just the story. I think the story, like, I'm always just expecting to go into a final destination. Like, we're gonna have somebody that stumbles into a scenario that has a premonition, that feels awkward about something, gets away from whatever's happening, saves a couple people in the process, and then the movie gets started and people start getting offed by death, right? In the order, and they're trying to figure it out and all that stuff, right? So that's what I'm expecting. I'm not really expecting anything to be like super layered, to have any kind of like depth to anything, but what this movie does, and you know, the title, bloodlines, or whatever, it still was surprising to me to be able to interweave this story into past stories in the franchise and to be able to find a way to tie some of these characters together. I think that was surprising. Maybe not surprising that they attempted it, but surprising that it kind of felt like it worked.

SPEAKER_02 15:55

Yeah, it's surprising that they pulled that shit off. Great job. Like that is a lofty ambition, and to be able to deliver on the promise of the movie without compromising the integrity of the franchise, it's great. It's great. You this movie added value where previously there was a deficit of value from the last two films of the franchise.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

100%. And getting like a backstory for a franchise-long character was also really cool to get, right? I know we're gonna get into that. That was also really cool, really surprising. And, you know, Binks, you're talking about like the kills, you know, that's what you're talking about, just the surprise of like the way they up the ante with these kills and some of the stuff that you get to see. And I think that's where this movie brings you those like cringy moments. It brings you those cringy moments that are like hard to watch. Like you're like, oh, your hands over your mouth, you're like, oh my god, like your fists, you're clenching, right? You're like, oh, what's going on? It's about to happen or it's happening, and it's just a cringy moment. And this movie is filled with cringy moments. They make you react that way, but it's not a scary movie from like a jump scare sense. I think what this movie does really well, maybe maybe the irrational creating irrational fears and phobias out of everyday occurrences. Yes, we'll give credit to this movie for that, because nobody's driving behind certain vehicles anymore. People are weary about going into tanning beds, right? Roller coasters are a big phobia now, and then I probably enhanced after Final Destination hit theaters. So it maybe that. But overall, from a fear aspect, I think it's really more of just like cringing at some of the gruesome shit that we see in this movie.

SPEAKER_04 17:38

You're absolutely right. I wrote down a hundred percent cringe factor. That's it. And what a great feeling, you know, an uncomfortable one. But it's a great one because it's not fear in a traditional sense. Like you're scared and you feel awkward and uncomfortable in a way that you just don't quite understand. Because when you're scared from a jump scare, you know it. Your body just reacts in a different way, like you just don't know what's coming. But a cringe sensation is like you're watching it in slow motion sometimes. You're watching it unfold. You don't know where to go, escape. It's like this anxiety that is horrendous at times for sure. I like this show a lot, or rather, this person, his name's Nathan Fielder. The show's the rehearsal, the curse. He's a madman. And he's like the master of cringe, not in a traditional horror sense, but in like a drama and like comedy specifically. And I was thinking of him when I was watching this because I was like, my God, if I had to watch Nathan Fielder's The Rehearsal and then watch this back to back, I think I might implode. That's too much cringe. One just can't take that much cringe, folks.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

You know, I think maybe I cringed less than you all. I think I flinched because of how grotesque some of it was, but it was more like a not like a full on, like, ugh. And I found myself laughing more than anything in this movie, and then being rounded out with the heart strings being pulled. Because I found that honestly this movie is funny, sometimes very intentionally, and sometimes through the sheer absurdity of the kills. And it works both ways, right? Like there are moments and callbacks that had me cackling in the middle of chaos. And wow, that is so great to see. And I think really what that does is it proves that the tone doesn't undercut the stakes, but it just balances the stakes. And I think that's what makes this serviceable and more palatable to people who let's say you cannot go into a terrifier three and see a lot of gore and brutality. Yeah, sure, you probably can't stomach that in a slasher, but I think you could stomach Final Destination bloodlines, even though it has extreme levels of for I think the common person of gore.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

You for sure can. You can stomach it. It's just that you're just gonna have certain and maybe it just triggers everybody differently. There's just gonna be those moments where you know something's getting pulled on, you know, and then that's a moment where I'm just like, holy shit, like I don't know about it.

SPEAKER_02 20:14

I think maybe the word that I would use is I winced, but I wasn't cringing.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

It's like ooh. Fair.

SPEAKER_02 20:23

I think I I think if I had piercings where piercings are had, I think I would cringe. But here I just respect it. I'm like, ooh, sucks for sucks to be you. I think it doesn't suck to be this entry in particular, though, because it dared to be different and did it pay off. I think this shifts from the framework that we see established in a lot of the Final Destination franchise, but it feels fresh without straying too far from what makes the whole franchise tick. I think the concept expands the mythology in a new direction, introduces ideas that like raise the stakes across timelines and generations, but also respects the rules without being beholden by them.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

Yeah, I feel like definitely we feel like we get more from like the lore, like you said, the mythology, right? I do think that this movie gives us a whole nother depth that I feel like I haven't really seen in a Final Destination movie recently, right? Or at all. And I think the end, I think it's it does give it some points in how it can really create its own story within with utilizing all of the lore from previous movies. And so I think, yeah, I think it it definitely gets some points for that.

SPEAKER_04 21:41

Yeah, absolutely. I thought it was honestly just brilliant. I really didn't know how they were gonna implement this whole bloodlines thing. I almost thought that it might have been a bit of a reach, a little unrealistic. But at the same time, when thinking more about it, it's almost like you're finally giving us something. That fans have been curious about whether talking about it or maybe subconsciously thinking about it for the last 25 years, which is insane to say out loud now that I have. Wow, I feel old. Anyways, you know, it's just one of those things where, like, okay, it answers a question without, like you said, Chris, without ruining the lore that it's built, without, you know, ruining the reputation that it's had for 25 years. And I think that that's crazy to do and daring to do because that's a delicate line. I already said reboots are already tough. And when you're trying to undo or explain or provide more context and exposition to something that's been like really rooted in cinema for a while, you know, you might mess up. More likely than not, you're going to mess up. But a couple of things here that I thought not only did they dare to do that and I thought executed really well, but they also provided us a couple of things, right? Like we finally get that gender equality for those main characters. You know what I'm saying? We got three for three. That's always nice. There's a theme here that is common and definitely prevalent in one through five. I won't say the theme because I don't want to necessarily spoil it, but there's a common denominator between one through five that is always implemented and at the forefront of each one of these films that I think is more for the camp of it all, that is not present here. And I almost feel like the film's better for it. Maybe some people are going to miss that part, you know, for the laughs and for the drama, but it's missing here in this film. And I feel like it allows the focus to be on the characters and the relationships within the family, which is great. But the other part that I thought was executed so brilliantly and really, really done so well and so fun was this ending. I thought that it was the perfect cherry on top for me personally, because again, it doesn't necessarily change anything too too much. It still like puts a nice bow on it.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

100% agree, Binx. I love uh the ending of this movie, specifically because it feels like it's satisfying in the way that helps it be both a great end to the movie and the franchise, but also hear me out, a great beginning for more entries without feeling like sequel baiting. Without feeling like sequel baiting. It just leaves me wanting more in all the right ways. And there's a specific component of the ending that I think creates an opportunity for that. And I can't wait to dive into that in the spoiler zone. But in all actuality, this conclusion feels like it delivered a gut punch that was earned, not cheap, not overly predictable, but something that I think recontextualized everything we had gotten before it, both in this movie and in the franchise. And I think it stuck its landing without leaning too hard on nostalgia.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

Yeah, for sure. And I can I think it was a good way to put it. Like it is a it does feel like a good way to kind of tie up the franchise, but also open the door for the franchise. I like that. That was a good way to put it for sure, because I definitely felt that. And then the whole third act into the ending, right? You really have like this whole kind of emotional ride with this family trauma and all this stuff that's going on. But at the very end of the movie, like when we get to the you know, the final like five to ten minutes, it kind of does just it does exactly what you could kind of expect from a Final Destination movie. You know what I mean? Like you do have this added layer that I think you feel a little bit more when you go towards the ending, but when you're just thinking of like the ending, it was fun, but it also feels familiar.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

I think fun and familiar is a great way to describe this movie, but let's go ahead and start making our way towards our ratings. Sean, how would you describe the Gore score?

SPEAKER_01 25:48

So Final Destination Bloodlines, I think it delivers a blend of practical effects with a lot of CGI. Like there's a blend of both. And while not all of the CGI effects are top-notch, the film's imagination, I think it's unpredictable pacing. I think that helps to maintain the appeal despite some awkward-looking moments that maybe don't look as good as they can be. And maybe that's the point, maybe it's not, but I still like the blend of the two. And we see, I feel like, enough flesh tearing, head smashing, and nipple ripping carnage to earn this one a solid high gore score.

SPEAKER_02 26:27

And what about the animal report?

SPEAKER_04 26:29

Death didn't touch animals this time around, but we do get a particularly cutie animal appearance, which is real nice.

SPEAKER_02 26:37

Which is so funny because I saw that animal in the highway on my way to see the movie.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

Whoa.

SPEAKER_02 26:45

Animal safe. Don't worry. But I was like, okay, I had a little premonition.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

It was a premonition. It was!

SPEAKER_02 26:52

Well, let's go ahead and get into our ratings then. Final Destination Bloodlines from 2025. Was it a hack or a slash? And I think I want to kick this off here. Just nice, short, and sweet. This movie adds something meaningful to the Final Destination mythos. It's not just about cheating death anymore, which feels substantial. It's about how trauma trickles down, it's about how guilt gets inherited, and it's about how responsibility can feel like a curse. And there's a clear commentary here on both generational trauma and the burden of being the oldest child, and even how our ancestors' choices still echo through our lives, even if we don't consciously acknowledge or recognize it every day of our lives. The legacy here isn't just thematic, it's literal. And that feels incredible for this movie. But it what's even more incredible is that it still manages to do all of that and be fun at the same time. This is the best Final Destination movie since the original. And honestly, I found it more fun than the original. It's undoubtedly a slash, and it is a fucking great way to say, we're back, baby.

SPEAKER_04 28:03

Absolutely, we're fucking back. It's incredible that you can find a franchise that can live up to its fame years later. And uh, if you're listening to this episode, again, I want to reiterate, you're probably heard on the internet with us and maybe other people, you know, just kind of their experiences coming out of the theater and what they're saying already. That this movie it's like, wait a minute, this was really fucking good. What? You have no business being this good. You have no business to have these themes like Chris was saying, but also be a silly, entertaining, funny time. That's not what this is. And sometimes people will see that and think, okay, that means it's bad, right? You've the movie's taken it too seriously. No, this knows how to tow that line. It's a master of it. It does both, and it does it well. Okay. Get you a girl that does both, like death. I'm just saying, I think Paris would agree. Paris and I love this franchise, and it makes me so happy to sit here and to feel like wow, Final Destination 6, and it's great. We're fucking back. The kills once again outdo themselves, even years later. We've got fresh comedy that doesn't feel aged or cheesy. It's just right, it makes you laugh. Great one-liners still, you know, the characters are fun, they're developed enough to keep you engaged. You know, you feel like you're part of the family, which is crazy to say, you know, again, I never would have expected that walking into this. But I think what surprises me the most, and what's the most shocking of everything is that it's not excessively cheesy and cringy and campy like all the others, and it's okay and it's all right, you know. Like I I feel like this is almost a film that's not Final Destination archetype, but is like an adjacent one at that, right? And I think you said it best, Chris, because of it, this is honestly the best Final Destination movie since the first one for me too. And I feel like maybe might actually supersede it. I never thought I'd say that. So obviously, if you can't gather enough, I also think that this is a hella slash.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

Man, that's awesome. I think if there's one thing this franchise has going for it, it's inventive deaths and this haunting inevitability of fate, right? Like I feel like if there's nothing else, this is what we get in this franchise. But this movie really leans heavily into the legacy feel of it all. From the opening sequence, it's clear that this installment has more in store than just that elaborate Rube Goldberg death trap. But that's still very much alive in this movie as well. It just has more than that. But I think what also what Bloodlines does a little bit differently is, you know, Chris, you were touching on it, it expands on that mythology or the lore and how death follows its pattern and all this stuff, which we thought we probably had figured out by now, right? But it definitely expands on that. And there is a lot of fan service in this movie, but it's not too much fan service. Longtime veterans of the franchise will probably appreciate some of the subtle callbacks that we get in this one. There are some of those like blink and you'll miss it moments, especially with like newspaper clippings and things like that. There's a lot to look at, but these nods don't feel like just cheap gimmicks either. They feel, I think, respectful in a lot of ways, and it's also not done in a way where it would kind of alienate newcomers to the franchise. There could be a whole new generation coming into just this movie and probably still get sucked into the story and maybe want to learn more and go back to watch the first one or whatever it is. And, you know, obviously we get those creative kills, and that's what we're here for. You know, we want to see some of those awesome kills, but then we get these added layers of generational and family trauma, and it makes Final Destination bloodlines feel almost like a love letter to the franchise, as well as a bold new chapter. So I feel like this one is it's not just another round of death's greatest hits. It's really a genuine, it's like a it's a family affair, if I had to put it. It's a genuine family affair, and this bloodline, it fucking runs deep because in this deadly family reunion, the only thing thicker than blood is fate's killing streak. So it's a slash.

SPEAKER_02 32:46

The way I thought you were gonna say the only thing thicker than blood is my slash.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

Could have.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

Well, to no one's surprise here, Final Destination Bloodlines has thus far earned a universal slash. Now, we are about to get into the spoiler zone, folks. We're gonna dive deep into the gore, into the mythology. We're gonna find out the common denominator that was present in one through five that Bing said is now absent from here. So buckle up and enjoy a ride. We'll see you in a bit.

SPEAKER_01 33:34

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SPEAKER_02 35:28

You're now entering the spoiler zone for Final Destination Bloodlines, which has earned a universal slash. Now we have a lot to unpack here, but before we get into the specifics of our ratings, holy shit, Sean, I feel so bad for you. Let's go through those kills.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

Hey, well, lucky for me, I actually had Binks on my side for this one. So we had some we had a little bit of collaborative effort. That was really great. I mean, Binks did a lot of the legwork, honestly, for this one. And as I was watching it and tracking stuff and then cross-referencing what Binx was putting in, and I'm like, okay, this is pretty dang spot on. So this movie, I will say, does not disappoint with the kill count. We see a lot of death. Of course, you know, some deaths get revoked because, you know, premonitions and whatnot, and not everybody dies, and then they maybe they die later and it gets a little fucking murky, but we do have a total of 47 deaths in this movie that we're gonna put on the death toll here. And we saw some really cringy moments, some wild deaths, some brutal deaths, some creative deaths. So I gotta ask which one of these kills off the family tree really rattled your leaves.

SPEAKER_04 36:38

Listen, thank you so much for giving me that credit because I gotta say, what you do is tough. All right. What you do is tough, and I saw this on Monday. So I've had a lot of things happen between now and then. But what stayed with me is how a lot of those fuckers died. Okay. The names, some of them escaped me, but I remembered how a lot of them died. So I did have to, you know, run it back, ask some friends, maybe do a little bit of, you know, a little bit of cast search just to make sure I got it right. But my notes were like kill after kill after kill, and there is a slew to pick from. But one that stands out the most that I thought of, especially while I watched it, good old IMAX right in my face, practically screamed and cheered, was that fucking kid.

SPEAKER_01 37:28

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 37:30

Fuck that kid. And here's the thing, though. I mean, obvious I mean, listen, because it's like we don't necessarily know how he died actually, right? Uh, you know, fast forward, I suppose. Right. But seeing how he died in the premonition did the trick. And I full on flicked like the camera, or not the camera, the screen. I literally like gave it the finger. I said, Fuck them kids. The theater was cheering. My friend next to me was like, Wow, I've never really heard a whole theater cheer when a kid dies. I said, Well, in this case, can't I gotta be honest, it's kind of warranted. Because you're a little piece of shit, kid, with the penny.

SPEAKER_01 38:16

I loved it.

SPEAKER_04 38:17

A penny?

SPEAKER_01 38:18

I love I loved how the penny, the whole journey of the penny, and it came right back to him, full circle, amazing. And I was waiting for it. I was like, there's no way this kid's gonna escape. This motherfucker has to die. I was gonna be mad if that kid lived. Let me tell you.

SPEAKER_04 38:32

No, no, no, no, no, no. No one gets the plot armor. Everyone needs to go. And I have a fun fact. In my tote bag, weirdly enough, I found a penny in my tote bag that I took when it went there. Isn't that crazy?

SPEAKER_02 38:47

Did you take it from a foundation?

SPEAKER_04 38:48

Did you throw it? No, I didn't. I just had a penny in there for some reason. Well, good, but I didn't throw it from like the third floor so that it landed on somebody or do something stupid with it.

SPEAKER_02 38:57

I just love how we had this thing that we've all heard unearthed from the back of our minds. I grew up hearing if you drop a penny from like the Empire State Building, it's just gonna kill somebody. But yeah, I don't know that it's ever been something I ever want to fuck around and find out about. Especially with okay, we say like pennies can derail a whole train.

SPEAKER_01 39:20

Listen, fuck around and find out. I've dropped some pennies in some pretty questionable places, and I feel like I feel like back in LA in Six Flags are not in LA, but in California and Six Flags, Magic Mountain, you go up Superman, which is just a straight, it just just brings you straight up and then straight down. Like you just start in a car and you're standing like this, like you're standing up, and then it just shoots you up full force, straight vertical. I don't even know how high it is, it's pretty fucking high. You go straight up and then you fall backwards, straight down. And we it was like a known thing for kids, I feel like you go up there, you got your penny, you go up to the top, and then you let go of the penny, and it kind of sits there for a second, and then it falls. In hindsight, this is a final destination fucking in the making. Because, motherfucker, if that penny got on the track in the right fucking way and stopped the fucking thing from going down and we all fucking died. Holy shit. I'm just thinking about it right now. That was a final destination moment, and I cheated death.

SPEAKER_02 40:21

Wow. Fuck. Guess I'm not driving with you anywhere. All right, Sean, we can never go to Paris.

SPEAKER_01 40:29

Crazy, crazy.

SPEAKER_02 40:30

Listen, that little fucker, I was so glad when he expired, but there are still so many incredible deaths to unpack here, and I want to really identify and just recognize and acknowledge here that my absolute favorite, most entertaining death was Eric's.

SPEAKER_01 40:48

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:50

One, we just have the realization that he did not go out the way we expected him to go out based on the teaser, which was already a surprise. But then it kind of fucked with my brain a little bit because we see the release of the teaser, then we see him step into the street, and we all know that he's not gonna actually get hit by a car. Cause we're like, oh, this must be out of order. He must do that and then get fucking wrecked in the tattoo parlor. So when the tattoo parlor came first, and then we got that, I was like, Well, shit, did my eyes deceive me? Is this motherfucker gonna get hit by a car? Then we have the revelation that he's not even Howard's son. Okay, crazy. First off, what the fuck? Because they actually look alike. So that was even more surprising. I mean, great casting, terrible casting, if that was the angle that you're gonna go with.

SPEAKER_01 41:40

I mean, well, they were going off of the like the only one with the black hair and tattoos, you know.

SPEAKER_02 41:45

Yeah, but the eyes were there, like they look alike. Like that is absolutely father and son. You can't fucking fool me, none. Maybe he had a different mom. Maybe that was how was happening. Maybe you know, she didn't want to besmirch her for his dad's good name. But we go through this journey in this roller coaster of Eric, and you think, okay, is he about to just bounce out of this movie just like his mom is? For him to join the party and then die because of the magnets and the piercings pulling him closer and closer and closer and closer and closer. The piercings from his ears, his nose, his nipples, and his dick.

SPEAKER_01 42:25

And if yeah, I was gonna say, if you thought it was gonna stop at the nipples, it doesn't stop at the nipples, it goes all the way downtown.

SPEAKER_02 42:32

Where the fuck else does he have piercings?

SPEAKER_01 42:34

Yeah, and it was like if that wasn't enough, it was also just the visual at the end of like his body being sucked into that, like while the wheels folded in is going home too. Right. It was just a sight to be seen, honestly. It was it was wild. It really was.

SPEAKER_04 42:54

And that's the kill that made me think of my father, as my father, well, to start, is already terrified of hospitals, doctors, the whole nine, right? But MRIs, my dad, my stepmom, my mom, they've all expressed that MRIs, the idea of them gives them anxiety, etc. Like just freaks them out. My dad's like really won't do it, refuses. And when he was in the hospital earlier this year, he had to do one. I think it was actually a CT scan, but similar idea, right? And concepts. And my brother and I had to really cheer him on and like convince him they had to almost give him anxiety medication to get him into that machine because he needed it. And I was like, Dad, I do these all the fucking time. Like, I if I can do it, you can do it. And then I saw this kill and I was like, Man, if my brother saw this, haha, he would have a laugh. And my father could never. Yeah, no, no, no, I know. My brother would laugh only because we'd have to make sure that we could never show our father.

SPEAKER_01 43:53

I feel like right after Eric's death, though, when we get Bobby's death, it's not even that it can. Live up to Eric's death because it really can't. Like, how do you follow that up? You really can't. But here's where it shines because this motherfucker went through so much. He literally almost died because of the Reese's peanut butter cup looking thing, right? The off-brand peanut butter cup. And he finally gets at the end the EpiPen and is able to like maybe have a glimpse of hope, and then the nurse opens the door, and it's not the it's not the peanut butter candy that he got from the vending machine that took him down. It's the fucking little spiral metal shelving holster, whatever the fuck you call that thing. The coil that the coil that is fucking in the vending machine that rips through it and fucking impales him right through the head.

SPEAKER_02 44:45

You know, if Eric hadn't fucked around, Bobby wouldn't have found out quite so specifically that way.

SPEAKER_01 44:51

Yeah, in that moment, I wasn't thinking about it. But as I reflect on the kills, it's kind of a really subtle, funny fucking kill.

SPEAKER_02 45:00

And there really is. And I actually have another one that has this air of really subtle, funny fucking kill. And that was our girl Julia Campbell getting crushed by the garbage truck being compressed while the garbage truck driver is swiping on an app called Crusher.

SPEAKER_01 45:21

Called Crusher. It was also the way she just fucking like blew into the fucking trash can. The gust of that leaf blower and the soccer ball has some fucking force behind it because holy shit.

SPEAKER_00 45:36

That was some crazy force, I would have been toast. She was small, like don't get me wrong. She's a small human being, but like shit.

SPEAKER_02 45:45

But what was so amazing is seeing this all unfold in the background exactly as predicted.

SPEAKER_01 45:51

Yeah, exactly as she said.

SPEAKER_02 45:53

But then with an added layer, because who the fuck could have seen the garbage can come?

SPEAKER_01 45:58

Oh my god. Oh, it was so good. That was too good. That was too good.

SPEAKER_04 46:03

Also, can I have a comment or not maybe even a criticism, borderline? So the overall opening kill scene, though, like the overall what we can throw in the 33 patrons, everybody, right? Not gonna lie, it's not that I didn't like it because I did, it's entertaining, but it felt almost like the most extreme of the opening kills, and like the most unrealistic in a sense, right? It almost reminded me of the NASCAR one from four, you know? Like, okay, I guess, you know, unfortunate, like, you know, they did this building in advanced construction. We've seen these accidents, sure.

SPEAKER_01 46:41

But like ahead of its time, you know, think it all through. But yeah, I give you a little a little far-fetched for a penny, you know, to take the whole dang thing down. But you know, hey, look, you know, David took Goliath down with a tiny little pebble, so you know, maybe this penny can take these people out too.

SPEAKER_02 47:00

It wasn't just a penny, it was the crystal hitting it at exactly the wrong point. And ironic that this crystal can do that and break this glass, but this chick Stephanie, actually Darlene, this is her RV, doesn't have a single glassbreaker or a seatbelt cutter in there. You think you would have planned for this, ma'am.

SPEAKER_01 47:17

A single sharp object.

SPEAKER_04 47:19

I just, these are the things that, like, all right, this is what makes it a Final Destination movie, though. That's what I'm talking about, its charm and its silliness. Because if it was a little too on the nose in terms of preparation and logic, overall logic, then I would have been like, ah, wait a minute. Now we're leaning and tipping a little bit too far to the right. But I just felt like the kill scene reminded me more of the NASCAR one versus the one and only, the best, maybe of all time, which is the logs, right? The that God, it's like Chef's Kiss, that opening scene. And I'm so glad that it inspired other kills like our conclusion, you know? It fucking knew that everyone loves those goddamn logs, and it said, I'm gonna find a way to bring it back in a right in a nice subtle conclusion.

SPEAKER_01 48:03

Yeah. Yeah, it's so true. There's not, you cannot even tell me there's not a single person that gets on the highway and does not move out of the way of that truck.

SPEAKER_02 48:11

Okay, so when I was at work, I actually had to lead a morning meeting and I asked everybody while I was waiting for everyone else to show up. I went around, I was like, hey, Final Destination Bloodlines comes out in theaters later this week. Raise your hand if you've been personally victimized by Final Destination. A lot of people raised their hands. I was like, what did it for you? Logs, logs, highway, tanning beds, logs. Like everybody, just the fucking logs, right? The logs, it's like our version of how influential Lincoln logs were, except now we added death to it. Fuck assembly, fuck construction, nah. We're just afraid of getting taken out by the whimsy of death. And speaking of the whimsy of death, there are a couple more here that I just really gotta comment on, one of which didn't even happen. I'll get to that in a moment. But Howard, I was really surprised to still be soaking up and being impacted by how brutal his kill was because I really expected to be numb to it. We knew exactly how he was gonna die going into it based on the trailer, but the fact oh actually, you know, Sean didn't, but I still wasn't desensitized to it. But going through this whole scene, seeing this trickle effect, I was still thinking like, fuck, this is terrible.

SPEAKER_04 49:28

So there was a moment in that kill that I thought, is he going to drink the actual glass? I'll be honest, I don't actually think I'm not sure. Yeah, I don't I don't think I ever fully watched the entire trailer as a or rather that particular scene from start to finish. I think the cringe literally made me want to stop. So if I did, I'm sorry, I must have forgotten because I'll tell you one thing on IMAX, I was like, that man is gonna drink that glass, literally and metaphorically, that's crazy. And it reminded me of Oculus. There's a scene in Oculus where she's kind of like disoriented and does the same thing, like the same motion in terms of eating a piece of glass. And I was like, oh, that scene in that movie fucked me up. And if that's gonna happen here, right in front of my face, we're gonna have problems. I won't be able to finish my slushie. I'm gonna be very, very paranoid of ice now, which is good on them. I mean, maybe a little bit of a reach because a shard of glass like that prominent in a cup, maybe you would notice. I would hope.

SPEAKER_01 50:32

You would think it was big.

SPEAKER_04 50:33

But then again, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:35

I think that's what's referred to as bar ice. And if why, if you have a kitchen or a bar, you're supposed to immediately dump out all the ice and replace it if something breaks around it.

SPEAKER_00 50:44

Right.

SPEAKER_02 50:45

But I actually want to go back to the opening scene because holy shit, I really expected uh obviously we had the dialogue in the trailer, Iris saved a lot of lives. I didn't realize she was gonna save all the lives, and I thought for sure that Paul was gonna die in the opening sequence. Even if he was the only one to die, I thought the disaster was gonna get a little bit further before everyone responded and stopped.

SPEAKER_01 51:11

Yeah, it was a little bit surprising, I guess for sure, net thinking back on it, that we didn't that yeah, that all of those people were spared that incident. But I guess it makes I guess it makes the I don't know, does it make the stakes higher? I don't know. Maybe it makes the it makes the meat of like the plot, you know, thicker, you know, because you got all these people and then it's the whole like aspect of like all these people now have their bloodlines and they have families, and those people cannot be. And now it now death's got a whole checklist, you know, that he's gotta get through.

SPEAKER_04 51:46

Well, if you think about it, it's like death needs a substantial amount of people, or rather, the franchise needs obviously a substantial amount of people to substantiate why you would have this lore, why you would create this origin story to an extent, right? Like if it was just seven people, then we would not be having Final Destination VI. It would have been over by like maybe two. Right. You know, or three. Like the what are the what in reality, every single one of them having multiple kids, multiple, I mean, it's not realistic. There look at today. I mean, not there's plenty of people that don't have kids right now that probably would have cut the bloodline shorter, right? So I like that it's so many people because it creates such a massive ripple effect that obviously spanned over decades. But at the same time, it's one of the themes that did not get touched on. Sure, a common denominator. Not the main one that I was gonna talk more about, but it's definitely one of them because usually in these opening scenes, you do see that there are some people that, you know, fall prey to death one way or another, whether that person that has the main vision or not saves them. We've never had an instance where she saves all of them or he saves all of them.

SPEAKER_02 52:56

Yeah, listen, I was a fan of their breaking tradition. True.

SPEAKER_04 53:00

But you know, in a way, in terms of breaking tradition, I talked a little bit about CGI. You did too, Sean. I'm gonna say the bold move, uh the bold thing, rather, that I feel like it broke tradition with some pretty decent CGI, okay? There, I said it. I'm playing with that.

SPEAKER_01 53:19

There was just a couple moments that also looked a little bit questionable.

SPEAKER_04 53:23

Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. You know, no, no, no, no, I know. The if I were to really give it a percentage, right? Like I would say we're 60%, maybe even 55% at the mark, right? But I was like, damn, some of these actually look real fun. This doesn't look too shabby. And granted, my bar in terms of like really shitty is always going to be the mean one. The mean one is like the worst thing I've ever seen in on this planet. So in terms of CGI and basically everything else. So that's the bar, I understand. But it broke tradition in that way. I think also just overall in terms of production. There were some really cool moments where they changed the aspect ratio for the IMAX for some of the kills, the barbecue scene and all the and the kills for Howard specifically. When I changed when I saw that aspect ratio change, I was like, oh, all right, we're having some fun with this. We're using that IMAX camera right. Let's go. I thought that was fun. That was real, that was real neat for sure. But I do have a nitpick. I do, I've got to be honest. So those I things I did enjoy, but my nitpick is for continuity in one specific moment. So we have this moment where Stephanie is wearing her outfit to this barbecue, and obviously her uncle passes away. We have a quick scene where it's his funeral, a la monkey almost, right? In terms of like editing and stuff like that. I thought that was kind of funny. But then it goes back to Stephanie diving into like, you know, the book, and now she's like, now I gotta figure things out, etc. Wearing the same clothes that she wore at the barbecue.

SPEAKER_02 54:58

Well, I mean, listen, your girl had a small bag.

SPEAKER_04 55:04

Get out of here. Nope. No, get out of here with that. You're gonna wear the same clothes that you wore when you saw your uncle get chopped up by a lawnmower. I mean, you're gonna put that shit back on. Too traumatized to change. Y'all are y'all are giving it too much flowers. No, we're supposed to be there overnight. Putting on the same goddamn clothes. Did you even wash it? I don't even want to know.

SPEAKER_01 55:25

Oh, definitely not. Definitely not.

SPEAKER_02 55:28

That's why the nitpick blood wasn't on her. And she was, you know, running down on outfits. She just got covered in her grandmother's blood the day before.

SPEAKER_01 55:36

They do a load of laundry. I don't know. Yeah, she did get the grandma iris facial.

SPEAKER_02 55:42

Yeah, not the iris itis. Listen, Bings, baby girl, listen. There's no amount of load of loads of laundry that will get your grandmother's blood out of your clothes. She was running down to the bottom of the fucking hamper.

SPEAKER_04 55:55

Listen, I and I definitely agree, those clothes should be thrown away and burned. But I'm just saying that either you wash them then, or you go to HM and you go to the clearance rack. HM is pretty affordable, girly pops. You go and you buy yourself an outfit. Okay, the tariffs are tough. Maybe Shein won't be too bad. I don't know what to tell you. But you get a new outfit.

SPEAKER_01 56:20

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. It's tough. It's tough. But you know, I think one of the things I always love about this movie or this franchise is you get the those little eerie sequences where we get like death is looming around waiting to make its mooth. We've got like the rustling in the trees, the winds picking up, we hear a wind chime, right? Like we've got we know something's about to happen. Sometimes it fakes you out a little bit, sometimes it doesn't. But I always love those touches in these movies because it just builds this really nice, like kind of spookiness to the film. And yeah, and I think that's probably the that's probably my favorite part. You know, I've been talking about a little bit like some of the callbacks and the nods and the Easter eggs, and there's a lot of stuff like that that really ties into Final Destination itself as a franchise, but there was one that I really loved, and there was a moment where there was a quote where someone said, You're tearing me apart. I forget who said it. But that right there is a great nod, intentional or not, to James Dean Rebel Without a Cause.

SPEAKER_02 57:28

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:30

And that I thought was that I thought was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 57:33

Man, see, there is so much cool shit in this movie. And okay, I'm gonna start with something that is totally benign and probably unintentional, but fuck. It just like scratched my brain in a particular way. Being Sean, you both have played Mortal Kombat.

SPEAKER_01 57:50

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 57:51

In the final destination, we got the X-ray scenes for the credits. Yeah. And that happened in 2009. In 2011, Mortal Kombat introduced the X-ray moves, they're like the super moves where you could see the internal damage. And for sure, I'm not saying that Mortal Kombat was inspired by Final Destination at all because those X-ray moves are often predated in a lot of other combat games before this. But I was such a Mortal Kombat nerd back in the day, and seeing that in particular just like really, really scratched my brain the right way. For them to walk into that house and see Eric and Bobby playing Mortal Kombat, that shit was great. Now, what I love about this movie is that you can feel all throughout it how much its entire production was handled with a lot of love, a lot of care and a lot of reverence for the franchise, but both the casting crew, right? It's pure craftsmanship that helps make it both vivid and immersive. And I love that, starting with what ended up being my favorite scene. But I want to walk through a few things that really stood out here from a production perspective. One, Sean, you already mentioned the death sequences, the set design, and the chain reaction staging were absolutely incredible.

SPEAKER_00 59:12

Top top notch.

SPEAKER_02 59:14

Top notch, top tier.

SPEAKER_00 59:15

Top notch.

SPEAKER_02 59:16

For a fucking penny to get sucked into an intake, and then break a fan, the fan pierces a gas pipe, then that crystal falls. It's there's so much that is elaborate, but what made it even more entertaining was just the entire set itself, and then the costuming, the wardrobe, helping us feel like we're actually in the 60s versus just painting a picture of the 60s. And I actually want to highlight we had a 71-year-old woman, a stunt woman who came out of retirement, a vet Ferguson, who got set on fire in Final Destination Bloodlines. She got she did that full burner address.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:00

Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:01

Fuck yeah. Incredible. See, it's the commitment to the bit. Yeah, we had incredible cinematography all around here, but all of those came together. And this nightmare sequence, the fact that we start with a nightmare sequence instead of a premonition, only to find out later that it was a premonition. She was just seeing it secondhand.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:23

I loved it.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:24

I love it too. I love it. It's so different for the franchise. And what makes me believe that we didn't start the movie with a premonition, but we did end the movie with a premonition. That's where my brain goes. But this opening scene is such a standout because the sheer number of moving parts, the emotional stakes. I think Iris and Paul are an adorable couple, but also to see little baby Bloodworth and his mom and just seeing like everybody come together and like just the panic and the fear in those people. It was the first time I think in a Final Destination disaster where I felt true suspense. I felt true anticipation because I gave a fuck about A, the two central characters that were on screen, but then B, the innocent bystanders who definitely did not deserve it. The rest of these movies, oftentimes in these premonitions, you get some bratty ass people who are like, oh, okay, well, fuck. Get out of here. Yeah, sure. We get the concierge who was a dick. Yeah, we get the kid who would get squashed at by the piano. But by and large, the rest of these people did not deserve that.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:32

Yeah, absolutely. I feel like although maybe the opening scene for me didn't hit as much as like in terms of the kills themselves, and it was very grandiose. The scene, though, and like the fact that we spent a good amount of time with everyone just to find out that this isn't even going to be the main crew that we're lollygagging around for the next hour or so is really, really great. And I want to highlight you said baby Bloodworth, and of course, the moment that he hit the screen, I said, Oh my God, did they do this? Did they really? And they did, because my favorite scene, of course, is I'm sure it's everybody's, and what everyone is looking forward to, especially in this film, is seeing Tony Todd.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:17

Yeah. Always good.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:19

His his origin story. And it's just so like, God, what what a heart-wrenching thing. And the B sides that we were talking about for Final Destination V and my predictions, I mentioned that obviously I was looking forward to seeing how they were going to tie in, you know, Tony Todd, and obviously knowing that this was his last film appearance. You know, you can tell that he already, you know, was falling sick and stuff. So I just was curious to see how that was going to be integrated into the story. I never expected that he was going to be a part of this bloodline, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:50

And the way he like wove it, they wove him in there was perfect.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:54

Was perfect. The fact that he not only was a part of this bloodline and this revenge that death has, I guess we can say, but this explains why he's been so a part of helping people, why he's felt the need to help everyone and to give insight, why he is the expert, you know, not he's just some random guy that knows about death because he happens to work at a mortuary or whatever in the morgue section of the hospital. No, he knows because he knows that he's eventually going to get a got himself. And I watched a quick interview during the week of the directors and how they mentioned that, of course, they knew that he was going to be in the film. They had hoped certainly that he was going to be in the film, but they also knew that at that point he was already falling very ill. And they kind of let him say his own speech at the end. Like they let him go off and say what he wanted to say about his departure. And so that's what those lines were. His farewell, you know, kind of improv to an extent, but not his farewell to the franchise, but also you can't help but now watch it and feel like that was his farewell in general.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:04

God, it was emotional as fuck.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:06

So beautiful, and 100% the moment I started crying in this movie. To hear him say, I intend to enjoy the time I have left, I suggest you do the same. Life is precious. Enjoy every single second. You never know when. Good luck. Wow. Heartwright. Like I was looking at the Tony Todd that I saw in Candyman and Dawn of the Dead and Night of the Living Dead, and then the Candyman Reboot, and then looking at this entire Final Destination franchise and all these other roles that he's been in. And it's like, fuck, this is the closure that I don't know any of us really acknowledge that we needed from his passing. What felt sudden to us.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:48

Yeah. It was great to get that moment. And it's also good that it was done so well. But I say, man, we've kind of danced around a lot of the moments where I feel like are my favorite scenes. One of them from like a comedic standpoint, it leads up to what we were talking about with Eric and Bobby's death, because the whole scene that leads up to what happens to them in the hospital, I think is just absolutely hilarious because I just love how Eric was so down to try flatlining to cheat death, right? Like it started there, actually, right? Because the fact that they're getting the tip that, like, okay, if you die and you can resuscitate yourself, like that might be an out. And he was just immediately like, yes, we're gonna go down that road right now. We're gonna flatline. And I think it was just that. And then the comment where he was just like trying to talk Bobby into it, and he's like, That guy was just so charismatic, you know? And like, and it was just that touch of comedy, and the thought when they get to like the thought of killing the baby was wild as fuck. They both look at the baby and they're like, Man, that baby's probably. Got a long life ahead of him. Maybe we should just kill that baby. And I'm like, dang, fuck them kids.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:06

Okay. Listen, wow, Eric. I don't know that I disagree with him though. It does seem like the most straightforward option if you're not down to kill somebody else. Well, you're gonna kill somebody else and end up in prison, or you're gonna get a fucking piece of aircraft falling on you in the middle of a bar because you're just gonna die anyway. No, Eric, I well, I acknowledge is super down to clown very quickly, does go from I don't believe this fucking shit to I believe this shit specifically very fast. But one of the other things I love is when you look at how he engages Bobby in this scene. It is interesting to see how he's stepping up to try to be a protective older brother, and he's making a fucking careless decision here, but he really believes he's doing the right thing, and he has this emotional talk with Bobby about how he doesn't have to take care of Paco because he's gonna be tailored to take care of Paco and he's not gonna let anything happen to Bobby. I'm not gonna let anything bad happen. I'm not gonna let you die. I'm gonna let you die, and then I'm gonna bring you back. It's just that level of comedy. This actor who plays Eric did a phenomenal fucking job. From someone who I thought was gonna expire in the movie very quickly to honestly stealing the show in almost every moment he was in.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:20

Truly.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:21

A thousand percent. Hats off to him. What else is he in? Can we book him in some other comedy shows? Because he was really fucking good. He was witty as hell. I loved his dialogue. I thought he was great, the typical, like invincible character. You know, I I really, really thought he was incredible. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:42

It felt like I was like, man, I have I seen this guy somewhere. That's kind of like the feeling that I had the whole time I was watching it.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:48

Yeah, you did. You saw him as Howard's son. He's just young Howard.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:54

He's just young Howard. Maybe that was what it was. I'll have to go back and like side by side it really quick because I it wasn't a prominent feeling that I had, but I wasn't tied to it. But yeah, I mean, I think it's also all of that stuff, Chris, but I also think like it's just the fact that he spent like the whole first half of the movie really defending like this whole peanut allergy and making sure that like peanuts would never get near his brother Bobby, and then at the end of it all, he was the one that was basically forcing him to eat some peanuts. That was a that was just it's just a the whole journey was hilarious, but I'm curious because the whole backyard family reunion barbecue scene, because I guess that was I'm assuming part of the trailer. That part or all of that, I don't know, was part of the trailer. And so for me, not seeing the trailer, that was one of the best scenes that built suspense because there was so much happening that you had those really great moments where you get the little eerie, like wind picking up and the wind chimes, you get that whole moment, and you've got all these you got the journey start to uh unfold of like how death is gonna unravel this next kill. You're not really sure who's gonna die. You've got the fake out with the trampoline and the rake. I was literally the whole time like, oh man, like we're gonna get what was it, Thanksgiving? You know what I mean? We're gonna get that kind of shit. Cool seen it, not impressed, but it was just a fake out. And then we've got the glass that we didn't know how was gonna come into play. We had the fake out with Julie choking on the glass, but it wasn't glass, she was just choking, right? And it all led to Howard's death of getting fucking lawnmowered in the face, and so not seeing anything about that scene I think made it so much better to watch in the moment in theaters because it was one of the more like perfectly built-up suspenseful scenes in the movie.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:49

I agree. That's why I think that scene still hits for me, even though I did see it. Because yes, we get it in the trailer, but it is condensed a little bit in the trailer. There's also the acknowledgement that Darlene is there, and I don't remember seeing her in the trailer, or really at least noticing on her acknowledging her presence. What's great about that scene, Sean, and I love that you bring it up, is that it is toying with us because it knows exactly how traumatized we've been by five other movies in this franchise. It's playing with our emotions because these filmmakers are also fans of this franchise, and they know how we look at the world a little bit fucking differently ever since the first Final Destination.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:36

It's so true. It's so true. And I now, you know, Chris, you sent me this picture with this circling both Howard and Eric's eyes. I'm looking at it right now. I definitely see it. Yeah, I see it. It's definitely in the eyes. It's unmistakable now.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:52

You could have told me they cast father and son, I would have been like, yep. There's probably a fucking club. Yeah. I need to look up a young version of the actor who plays Howard and then get a real side by side. They did a great job with the casting. That's all I'm gonna say. That's why it was even more of a gag when Eric wasn't even Howard's fucking son. Holy shit.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:14

That was that was one wild left fielder.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:16

I love that he just shouts his father's name, and we don't know that man. We don't know that man at all. And he's just shouting it like we do, and we're stunned, and we're appalled just along with him.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:27

Right? I'm like, who is this fucking fucking Jerry fucking Fenberry, man? Like this dude, like, I just he seems like an asshole. Like, I don't know, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:38

I was waiting for the reveal that it's the guy who owns a tattoo shop. But we never reveal. It's just we're we're just left to wonder.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:46

My mind went there immediately as well. It's like, is it the tattoo shop guy? That's the because that's the only person that we got to see in a negative exchange, really. You know what I mean? So I maybe that's probably subliminally what we were kind of coming up with for whatever reason. But I went to the same thought. It was hilarious.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:06

Yeah, but I think that the reality here is that this Final Destination movie has what I consider to be the most emotionally complex cast the entire series has had. Iris is essentially Lori Strode in a Final Destination world. She's paranoid, she's hardened, and she's tragic. And honestly, going into that, I expected some bullshit. I was like, fuck, man, don't tell me that she's gonna wisen up and be the one to save the day and then go out like a punk like Sally Hardesty, which made her death even more surprising for it to have happened exactly when it did. I didn't know how much more we would ever get of her in the movie, but for her to just allow it to happen, she's like, let me show you seeing is believing.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:50

It's fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:52

Yeah. I really too. Oh, it was fucking brutal. Final Destination loves a good rod going through someone.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:59

A lot of rods going through people for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:01

A lot of penetration.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:03

That's the next one. Final penetration.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:05

Final penetration. Final penetration is the corn hub version of Final Destination. There it is. There it is.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:12

Dang, that's a new category. Oh man. That's incredible. That's incredible.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:18

Okay, but I do want to address here, and this is something that I was considering, and we'll unpack it a little bit more later in the B-sides, but we have this family and their entire dynamic. We have the traumatized mother who is pushing her kids away by trying to keep them safe and love them, but in her own version of like a fucked up way. It was really giving Lori and Karen from the 2018 Halloween. And then we have the sibling dynamics on top of that. We talked about the Slumber Party massacre with our two sisters in that movie, and then we have Sam and Tara, and then we have Tara and Victoria from Scream and then Terrifier, then we had Sienna and Jonathan and Terrifier 2 and 3. There's a lot of sibling energy about. And I think there's something really special about that because as I was examining this in my mind, so many horror movies, and then think about maybe my personal favorites from like the 70s, 80s, we see babysitters and strangers. Right now, it's like we're letting strangers less into our homes, and all this fear, all of this danger still exists within our family unit. So I don't know, it was just like a really weird, trippy fucking thing. I think the messiness of this family made the messiness of the plot and the danger and the emotion of the plot more palpable.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:45

I agree because what I noticed is that in the other sibling dynamics that we might have in the previous films, not that there's many, but I feel like there's not a lot of depth to it, right? Like it's very superficial. It's just the siblings being siblings. It's nothing more than that. And here we've got a lot. We've got trauma, and we talked about it even in B Sides 2, like you know, both the generational trauma that I think exists in this film and what it highlights, but also the opportunity to kind of see it both from a parent's perspective, but also from a sibling's perspective. So the parents themselves recognizing that they've, you know, caused pain to their kids, or more so Darlene, I guess, but also the pain that they've caused their siblings. So Darlene to Howard and what that affects, even also marriage, too, because let's be honest, that's explored as well Darlene and her husband. I I thought that there was so much going on between this entire cast for a final destination movie. And the common denominator, I'll reveal it now. The common denominator between one and five is that the main like core of these films in terms of the character development has always been love interest-related love, romantic, some romantic plot, some connection between all of them, right? So that's always been like the main thing. The main character is in love with someone else, and they're trying to save that person from death in some capacity, or they're trying to do it together. And I feel like that kind of romantic love does like supersede a lot of opportunity to explore other dynamic character dynamics, you know, because you're only seeing it from that lens of I just want to see these two people together, or I want to see what happens to this couple. But in this case, there is no love interest at all. Not even, I mean, even with our married couples, right? It's just like, okay, well, she's lost her husband and and that's what she's going through. Or, you know, Darlene and her husband, obviously she's deranged. We don't necessarily see a whole sit-down conversation between the two of them and hope that they get back together and all of that. Like, that's not the point. That's not what we're here for. We're here to see familial love. We're supposed to see love in a different way and how you want to escape death for your family and the people that you love in that regard, not for some random stranger, not for some classmate that you maybe had a crush on. Some of these movies also like, you know, again, I'm looking at, I'm looking at you, Final Destination III. You know, why were some of those love interests a little problematic when, you know, that was your boyfriend that passed away? That was supposed to be your friend, you know, like it was all that was always at the forefront for some reason. And I feel like I really appreciated that this was strictly about family. It's not trying to entertain anything else, you know, even for the Scream franchise most recently, like, yeah, it's siblings, but it's also a love interest somehow in there too. No, it's sticking to its guns, it's saying, we're just gonna explore this dynamic, and I think it's so much better for that.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:55

Yeah. I think this family really like it's it's interesting, it's crazy to see that this story came together the way that it did, and that it worked the way that it did with the short amount of runtime that it had, because there's a lot of movies out there that don't build characters the way that this movie built characters for you to actually have any kind of feeling towards them, any empathy, anything, relatability. And man, this family really was in shambles at the start of this movie, right? They were not together, they were torn apart, right? There was a lot of trauma, right? And then at by the end of it, I mean, you know, by the end of it, it's still a kind of a grim story, but they at least at the end they came together to try to end this whole cycle of death, right? And it was along the way we got to see those relationships kind of build or rebuild, right? Like we saw the dynamic between the mom coming back, right? We saw the dynamic between Stephanie and her brother. Like, we got to see a lot of these relationships kind of evolve, and it's really just surprising to think what they could do with so many characters for you to actually care about so many different characters in this movie and not just one character in this movie. But I will say, man, it's just hard to find like a worst part in this movie. I would have loved to see, like, as much as I got to the lore behind the backstory of Tony Todd's character, and we got to see him, and he had his whole segment. Always want more Tony Todd, you know? We can just get a little bit more Tony Todd.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:36

I hear you. My worst part of the movie is something that took me out far earlier than that, and then Tony Todd tried his best to redeem, and I forget it, and I get it. Like I get and acknowledge that we have addressed this in the universe, but Iris reveals that she just got a cancer diagnosis, and then moments later says she hasn't stepped outside her door in 20 years. What the fuck? It feels a little difficult to get a cancer diagnosis if you're not leaving your house.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:02

And I know that Bloodworth lay WebMD.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:07

Bloodworth later reveals that he did his best to provide her the best quality or level of medical care that he could in her state and in her condition in her circumstance. So I'm imagining some kind of at-home care or you know, mailing kits. Who knows? I don't know the logistics of medicine, but also I just know that in that moment, when she said I haven't left my house in 20 years, and I'm like, wait, you just had got diagnosed with cancer. What do you mean? It took me out.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:33

So now that you say that, now that you say that, oh fuck, here I am with another nitpicky thing. Because I was about to say the worst part is that there really wasn't one, and now also, Sean, but like, fuck, now I'm thinking, all right, so you create this whole fortress for Iris, she doesn't leave her house for that long, you help her with medical care to get that diagnosis remotely, I suppose, etc. But you, JB, you've been out and about, or are you living in this morgue in the bottom of the hospital? Like he's safe as long as she's safe.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:07

I think she dies, but technically, based off of that timeline, she dies last.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:13

No, she dies before him because he's falling and he's a little bit further back than her.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:18

Oh, no, no, no. I know that. I know that. But I'm saying, like, when Stephanie displays the the timeline based off of the book that she has, once to assume that the book would include JB there, that's how she knows JB, like who is this person, etc., right? The book would tell her that JB is after Iris, but when it's on display, I could have sworn that she made it seem like Iris was last. Well, I think it's because Iris And then everyone obviously family underneath Iris, yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:46

My my understanding of that was that Iris is counting down until Iris is in trouble, and then JB knows that when Iris goes, well, fuck. I see. Okay. Alright. I'll allow it. I'm just saying. She's not doing the book. I mean, she was keeping JB safe, right? Through all this. Like her family and then him. Right, right, right. Right. But we don't have to do the math past Iris because we know the math past Iris. We know it's Iris, her descendants, and then JB.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:14

I wonder why she even like I wonder when she figured out this whole bloodline piece, because if you figure that portion of it out, why even have kids? You know what I mean? Like, why even go down that path of having to protect this whole bloodline?

SPEAKER_02 1:22:29

Well, to Howard and Darlene, it seemed like Well, she was already pregnant.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:33

Yeah, she was already pregnant, so we have that.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:35

But to Howard and Darlene, it sounded as though she didn't really lose it until Paul died unexpectedly after the both of the kids were born.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:45

Yeah, gotcha. And also, man, thinking of like 20 years of living inside of the same house, not going anywhere, and constantly having to be on the lookout for these little things that are happening. Like, even in those segments that we saw when Stephanie goes to the house and like she's just like catching like the whatever the magnifying glass type looking thing that she had to like kick out of the way because the sun was hitting it in the perfect way. Like, just to think that you just 20 years of just constantly looking for little things like that. Yeah. What a life.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:18

But we did see Alex Browning do this in the first final destination.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:21

Yeah, true.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:22

Now I need a greatest hits of horror where it's just tough old women hold up somewhere in a fortress against their antagonist.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:33

Women can do it all, you know? Women can do it all. But all right, fine. So that won't be my worst part because you gave me a good explanation, and all right, we'll cover that potential loophole. It wasn't one. That's fine. So then I'll go back to what I originally was gonna say, which is ultimately I think that the worst part may be that it's over. Question mark? The franchise is over, question mark? Is it question mark? Question mark. I don't know, I don't know, but I I also feel like God, I'm torn, right? Because I feel like I'm famous for being like, no more movies of this, no more. I can't take any more, but this is like my favorite, you know? So I kind of I want more, but then I'm afraid, what if they fuck up?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:16

Yeah. You want more like this, you want more to recapture and rekindle the magic of a franchise you didn't know could be this good. Now you're seeing how the other half has been living, and the other half is the potential in their brains because the fans are making this shit come to life. But here's the thing I fully believe this movie would serve as the perfect bookend and the conclusion to Final Destination. But the fact that she pricks her finger and then all that shit happens, and we know bitches up pricking a finger before premonition, and we didn't see her snap out of that premonition, they wrote themselves a fucking back door here.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:57

That's true. It's open-ended.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:59

I think we know it started with a nightmare and ended with a premonition. Because this would be then her first premonition, her first real one. The rest of them were just like little clues that she was putting together.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:09

That's true. That's true. You're right, you're right. But then let's hope it's the same directors at the very least, because they've got my trust now, and I hope that they don't, you know, lose it. And so much so that because I was afraid that this might be over, question mark, I'm going to go see it on Sunday again. And I'm going with my old boss, a good friend of mine, Stephanie. Funny enough. She's the one that I did my marathon with all the final destinations. We got up early in the morning, we watched all of them in a row. So I'm really excited to go see that with her on Sunday and get her perspective for sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:41

Yeah, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to make it back to a theater showing, but I definitely think this one is going to be one that I watch. I don't know if I can make it through full franchise binges. I will probably try to do a full franchise binge leading into this one at some point, but man, this one just seems like a really fun one to revisit when it becomes available for streaming.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:05

Yeah, I cannot wait to re-watch this. I want to try to get it in theaters one more time. We'll see if I'm able to. I don't want to just revisit the kills or track the foreshadowing, but I want to take in all the omens and tiny details that I know I missed. I know there's gotta be some other shit baked in here that totally just flew right by me. And I know it's gonna be a franchise staple in the Rojas household, which is just me and my dog and my cat. But for now, there you have it, folks. Final Destination Bloodlines from 2025 has earned a universal slash and a powerful one at that. Now we certainly had a robust discussion here, but the conversation doesn't end here by any means.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:47

If you want to find out how deep our hacker slash bloodline runs and go further than this episode, consider supporting the show by visiting patreon.com slash hacker slash. This is where you can enjoy even more of the show, including bonus content with early access, extended episodes with our B-sides, movie nominations, and live shows.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:05

And if you loved Escaping Death with Us one more time, leave us a five star review wherever you get your podcasts. This helps us to continue to deliver great content for all you horror fiends out there.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:15

We'll see you next time, folks, and remember seeing is believing.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:20

And when the universe speaks, you pay attention.