Inevitability is the grim theme of the Final Destination franchise. Death is coming for the protagonists, which means everybody in the audience more or less knows how things are going to end. What we don't know is how, exactly, the doomed will meet their elaborate gruesome ends. This is why Final Destination 5's ending is one of the best things the horror series has ever done. It's a twist that weaponizes the audience's belief that they've seen this all before by revealing that the fifth movie in the series is actually a secret prequel. (Spoiler warning for the end of Final Destination 5.)
Released on August 12, 2011, a decade and a half ago today, Final Destination 5 begins much like the four Final Destinations before it. There's a horrific accident; in this case the collapse of a bridge that Sam (Nicholas D'Agosto) and his co-workers would've been on had he not gotten a vision of all their deaths. But, as Tony Todd explains to them, they're still marked for death. The various kills are all pretty good — especially the spine-cracking gymnastics kill on uneven bars, perhaps the greatest death in the entire series. It's good but familiar stuff.
