2025 Final Destination: Bloodlines

• Directed by: Zach Lipovsky, Adam B. Stein
• Written by: Guy Busick, Lori Evans Taylor, Jon Watts
• Stars: Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Rya Kihlstedt
• Run Time: 1 Hour, 50 Minutes
• Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWMzKXsY9A4

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This one starts out with an amazing disaster scene, which of course is prevented because it was actually just a vision by the main participant – a familiar formula. But then we get to find out how that connects to all the movies so far and the events of this one. It’s more of the same as death takes people in strange ways, and Tony Todd has a nice wrap up in this one in his final film role. It’s decent all around, and if you’ve seen and enjoyed the other movies in the series you ought to enjoy this one too.

Spoilery Synopsis

A man and a woman in a blindfold drive to her “surprise, and it’s the 1960s. The stop at “The Skyview,” a Space Needle-like building that’s just opening. As they walk in, the camera focuses on random stuff, as they always do in these films. They board an overcrowded elevator that doesn’t close properly. There are red flags everywhere as the door cracks open hundreds of feet above the ground. 

They arrive at the top safely, and it’s very nice. And scary. She doesn’t like heights, and it’s not so much fun after all. She can’t stop looking at the dance floor’s glass bottom. A stranger talks to her about being pregnant. Iris’s boyfriend takes her up to the observation deck and proposes to her.  A kid throws a penny off the tower, which gets sucked into an air vent and jams a fan. 

In the dance room, they do “Shout,” and the place gets hopping and rocking. It’s almost too obvious what’s going to happen. The floor shatters, and everyone falls to their deaths. But that’s not all, there’s a gas leak that explodes and kills the ones who didn’t fall. It’s full-on panic, the elevator goes back, and even the stairway is a deathtrap. The whole tower starts to fall over, turning the room sideways. Everyone dies–

Stefani Reyes wakes up from her nightmare in the middle of math class, in modern times. She’s had this dream over and over. Stefani’s grandmother was named Iris, but she’s never even met her. Stefani goes home to her father’s house to find out more about her mysterious grandma. Her father would just as soon Iris’s name never come up again. 

Stefani and her brother Charlie go to visit their cousins and Aunt Brenda and Uncle Howard. She wants to talk to Howard about his mother, Iris. When Stefani mentions The Skyview, they all clam up. “Iris Campbell is a deeply disturbed woman.” The old woman got so Death-obsessed that they took her children away. Aunt Brenda is more sympathetic and gives her an address. 

Stefani drives way out to the country to find old Iris, who lives in a gated fortress. The compound is very post-apocalyptic-looking, and the inside of the house is weird as well. 

Stefani tells Iris about the dream. Iris says that was her premonition years ago. We flash back to what really happened. Iris ran through the restaurant and told everyone what was going to happen. Everyone lived! Eventually, they tore down the building; she stopped the disaster. 

Death, on the other hand, doesn’t like to be cheated. He came back and killed everyone who cheated him that day. Iris is the only one alive; she’s also clearly crazy, and Stefani picks up on that easily enough. “Death is coming for our family!” The family shouldn’t even exist since she was meant to die at the tower. Stefani leaves in a hurry, but Iris gives her a book of notes and crazy stuff. To prove it, Iris dies gruesomely right in front of Stefani. 

Fast-forwarding to the funeral, the whole family, including Stefani’s estranged mother, Darlene, shows up. Afterward, there’s a family barbecue. We see a glass break and get mixed in with the ice. Stefani reads Iri’s book and sees notes about the previous films, and the camera starts showing all the ways to die at the picnic. Which danger is gonna hit first? A sequence of coincidences leads to Howard’s face getting chewed off by a lawnmower. 

After the next funeral, Stefani sets up her crazy wall, which is also the family tree, extending to all the “survivors” of the tower disaster. She explains the whole thing to the entire family, since Iris had children that she never should have had, they’re all at risk. “We were never supposed to exist!” Erik, Julia, Bobby, Darlene, Stefani, and Charlie are all going to die, in that order. The family is skeptical at best. 

Erik is a tattooist who has to work late. He decides to give himself a new tattoo for his recently deceased father. A ceiling fan and a nose ring lead to his comical demise. 

No, in the morning, Erik is just fine. Stefani and Charlie find him and say he should be dead. He jokes that he’s indestructible. For some reason, Death skips Erik and kills Julia with a garbage truck. After that, the family is more open to Stefani’s story. Brenda admits that Erik wasn’t Howard’s biological son; he was an affair baby, so he’s safe from the curse. 

Bobby’s next, and they all get a warning about his peanut allergy. The whole gang gets in Darlene’s RV to talk to someone mentioned in Irir’s book. Stefani and Darlene talk about the family. 

The group arrives at the morgue of a big hospital, and they meet JB Bludworth. He already knows the whole story. He was the little boy who was the last to die in the original premonition disaster. He explains the rules, even the part about killing someone else to take their years. Also, dying and coming back will break the chain. He’s going to retire now and enjoy the time he has left. 

Erik and Bobby sneak off to the hospital. They plan on killing Bobby and then, with all the doctors there, bring him back. It’s time to feed Bobby some peanuts. Bobby sneaks into the MRI room to eat the nuts, and the machine activates and dials up to eleven. It pulls out all Erik’s piercings, one by one and then he’s sucked into the machine and broken in half. Bobby, on the other hand, gets screwed. 

Stefani, Charlie, and Darlene decided to go back to Iris’s cabin; the old woman had lived there for decades. The group arrives at Iris’s, but Death tries hard to kill them on the way. When they get there, the house explodes, sending each of the three to a near-death experience. Darlene’s turns out to be a little nearer than the others. 

Stefani is trapped underwater in the explosion and drowns as Charlie battles to release her. He brings her up and resuscitates her, which might break the chain. 

Stefani and Charlie go home to their father, who wasn’t included in the curse, and it’s time for Charlie’s graduation. We also see that the evil penny from the opening is on the loose again. On the other hand, maybe Stefani wasn’t really dead when Charlie saved her. They do not survive. 

Brian’s Commentary

This was Tony Todd’s final film, and he was noticeably thin and frail here. This is also essentially his origin story, so now we know how he’s been involved in all this over the years. 

It’s a much more involved plot than any of the previous films, with no real explanation as to why Iris was able to hold Death at bay for decades. 

The opening scene was amazing, but there was also a lot of obvious CGI. The rest of the film seemed a little tamer than the previous films, but maybe that’s just because we’ve seen all the other films so recently. 

It was good!

Kevin’s Commentary

It does lean heavily on the CGI, but it’s entertaining. The way they brought everything together was nicely done. Though the basic premise to the whole series is silly if you think about it too deeply. But I thought this was a nice wrap up to the series. No more please. Thank you.