- Directed by Steven Quale
- Written by Eric Heisserer, Jeffrey Reddick
- Stars Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Arlen Escarpeta
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI87-0g_SI8
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was another 3D production, which we saw in 2D, but clearly was being geared to make the most of the effect. It’s better than the 4th move and almost as good as the first three. And they introduced a couple extra goodies that were interesting. We liked it okay.
Spoilery Synopsis
Things come flying out of the screen at us at the credits roll, so this was obviously shot in 3D.
Sam is an overachiever, making a big, fancy breakfast for the whole sales team. They’re getting ready to leave for a team-building exercise. Peter jokes that he’s getting ready to fire Sam. Molly tells Sam that she’s breaking up with him. Peter’s banging Candice, the intern. Olivia comes to the business outing dressed like a slut. Isaac the nerd wants to get with Molly. Dennis, the boss, is straight out of “Glengarry Glen Ross,” a major A-hole. Nathan lets his underlings yell at him for going to the retreat. The whole group gets on the bus.
The bus passes a log truck. The sign mentions that the bridge is under construction. Sam looks out the window at the various death traps on the elevated bridge. Sam knows something is wrong as the bridge starts to crack apart, and everyone runs for it. Candace gets impaled on a sailboat. Isaac doesn’t make it out of the bus. Molly walks across a suspended beam, but Olivia can’t see because she lost her glasses and falls to her death. Nathan and Dennis get it next. Sam and Peter leap to safety as the rest of the bridge collapses. Peter gets multi-killed and Sam doesn’t fare any better.
Sam jerks awake on the bus and knows what’s going to happen. He yells to the others that the bridge is going to collapse and they’re all gonna die! Most of the named characters follow Sam to bring him back. When the bridge starts going haywire, they’re already off the bus and have a head start this time.
Later, Agent Block wants to know how Sam knew it was going to happen. Sam explains it was a vision, but Block thinks Sam might have been in on a terrorist plot. Still, he has to let Sam go. The bus people are known in the news as “The Lucky Eight.”
At the funeral, old coroner Bludworth is there. “Death doesn’t like to be cheated.”
Sam goes to see Molly; he works a second job as a chef and talks about moving to Paris.
Peter goes to see Candace, who’s in a gymnastics competition. She complains about the broken air conditioner, but it’s her turn. The camera zooms in on various mundane things, but we know that something’s going to happen. As she does her thing on the balance beam, water drips on a bad extension cord, the AC vibrates ridiculously, and we see a screw standing up on the balance bar. She narrowly avoids all those things and moves onto the uneven bars, where she breaks herself in half with a big splat.
Peter and Sam talk about what happened. Sam sees Bludworth loitering nearby. The next day, everyone’s at the office.
Isaac leaves early to go to the spa, and we know that’s gonna be bad. He’s a perv and makes that clear, so the receptionist hooks him up with a grouchy old woman for his massage. She gives him a really violent massage. Then she brings out the acupuncture needles– lots of them. She leaves, and then a fire suddenly starts. He rolls over and falls on all those needles before knocking over a huge bottle of alcohol. That doesn’t kill him, a huge stone Buddga crushes his head instead.
The group hears about the latest death and talks to Bludworth, who is the coroner. He tells them he’s seen this kind of thing before and tells them how these events work. He suggests that if they kill someone, then Death will be appeased, and they might survive.
Meanwhile, Olivia is at the eye doctor for a LASIK surgery. The doctor fixes her down on the table and clips her eyes open. The doctor goes out for her file, and we see more water and electricity mishaps in progress. The surgery machine goes into overload, and the laser goes berserk. That doesn’t kill her, but then she falls out the window to her death.
Agent Block is there now, investigating the pattern of all the deaths. Sam tells Block about their theory about Death coming for them. Sam tells Molly that Nathan ought to be next.
We cut to Nathan, watching the workers at the plant with his security system. We see that the plant isn’t up to OSHA standards. Roy, the troublemaker, gets what’s coming to him, but Nathan is OK. Was that a death trade, the way Bludworth explained it? Nathtan might be off the hook now. He got the time that Roy would have had left.
Peter tells Dennis, the boss, about what’s been going on. “It’s going to happen to us if we don’t do something about it.” Dennis calls Agent Block and tells him about Peter being unstable.
Peter talks to Nathan and the others. If Nathan is off the hook, then Dennis– nope, too late. He gets a very fast wrench through the head, out of the blue, as they speak.
Sam goes to his second job, working in the kitchen with the chefs, and it looks like a dangerous place as well. He’s afraid of the meat tenderizer and all the pointy, sharp things in the kitchen. He makes it through the night and accepts the job the chef offered him… in France. After hours, he talks to Molly in the restaurant when Peter knocks on the door.
Peter’s next on the death list, and he knows it. He knows that committing a murder will save his own life, and he decides to do it. He’s run into many easy opportunities, but he just couldn’t do it. He thinks it’s unfair that Molly is going to live and pulls a gun on her. Sam knocks him down, and they all play cat-and-mouse in the kitchen as Agent Block comes inside.
Peter shoots Block to death, so now it’s Sam’s turn. Now he has to kill Molly, who witnessed everything. Sam jumps in and attacks Peter in the more and more dangerous kitchen. The gun falls on the burner and starts heating up. Sam stabs Peter from behind; does he count since he was going to die anyway? The gun explodes harmlessly, so yes, that counts.
Sam and Molly get on the plane to France. We see the cast of the first film being dragged off the plane. That guy had a premonition that this plane was going to crash… It’s Flight 180 from 2000, and yes, they’re all gonna die!
The plane explodes, as we knew it would. We cut to Nathan at Roy’s wake. Nathan learns that Roy was going to die any time anyway from an aneurysm. Nathan didn’t get much time after all. A chunk of the plane falls on the building, killing him.
We then get a montage of all the deaths from all five films.
Brian’s Commentary
This one adds the idea that murder might be a way to cheat Death. It also adds a little twist at the end that makes this a prequel to the first film.
It was better than the previous film, on par with the first three. It was fine!
Kevin’s Commentary
I’d seen a spoiler ahead of time that it had a twist that it was actually a prequel, but I still thought that was a clever way to do things. Like Brian said, it’s back on track in line with the quality of the first three, maybe not quite as good, but better than the fourth. And the idea of offering another death in place of your upcoming one was interesting. I thought it was worth the watch.