Final Destination is a movie franchise about people who escape death, so Death tracks them down and offs them in complex, gruesome ways that would make Rube Goldberg proud. Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025), on HBO MAX, gets a score of 93% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and reviews of "a scary streaming hit with a surprising amount of heart." I'm looking for beefcake and gay characters, of course.
Scene 1: A blindfolded girl is apparently going to her Sweet Sixteen party with her father. She asks for a hint, but he will only say "You'll love it!" They end up at a fancy building, the Sky Tower, with a weird fountain outside. She is thrilled: "I didn't even know it was open yet!"
"I pulled some favors, and got us on the list for opening night." How are people in movies always pulling in favors. Who are they granting this big favors for?
Transistor radio playing Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" (1963). This is the mid-1960s.
First misdirection: "Dad" is made up to look much older than "Daughter," but actually they are only eight years apart: Paul (Max Lloyd Jones, age 34) and his girlfriend Iris (Brec Bassinger, age 26)
The Evil Penny-Dropping Kid (Noah Bromley, who deserves an Oscar for his smouldering malice) is nabbed for fishing coins out of the fountain, then pushes ahead of them to get on the elevator. It is overcrowded, but the Elevator Operator (Travis Turner) says that there's plenty of room. Don't believe it. I saw that Twilight Zone episode.
Uneasy, Iris agrees to squeeze in with Paul.
The dang floor is glass! Penny Dropping Kid starts jumping up and down to scare her more.
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And they make it to the Skyview Restaurant. Unfortunately, their reservation has been cancelled, so they sit at the bar, while we see the various set-ups for the deaths and destruction: people dancing on the glass floor, a pricked finger, a chef doing a flambé, a woman singing "I came tumbling down," and so on. Back story: Iris is pregnant, but hasn't told her boyfriend yet.
They walk up the stairs to the observation deck, where Paul decides to pop the question. But then the Penny-Dropping Kid drops the penny, starting a chain reaction that reveals the structural faults and will send the whole tower tumbling down.
Down on the main floor, as the singer sings "Shout!", they all jump up and down on the glass floor. It caves in, and people fall to the ground. Lol, the parking valets are playing "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head"!. Then the whole place catches on fire and explodes. The Elevator Operator tries to guide everyone down the stairs, but they crumble. He guides them onto the elevator, but it splats. The tower topples. Iris and a little boy are hanging on..,they fall and die!
Scene 2: Psych! It was just a dream. In the modern era, Stef awakes screaming during her university math lecture (in a giant lecture hall, like even the most advanced classes in movies). The Professor yells at her.
Later, in the dorm room, Stef has the same dream, and wakes up screaming. Her roommate yells at her for having the same dream every night and waking her up. The woman in her dream is named Iris -- her grandmother's name! She's dreaming about her grandma, who she never met. No wonder, she died before she could give birth to Stef's mother.
Scene 3: Stef is determined to track down her Grandma Iris and find out what the dream means. Back home, she greets her dad (Tipo Lee), who is happy to see her, and sibling Charlie, who is not. Dead end: Dad threw out all of Grandma's stuff after Mom abandoned them.
More after the break
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