| “ | "What? No, I'm not going to kill someone." | ” |
–Bobby to William Bludworth after hearing how to cheat Death. | ||
Bobby Campbell is a character in the film Final Destination Bloodlines. He is the third child of Howard and Brenda Campbell. He is also a grandson of Paul and Iris Campbell, the latter of whom was a visionary who prevented The Sky View collapse that would have occurred in 1969. Later, Erik Campbell is revealed to be the child of Jerry Fenbury and Brenda Campbell, as the product of an affair. Making him, biologically, the actual second child of Howard and Brenda Campbell.
Bobby was the fifth member of the Campbell bloodline to die.
Biography
Bobby was assumed to be the third and youngest child of Howard and Brenda Campbell, and the younger brother of Erik and Julia Campbell. He is also the cousin of Stefani and Charlie Reyes. His grandmother is Iris—the woman who had a premonition in 1969 that saved several lives and triggered the curse of Death targeting the Campbell bloodline. Later, Erik is revealed to be the product of an affair by Jerry and Brenda, making him, biologically, the second child of Howard and Brenda Campbell, and half-brother of Erik.
Personality
Bobby is well-mannered and deeply cares for his family's well-being. He loves his pet turtle, Paco, but has lost him on numerous occasions, making his family members agitated. He tries to get others involved in various activities as he wants them to have a good time. However, he is naïve and inattentive, being the first to believe Stefani's warnings about Death, causes various objects to break, and has low situational risk around dangerous machinery.
Final Destination Bloodlines
Bobby is trying to find his pet turtle, Paco, having lost him countless times before. As Erik plays Mortal Kombat 1, Bobby interrupts and badgers him into searching for his pet turtle, much to Erik's annoyance. Just then, Stefani and Charlie Reyes arrive, which surprises the two. Bobby hugs Stefani and asks her for help in searching for Paco. He also tells her to watch where she's stepping, hoping she doesn't accidentally crush the turtle. After Erik finishes his game, Bobby asks him if he has started searching, and he is then informed by Julia that Paco isn't anywhere upstairs, and he continues to search elsewhere.
Bobby listens as Stefani begs to know more about Iris
Later, Stefani asks Bobby's parents about their grandma, Iris, to which Howard says that Iris is a very disturbed woman. When Bobby, Erik, and Julia join them, Bobby follows behind Erik and sits on the kitchen counter. He silently eats grapes while listening to the conversation. Charlie finds Paco in the refrigerator and hands the turtle over to Bobby. He is relieved to find that Paco is safe, leaving the room. Afterwards, Stefani goes to find Iris, where she witnesses her die in a freak accident. Not long after, Bobby, along with his and Stefani's family, attends Iris' funeral. There, Bobby is uneasy after Erik asks Stefani an inconsiderate question, and he continues to converse with his siblings about the matter.
Bobby stacking glass cups
Afterwards, the entire family meets for a barbecue. Bobby, who is stacking glass cups, accidentally misplaces a cup, and it falls off and shatters, annoying Julia. He cleans the table but doesn't notice that one shard has fallen into the cooler. When Darlene arrives at the barbecue, she brings cookies, and after Charlie takes a bite, he asks if there's peanut butter in them, and she confirms. Bobby, concerned, moves away from the cookies, and Darlene remembers that he is allergic. Bobby waves it off and is told to prepare drinks. He scoops up ice and fills the glasses with water; one of the glasses holds the broken shard.
Howard gives a toast to the entire family, and they drink from their glasses. Later on, Bobby jumps on the trampoline and invites Charlie and Howard to join him. Stefani later arrives to see if everyone is alright, Howard gets off the trampoline, and Bobby accidentally tears a part of it open. The family is concerned, but Bobby informs them that he's okay. As they continue, a chain reaction causes Howard's face to be shredded by a lawnmower, and Bobby watches in horror as his dad is killed.
Bobby listening to Stefani's explanation
After Howard's funeral, Bobby and the rest of the family are gathered by Stefani, where they are informed of Death's design. Bobby looks through Iris' book and starts to understand Stefani's theory; however, Erik stops him from believing her. Stefani proceeds to tell the family about their place on Death's list. Bobby is told that he should be the fourth to die in Howard's bloodline. After hearing Stefani's explanation, the family is distraught and doesn't believe her. Tearful, Brenda starts to leave, and others follow suit. As Bobby leaves, Stefani asks him if he believes her, but solemnly tells her that he's sorry.
The next day, Julia is crushed by a garbage truck compactor, and the family gathers to mourn her. Stefani blames herself for getting the order wrong, but Brenda reveals that Stefani is not to blame, as she had an affair that conceived Erik, meaning he's not part of the Campbell bloodline and was never on Death's list. Erik leaves the room after finding out about his biological father, and Brenda follows after him. Bobby realizes that he is next in line to die and begs Stefani to help him. Stefani doesn't think she can, but gets supported by her family; however, Marty leaves in frustration.
Bobby comments on how the family is going to need counseling after recent events, but tells them to focus on the fact that they're all going to die soon. He reminds Stefani that she had informed them that there was a person who had previously survived Death's list. Looking through Iris' book, they find that a person named "JB" at Hope River Hospital knows the person who had survived. As they leave the house, Bobby is told to stay since they believe it is safer inside the home. Bobby tells them that he looked through the book and found that there are various ways to die inside a house. He informs them that he isn't staying and comes with them. Before leaving, Erik comes out of the house and reminds Darlene to get rid of the peanut butter. Bobby thanks him for being a good brother, but is promptly nut-punched and limps into the RV.
Bobby and Erik at the morgue
Arriving at the hospital, Bobby is reassured by Erik after he goes through the revolving doors, the family makes it to the morgue, and meets "JB". He reveals himself to be William Bludworth and informs the family about his connection to Iris, being a fellow survivor who escaped The Sky View. The family asks Bludworth how they are able to get off of Death's list. He informs them that the only way is to either kill someone and take their remaining life span, or successfully resuscitate a person on the list, which a previous survivor has done before.
Soon after, William leaves, and the family is distraught. Erik suggests killing and resuscitating Bobby to get the entire family off of Death's list; however, they are against the idea. Bobby asks Stefani if there's any other way, and she tells him that it's over. Bobby is pulled aside by Erik and is told that Stefani has given up on him, but he's not going to.
Death
Afterwards, the two leave, and Erik hatches a plan to resuscitate Bobby, then send him to the ER. Bobby is skeptical of the idea, and Erik suggests that Bobby kill someone to take their life. Erik immediately turns it down as they have no way of knowing how much time that person has left. Right next to them, they see a NICU station through a window. Erik considers it, but Bobby instantly turns him down. Right after, Bobby is told by Erik that he has a plan and that it's a "little nuts."
Bobby rocks the vending machine
They head to a vending machine, and Bobby is informed that Erik will use his deadly nut allergy to kill and resuscitate him. Erik picks a flavor, but Bobby stops and tells him that if he's dying, then it's not going to be from eating an unsalted snack. Bobby picks another type that is salted, and Erik tells him that it's a good choice. However, the machine malfunctions, and the snack gets stuck. Erik is frustrated and begins to rock the machine. Bobby is asked to help and reluctantly rocks the machine, which makes a spring come loose. Now having the snack, they head into a scan room where Erik leaves Bobby to find a wheelchair.
After he exits, a clipboard in the control room falls onto a computer key that activates the MRI machine. Bobby notices the machine's lights turn on, though he does not do anything more than look. When Erik returns with the wheelchair, he informs Bobby about his plan to use the new life method that William mentioned. He tells him to eat the peanut snack and sit in the wheelchair so that he can stop breathing and be rushed to the nearest doctor. Unbeknownst to them both, the Tesla power of the machine's magnet has been slowly increasing to a dangerously powerful level. Before Bobby eats the snack, he makes Erik promise him that if he dies, then he'll take care of Paco. Erik reassures Bobby that he'll live and save their family from Death. Bobby then proceeds to eat the snack.
For a moment, nothing happens, and Bobby thinks he has outgrown his allergy, which frustrates Erik; suddenly, Bobby suffers the allergic reaction, which closes his throat and starts to suffocate him. Bobby gets scared and tries to get the EpiPen from Erik, but he fails and collapses next to the door. Just then, Erik gets a call from Stefani, but before he can answer, the MRI pulls Erik's phone towards the override button, which unlocks the safety measure and allows the MRI's magnetic pull to grow stronger. Erik notices his piercings getting pulled and screams as each one is forcefully ripped from his body.
Bobby is hit by the loose spring
After the magnet exceeds 5 teslas, the wheelchair behind Erik pushes him towards the MRI and forces him inside, slowly killing him. Bobby, seeing that Erik is dead, crawls to retrieve the EpiPen from Erik's dead body and successfully saves himself from dying. However, in that moment, a doctor opens the door. Bobby stands up and almost gets hit by multiple metal objects. The doctor asks if he's okay, and he reassures her, only for the loose spring from the vending machine to break through the glass, hitting and drilling itself into Bobby's forehead and ultimately killing him. His family arrives, but it's too late; he collapses to the ground as they watch in horror.
Signs/Clues
- In Erik's first scene, he is playing Mortal Kombat 1 as Kitana and is shown performing her X-ray, which passes through his opponent's skull with a blow. This ironically foreshadows how, because of Erik, the spring of the vending machine kills Bobby.
- His turtle is named “Paco.” Rearranging its letters yields “Capo,” which means “head” in Italian. The turtle often goes missing, subtly foreshadowing that it will eventually “lose” its head.
- There’s also a scene where he finds Paco inside the fridge, which reinforces the symbolic link between “head” and the machine, a similar machine whose spring later snaps and kills him instantly.
- When Bobby is placing cups on the shelf, the objects around him are shaped in a spiral-like pattern. For example, the cups have a ring pattern engraved in them, and the seashell decoration forms a spiral. This represents the coil that kills him later on.
- Before Howard’s death, Bobby is jumping on a trampoline, which has springs. He later dies from being impaled by one.
- At the barbecue, Bobby wears a shirt with a bunny jumping on a pogo stick, which represents the vending machine spring.
- Darlene brings a serving of cookies to the family barbecue, to which Charlie takes one and asks if it contains peanut butter. It is revealed that Bobby has a peanut allergy.
- His allergy is mentioned again before the family goes to the hospital, when Erik asks Darlene where the peanut butter is located in the van.
- During Stefani's conversation, Bobby is seen wearing a hoodie that says "Level Up", foreshadowing that the MRI machine would level up its magnetic power, which would be used to kill both him and his older brother.
- There are two neon signs in the tattoo parlor where Erik works, foreshadowing Bobby's death: a magnet and a lightning bolt with a coiled snake going through it. The lightning bolt and magnet together represent the electromagnetic pull that the MRI machine caused, while the coiled snake itself represents the vending machine spring that goes through Bobby's head.
- When Bobby and Erik look at the snacks inside the vending machine, Bobby's reflection shows a spring right on his head.
- Before Erik slams and tries to tilt the vending machine to get the pack of peanut butter cups unstuck, a sign can be seen saying, "Never rock or tilt. Machine can fall over and cause serious injuries or death".
- As Erik tilts the vending machine to knock loose the packet of peanut butter cup, Bobby stands in front of it just as the spring holding the selected item is launched straight at his head, only to be blocked by the glass.
- When Erik hits the glass and cracks it, it is reminiscent of Iris Campbell's premonition in The Sky View, where the glass floor shatters.
- Erik alludes to how his plan to kill and revive Bobby would be "a little nuts".
- When visiting William in the hospital, he mentions the names (except Erik) of the family, but he does not mention Bobby's name, hinting that he is next on Death's list.
- Before they head to the hospital, Erik decides to join them along for the ride, saying, "Someone's got to protect ya" to Bobby. This would be ironic as Erik ultimately causes Bobby's death later on.
Trivia
- Bobby and Erik's deaths have been inspired by some of the MRI deaths that happened in real life. One example is in July 2001, when the MRI's magnet pulled in an oxygen tank and struck a 6-year-old boy in the head during an MRI scan, from which the boy later died. (This real-life MRI death is mentioned by the shorts YouTuber Zack D. Films, coincidentally in response to the film's release)
- Actor Owen Patrick Joyner is allergic to nuts, except for peanuts, unlike the character he portrays.
- Erik is the reason Bobby got killed by the spring, as he cracked the glass a bit while raging that the snack got stuck. Meaning if Erik wasn't there, Bobby wouldn't have died in the hospital or would have died in a completely different way.
- Bobby is one of the three main characters targeted by Death in the movie franchise who owned a pet while alive. The other two are Clear Rivers and Janet Cunningham. While his pet, Paco, was shown to be under the care of the Reyes after his death, it is unknown what happened to the other two's pet dogs.
- Bobby is the fourth main character on Death's List who has died within a hospital in the films. The first two being Clear and Eugene Dix from Final Destination 2, and Jonathan Groves from The Final Destination.
Appearances
- Final Destination Bloodlines (portrayed by Owen Patrick Joyner)