“	For every beginning, there is an end.	”
–Final Destination 2 Tagline

Final Destination 2 is the second installment theatrically and the third installment chronologically of the Final Destination series released in 2003.

Despite a lukewarm initial critical reception, it has since gained recognition as one of the more critically acclaimed films of the franchise. The tagline was "You can't cheat Death twice".

Plot

In May 2000, one year after the explosion of Flight 180, Kimberly Corman is going on a vacation to Daytona Beach for spring break with her three friends, Shaina, Dano and Frankie. While waiting on the entrance ramp to Route 23, she has a horrifying vision of a deadly pile-up, caused by a truck carrying logs. She stalls her car to block the road and prevents 7 of the intended victims from entering on the highway. Officer Thomas Burke comes and asks Kimberly to get out of the car due to her erratic behavior. As the people being blocked get out of their cars to complain, the pile-up occurs. An 18-wheeler truck drives into Kimberly's SUV, just as vision predicted, killing her friends and annihilates them, but Thomas manages to save Kimberly from being killed when he pulls her out of the way at the last second as Kimberly cries over the blasted highway.

Back at the police station when Officer Burke is talking to the survivors, Kimberly mentions the curse of Flight 180, which Eugene Dix tells the group about. The other survivors of the pile up don't believe it and they all leave. Later that day, lottery winner and pile up survivor Evan Lewis dies after being impaled by the fire escape ladder on his building after an attempt to escape from an apartment fire. Kimberly seeks help from the last remaining survivor who got off Flight 180, Clear Rivers.

Clear refuses to help Kimberly, saying that if Kimberly was smart she would forget about the others and save herself. Before Kimberly leaves, Clear tells her that noticing death's signs can mean the difference between life and death. Kimberly then realizes that the next to die is Tim Carpenter, and pigeons will cause his death. They arrive at the scene, but are too late when Tim chases some pigeons, which causes a construction worker to drop a glass panel that obliterates the body of Tim and crushes him. Once this happens after Tim's loss, Kimberly and Thomas call a meeting with the rest of the survivors.

Clear eventually decides to help Kimberly and meets her shortly after Tim's death. They go off to see William Bludworth who informs them that "only new life can defeat death", giving them a quest to find Isabella Hudson, a survivor of the pile-up who is pregnant. Kimberly, Clear and Thomas then go to Thomas's apartment for the survivors meeting. The grieving Nora Carpenter leaves the meeting before it is over. Eugene Dix leaves shortly after, saying he doesn't believe any of their stories about cheating death.

Once they have left Rory Peters sees a shadow that looks like a man with hooks. As Nora enters the elevator to prepare for her son's funeral, she gets her hair caught in hooks carried by a man standing behind her, but when she was attempted to leave the elevator, Nora gets her head caught in the malfunctioning doors. Eugene, Kat Jennings, Clear, and the man try to save her, but she is decapitated and claimed by Death. This causes Eugene and Kat to believe Clear's stories.

On the way to the hospital to find Isabella as she has gone into labor, Eugene, Kat, Rory, Thomas and Kimberly all mention how they have already avoided death once due to each of their actions having been influenced by the late deaths of the Flight 180 survivors, which in turn caused them all to accidentally miss their own fated deaths.

Hearing this, Clear finally connects the puzzle pieces and realizes why Death is coming for the Route 23 survivors in reverse, as their own list is the direct consequence of the Flight 180 survivors being alive after their time was up and thus their own list was inverted to reflect that, meaning that Death plans to kill Clear and the remaining Route 23 survivors to finally seal the rift created by Alex Browning.

There is suddenly a van coming up quick, Kat swerves and so does the van (which has Isabella in it), Kat's car swerves off the road a log impales the car trapping Kat, the car spins backward and a large sharp pipe narrowly misses Kat's head.

Eugene has his lung punctured, and is rushed to the hospital.

It's at this point where Rory saves Brian Gibbons from being hit by a news van traveling at high speed. When the news van stops it puts a hole in its petrol tank, causing the petrol to run down a pipe past Kat's car. Fire men work on getting Kat out of the car, but when a fireman attempts to remove the log with the jaws of life, but suddenly, the airbag deploys accidentally and forces Kat's head into the large sharp pipe, instantly impaling her.

The cigarette Kat was holding drops out of her dead hand and it blows into the pipe where the petrol spilled, igniting the petrol and causing the news van to explode. The explosion sends a barbed wire that was attached to a nearby fence at Rory, cutting him into three parts and severing his left arm. Moments after Kat's and Rory's deaths, Thomas, Kimberly and Clear all go to the hospital, where Isabella's baby is born. They think they have defeated death, but Kimberly has another vision, and realizes Isabella was never supposed to die in the pile-up.

Clear then runs to find Eugene, and finds him in a hospital room. She opens the door, which pulls the plug out of an outlet, causing a spark, and an explosion, which expands through the hallway, killing Clear to the last since deaths of Flight 180 survivors after from Tod to Alex, and also Eugene, Kimberly turns around to see the dead corpses of Clear and Eugene. Working off an earlier vision, Kimberly believes that she is the "New Life", gets in a van and drives it into a lake.

She drowns in the lake but is resuscitated and recovered by Doctor Ellen Kalarjian, thus making her cheat death and skipping Burke as she is the last in line. Making her and Thomas the only survivors of death's design. Sometime later, they are invited to the Gibbons' house for dinner, and they talk about how they are finally returning back to normal life. This is when Mr. Gibbons mentions how Brian was saved by Rory. Kimberly, and Burke look at each other, before the BBQ grill with Brian in front of it explodes, entirely obliterating him and his arm lands on Ms. Gibbons plate as she screams in horror.

Deaths

Premonition Deaths

• Thomas Burke - hit and decapitated by a log through his windshield
• Eugene Dix - crushed by a motorbike
• Rory Peters - incinerated when his car exploded upon contact with Truck from Hell
• Kat Jennings - neck snapped in her car rollover
• Nora & Tim Carpenter - incinerated in a car explosion
• Evan Lewis - burned alive and then splattered by the Truck from Hell
• Kimberly Corman, Shaina, Frankie and Dano - hit by the Truck from Hell
• Other 15 Route 23 victims - died either by a car explosion or a car crash

Deaths

• 18 Route 23 victims (including Shaina, Frankie and Dano) - died either by a car explosion or a car crash
• Evan Lewis - impaled through the eye by a fire escape ladder
• Alex Browning - hit in the head by a falling brick (off-screen)
• Tim Carpenter - crushed by a giant thick glass pane
• Nora Carpenter - decapitated by an elevator
• Kat Jennings - impaled through head by a pipe
• Rory Peters - trisected by flying barb wire
• Clear Rivers & Eugene Dix - incinerated in lakeview hospital explosion
• Brian Gibbons - blown up by grill

Cast

Clear Rivers	Ali Larter
Kimberly Corman	A.J. Cook
Thomas Burke	Michael Landes
Evan Lewis	David Paetkau
Tim Carpenter	James Kirk
Nora Carpenter	Lynda Boyd
Kat	Keegan Connor Tracy
Rory	Jonathan Cherry
Eugene Dix	T.C. Carson
Isabella Hudson	Justina Machado
Mr. Bludworth	Tony Todd
Shaina	Sarah Carter
Dano	Alejandro Rae
Frankie	Shaun Sipos
Mr. Corman	Andrew Airlie
Administrator	Christina Jastrzembska
Anesthesiologist	Eileen Pedde
Anchorwoman	Jill Krop
Anchorman	Marrett Green
Biker	Don Bell
Biker’s Girlfriend	Odessa Munroe
Brian Gibbons	Noel Fisher
Dental Receptionist	Benita Ha
Deputy Steve	Aaron Douglas
Detective Suby	Eric Keenleyside
Dr. Kalarjian	Enid-Raye Adams
Doctor Lees	Fred Henderson
ER Nurse	Veena Sood
Guest	David Purvis
Host	Marke Driesschen
Man in Elevator	Darcy Laurie
Man with Hooks	John R. Taylor
Mr. Gibbons	Alf Humphreys
Mrs. Gibbons	Chilton Crane
Nurse in Delivery Room	Sarah Hattingh
Obstetrician	Klodyne Rodney
On-Ramp Lady	Rheta Hutton
Paramedic at Farm	John Stewart
Paramedic at Hospital	Cam Cronin
Physician	Alison Matthews
Rescue Worker	Mark Lukyn
Skate Punk	Lorne Stewart
Young Woman	Jenny Lang

Soundtrack

Track Listing

Track Number	Track Name	Composer	Length	Media
1.	Main Title	Shirley Walker	3:46
2.	Highway to Hell		1:50
3.	Vision From Hell		0:36
4.	Road Block		1:13
5.	The Truck/Highway Catastrophe		1:28
6.	Kimberly's Interrogration		1:20
7.	Dad And Kimberly		0:44
8.	Evan's Apartment		0:42
9.	Stairway To Heaven		0:33
10.	Officer Burke's Investigation		1:27
11.	News Report		0:35
12.	Kimberly Goes To See Clear		1:49
13.	Clear's Cell		0:38
14.	Backwards		0:29
15.	Kimberly Leaves		0:38
16.	Pigeon Premonition/Clear Ponders		1:05
17.	Fish Tank		0:15
18.	Pigeons		2:52
19.	Tim's Painful Demise		0:56
20.	Clear's On Board/To Bludsworth		1:38
21.	Death's New Design		1:39
22.	Kimberly's Lake Premonition		2:05
23.	Killer Kayak		1:08
24.	Nora		0:39
25.	Rory's Closet Horror		0:34
26.	Nora's Turn		2:22
27.	Eugene Freaks		1:35
28.	Isabella In Protective Custody		0:22
29.	To The Hospital		0:21
30.	Coincidence/Kimberly Remembers Mom		2:24
31.	Blow Out		1:54
32.	Trail Of Gas		0:24
33.	Ba Bye Kat & Mustang/Rory Splits		1:16
34.	Kimberly Sees Dr. Kalarjan/New Life		2:41
35.	2 Left/Into The Lake		4:17
36.	We Did It		0:40

Soundtrack Listing

Song Name	Writer	Performer	Length	Link
Dance With Me	The Sounds		3:13
Highway to Hell	Malcolm Young, Angus Young, & Bon Scott	AC/DC	3:28
Rock 'n' Roll	The Sounds		3:54
John F. Hennessy	Ft & The Alchemist	Ft	4:13
Middle of Nowhere	Michael Foderaro & Nathan Leone	The Blank Theory	4:05
Vitamin	Brandon Boyd, Michael Einziger, Alex Katunich, Gavin Koppel, & Jose Pasillas	Incubus	3:12
I Got You	Jerred Shain, Wes Geer, Chad Benekos, Ben Vaught, Doug Boyce, & Mark Young	Hed P.E.	3:44
My Name is Death	Jude Christodal		4:02

Alternate Ending

The original movie was supposed to end with Kimberly and Officer Burke embracing in the hospital after Kimberly was revived, without Brian Gibbons dying.

Posters

There are 2 different posters, one featured the cast's face, and the other one is a cast poster.

The first poster featured 6 characters, from left to right: Kimberly, Eugene, Clear, Nora, Kat and Thomas. At the middle of the poster, right under Clear and Nora, there is a car with it's light flashing on a road. The car and its shadow makes it looks like a skull with its eyes flashing. There also a tagline at the top of the poster: "For every beginning there is an end". The movie's name "Final Destination 2" is under the cast, with all capital letters. This poster is mainly in black, except the cast's face are over white.

The second poster is a cast poster, which also featured 6 characters, from left to right: Eugene, Kimberly, Clear, Thomas, Rory and Kat. Nora from the first poster didn't appear in this poster, and Rory replaced her. There is a skull face at the top of the background, and there are lighting too. Several buildings are seen next to Eugene and Kat, and the cast are seen standing on a road. The movie's name "Final Destination 2" is at the middle of the poster, with all capital letters. There also a tagline under the movie name: "You can't cheat death twice." This poster is mainly in dark blue and black, but the cast are in their normal color.

Movie Goofs

• The time when the Route 23 pileup occurs changes three times throughout the film. Before Kimberly has her premonition, the time is 8:16 A.M. After Kimberly has her premonition, the time is 8:24 A.M. Later on in the film, when Kimberly, Thomas, and Clear look through Thomas's police car camera footage, the time is 9:12 A.M.
• The way the pileup occurs in real life in comparison to how it occurs in the premonition differs in multiple ways, such as location of the log truck and the timing of the arrival of Truck from Hell after the Route 23 pileup occurs.
• It is mathematical impossible for Alex and Clear to be 19 in the year 2000 as they were 17 in the year 1999, meaning their birthdays only passed by once before their deaths.
• During the phone call between Nora and Thomas, there are several logical mistakes. After answering the call, Nora asks "Hello, who is this?" Instead of letting her know that it's him, he starts to scream, asking if she can hear him even though she hasn't given any indication that she can't hear him. Somehow, Nora knows it's Thomas and tells him that she can't hear him. He then just tells her that "a man with hooks is going to kill her." Instead of asking for elaboration, she drops the phone.
• The plan they come up with makes the least sense as they are taking the entire group, including Kat, who is next on Death's list at this point in time, to the hospital with Kat also as the driver.
• While on route to the hospital, Clear tells the group that Flight 180 survivors "were her friends." However, in Final Destination, Clear is shown to have been friends with only Alex and Carter.
• Somehow, a plastic PVC pipe and barbed wire can bypass through bone.
• Somehow, nobody realized that it would break the Route 23 list if Isabella was killed as it was someone else's turn on Death's list. This would also show that Isabella wasn't on Death's list.
• In Clear's room at the StonyBrook Institution, there is a photo of her, Alex, Carter, Billy and Terry in a friend post, despite the fact that there was no existing photo of them together as in the first film, Clear, Alex and Carter became friends after Alex saved her from the electrical wires.
• US Highway 23 does not go through New York, instead going through Michigan.

Trivia

• The characters in this movie (except Shaina, Brian, Dano, Frankie, Evan, Tim and Nora), are somewhat involved or witnessed, the deaths of the characters in Final Destination.
  • The original script to Final Destination 2 revealed that Alex Browning and Clear Rivers both survived, and both decided to help Kimberly Corman save the survivors of the Route 23 pile-up. However, the idea was changed so that only Clear survived and Alex was written out and killed off in between movies. Had he been featured in the film, it would have been the first seen instance of two visionaries meeting.
    • The idea of two visionaries interacting was briefly touched upon in Final Destination 5 when Alex is shown shouting to Sam Lawton, who was standing just across the aisle from him as he was thrown off of Flight 180.
  • Kimberly Corman was originally supposed to die a year before the pile-up outside a mall, where some street thugs carjacked her mother's car. Her mother tried to fight them off but she wound up being shot dead. Kimberly, on the other hand, was too distracted watching the news about Tod Waggner's death when she should have been involved with the shooting.
  • Thomas Burke was originally supposed to die via a shootout, however he was called at the last minute to clean up the remains of Billy Hitchcock who was originally meant to die on Flight 180.
  • Kat Jennings was originally supposed to die via a gas leak at a hotel she was meant to stay at, however it was postponed due to the fact the bus she was traveling along hit a girl, which was Terry Chaney, a survivor of Flight 180 .
  • Eugene Dix was a teacher who was originally meant to be murdered by one of his students. However, he was called to replace another teacher, who just died. The teacher he replaced was Valerie Lewton, who survived Flight 180 and taught at Mt. Abraham High.
  • Rory Peters was originally meant to die at a play in Paris, France, when the theater at which the play took place collapsed. However he returned home after seeing a man being crushed by a sign. The man was Carter Horton who again, was a survivor of Flight 180.
• Final Destination 2's opening disaster is referenced in the opening credits of Final Destination 5 by logs crashing into the screen.
• This movie has the largest amount of explosions. There are five individual scenes in the movie with explosions. This is significant because the explosions in each scene are caused by forces independent of each other.
• When Kimberly blocks the off ramp she sees a road works sign reading 'Next 180 feet'. The car crash at the farm occurs next to the 180 marker (according to the cop reporting it). These are both references to Flight 180, the plane that crashed in FD1.
• In the morgue you can see William Bludworth wearing Evan's diamond studded Rolex. How he obtained the watch is unknown, unless no one took off his watch prior to the autopsy
• In the beginning, when Kimberly wakes up suddenly, listen carefully. You can hear Tony Todd's voice saying "Kimberly". Considering the conductor of Train 081 was also voiced by Tony Todd it is unknown whether this is the voice of William Bludworth or a supernatural force.
• At the beginning, in the scene in Kim's bedroom, the plane on her bed side table is the same one from Alex's bedroom in the first Final Destination.
• The actor playing the anchorwoman during the short scene showing a news broadcast is a real life news reporter for the Canadian Global television network in Vancouver, British Columbia. This is likely due to the fact that Final Destination 2 was filmed in Vancouver.
• It is a common misconception that Death only realized Isabella was never going to be in the crash when Kimberly did. She was never targeted at all. It is likely that Death just made it look like she was so that Kimberly and the others were off guard and easier to kill.
• The tagline "You can't cheat death twice" is rather nonsensical considering Clear Rivers has cheated death multiple times. For example, her death on Flight 180 and electrocution death in Final Destination were both intervened by Alex Browning. Her actual death is at least the third life threatening situation that she had been in. This could be justified by the ending of The Final Destination, Death always intended for her to die in the Hospital explosion. However, this proves the concept of "Cheating Death" completely moot.
• All of the main characters (with the exception of Kimberly) appear in the ending credits of Final Destination 5.
• This is the only film where the survivors manage to cheat Death completely as Kimberly drowned herself and was resuscitated, giving her new life, saving both herself and Thomas.
• When Kimberly tried to drown herself, Thomas was actually the next person in the list so death shouldn't have allowed Kimberly to intentionally kill herself. This means the flying trolley was only meant to kill Thomas, not her; If this is the case then after Thomas avoided the trolley, he was skipped, making Kimberly the next person in which death could now allow her to kill herself.
• This is one of the two films that after the time-skip, there are only 2 survivors instead of 3 like other films: Alex, Clear and Carter in FD1; Wendy, Kevin and Julie in FD3; Nick, Lori and Janet in FD4; and Sam, Molly and Nathan in FD5. The other is Final Destination Bloodlines, with Stefani and Charlie.

Reception

Critical response

The film received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reports 47% of critics gave the film positive write-ups based on 107 reviews, with an average rating of 5 out of 10. It's consensus is, "This sequel is a little more than an excuse to stage elaborate, gory scenes of characters getting killed off." While most praised it for its special effects and inventive death sequences, some dismissed it as being 'an average sequel to an average movie'. Nevertheless, this film has received the third highest score amongst the six films in the franchise on Rotten Tomatoes, behind Final Destination 5 (with a score of 61%) and Final Destination Bloodlines (with a score of 92%). On Metacritic, the movie scored an unfavorable 38 based on 25 reviews and the third highest rating of Final Destination series, right behind Final Destination Bloodlines with 73% and Final Destination 5 with 50%.

The film has landed on many "best car crash/accidents" lists including one by New York Magazine which cited the highway pile-up scene as the greatest car crash in movie history, calling it "the new gold standard for car-related chaos in cinema". Even acclaimed director Quentin Tarantino was quoted as saying that the opening scene was "a magnificent car action piece". The highway pile up was nominated for "Best Action Sequence" at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards.

Novelization

Main article: Final Destination 2 (novel)

Franchise
Final Destination movies
Final Destination | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Bloodlines
Final Destination novels
Dead Reckoning | Destination Zero | End of the Line | Dead Man's Hand | Looks Could Kill | Death of the Senses | Wipeout (unpublished) | Final Destination | Final Destination 2 | Final Destination 3
Final Destination comics
Sacrifice | Spring Break
People
Jeffrey Reddick | James Wong | Glen Morgan | Warren Zide | Craig Perry | Toby Emmerich | Shirley Walker | David R. Ellis | J. Mackye Gruber | Eric Bress | Brian Tyler | Steven Quale | Eric Heisserer | Tim Wynn | Zach Lipovsky | Adam B. Stein | Jon Watts | Lori Evans Taylor | Guy Busick
Distributors
New Line Cinema | Warner Brothers

Final Destination 2
Disaster(s)
Route 23
Survivors
Isabella Hudson | Isabella's baby | Kimberly Corman | Evan Lewis | Tim Carpenter | Nora Carpenter | Kat Jennings | Rory Peters | Eugene Dix | Thomas Burke | Dano | Shaina | Frankie | Biker | Biker’s Girlfriend
Casualties
Dano | Shaina | Frankie | 15 other people
Others
Michael Corman | Detective Suby | Nikki | Tawny | Mrs. Jennings | Physician | Clear Rivers | Jean | Dr. Lees | William Bludworth | Skate Punk | Marcus Hudson | Man in Elevator | Deputy Steve Adams | Mr. Carpenter | Man with Hooks | Frank | Mrs. Corman | Peter Gibbons | Mrs. Gibbons | Brian Gibbons | Mrs. Peters | Rescue Worker | Dr. Ellen Kalarjian | Trevor | Sheriff Mortimer Perry
Locations
White Plains, New York | Corman Household | Route 23 | Police Station | Evan's Apartment | Stonybrook Institution Psychiatric Treatment Center | Ellis Medical Complex | Bludworth Funeral Homes | Thomas's Apartment | Gibbons farm | Lakeview Hospital