For 25 years, the Final Destination movies have terrorized generations of filmgoers into fearing ordinary everyday items. Nothing is safe: planes, cars, pools, movie theaters, amusement parks. As the franchise grows bigger and more sadistic in finding creative ways to kill people off. Below are All 6 Final Destination Movies Ranked.
#6 Final Destination 3D (2009)
By its fourth installment, the series had entered its most gimmicky era with 3D. Can’t blame them: that was the heyday of using 3D technology to boost a film’s credibility. On paper, it was a great idea. The film remains the highest-grossing installment in the franchise. But from the get-go, the whole thing felt so forced, right down to the “3D” in the title for its fourth movie.
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The film begins with a gruesome incident at a NASCAR-esque race where the premonition of one guy managed to save a few lives. But of course, it doesn’t take long for Death to stalk them to their eventual demise.
Looking back now, the deaths are staged more to utilize the 3D technology rather than display believable schemes like its predecessors. Though not without some thrilling ideas, most of the kills are designed to pop off CGI gore onto the 3D glasses. It does feel corny when watched at home with today’s much advanced eyes for CGI. Notably, the tone of the film starts to shift more toward black comedy from dark thriller from here on out.
Most memorable kill: Swimming pool suck-up
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#5 Final Destination 3 (2006)
The third installment in the franchise is memorable because of the insane rollercoaster accident that triggers a series of morbid deaths for its survivors. Nonetheless, despite the pretty creative kills, it was running thin on gimmicks. There is only so much you can do with the rules of how Death chooses its victims. The most interesting concept introduced here is the protagonists playing detective to guess the murder methods via photos taken on the day of the incident.
Most memorable kill: Tanning bed death
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#4 The Final Destination (2011)
The fifth installment of the film – also meant to be the final film originally – brought the films full circle, with a neat tie-in to the origin of the franchise. This time, a bunch of strangers get spared from a bridge collapse incident, only to later realize they’re on borrowed time from Death. As always, one by one, they’re being picked off by an invisible force wanting them dead.
All 6 Final Destination Movies Ranked
Embracing the dark comedy tone even more, the fifth film has a meta understanding of its appeal. It’s not as doom and gloom as before, choosing to dial up the camp factor for the pleasure of gore-hungry audiences. The result is insane death stagings, so convoluted, yet impressively choreographed.
Most memorable kill: LASIK death
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#3 Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025)
After 14 years, the itch to revive the franchise proves too great to ignore. But how to put a fresh spin on the tiresome formula? Throw in a family angle and widen the scope of Death’s design.
This time, Death is going after the entire offspring of people who should have died in a collapsed sky restaurant in the 1960s and therefore, never would have existed at all. As a result, this installment feels more personal than the others, which mostly consist of strangers bound together by the inciting incident. The bloodline aspect is well executed: there are plenty of touching moments between a family torn apart by the anxiety of death’s arrival, that they are so dysfunctional.
All 6 Final Destination Movies Ranked
Truth be told, the death scenarios here often veer too far from being plausible, when it has always been the point of the movie. The possibility that these gruesome deaths can occur anytime on a random day is pretty far off, not to mention CGI-ed to death.
Regardless, the series has always been good at establishing the rules of the game and then playing bait and switch with it throughout the film. It does not always align film to film, but thankfully, this is no Star Wars: it doesn’t need to be eternally canon so long as it works in the film itself. Like that, the film offers just about all you need from a Final Destination film: a bloody, entertaining, sadistic game.
Most memorable kill: Gruesome garden party
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#2 Final Destination (2000)
The one that started it all. The original was a proof of a great concept meets neat execution. A boy gets a premonition that the flight he’s in is about to crash. He and a bunch of passengers manage to get out before the horrific foreboding comes true. Soon, these survivors learn that death is coming back to claim their lives.
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All 6 Final Destination Movies Ranked
It’s essentially a spin on teen slasher movies, taken to the next level because there is no serial killer they can physically stop here. The supernatural element blends nicely with the elaborate kills that are not just splashing gore but rely on everyday anxiety like slipping on a bathtub, getting hit by a bus, or being crushed by a fallen sign. Yet, despite the dramatic death scenes, it has an easy-to-understand film rule: the survivors die in the order they were supposed to on the plane. Simple and suspenseful. The original definitely earns kudos for laying the groundwork for what it becomes, but there is one more title that managed to top the original.
Most memorable kill: Plane-splotion
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#1 Final Destination 2 (2003)
Surprisingly, the best Final Destination film is not the one that started it all. It’s the one that comes right after: Final Destination 2. Anyone with even any knowledge of this franchise would instantly remember the infamous log truck pile-up scene. And for a good reason. The sequence has it all: a genuinely terrifying build-up, practical effects, and a plausible scenario. Having laid the foundation in the first movie, Final Destination 2 gets to play with the premise without the burden of worldbuilding. The result is a relentlessly fun slasher thriving on one creative kill after another.
Most memorable kill: Logging truck pile-up
Honorary mention: Death by airbag
What do you think of our ranking? Sound off in the comments below!
