We’ll be exploring the 2000 supernatural horror film Final Destination’s Filming Locations. The film revolves around a group of students who avoid death by leaving a doomed plane after one of them had a premonition foreseeing its imminent destruction.
While it appeared as though they were now in the clear, this was far from true as death had been enraged that they cheated it, and as the story progressed, the entity used the environment surrounding its victims to bring an end to their lives, ultimately rectifying his initial design.
The basic idea behind Final Destination was that they wanted to explore it in a different way. Unlike traditional horror films where we see the villain, the antagonist in this film is practically invisible, only showing itself through shadows and the effect that it had on the objects. This ended up proving to be quite a challenge, but the filmmaker started coming up with visual and sound cues to denote the entity’s presence.
Final Destination Plot
The story begins by following a student named Alex Browning as he waits to board a flight with his classmates for their senior trip to Paris. Right before takeoff, the boy has a premonition that shows the plane explosion mid-air. As events from his vision begin to occur in real time, he panics, and a fight breaks out between him and another student named Carter.
While Carter appears to be the class bully as the film unfolds, we come to realize that his violent behavior was used to mask the fact that he was actually the one who most feared the prospect of death.
As a result of the altercation, both Alex and Carter, along with a number of students, are removed from the plane, including Billy, Alex’s best friend Todd, Carter’s girlfriend Terry, and their teacher Valerie. I think it’s also important to note that while the majority of the group was escorted out, another student named Claire actually believed Alex and voluntarily removed herself from the plane.
We also later found out that much like Alex’s premonition, she, too, received a weird feeling prior to the crash. There’s no real explanation given as to why both Alex and Claire had this ability, but as the film unfolded, we would see them using this to their advantage to try and anticipate the movements of death.
While another fight broke out in the foyer between Alex and Carter, the plane took off without them, only to explode right after takeoff, to the surprise of everyone except Alex and Claire. And since these groups of people cheated death, death started to come for everyone one by one.
Final Destination Filming Locations
The majority of movies in the Final Destination franchise have been shot in Canada’s British Columbia. The fifth movie, The Final Destination, was shot in New Orleans.
Since 1999, the Final Destination franchise has continuously chosen Vancouver and the greater surrounding area, including Campbell River, Victoria, Burnaby, and Ladner. Vancouver’s ability to qualify for numerous foreign locations, along with the added benefits of tax breaks and the favorable exchange rate between the US and Canadian dollars, has been a significant factor in the decision to shoot there.
Vancouver, Canada
As I said at the beginning of this Final Destination Filming Locations article, the movie started with the plane explosion scene. This plane explosion scene was shot at Vancouver International Airport, British Columbia, in Canada.
Then, the place where we see Tim die was shot at the Plaza of Nations in Vancouver. Plaza of Nations in Vancouver was also used as the filming location for shooting the scenes for the Ellis Medical Complex. The scene where we see Carter die was shot at 1600 Langley St, Victoria. This location was also used as the filming location for the scenes for Le Cafe Miro 81.
Then, the scene where Alex goes to Tod’s House to warn him about his death was shot at 1312 Balfour Avenue. 4688 Connaught Drive, Vancouver, was used for filming Alex’s House.
4840 Delta St, Delta, was used to film the scene for Terry’s Death and for the filming of Coffee Beanery. Scenes for McKinley High School where we see the memorial for all the students and the staff who died in the plane crash were shot at Vancouver College, in Vancouver.
