Headscratchers / Final Destination 5

As a Headscratchers subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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• Why do Sam and Molly die at the end of the film? Molly never died in Sam's premonition and Sam theoretically should have gotten Agent Block's remaining lifespan when he killed Peter. So unless Molly and Agent Block were always meant to die on Flight 180 from the very beginning, Molly and Sam dying on Flight 180 makes no sense.
  • This relies on some logic established in Final Destination 2. That movie posited that if a person marked by Death saves the life of someone who wasn't marked, that person becomes marked as well. So when Sam (marked) saved Molly (unmarked) from Peter, he added her to Death's list.
    • 1. That was never established anywhere. 2. Peter was never supposed to be alive to kill Molly in the first place.
    • Incorrect - Molly was supposed to have survived the bridge collapse and die in the kitchen - that was part of Death's design; Sam has the vision, everyone escapes; Death picks them off one by one, Peter goes crazy and kills Molly to "steal" her remaining days, which is always supposed to happen. But, unfortunately, Sam interferes and saves Molly and kills Peter, thus letting Molly "skip" her death in the kitchen and be "marked" to die - she ends up on Death's list. Cue plane explosion!
    • People can't put other people on Death's list or take them off. Only Death can do that. People CAN change the circumstances leading to another person's death, however. The ripple effect caused by the survivors of the North Bay Bridge collapse might have changed Death's design. And as part of Death's new design, it could decide to use Peter as its agent. But the only way Molly dying makes sense is if she was "marked" to die either on the day of the skirmish at the restaurant — or on Flight 180 — from the very beginning.
    • Not necessarily the case. 2 established that people surviving what was their pre-determined death messes up death's grand design. It can mess up when people are supposed to die (as seen with the cast of 2), because other deaths to happen to people that were not planned (the teacher that was killed in place of Eugene) and stall deaths that were supposed to happen (as seen with Brian). Peter trying to kill Molly would not add her to his list since he was never supposed to kill her, he was supposed to have died during the first event and she was destined to die on 180. It's why killing someone who isn't supposed to die works because you are trading spots basically. A person who should be dead but is alive is taking the place of a person who should be alive but is dead.
    • Yes necessarily the case. 2 established that if it isn't someone's time to die, death itself will intervene to save them (for instance: all the bullets in Thomas Burke's gun being duds when Eugene Dix tried to shoot himself, the branch almost falling on Thomas Burke causing him to jump to the ground and thus, moving him out of the way of the barbed wire fence that was intended for Rory Peters) and 4 backs this up (George Lanter spends all day trying to commit suicide but fails at every attempt because one of the survivors who was supposed to die before him is still alive). You mention the teacher that took Eugene's place and Brian. Following the above logic, if they weren't meant to die from the very beginning, something would have happened to move them out of the way. But since they did die, it can be assumed that if not for the survivors of Flight 180, they still would have died, but likely in a different manner. Peter killing Molly would give him her remaining lifespan, but him trying and failing to kill her would not put her on death's list because, as said before, only death can do that.
  • Simplest explanation? Nobody "put" Molly on Death's list. Pre-premonition, a bereaved Molly arranged a solo trip to Paris in tribute to her late boyfriend's dream of studying there, only to die on Flight 180.
    • Or maybe the bit of bridge that Molly was standing on was destined to collapse under her, too. The vision just neglected to show that part, because she'd have died after Sam.
  • The answer is, in fact, that everything of 5, 1 and 2 was all planned by Death from the get-go. Death has been playing the long con from day one! Not one of the survivors from 5, 1 or 2 were ever meant to have died prior to where they did - the premonitions were merely Death getting them to the right place in the right time. To wit - Sam and his friends were meant to escape the bridge and die in their pre-destined deaths so that Sam and Molly could get on to Flight 180, where they were always meant to die. For a moment, it looks like Death's plan is going wrong and the victims of 2 will survive... until you realise that Death gave Alex the vision to get that group off the plane so that they could die their pre-destined deaths which every character in 2 either witnesses or is affected by in some way so that they can escape earlier "unplanned" deaths and be in the pile-up - Kat survives because Terry is run over by a bus so she doesn't get to the B&B she was staying at that had a gas leak; Thomas survives because he had to clean up Billy's remains; Kimberly survives because she stopped to watch a news report on Todd's death and didn't die with her mother in a car theft/heist that her mother was shot in; Rory avoided the theatre that collapsed because he was so disgusted by Carter's death that he went home instead; Eugene avoided Death because Valerie Lewton died and he was transferred to a new school and avoided being stabbed, the fate of his replacement teacher at his old school, literally the day he was transferred... So, is that where the victims of 2 are meant to die - in the pile-up - you ask? Nope - once again, Death gives Kimberly the vision so she freaks out and they survive the pile-up so that they can die as planned throughout the events of 2. This also means that Brian, who was saved by Thomas saving him from being hit by a truck, was always on Death's list and just didn't know it - he was always meant to be saved, so that he could be blown up by the barbecue later. Yep, Death planned one big honking massacre for twenty four people who had no idea they were doomed from the moment they existed.
  • Molly was on Death's List, but she died after Sam did so he never saw it. The years Sam got from Agent Block bumped him to just after Molly died on the plane, because Death is a Jerkass Genie and because the spaces they took on the flight meant two other people were spared.
• So if killing someone means you get their years of life, does that mean that the guy who left the metal whatzit on the racecar from 4 should've survived the speedway disaster, and proceeded to live for centuries afterward? He's inadvertently responsible for dozens of deaths, after all.
  • No because all of the people who he indirectly killed were meant to die from the begining. If he hadn't done that they would have died in some other way.
• During the LASIK scene, the irresponsiblity of the doctor and the...MASSIVE misrepresentation of the surgery aside...who’s the wise guy who put a water cooler right next to a plug?
  • I've seen it happen. We mentioned it as a health and safety risk and got laughter in response.
  • It's electric so has to be plugged in somewhere.
• In the premonition that guy with the glasses exits the restroom in the rear end of the bus just before the bus plunges down from the bridge. While the bus is falling, the guy also falls down to the bus' windshield. Wait, shouldn't he have been pressed upwards, since the bus was free falling?
  • No, he shouldn't have been pressed at all, since he and the bus were falling at the same speed. He should've experienced weightlessness, then, as soon as the bus touched the water, he should've hit the windshield.
  • Possibly the original sequence would've been for him to fall onto the windshield when the bus was teetering on the brink, only the editing screwed up.