History Film / FinalDestination1

** First, while watching a news report about what led to Flight 180 exploding, he lines up the explosion's diagram with the seating chart of his class, which helps him not only figure out what Bludworth had meant by "Death's design", but also helps him figure out who’s next.
--->'''Alex:''' That's Tod's seat. The path of the explosion... They're dying in the order they would’ve died. ''That's'' Death's design!

* HeroAntagonist: The FBI agents, Weine and Schreck, surveill and arrest Alex, only letting him go for lack of evidence, but they also have ''very good'' reason to suspect him - he desperate to get off the flight that crashed, and admitted to knowing how it would happen. He's later assumed to be stalking Ms. Lewton, again based on him being outside her house and inspecting her car, and when she dies he gets his bloody footprints on the floor and fingerprints on the knife. Even after the plane crash is ruled an accident, it's hardly implausible for them to think he's had a mental break from seemingly cheating death and is convinced he has to "set things right". They're last seen trying to resuscitate him after he's electrocuted, and before that promised to take him into protective custody (though whether they were telling the truth is unclear).

** First, while watching a news report about what led to Flight 180 exploding, he lines up the explosion’s diagram with the seating chart of his class, which helps him not only figure out what Bludworth had meant by “Death’s design”, but also helps him figure out who’s next.
--->'''Alex:''' That’s Tod's seat. The path of the explosion... They’re dying in the order they would’ve died. ''That’s'' Death’s design!
** Then later, upon seeing a newspaper article about Christa and Blake, the two girls who asked him to trade seats with them on the plane, he has this mixed with an OhCrap as it makes him realize that he never traded seats with them like in his premonition, which means that he’s not the one who’s next on Death’s list... ''Clear'' is.

-->'''Alex:''' I never moved. Christa asked me to change, but I never moved. I would have been up next to Tod. Fuck! Why didn't I remember that? I never moved, Clear's seat was in front of mine. She's next.

** In this film, there's often a black shadow on a reflective surface seen when Death is coming for someone, sometimes accompanied by gusts of wind from nowhere. The first of these omens wasn't used in any of the sequels. This could be explained as Death ''learning.'' Alex and Clear were able to learn about him/it by looking for the signs, so it took away a visible sign as a back-up plan to slow everyone down.

* AngryBlackMan: The pilot on the flight 180, [[JustifiedTrope although he had a very good reason]].

** In the beginning of the movie Billy Hitchcock stares out the window at the plane him and the others were just kicked off of, the reflection of the plane's lights cross from one side of his face to the other marking the exact spot where [[spoiler:a jagged piece of metal hits him and decapitates him later on in the film.]]

* DarkerAndEdgier: For its time, this was the first horror movie to feature the horror movie symbolism death in the form of realistic accidents. It was realistic. But it's also not debatable that is probably the darkest and grim of all the movies altogether. No stylistic visions. Rather a [[spoiler: a creepy premonition of a plane explanation for Alex comes in the form of a horrible nightmare]]. And [[spoiler: when he tries to stop death, he has to figure it out with clues, and has no visions, and when he does try to stop Todd and Ms. Lewton's deaths it's too late.]] His guilt when he's unable to help others is hard to watch. It's even more sadder when you realize this came a year before 9/11, which could have been an inspiration for a "Final Destination" and many of the firefighters were Alex Brownings in a way. Suffering guilt from being unable to help others in the burning towers.

* DeathAsComedy: to some degree. The ending has [[spoiler:Carter get hit by a falling sign in a freak accident. Although the sequels were way more filled with comedy, even the first had this as a moment. The way he gets hurt was played off for comedy. It's because Carter kind of acts dismissive towards Alex about the death design thing, however it was more rough love than malice. Contrast to the more serious original ending of the movie where the survivors who weren't killed survive and Carter warms up to Alex and is appreciative. In the original version of the end, Alex dies saving Clear]]. Mind you it's still a frightening scene and not as comedic as the ending in the sequel but it's still kinda funny in a dark way. [[spoiler: Terry randomly getting struck by the bus was also pretty funny in a dark way]].

* OneDimensionalThinking:
** At one point, Alex Browning runs away from a falling tree in a straight line, which gets him stuck in a mud puddle that he eventually gets out of alive.
** Averted later when Alex jumps to the side away from a bus after Clear Rives alerts him.

* DeathAsComedy: to some degree. The ending has [[spoiler:Carter get hit by a falling sign in a freak accident. Although the sequels were way more filled with comedy, even the first had this as a moment. The way he gets hurt was played off for comedy. It's because Carter kind of acts dismissive towards Alex about the death design thing, however it was more rough love than malice. Contrast to the more serious original ending of the movie where the survivors who weren't killed survive and Carter warms up to Alex and is appreciative. In the original version of the end, Alex dies saving Clear]]. Mind you it's still a frightening scene and not as comedic as the ending in the sequel but it's still kinda funny in a dark way. [[spoiler: Tracey getting crushed by the bus was also pretty funny in a dark way]].

* TheLostLenore: Clear's father for her mother. She became a BrokenBird and ended up in a relationship with a man who didn't want to be saddled with a daughter - so she abandoned her. It's also implied that [[spoiler:Terri becomes this for Carter.]]

* InsaneTrollLogic: Almost everyone blames Alex for the plane crash based on how he predicted that it would happen. George and Tod’s parents and Mrs. Van Ms. Lewton are especially spiteful towards him, placing the blame entirely on him. Subverted by the FBI agents, who are well aware that he didn’t cause the crash and only blame him for the deaths when they find evidence.

* ClawingAtOwnThroat: A character gets a rope wound around their neck and is clawing at their throat to try to get it off.

* AccidentNotMurder: Alex is suspected of having (somehow) killed a couple of the people who were hunted down by Death. With Mrs Lewton, Alex [[BetterManhandleTheMurderWeapon grabs the knife that]] [[ContrivedCoincidence plunges into her chest]] and they think he killed her.

** Played Straight by Ms. Lewton, who blames Alex for the crash so she doesn’t have to deal with her own SurvivorsGuilt (she's the only one who actually caused a death of someone who would have survived - talking the pilot into letting Larry back on after the fight) and actually leads the FBI to suspect him out of pure spite. Thus, she gets the worst and most drawn out death in the whole franchise.

--->'''Alex:''' [[ExplainExplainOhCrap I never moved. Christa asked me to change, but I never moved. I would have been up next to Tod. Fuck! Why didn't I remember that? I never moved, Clear's seat was in front of mine. She's next.]]

* FamousLastWords:
** "I'm moving on, [[spoiler:Carter,]] and if you wanna waste your life beating the shit out of Alex every time you see him… you can just drop [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] dead!" -[[spoiler:Terry, seconds before she’s [[CarFu run down by a bus]].]]
** "You've gotta stop this. Stop this, it's a stupid mug. You're out of here. Pretty soon, you'll be gone. You'll be gone." -[[spoiler:Ms. Lewton]]
** "Oh, you will be. You're dead! You're dead! And you're not taking me with you!" -[[spoiler:Billy]]
** "So, who's next?" -[[spoiler:Carter]]

-->'''Bludworth:''' "But remember, the risk of cheating the plan, of disrespecting the design... could incite a fury that could terrorize even the Grim Reaper. ({{beat}}) And you don't even want to fuck with that Mack Daddy."

** First, when seeing a news report about what led to Flight 180 exploding, he lines up the explosion’s diagram with the seating chart of his class, which helps him not only figure out what Bludworth had meant by “Death’s design”, but also helps him figure out who’s next.

* FamousLastWords: “You can just drop [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] dead!” -[[spoiler:Terry to Carter, seconds before she’s [[CarFu run down by a bus]].]]

-->'''Alex: '''(to Clear) The mortician said that Death has a design, right? Now, what if you, me, Tod, Carter, Terry, Billy, Mrs. Lewton messed up that design for whatever reason; I-I saw Death's plan and we cheated it. But what if it was our time? What if we were not meant to get off that plane? What if it still is our time? If it is, then it's not finished and we will die, now, not later - unless,...unless we find the patterns and cheat it again.

* FocusGroupEnding: [[spoiler:The original ending featured a somewhat happy conclusion. Alex Browning sleeps with Clear Rivers, gets her pregnant, then dies. The movie closes on Clear Rivers and Carter Horton standing by his grave a year later. Test audiences hated it, not liking the fact that Alex dies before the end of this film, and said they wanted more Rube Goldberg deathtraps. Ironically, the second film revolved around that plot point, just with different players involved.]]

-->'''Alex:''' That’s Tod's seat. The path of the explosion... They’re dying in the order they would’ve died. ''That’s'' Death’s design!

-->'''Alex:''' I never moved. Christa asked me to change, but I never moved. I would have been up next to Tod. Fuck! Why didn't I remember that? I never moved, Clear's seat was in front of mine. She's next.