FILM · 2011 · CANADA
Final Destination 5
62 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (62)
- #001
(Around 1 hour 25 minutes) In the bar, a photo of Roy can be seen next to the number 6 race car that caused the crash at the racetrack in The Final Destination (2009).
- #002
(Around 40 minutes) The gift certificate Isaac steals from his deceased coworker's drawer is listed with an expiration date of 30.06.01, giving another hint that the film is a prequel to Final Destination (2000).
- #003
Clues pointing to the alternate ending that ties the film's events to Final Destination (2000) can be found in the old-fashioned office phones in both the "Presage Paper" building and the doctor's office; Isaac's cell phone (monophonic ringtones had largely fallen out of use by 2011); the bulky keyboard in the doctor's office; an old cathode-ray tube television in Molly's apartment (by 2011 most had been replaced by flat-panel televisions); the Liberty plate used in New York until 2001 (in William Bludworth's van); and the song playing on the radio, Everclear: I Will Buy You a New Life (1998).
- #004
Like the character Candice, Ellen Wroe is a trained gymnast.
- #005
It contains the longest "opening disaster" in the film series. The bridge disaster lasts 4 minutes 44 seconds. This record was broken by Final Destination: Bloodlines (2025) with 3 minutes 11 seconds.
- #006
The company where the eight survivors work is called Presage Paper. "Presage" means a sign or warning that something bad is going to happen.
- #007
Isaac's cell phone is a Motorola StarTAC. These were high-end cell phones first released in 1996. This is a hint that this film is a prequel to Final Destination (2000).
- #008
(Around 40 minutes in) When Nathan brings beer to the office, a model airplane, truck and race car are shown behind Sam; these are references to Final Destination (2000), Final Destination 2 (2003) and The Final Destination (2009). On Olivia's desk is a picture of the Devil's Flight roller coaster from Final Destination 3 (2006). Since it is revealed at the end of the film that this film is a prequel to Final Destination (2000), this means these scenes foreshadow the events of all the previous films.
- #009
(Around the 41st minute) The Chinese massage spa where Isaac dies is named "MING YUN", which means "destiny" in Chinese.
- #010
This film is not a sequel; it is a prequel to the series' first film, Final Destination (2000). This is revealed at the end of the film when Sam and Molly board Flight 180; they witness Alex Browning being removed from the plane along with some of his classmates.
- #011
(Around 10 minutes) The video the office workers watch on the bus describes the corporate retreat company they will be working with. The company is called "180 Corporate Consulting," another continuation of the number 180 in the series.
- #012
In keeping with the series tradition, several of the main characters are named after famous horror directors: Peter Friedkin is named after William Friedkin, director of The Exorcist (1973); Candice Hooper is named after Tobe Hooper, who directed both Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Poltergeist (1982); and Olivia Castle is named after William Castle, who directed both The Tingler (1959) and House on Haunted Hill (1959).
- #013
The Blu-ray release contains two alternate death scenes. In the massage parlor, Isaac dies not because he smashes the head of a Buddha statue, but because he is standing in a puddle of liquid and catches fire when it ignites. During the laser eye surgery, instead of only one of Olivia's eyes being burned, both of her eyes are burned (though she still dies from the fall).
- #014
In his premonition, Sam helps his friend Molly get to safety before Peter dies; the vision then ends with his own death. From this, Sam and Peter conclude that Molly was never meant to die in the bridge disaster, so Peter decides to kill Molly to take her remaining years. However, during the Flight 180 disaster in the epilogue, Molly is the first to die, followed by Sam. This may mean that Molly was also meant to die in the original bridge disaster, possibly because she was standing on a piece of the collapsing bridge or fell when Sam, cut in half, instinctively tried to reach for her (she never saw this happen because Sam was already dead). In the finale, after Sam kills Peter, Death tries to kill Sam with a nail gun, but the gun misses him when Molly stops Sam and accidentally pulls him out of the path of the nail. Typically, Death then kills Molly and "circles back" to complete its original list, beginning to kill the surviving Sam. Note that Nathan (who should have died before Sam) is exempt because he was allowed to take Roy's place and his remaining years; ironically, this only bought him a few extra weeks, and he outlived Sam by only a few seconds.
- #015
(Around 11 minutes) During the bus ride, a truck carrying the logs that caused the crash in Final Destination 2 (2003) can be seen.
- #016
(Around the 16th minute) In the premonition, Olivia dies because a car falls on her. In real life (around 1 hour in), Olivia dies when she falls onto a car.
- #017
Most of the death scenes are based on real-life events. The collapse of the opening bridge was inspired by the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Also, a person died after falling from a table and having an acupuncture needle pierce his heart.
- #018
A music video for Miles Fisher's song "New Romance," starring the cast of Final Destination 5 (2011), was produced to coincide with the film's premiere and can be found on YouTube. In true "Final Destination" fashion, the cast meets their ends in extremely gruesome ways in the video.
- #019
(Around 6 minutes) A hint that this film is a prequel to Final Destination (2000) — and takes place in 2000, not 2011 — emerges when Olivia's boyfriend references Lisa Loeb, whose breakout single "Stay" was released in 1994. Another subtle hint is Nathan quoting the famous "I see dead people" line from The Sixth Sense (1999) during the funeral. It was released in 1999 and was most often referenced in the early 2000s.
- #020
It is the third film in the series to end with all of the survivors dead.
- #021
The producers of this film stated that, unlike the almost comedic path taken by The Final Destination (2009), this film is dark like Final Destination (2000).
- #022
(Around 44 minutes in) Before Olivia leaves the office, she knocks over a frame containing a picture of herself. The crack in the frame runs through the middle of her right eye. This foreshadows what will happen at the eye surgeon's table.
- #023
When David Koechner appeared on "Lopez Tonight," Dennis's death was shown uncensored, making it the only death scene from any "Final Destination" film to be shown on the talk show circuit.
- #024
Although Eric Heisserer felt the pressure of expectations for this installment was far less after the universally panned predecessor The Final Destination (2009), it was still harder than he had imagined: "A good death scene in the Final Destination world is ridiculously hard. There are so many rules you have to know, and I was tearing my hair out over them. They all have to be on the page. They don't let me cheat on any of them. I can't say, 'I'll let the director figure this out.'" One of the locations he considered for a death sequence in the film, and which was rejected, was a water park.
- #025
The death scene in which Isaac falls against a wall and the impact breaks a shelf, causing a statue to crush his head, was based on Amber Regan's scrapped death scene in Final Destination 3 (2006), in which a faulty treadmill caused her to fall against a wall, break a shelf and knock over a dumbbell that crushed her head.
- #026
It is the first film in the "Final Destination" series to be released in IMAX format.
- #027
At the end of this film, after Flight 180 explodes, the landing gear strikes a bar and kills Nathan. According to a news report Alex Browning watched on television in the first Final Destination film, most of the wreckage of Flight 180, which exploded shortly after taking off from an airport in the New York area, fell into the Atlantic Ocean. However, the explosion can be seen flinging the landing gear toward the city. Thus, the landing gear appears to be the only piece of wreckage to fall on land; its killing of Nathan demonstrates the mastery of Death's designs.
- #028
(Around 1 hour 23 minutes) Near the end of the film, when Sam looks at his plane ticket just before the crash, the date is clearly visible as May 13, 2000. It also shows that he is on Flight 180 at 21:25. The flight that leads to the events of the first Final Destination (2000).
- #029
In Sam's premonition of the bridge collapsing, the bus is one of the first vehicles to fall from the bridge. After Sam wakes from the vision and decides to clear the bus and the bridge with several coworkers, he sees that the bridge really does collapse. When it does, the bus becomes one of the last vehicles to fall from the bridge, showing how much he has altered reality by cheating death.
- #030
Initially Nathan was to be a chef at a restaurant and Roy a loathsome customer; Nathan then pulls Roy in front of him during an unspecified disaster to save his own life. In rewrites, Sam became the chef and Nathan and Roy were rewritten as a factory foreman and worker, respectively.
- #031
The opening and closing disasters are based on two real-life disasters in American history: the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940 and the explosion of TWA Flight 800 in 1996.
- #032
When Olivia drops the photo from her desk (44:48), the caption on the photo indicates that it was taken on "Devil's Flight - The World's Scariest Roller coaster," the same roller coaster from Final Destination 3 (2006).
- #033
(Around 40 minutes in) The Hice Pale Ale cans Nathan brings to the office are a nod to Freddie Hice, the stunt coordinator who worked on Final Destination 2 (2003). A Hice Pale Ale truck appears in both Final Destination 3 (2006) and this film. Hice Pale Ale cans appear in both The Final Destination (2009) and this film.
- #034
The Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver, British Columbia, was used to shoot the collapse of the North Bay Bridge in the film. Two scale models of the bridge were also used.
- #035
Ashley French auditioned for the role of Candice Hooper.
- #036
(Around 40 minutes in) Before Isaac goes to the massage parlor, a thumbtack in the desk drawer pricks him. This foreshadows what will happen at the massage parlor.
- #037
It is the first Final Destination film in which all of the main characters survive the premonition and then die. In every previous installment, at least one character dies even after someone saves the rest from the disaster.
- #038
The death sequence on the collapsing bridge was created using green screens, green mats, wires and digital compositing.
- #039
There is a trope in horror films that the Black character dies first. This film contradicts that; Nathan is the last of the group to die (just before the credits).
- #040
The first four films in the series were released three years apart. This film closes that gap, arriving two years after the previous film, Final Destination (2009).
- #041
(At about the 23rd minute) The second name on the plaque at the memorial service is Chris Boylan. This is a nod to Christine Boylan, the wife of the film's writer Eric Heisserer and the inspiration for the eye surgery scene.
- #042
In the gymnastics scene, the plug of the extension cord resembles a skull and foreshadows death.
- #043
It is the first film in the Final Destination series to contain no female nudity.
- #044
Actors David Koechner (Dennis) and Nicholas D'Agosto (Sam) both appeared in The Office (2005) and also worked at a paper company. David played the recurring character Todd Packer, while Nicholas appeared in only three episodes in 2007. They never appeared in an episode at the same time.
- #045
Although screenwriter Eric Heisserer wrote this film's screenplay after writing The Thing (2011), Final Destination 5 (2011) was released two months earlier because The Thing's release date was pushed back by six months.
- #046
This is the third film in the series to feature a male lead who has premonitions.
- #047
Director Steven Quale had previously been the second unit director on the 1997 disaster film Titanic (1997), and three years after that film was released he directed another disaster film, Into the Storm (2014).
- #048
The collapsing bridge was originally going to be the opening disaster of The Final Destination (2009).
- #049
Emma Bell (Molly) and Nicholas D'Agosto (Sam) both appeared in the series Supernatural (2005). Emma appeared in the episode Free to Be You and Me (2009), and Nicholas in the episode Asylum (2005).
- #050
At one point the film was to be titled "5nal Destination". The resemblance to the word "anal" probably led to a rethink.
- #051
At the time of its release, it was the third highest-grossing film in the series.
- #052
The film's $40 million budget was recouped after 23 days. Despite a strong $18 million opening, it grossed only $42.6 million domestically. It performed well internationally, taking $157.9 million (domestic and overseas combined), placing 49th on the 2011 ticket-revenue list led by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) with $1,341.5 million.
- #053
(At about 43 minutes) The Asian masseuse was speaking Cantonese, the main Chinese dialect spoken in Hong Kong.
- #054
(At about 58 minutes) In the eye surgeon's office, a "Woda" water cooler is visible, a brand whose name means water in Polish.
- #055
(At about 32 minutes) The fan's electrical plug resembles a screaming human skull, similar to the iconic human skull used as a symbol in every film in the series so far.
- #056
The negative reviews and declining box office for this film caused the franchise to stall. Another 14 years would pass before the next installment came out.
- #057
Tony Todd admitted that working with the bulky 3D cameras was somewhat uncomfortable at first. He did not much like that loading new film took about 10 minutes, so waiting on set became a normal thing.
- #058
At the end we see Kerr Smith and Devon Sawa on the same plane as this film's main characters, setting up the events of the first film. This scene was created using archive footage.
- #059
Ashley French auditioned for the role of Candice.
- #060
It was shot over a period of two months.
- #061
Like most films in the Final Destination series, this one was shot in Canada.
- #062
Steven Quale was hired as director because of his 3D experience working with James Cameron on Avatar (2009).
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb kaydı
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work