All 36 of Death’s Kills in the Final Destination Franchise – Ranked

Warning! This ranking of every kill in the Final Destination franchise contains spoilers for all six Final Destination films, naturally. Proceed at your own peril!

As far as kills go, the Final Destination franchise more or less takes the cake – with deaths running the gamut from the gory and gruesome to the gallingly stupid.

Not bad for a set of films in which we never see or hear the antagonist – only witness its malevolent machinations via a series of complex, creative, Rube Goldberg-esque kills.

But after watching all six films in the Final Destination to date – including the most recent, Final Destination: Bloodlines – you’re probably left with the same question I was...

Which kills were the best?

I’ve been on an odyssey into this life or death (mainly Death) query: ranking every single one of Final Destination’s 36 Death-perpetrated kills to ascertain where that invisible Grim Reaper did his best work.

But first? A few bits of small print to get through.

Ranking Every Final Destination Kill: Methodology

In this list, I’ve only counted kills initiated by Death to counteract the balance after people it intended to die survived the accident they were supposed to be killed in.

For that reason, characters killed as part of the initial incident – Kimberly Corman’s friends Shaina, Dano, and Frankie from Final Destination 2, for example – aren’t included. Neither are the deaths of Final Destination 3 duo Jason Wise (Jesse Moss) and Carrie Dreyer (Gina Holden), who die on the rollercoaster at the film’s outset.

I’ve also left out any kills that occured in alternative timelines. For example, in The Final Destination, Lori Milligan (Shantel VanSanten) is killed by an escalator, and her friend Janet Cunningham (Haley Webb) is blown up in the cinema – although this is later revealed to be a precognitive vision experienced by Nick O'Bannon (Bobby Campo). Because he manages to successfully intervene to prevent the deaths from occurring, they’re technically not canon – so have no place in this list. (Even though that escalator kill is pretty gnarly!)

Also not included are any kills that happen off-screen.

When Nick, Lori, and Janet meet their end in The Final Destination’s last scene, we don’t actually see the deaths take place – the camera cuts to the credits first, and the kills are only conveyed by a series of (oh so 2009) graphics. For this reason, I’ve also excluded two deaths from the original Final Destination: Kerr Smith’s Carter Horton – who we don’t actually see killed by the sign before the credits roll – and our original hero Alex Browning (Devon Sawa), who meets his maker via a falling brick at some unspecified point between the first and second films

Finally, I’m leaving out the three Final Destination 5 kills perpetrated by human hands – namely, Sam’s killing of Peter, and the latter’s murder of Agent Block before that. Since Agent Block wasn’t part of Death’s Design (and since Peter had already skipped his turn in the queue by killing the federal agent) neither can be seen to have been committed by Death – meaning those kills don’t belong on this list. For the same reason, Roy Carson’s death is excluded too.

In ranking this list of every kill in the Final Destination franchise, I’ve also tried to take in the importance of the character and the unexpectedness of the kill – in addition to the purely aesthetic considerations of how clever and calculated each death is. Needless to say, it’s all entirely objective – but I’d love to see your comments and pure, naked outrage at my rankings in the comments section below.

Now, on with the show – here is every kill in the Final Destination franchise: ranked.

36. Maggie Ma, Final Destination 3

Impaled by an airborne flag.

For my money the worst kill in the entire franchise, we learn about the existence of someone else who was supposed to be on the rollercoaster – Perry Malinowski’s Maggie – before she’s killed instantly: impaled by a flagpole-turned-projectile.

Like the death of Jonathan Groves in The Final Destination, it doesn’t work at all because we had no prior introduction to the character or their story, and get no screen time before Maggie meets her maker. This, on top of the fact that the kill is immediately lost amid the kerfuffle of the fair, makes this, for me, the franchise’s most forgettable death.

Maggie, we hardly knew ye.

35. Jonathan Groves, The Final Destination

Crushed when a hot tub from the room above overflows and the ceiling collapses.

Turns out, the death of a character we’d had no exposure to throughout the whole film isn’t that meaningful or interesting. The machinations behind the death of Jonathan Groves (Jackson Walker) – via an old man taking a bath above him in the hospital: which overflows, leaks through the ceiling, and ends up crushing the poor bloke below – are kind of interesting. But ultimately, the whole thing feels quite lame and lazily written: an excuse to manufacture some tension before the film’s climax.

Who?

34. George Lanter, The Final Destination

Run over by an ambulance outside a hospital.

An ambulance kill wasn’t particularly shocking or inventive when it happened to Terry Chaney in the original film – so shock horror that, three movies later, it’s even less fun. George (Mykelti Williamson) was a solid character (an ex-alcoholic security guard with something at least close to even a vague, soupy semblance of actual depth), so to see him unceremoniously ploughed down felt like a missed opportunity. There’s zero suspense, no ingenuity – just a man walking into the street, and then boom. Ambulance. Next.

Hi George, bye George.

33. Samantha Lane, The Final Destination

Has a stone launched into her face by a nearby lawnmower.

Samantha Lane’s death was clearly an attempt by the writers to subvert expectations. To do that thing where they tease the kill in a number of ways – in this case, while Samantha (Krista Allen) is having her hair cut – before blindsiding the audience when the actual kill comes out of nowhere. When it works, it’s fantastic; when it doesn’t, it feels lazy and smug.

This case is the latter.

Eye don't know what they were thinking when they greenlit The Final Destination.

32. Darlene Campbell, Final Destination: Bloodlines

Crushed by a lamp post.

Arguably the most anticlimactic kill of the entire franchise, Darlene (Rya Kihlstedt) – mother of the protagonists, Stefanie and Charlie – is sent to heaven when a lamp post falls and crushes her. It’s unexpected, sure – but the way it’s handled came across more as comical than shocking. As an important character, I felt Darlene deserved more.

Darlene, you were hard done by.

31. Dennis Lapman, Final Destination 5

Killed by a wrench to the face.

Look, I’m never going to turn my nose up at a wrench to the face – but the death of David Koechner's Dennis is about as perfunctory as they come.

It’s barely set up, lacking any of the creative flair or drawn-out dread that makes the best Final Destination kills sing. He’s annoying, sure – a classic workplace buzzkill – but this one feels like Death was just clearing out the extras.

Dennis's death really threw a wrench in the works.

30. Brian Gibbons, Final Destination 2

Exploded by a barbecue.

The end of Noel Fisher's Brian is textbook Final Destination: a fakeout, a sigh of relief, and then kablammo – the kid explodes. It's so tonally jarring that it almost feels like a punchline (and, given it’s the last thing we see, maybe that’s the point). Still, the sudden explosion via a barbecue gas leak pushes the boundaries of plausibility, even for this franchise.

What's cooking?

29. Terry Chaney, Final Destination

Run over by a bus.

One of the earliest "out of nowhere" deaths in the series, Amanda Detmer's Terry’s abrupt run-in with a speeding bus was definitely shocking at the time – and it set the tone for the franchise’s M.O. going forward. But in the grand scheme of things, it’s a little too simple.

No Rube Goldberg-esque mechanics. No ominous creaks or flickering lights. Just Terry yelling, “You can just drop dead!” and Death going, “Sure.” Iconic, but shallow.

This one tested my freeze-framing skills to their absolute limits.

28. Carter Daniels, The Final Destination

Dragged down the street by the tow chain on his own truck before catching fire.

For me, this kill was just a little too convoluted and complicated. The setup was quite cool – the racist Carter (Justin Welborn) attempting to set up a burning cross on George Lanter’s lawn – but the execution misses the mark as Carter ends up being dragged down the street by his own truck before bursting into flame. That said, it’s redeemed somewhat by the sick joy we get at seeing a horrible man meet his end. Flaming heads are fun, too.

Medium...stare?

27. Lewis Romero, Final Destination 3

Smooshed by a pair of descending weights while working out at the gym.

There’s something fun about a Final Destination kill that uses the characters’ own hobbies and interests against them (the kills of Candice Hooper or Ashley and Ashlyn being prime examples), and this one is a passable attempt too, as gym bunny Lewis (Texas Battle) is crushed by a piece of workout equipment gone awry. Still, his actual death was a little basic; it felt like it needed one more twist of the knife to match the franchise’s intelligence and warped sense of humour.

Smashing kill, that one!

26. Clear Rivers and Eugene Dix, Final Destination 2

Blown up in a room at the hospital.

It’s always a little tragic when returning characters go out with a bang – literally, in this case, when a hospital room explosion takes out both Clear (Ali Larter) and Eugene (T. C. Carson) . It’s a huge moment, and the death of one of the series’ founding fathers was clearly designed to raise the stakes. But it’s so fast and so off-screen that it barely registers emotionally. For someone who almost survived two whole movies, Clear deserved a more memorable swan song.

#JUSTICEFORCLEAR

25. Nadia Monroy, The Final Destination

Splattered by a falling tyre after initially surviving the speedway pileup.

You’d think being obliterated by a rogue tire at a racetrack would be more exciting than it sounds. But the death of Nadia (Stephanie Honoré) feels like a cheap gag – a literal punchline after her brief scene-stealing moment of sass. It’s one of those blink-and-you’ll-miss-it kills: sudden, silly, and strangely weightless.

Good for a shock laugh, sure – and the genuinely surprising nature of the kill is what elevates it to mid-list fare – but fails to provide much else.

Yuck.

24. Ian McKinley, Final Destination 3

Flattened by a cherry picking machine.

Ian McKinley was a fun character – and Kris Lemche has a ball playing him with a verve that’s part young Bill Paxton, part…Christopher Walken? Unfortunately, the writers assassinated his character, turning him into an unhinged, revenge-bent maniac after Erin dies until he’s eventually crushed by a malfunctioning cherry picking machine. Not the worst kill in the franchise, but far from the best. Moving on…

Nobody can accuse me of "cherry picking" the best Final Destination kills here.

23. Andy Kewzer, The Final Destination

Launched by a carbon dioxide tank into a chain-link fence, which tears him apart.

Sliced into diamond-shaped chunks by a chain link fence after being skewered by a tank of carbon dioxide, Andrew Fiscella's Andy’s death is mostly memorable for its extremely dodgy CGI. The setup – a flammable situation in a mechanic’s shop – feels ripe with potential, but it devolves into pure B-movie absurdity. His body literally slides apart like deli meat. It’s so cartoonish it borders on parody, which can be fun… but also a little underwhelming.

This was 2009, and good CGI did exist – meaning there's no excuse for this shambles.

22. Evan Lewis, Final Destination 2

Spiked through the eyeballs by a falling fire escape ladder.

The demise of David Paetkau's Evan has some great buildup: a dodgy microwave, a kitchen blaze, pigeons(!) causing a fall – it’s got all the makings of a classic. But the final blow – a ladder through the eye socket – is both gruesome and strangely abrupt.

He’s a goofy, lottery-winning jerk, and his death – more slapstick than shocking – kind of works. Still, the film doesn’t quite stick the landing. (Unlike the ladder.)

Not gonna lie, he kind of looks...satisfied?

21. Howard Campbell, Final Destination: Bloodlines

Mashed by a runaway lawnmower in his own backyard.

Howard’s end isn’t the most original kill Final Destination has served up – after all, we’ve seen Death use lawnmowers to its advantage before – but Alex Zahara makes Howard such a likeable character that his death didn’t deserve to be in the doldrums.

Plus, the suspense of the glass in the drink was maximised so well that, somehow, this kill feels like far more than the sum of its parts.

It's not lawn before Howard meets his death in Final Destination: Bloodlines.

20. Nathan Sears, Final Destination 5

Crushed by the falling debris of Flight 180.

Nathan (Arlen Escarpeta) thinks he’s safe. He’s already cheated Death once, by the part her played in the death of local blue-collar worker Roy Carson (Brent Stait). But then? News breaks: the man he accidentally killed had already been scheduled to die. Cue Nathan’s own scheduled demise, after part of the fuselage from the doomed plane in the original Final Destination crashes through the roof above him and crushes him to death. It’s a twisty, cosmic rug-pull of an ending that lands better narratively than visually, but still earns its spot this high for sheer fatalistic flair.

Death by debris.

19. Sam Lawton and Molly Harper, Final Destination 5

Fried when Flight 180 explodes.

Technically two deaths, but grouped because they’re part of the same jaw-dropping twist: that Final Destination 5 is actually a secret prequel. Just as you’re lulled into thinking Sam (Nicholas D'Agosto) and Molly (Amy Bell) might escape the curse, boom – they board Flight 180. Yes, that Flight 180. Sam gets burned up in the explosion (a symptom of Final Destination's bizarre habit of zeroing in for close-ups on the immolations of its characters), while Molly gets sucked out of the plane mid-scream. It’s not the most elaborate or creative pair of kills, but their placement in the timeline makes it unforgettable.

Amy Bell wishes she was back on The Walking Dead.

18. Frankie Cheeks, Final Destination 3

Brained at the drive-thru by the motor of a boat in a truck.

Frankie (Sam Easton) is a fun, pervy character who gets decapitated by an engine fan after a drive-thru mishap involving a runaway truck and the motor of an unfortunately-placed boat. It’s sudden, it’s brutal, and the gore splash on the windshield is mwah. It’s also one of the few moments in the franchise where you kind of cheer Death on.

"Do you wanna drive, or shall I?"

17. Billy Hitchcock, Final Destination

Decapitated by a piece of shrapnel launched by a passing train.

When Seann William Scott’s Billy Hitchcock met his end, the franchise hadn’t quite embraced its full Rube Goldberg chaos yet. But what Billy’s death did introduce was something that would become not only a Final Destination franchise staple, but one of its most tired and overused tropes: when a character, not realising they are mere seconds from death, launches into a monologue about how they’re never going to die. “I survive! You’re the one that dies! I’m gonna live forever! Death’s not out for me! It’s out for y ––– “ SPLAT.

That recurring theme got old quick, but this one was first – so we’ll give it a pass.

“I survive! You’re the one that dies! I’m gonna live forever! Death’s not out for me! It’s out for y ––– “ SPLAT.

16. Rory Peters, Final Destination 2

Sliced in half by aerial telephone pole wires.

Dropkick druggie Rory Peters (Jonathan Cherry) is a weird character: in turns irritating and oddly endearing. Perhaps its that latter quality that causes his death to hit a bit harder when an explosion causes a set of telephone pole wires to go flying across the field he’s standing in, slicing him into several pieces as his insides slop onto the grass beneath his feet. It stands out as one of the franchise’s most visually satisfying – and memorable – kills.

Rory recently changed jobs, but it was a sideways move.

15. Iris Campbell, Final Destination: Bloodlines

Impaled by a weather vane as she steps outside of her home

Iris Campbell is the only character in the entire franchise who we get to know in two different timelines – as a young pregnant, just-engaged woman in 1968, and as a mad, isolated recluse in the present day. Iris hasn’t left her home in years, living in fear of Death and locked into a never-ending mission to outwit Death’s plans.

When Iris finally leaves her home after her granddaughter Stefanie makes contact, she knows she will die – and how. But she does it to convince Stefanie of the gravity of what the family is about to face, which makes it all the more noble, all the more emotionally resonant; and, because the weather-vane-as-instrument-of-death is something we hadn't yet seen this far in the franchise, all the more original, too.

Iris: the only character in the franchise to knowingly induce her own death?

14. Nora Carpenter, Final Destination 2

Decapitated by the doors of an elevator.

Nora's death is a masterclass in sadistic suspense. Her ponytail gets caught in a set of elevator doors, which – let’s be honest – is every long-haired person’s worst nightmare. What follows is a painfully slow, anxiety-inducing sequence where you think, surely not? But yes. Yes, actually. She gets her head sliced clean off as the elevator jerks upwards. It’s not flashy, but the everyday relatability of the setup gives it a uniquely chilling punch, and the addition of the random man carrying a box full of prosthetic hooks adds an element of unpredictability into the mix. You’ll never ride an elevator the same way again!

Is the Final Destination franchise elevated horror? Or just elevator horror?

13. Isaac Palmer, Final Destination 5

Speared by acupuncture needles before a stone Buddha crushes his head.

There’s not much comic relief throughout the six Final Destination films to date, but Isaac (P. J. Byrne) – sleazy, smug, and long overdue for a comeuppance – provides his fair share. While visiting an acupuncture clinic, a small fire leads to him being impaled by a falling Buddha statue. It’s slow, ironic, and grotesque – a spiritual self-care session turned deadly.

Blood-ha.

12. Valerie Lewton, Final Destination

Skewered by her own kitchen knives before her house blows up.

One of the first truly elaborate deaths of the franchise, the demise of Kristen Cloke's Valerie was an incisive, intelligent contrast to the more run-of-the-mill kills of the original film.

A spilled drink, a leaky monitor – even before we all became burnt out on the disproportionate role water plays in far too many Final Destination deaths – a fire, a collapsing shelf. It all culminates in a shard of glass straight through the gut. And then the house explodes. It’s the kind of needlessly elaborate overkill that would become the franchise’s signature – but Ms Lewton's end was our first taste of it.

Final Destination: Sharp social satire.

11. Erin Ulmer, Final Destination 3

Turned into a human pincushion by a self-firing nail gun.

You’ve got to hand it to Final Destination 3 – it really hated hardware stores. The death of Erin (Alexz Johnson) via nail gun is brutal, extended, and hard to watch (in the best way). After a tense setup involving a forklift, some shelving, and precarious planks of wood, she winds up with multiple nails shot straight through the back of her skull.

It’s one of the most viscerally upsetting kills of the series – not because it’s big, but because it’s small. Intimate. Up-close; industrial death at its ugliest.

The makers of Final Destination 3 really nailed this kill.

10. Stefanie and Charlie Reyes, Final Destination: Bloodlines

Crushed by logs falling off a runaway train.

A top 10 kill because of all the fakeouts involved. First, you think the protagonists of the sixth Final Destination film have made it, after Stefanie (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) drowns, and is then resuscitated by, her brother Charlie (Teo Briones). Then, it appears as though they’ve survived a later accident after a train derails and comes careering towards them – only for the train’s cargo, a cache of logs reminiscent of a well-remembered death in the highway pileup at the start of Final Destination 2, falls on them: grinding them into greasy trails of blood and entrails on the road. Ouch.

The death of Stefanie and her brother Charlie in Final Destination: Bloodlines is a grisly, shocking one-two punch that leaves audiences leaving the theatre with mind reeling and blood pumping.

9. Tim Carpenter, Final Destination 2

Obliterated by a falling piece of plate glass.

Death really said “let’s traumatise everyone who’s ever visited the dentist.” Tim’s (James Kirk) demise begins with a trip to the clinic, featuring a suspiciously wobbly fish tank and an increasingly precarious string of events. But it’s not the dentist who gets him – it’s a pane of glass, falling from a construction site as he walks outside. It doesn’t just crush him – it obliterates him. A pure, visceral splatter of a kill that comes out of nowhere, it’s one of the franchise’s most effective jump scares. No frills, no setup – just gazpacho.

Splat.

8. Julia Campbell, Final Destination: Bloodlines

Crushed in the compactor of a garbage truck.

What more can you say about a kill that involves someone getting their skull crushed in the compactor of a moving garbage truck? Unflinching in its brutality, Julia’s (Anna Lore) death sets the table for the showpiece of slasher cinema that is Final Destination: Bloodlines.

Julia Campbell: a rubbish death, but not a rubbish death.

7. Tod Waggner, Final Destination

Strung up in the shower by a clothesline and choked to death.

The original post-premonition kill, and still one of the most haunting. Tod’s (Chad E. Donella) death by strangulation in his bathroom is quiet, slow, and disturbingly intimate. It lacks the spectacle of later entries, but makes up for it in sheer dread.

Watching him struggle, alone, as the water on the floor silently slithers toward the bathtub – it’s the franchise in embryo. No wild stunts, no CGI, just pure, creeping inevitability. Death didn’t need fireworks here: just a wet floor and a clothesline.

Certainly not the most elaborate or ingenious of the series, not by a long shot – but this early-franchise asphyxiation gains valuable points purely for being the first of its kind.

Tod had hoped to catch the red eye out of town, but there were showers expected.

6. Kat Jennings, Final Destination 2

Impaled, in a car, on a piece of broken pipe after the airbags inflate.

Kat’s (Keegan Connor Tracy) death is a symphony of misdirection. A car crash. Jaws of life. A nearby worksite. It all builds until a sudden airbag deployment drives her head back into a pipe protruding from the car seat behind her, impaling her skull. It’s shocking not just for the kill itself, but for how unexpected and brutal it is amid all the other chaos. You’re too busy watching everything else to notice what’s right in front of her.

It’s a classic sleight-of-hand kill – Death as the magician, and Kat the final, fatal trick.

I wanted the Final Destination films to get better, not worse – turns out, it was just a pipe dream.

5. Candice Hooper, Final Destination 5

Breaks her neck, back, and legs after a gymnastics move goes wrong.

The gymnastics kill. You already know the one. Candice’s (Ellen Wroe) death is a slow-burn of escalating tension: loose screws, wobbly equipment, powder on the beam – you can practically feel the audience holding their breath. And then, just when it seems like she’s made it… she doesn’t. A simple misstep leads to one of the most wince-inducing, back-snapping, neck-crunching deaths in horror history. It's elegant, athletic, and grotesque – like Cirque du Soleil choreographed by Lucifer himself.

Gym-nasty-cs.

4. Olivia Castle, Final Destination 5

Falls out of the window at the eye clinic after botched laser eye surgery.

Ophthalmologists, look away – this is the kill that put thousands off the idea of laser eye surgery forever. (Yes, actually – there were people out there who thought this was real!) Olivia’s (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) death is a virtuoso performance in squeamish suspense – a laser-eye surgery gone hellishly wrong.

What makes it sing is the unbearable tension: the eye clamp, the machine glitching, the slipping teddy bear on the floor. But it’s not the laser that kills her – oh no.

After escaping the chair, Olivia stumbles, trips, and plummets face-first out a high-rise window, landing on a car below in an explosion of shattered bone and ocular gore. The juxtaposition of clinical horror and slapstick splatter is pure Final Destination – brutal, brilliant, and impossible to forget.

Laser eye surgery? No thanks.

3. Ashley and Ashlyn, Final Destination 3

Burnt to death in tanning beds at the local salon.

Death by tanning bed? Iconic. The scene plays like a parody of teenage vanity: two sun-worshipping girls lock themselves into the booths, start roasting, and then all hell breaks loose. A tipped shelf, a spilled drink, an overheating coil – suddenly, the fun turns fatal.

The beds jam shut, the heat skyrockets, and we’re forced to watch as Ashley and Ashlyn (Chelan Simmons and Crystal Lowe) slowly burn alive, pounding against the lids in panic. It’s claustrophobic, excruciating, and undeniably memorable. Plus, the use of “Love Rollercoaster” on the soundtrack is an evil masterstroke.

Tanning bed becomes tanning dead.

2. Hunt Wynorski, The Final Destination

Disembowelled by a renegade swimming pool pump.

Sometimes, the how of the kill doesn’t even matter – it’s the build-up. The death of Hunt (Nick Zano) is a ludicrous set-piece involving a faulty pool pump, an unattended child, a dropped coin, and a man getting his entire insides sucked out through his anus.

No, seriously.

It’s horrifying, hysterical, and so extravagantly stupid it circles all the way back to genius. Hunt was a sleaze, but even he didn’t deserve this.

It’s Death going full Looney Tunes – and, somehow, it works.

Still, for my money, one of the best Final Destination kills ever.

1. Erik and Bobby Campbell, Final Destination: Bloodlines

Killed by an MRI machine/vending machine combo.

Perhaps the best trick Final Destinations: Bloodlines ever played wasn’t giving us the best-reviewed or highest-grossing film in the franchise, but serving up the best kill. Or, in this case, kills, because he deaths of Erik and Bobby Campbell come as a truly rug-pulling one-two punch. For starters, we see Erik (Richard Harmon) earlier in the film (and in that scene from the trailer) survive a near-death experience in the style so reminiscent of Death’s work. Secondly, we learn that Erik isn’t actually a part of the titular Campbell bloodline, having been a product of his mother Brenda’s (April Telek) extramarital affair with a neighbour. He’s not meant to die – so when he’s sucked, brutally, into the gaping maw of a rogue MRI machine while trying to save his brother Bobby (Owen Patrick Joyner) at the hospital, it’s utterly shocking. The fact that, mere moments later, Bobby is impaled through the forehead by the coil of a vending machine – the same one the two were attempting to get snacks from earlier – is the cherry on top of what is, for me, the most brilliantly conceived and executed kill of the entire Final Destination franchise.

Erik (pictured) and Bobby's deaths are particularly derailing because of the clever fakeout included in the trailer.

Thoughts about my list of every Final Destination kill ranked? Let me know in the comments below. And remember – Death comes to us all!!!!