ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - February 10th
"FINAL DESTINATION 3" released in 2006
A student's premonition of a deadly roller coaster ride saves her life and a lucky few, but not from Death itself which seeks out those who escaped their fate, in James Wong's Final Destination 3!
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High school student Wendy Christensen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) visits an amusement park with her boyfriend Jason Wise (Jesse Moss), best friend Carrie Dreyer (Gina Holden), and Carrie's boyfriend Kevin Fischer (Ryan Merriman) for their senior class field trip. As they board the Devil's Flight roller coaster, Wendy has a voilent premonition that the hydraulics securing the seat belts and roller coaster cars will fail during the ride, killing everyone on board. When she panics, a fight breaks out and several people leave or are forced off the ride, including Kevin; best friends Ashley Fruend and Ashlyn Halperin (Chelan Simmons and Crystal Lowe); alumnus Frankie Cheeks (Sam Easton); athlete Lewis Romero (Texas Battle); and goth couple Ian McKinley and Erin Ulmer (Kris Lemche and Alexz Johnson). As they leave they witness the roller coaster derail, killing the remaining passengers, including Jason and Carrie, leaving Wendy devastated. Several weeks later, Kevin tells Wendy about the explosion of Flight 180 and the subsequent deaths of the survivors. Believing that Kevin is mocking her, Wendy dismisses his theory and leaves. Later on, Ashley and Ashlyn are killed at a tanning salon when a loose shelf falls and locks them in the overheating tanning beds. Now convinced that Death is still after them, Wendy and Kevin set out to save the remaining survivors using omens hidden within photos that Wendy took of them the night of the accident, to once again thwart Death's design!
TRIVIA: At first Chelan Simmons wasn't on board with doing nudity, but she later had a meeting with the directors and decided to do it. The scene took place in the tanning booth was a closed set with only the camera operators in the same room with Chelan Simmons and Crystal Lowe and black curtains were draped to keep onlookers out.
Top and Above: Students Wendy Christensen (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Kevin Fischer (Ryan Merriman) must follow the "signs" to survive Death's designs!
With development of the film beginning shortly after the release of Final Destination 2, Final Destination 3 was originally considered as the final part of the trilogy, according to later interviews with James Wong and Glen Morgan. According to Wong, the idea of using a roller coaster derailment as the opening scene disaster came from New Line Cinema executive Richard Bryant and dispelled rumors that it was inspired by the incident at Thunder Mountain (the tragic derailment that occurred at Disneyland in 2003, where a 22-year old man died and 10 others were injured). The title was previously known as Cheating Death: Final Destination 3 and Final Destination 3-D - 3-D was originally considered for the film, but it was deemed too expensive and too complicated.
Early in pre-production, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Ryan Merriman were cast in the lead roles of Wendy Christensen and Kevin Fischer - Winstead, who had previously auditioned for the previous two films, eventually won the role as she reportedly brought emotion and character that impressed Wong and Glen Morgan. "Mary brings a kind of soulfulness to her role as Wendy,” stated Wong, and in while describing Merriman, “The moment Ryan came in I thought he was the right guy to play Kevin.” Ginger Snaps actor Kris Lemche and Canadian singer Alexz Johnson took the roles of goths Ian McKinley and Erin Ulmer; Johnson originally auditioned for the role of Wendy's sister, Julie but the role later went to Amanda Crew. Rounding out the cast were Texas Battle, Chelan Simmons, Jesse Moss and Sam Easton as Lewis Romero, Ashley Freund, Jason Wise and Frankie Cheeks respectively, while actresses Gina Holden and Crystal Lowe make their feature film debuts as Carrie Dreyer and Ashlyn Halperin. Tony Todd, who appeared in the first two films of the franchise, did not return for his role as the mortician Bludworth but provided the voices of the devil statue at the roller coaster and a subway conductor in the end.
Early in pre-production, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Ryan Merriman were cast in the lead roles of Wendy Christensen and Kevin Fischer - Winstead, who had previously auditioned for the previous two films, eventually won the role as she reportedly brought emotion and character that impressed Wong and Glen Morgan. "Mary brings a kind of soulfulness to her role as Wendy,” stated Wong, and in while describing Merriman, “The moment Ryan came in I thought he was the right guy to play Kevin.” Ginger Snaps actor Kris Lemche and Canadian singer Alexz Johnson took the roles of goths Ian McKinley and Erin Ulmer; Johnson originally auditioned for the role of Wendy's sister, Julie but the role later went to Amanda Crew. Rounding out the cast were Texas Battle, Chelan Simmons, Jesse Moss and Sam Easton as Lewis Romero, Ashley Freund, Jason Wise and Frankie Cheeks respectively, while actresses Gina Holden and Crystal Lowe make their feature film debuts as Carrie Dreyer and Ashlyn Halperin. Tony Todd, who appeared in the first two films of the franchise, did not return for his role as the mortician Bludworth but provided the voices of the devil statue at the roller coaster and a subway conductor in the end.
[Ian confronts Wendy at the fair]
Ian McKinley: What do I care? It skipped me. For me, it is over. I'm not dying. I'm not dying!
[Fireworks shoot at Ian but they miss him and hit the base of the cherry picker]
Ian McKinley: You see? I'm not gonna die! It's you, Wendy! You're dead!
[cherry picker falls on Ian and cuts him in half vertically]
Top: Wendy and Kevin discover the omens of the survivors deaths in the photos Wendy had taken the night of the tragedy;
Above: Although they were unable to save Ian McKinley (Kris Lemche)
As with the first two films, FD3 was shot in Vancouver, with the Corkscrew roller coaster, located in Playland amusement park, used as the Devil's Flight coaster. In actuality, the actual ride is much tamer and slower (only contains a double corkscrew inversion) compared to Devil's Flight, which contains multiple vertical loops and multiple corkscrew sections. In order to achieve such a roller coaster, CGI was applied to the roller coaster set, which contained a hydraulic setup that mimic the actual roller coaster train - nevertheless, the cast members on the roller-coaster had to ride the coaster 26 times on the same night in order to shoot the film's main premonition scene.
All the death scenes required varying degrees of 2D and 3D graphic enhancements, with the opening sequence alone comprising 144 visual effect shots (more than a third of the total 340 vfx shot count in the entire movie). Meteor Studios' visual effects supervisor Tim Stevenson oversaw the project, including making the custom-designed Devil's Flight roller coaster based on the events described in the script: sharp turn, followed by a steep drop, leading to a loop, etc. Most of the model was hand-built, with some MEL scripts helping out for specific elements. Visual effects supervisor Ariel Velasco-Shaw shot all the scenes of the roller coaster crash against a green screen with CGI background. Velasco-Shaw states. "we decided to capture the exposition plates at a much smaller roller coaster that we digitally extended. In some shots, we dropped the horizon line. In other shots, we rotoscoped the carts and integrated them into a CG background. However, all the action shots were photographed on green screen with single carts or multiple carts mounted on rigs, suspended on bungees, etc."
All the death scenes required varying degrees of 2D and 3D graphic enhancements, with the opening sequence alone comprising 144 visual effect shots (more than a third of the total 340 vfx shot count in the entire movie). Meteor Studios' visual effects supervisor Tim Stevenson oversaw the project, including making the custom-designed Devil's Flight roller coaster based on the events described in the script: sharp turn, followed by a steep drop, leading to a loop, etc. Most of the model was hand-built, with some MEL scripts helping out for specific elements. Visual effects supervisor Ariel Velasco-Shaw shot all the scenes of the roller coaster crash against a green screen with CGI background. Velasco-Shaw states. "we decided to capture the exposition plates at a much smaller roller coaster that we digitally extended. In some shots, we dropped the horizon line. In other shots, we rotoscoped the carts and integrated them into a CG background. However, all the action shots were photographed on green screen with single carts or multiple carts mounted on rigs, suspended on bungees, etc."
TRIVIA: In Japan, the film was renamed Final Deadcoaster.
Top: The crew on location at Vancouver's Playland Amusement Park;
Above: Writer/Director James Wong
After a test screening, Wong, Morgan and the filmmakers conceived a new ending for the film, which was shot in the winter of 2005. Originally, the final subway scene, the three leading characters would meet the two survivors from Final Destination 2 - Kimberley and Burke. Wendy and Kimberly were originally meant to be cousins and the plan was that Wendy would be in the subway with her cousin and her boyfriend before she ran into Kevin and Julie. The presence of Kimberly and Officer Burke would make perfect sense considering that Death's plan would reach its end with all the survivors dying. However, actors A.J. Cook and Michael Landes were not available for the re-shoots and therefore the scene was staged with Wendy 's roommate and her boyfriend instead. Production of FD3 finally wrapped on January 31, 2006, and opened just 10 days later on February 10, 2006.
Earning $19,173,094 in its opening weekend, Final Destination 3 premiered at #2 at the US box office, behind the remake of The Pink Panther. FD3 ended up grossing $54,098,051 in the domestic box office and $63,621,107 in all other territories, with an overall gross of $117,719,158 worldwide, making it (at the time) the highest-grossing film in the series. Nevertheless, Final Destination 3 received mixed reviews from critics, with Justing Chang of Variety writing, "As yet another gaggle of clueless teens runs around trying to postpone their appointments with Death, the question inevitably arises: Will there ever be a final “Final Destination”? Not as long as this durably gimmicky series, admittedly one of the wittier horror franchises in recent years, continues to dispense sadistic Rube Goldberg death traps with all the dramatic import of a kid frying ants under a magnifying glass." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that "The problem with FD3 is since it is clear to everyone who must die and in what order, the drama is reduced to a formula in which ominous events accumulate while the teenagers remain oblivious."
Earning $19,173,094 in its opening weekend, Final Destination 3 premiered at #2 at the US box office, behind the remake of The Pink Panther. FD3 ended up grossing $54,098,051 in the domestic box office and $63,621,107 in all other territories, with an overall gross of $117,719,158 worldwide, making it (at the time) the highest-grossing film in the series. Nevertheless, Final Destination 3 received mixed reviews from critics, with Justing Chang of Variety writing, "As yet another gaggle of clueless teens runs around trying to postpone their appointments with Death, the question inevitably arises: Will there ever be a final “Final Destination”? Not as long as this durably gimmicky series, admittedly one of the wittier horror franchises in recent years, continues to dispense sadistic Rube Goldberg death traps with all the dramatic import of a kid frying ants under a magnifying glass." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that "The problem with FD3 is since it is clear to everyone who must die and in what order, the drama is reduced to a formula in which ominous events accumulate while the teenagers remain oblivious."
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 43%
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