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Final Destination Bloodlines (2025) with Joe Gaasbeck
36 Plays9 hours ago
Rick & Trav have historically done their best to avoid death and taxes. But in this episode what we can't avoid is our guest - old friend Joseph Ryan Gaasbeck AKA Juggy AKA Captain Clutch AKA Trav's former roommate AKA my former college rugby teammate, who joins us during the Awards portion of the show. Together we discuss the structural integrity of space needle buildings and rank all the kill scenes in this booming success of a legacy sequel.
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Transcript
Intro
00:00:00
Speaker
Paul! Grab my hand! Hold on! Hold on! No! Stay back! Wait! Wait! Help! Paul! Grab my hand!
00:00:13
Speaker
no it' stay
00:00:36
Speaker
Well, Rick, we usually open our episodes here by me asking how you are doing, but this time I i know how you're doing. We've been talking recently and i know we even talked about this right before started recording, but you want to share kind of what's what's different here today than most episodes.
00:00:55
Speaker
Yeah, dude. um Lost my my dog passed away yesterday. um He was nine and a half years old. His name was Emmett. um And if you know me, you know that Emmett was like my right arm.
00:01:08
Speaker
um And I know you know what this is like, Trav, because you lost your Gus. ah Gus.
00:01:16
Speaker
When I say Gus, yes but since it's Gustav, technically the spelling is Gus. So I usually, when I'm texting you or Anna, I usually spell it as G U S you lost goose, uh, in early August.
00:01:32
Speaker
And, uh, yeah, I, in I have been um in Montana, as you know, but I received word that he wasn't doing well from the sitters. Was able to get a first flight home in order to and at least to say goodbye.
00:01:47
Speaker
And then he passed yesterday afternoon. um This is not the pod to go into that. I think serendipitously we are covering a dog-related movie next week, Good Boy, a new release.
00:01:59
Speaker
And so I think that's where we can have our our goose and Emmett talk. But I just wanted to mention it because if I... You know, don't sound as chipper or sound a little down, but i'm I'm happy to be here. Like I'm a s stoked to cover this movie. This is a fun movie and i love doing the pot and I think it's nice to still like find your routines and have an escape.
00:02:17
Speaker
um I will give a ah positive anecdote to this and it's a Kurt Russell one at that. um When I received word that he was not doing well,
00:02:28
Speaker
and It is very sudden. This is a very sudden. It didn't like wasn't sick that I knew of or anything. um But it was late in Montana and we had an early call time the next morning. um Everybody except for Kurt and I.
00:02:40
Speaker
And so when I texted the production, nobody answered. i was like, Hey, I'm looking at flights tomorrow. Like I might not be here for a couple of days, depending on how this goes. Well, the one person that did answer was Kurt, who was also a dog person.
00:02:52
Speaker
And he was a very simple message. He just said, get on that plane. And, uh, I will never forget that because I didn't hear from anybody else, but to have the main man, Kurt Russell kind of gave me the green light.
00:03:04
Speaker
Um, it wasn't even a question for him. And I bought my flight two minutes later, got out. Um, got the same like advice so yeah that's what i mean i already really really like kurt russell um and focusing on the positive that's that's c incredible man yeah dude i am in a good place i'm i'm staying right now with emmett's dog sitters who are like family to me and they always watch him when i'm traveling on a shoot and so this is kind of like emmett's second home with his second parents so it's nice to be here i'm just gonna say right now thank you for being ah kind and checking in on me with the dog stuff
00:03:39
Speaker
And I'm excited to talk about that with you next week with Good Boy. Yeah, of course, man. Of course. We'll talk about tone and different stuff on the production today.
Horror Movie News
00:03:51
Speaker
um We also have an interview with one of our good friends, a good mutual friend from where we went to college at SMU, Joe Gaspeck. So this episode will be a bit different because we prerecorded talking through all of our awards for the movie we're covering today with him. So you'll hear the audio switch a bit when we get to that live conversation where Rick and I were person together in Denver and had Joe calling in.
00:04:15
Speaker
Um, Yeah, well, what's weird about that is that that record was cut off preemptively too because I had to go to the hospital. So we'll have to come back after we share that audio with you and finish off your notes. you are frequent listener and listen to our Conjuring Last Rites episode, we cover Rick's medical emergency there that actually kept him in Denver where we recorded that episode and then Conjuring Last Rites in Denver as well.
00:04:43
Speaker
um And then you had some news out of China for us. I do. OK, so this one this one um grabbed my my eyes here because it's a movie we covered.
00:04:55
Speaker
So ah together, which already you know by Michael Shanks, the movie together with Alison Brie and and Dave Franco already had its own fair share of controversy because of the allegations of of um plagiarism, which never really went anywhere. i don't know if you've seen updates there, but ah either Neon just stomped them to death and said go away or they made a settlement.
00:05:17
Speaker
I don't know. But got some new controversy. This time it's not, ah this is not an indictment on anybody who made the film. This is against a um film distributor out of China, mainland China called He Shao.
00:05:30
Speaker
This is the first time in recent memory or memory at all where they used AI to change something in the film to meet their internal requirements for what's appropriate.
00:05:41
Speaker
So interesting timing, given all the ah public discussion around censorship and free speech. Yes. If you remember, there's a photo ah of one of the characters being married to a man. It's the teacher.
00:05:55
Speaker
It's the colleague of Alison Breed. Remember that? Yeah. It's Damon Harriman's character. Yes. And ah it it shows them getting married. um It might not even be just a photo. it It might be some footage of the wedding from like a home video.
00:06:10
Speaker
Yeah, you see his spouse a few times. I think initially through a photo later through a video in the film. Yeah. So they AI it so that his husband was is now a woman.
00:06:22
Speaker
So they basically Photoshop the woman's face over one of the men and immediately people flagged it. um Yeah. Yeah. Let's just say that. pretty Pretty aggressive move to change things to make things. yeah The one gay character they photoshopped or used AI to make his spouse become a woman.
00:06:40
Speaker
I will say seeing the image, it's serviceable. It's kind of scary because that it looks... I wouldn't have known without pretext that it had changed something. Well, some people caught it and they're not happy. So not a place to go to watch movies or or do much over there except ah work a lot of hours for small wages. I guess the only movie news I was going to mention is we are not covering The Strangers Chapter Two.
00:07:06
Speaker
It is releasing this weekend for horror fans of the franchise. It is one that we can be subjective in which films we choose to cover. Who knows if it does huge at the box office, maybe we'll come back and revisit it one day.
00:07:19
Speaker
Um, yeah, I've never seen any of the strangers movies, uh, didn't have a big interest in that scene. None. and You've never seen the original with Lyft Tyler? No, I always get that and the others confused. And I saw the others in the Cole Kidman. I've never seen the Strangers. Oh, the original's great.
00:07:31
Speaker
yeah the The original I highly recommend. I can't come in. Having a horror pod, I'll make sure you watch that soon. all right, well, Sphia of Great Movies, this is The Sunday Scaries. I'm Travis Telerik. I'm Ricky Townsend.
00:07:43
Speaker
Today, we are covering a film that came out earlier this year. In fact, right before we started our podcast, final destination bloodlines. We intentionally wanted to go back and capture this movie because this is one heck of a revival for a franchise that hasn't had a new entry in over a decade.
00:08:01
Speaker
And it was very much a surprise success for the year. So without getting too far into it yet, Rick, tell our listeners what this film's about. The IMDb logline. so I'm going to IMDb for this one plagued by recurring violent nightmare.
00:08:15
Speaker
a college student returns home to find the one person who can break the cycle and save her family from the horrific fate that inevitably awaits them. Yeah. This is these movies. If you've seen them or familiar with them is all about death taking down people one by one and some very Rube Goldberg ask or bizarre kills.
00:08:37
Speaker
And man, I, I will ask you first, Rick, what'd you think of this film? I love this movie. Yeah. I love this. This is an all timer for me. Uh, probably like, I think I say, I think I say this in our, in our segment with the Joe, but I'll, I think I do say that the first one is still my favorite just because it's, uh,
00:08:57
Speaker
And it it brings horror, like truly horror, like it's the very horrific and there's dread inducing. But this is the most fun, in my opinion. It's such a good intersection of like ridiculousness and creative, elaborate hijinks. And like you said, the Rube Goldberg sequences.
00:09:15
Speaker
is so self-confident. It knows. Yes. Why people go to see these movies and it leans into humor and ah gore and and while, while keeping it propulsive.
00:09:29
Speaker
Um, I just think it's like a very confident script and it's fun direction. uh, I had a blast and it's no, it's, it's not a surprise.
00:09:40
Speaker
It's a surprise that it was a hit, but once you see the movie, it makes a lot of sense for why it's one of the top grossing horrors of the of the year. I think this is. Yeah. i'm I'm surprised you still like the first one better. Cause I am a big final destination fan. I've seen all the films of the franchise leading up to this, the previous five, most of them multiple times.
00:09:58
Speaker
And this is far and away my favorite. Cause I think they reverse engineered, just like you were saying, what people like out of these movies. The original one came and just on the heels of all our 90s slashers. It came out in 2000, but very much still feels like a a teen slasher.
00:10:16
Speaker
And it has elements of camp and elements of over-the-top deaths, but I feel like they didn't quite know what they had at that time quite yet. And now decades later,
00:10:28
Speaker
um This film does a great job of capturing what did the audience like most about this film? And let's focus on that. that Let's dial that up. And they did such a good job of that. It really leans into parody. Yes.
00:10:42
Speaker
One of our most used phrases. But this is like for fun horror movies of 2025. think this is still number one for me because we look at some of our other favorite films and sinners and weapons and 28 years later for me the long walk they some heft they have heft where I think we capture this when we're talking about the long walk pod these deaths feel weightless it feels weird to say but there is comedy in it and there entertainment in it and it hits very different than your your typical horror movies
00:11:14
Speaker
I was just seeing what my where I think it's ranked my number four oh favorite horror movie of the year. And i to your point about you're surprised that i still like the first one most. I remember I haven't seen the first one more than once, and it could just be like that was pent up ah excitement that I finally got the CFO destination movie. And i I just love the lore and the the novelty of making death the villain of a slasher and they don't ever fall into the trap of making it an actual grim reaper with a cloak and a, you know, scythe.
00:11:49
Speaker
to to do that successfully, I just really excited by So maybe if I go back and watch, this one will be um bumped up. But ah
Overall Thoughts on Final Destination Bloodlines
00:11:56
Speaker
regardless, just so much fun. And i obviously a lot of other people liked it.
00:12:01
Speaker
um made have Made a lot of money. Yeah, we could definitely talk about that in production notes. I think the other thing that sets this one apart from the rest of the franchise too is they made the start of this like a period piece.
00:12:12
Speaker
Like you have a very long opening sequence in a franchise that is most known probably for those opening sequence kills, these premonitions that kind of kick off each film.
00:12:24
Speaker
And this time, instead of kind of doing the formulaic approach, the last five films have taken, whereas your main protagonist, you'll see through the rest of the film, usually saving her friends or bystanders around her.
00:12:36
Speaker
This time we have, you know, a flashback to what the 1960s and it was really fun and and well done. And then they tie that in and kind of the lineage of this family back to this event from decades ago.
00:12:49
Speaker
And I thought that was really cool taking the franchise in a different direction and setting it up that way.
00:12:55
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it it almost serves as a um it's a prequel and a sequel in a way because it gives a really it adds a whole new layer of the lore of why death is doing this because of that one incident.
00:13:13
Speaker
Right. Because as you if you watch the film and this is not a spoiler because it's part of the premise, but Because Iris saves so many people, ah death has to then go back and take them out. In this film, she does save, it seems like well over 100 people and decades ago, where death now has the the tough job of not just them, but again, their entire bloodline and lineage because those people would never have existed had this crisis not been averted in the first place.
00:13:43
Speaker
Yes, you put it more succinctly than I than i was getting to. ba Yeah, that that that for um for a franchise that already has such a great premise and lore that it's simple to understand, they seamlessly added more lore and more to the premise without making it collapsing on itself.
00:14:01
Speaker
It's like, oh, the rules are still the same, but let's apply this rule to a situation where this woman was able to save hundreds of people. And yeah, death's now got to work overtime. And I could see him getting pissed. Like they had another baby and another baby and another baby got to kill all their bloodlines. everyone I killed, two more pop up kind of deal, you know?
00:14:20
Speaker
they don't they and they don't take full advantage of this, but I'd like to think that ah final destination one, two, three, four, and five, that those people are within those, some of them are within the bloodlines, right? Like some of these instances happen. Yes. They, they make a few references as if that's the case. Like it's all tied back to this one incident.
00:14:39
Speaker
Yeah. Um, but yeah, i mean, what else is there to say? It's a, it's a fun time, really rewatchable, great performances too. i know we'll get into casting, but, uh, They ride that line between you know being exaggerated versus being really scared being there's a lot of range of emotions and we're on the same page as far as the tone to strike which is hard to do in a movie like this yeah you can sometimes find people or uh actors that or might be in a movie where you have to ride that line and it's clearly they're acting in a different movie like their idea of this is different but everybody got the assignment in this one yes yeah it's it's too funny i think we touched on this later uh when we're chatting with joe but
00:15:21
Speaker
You know, a lot of people die in this film. It's a close family member and it's just like, oh no. Well, anyways, and they move on to like the next set piece. Yeah. like You know, more traditional horror movies have to spend a lot of time on the funeral procession and the grieving that goes around that. But this one is just fast paced going from one kill to the next.
00:15:38
Speaker
Well, that's what I meant by it's a confident movie in that it's confident in its and its role in horror history. It retells enough of the story for new people to the franchise. But even if you've never seen a Final Destination movie, you kind of understand what you're supposed to expect. And it was a very confident example of of using ah franchise's place in in a genre's history with...
00:16:01
Speaker
things to add to it too. They didn't lean too much into it where it's like there was just a nostalgia play because it wasn't it was very much forward thinking do. Mm hmm. Yeah, I love it. It rewatching it. I realized I liked it even more the second time than the first time around. And that's rare to say for horror films. So I think it will stand the test of time here.
00:16:19
Speaker
And Yeah, I think with that, we can, i mean, other than the fact this is dipping into production notes, but it's probably worth calling out, like the sequel is already greenlit, it sounds like, because it's such a massive success.
00:16:32
Speaker
Yeah, not a lot information, but New Line has said that they' it's in development. Are we talking about production notes? Yeah, well, let's let's go right into production notes with that. So when we say smashing success, the film had a larger budget than the original ones. It had a budget of $50 million, but it did $138 million domestic box office and three hundred million worldwide sort of So to sort of frame this, like that domestic box office was more than two times greater than any prior film in the franchise. So it blew it out of the water, especially with a lot of franchises you see where their box office might dip over time, you get more sequels and slowly loses steam.
00:17:11
Speaker
This is not the case here. um You know, even thinking about this year in general, it is the 14th highest domestic box office of the year thus far. Not just horror. September, not just horror.
00:17:24
Speaker
It's the fourth highest horror film only behind Sinners, The Conjuring Last Rites and Weapons. know Is that for, that's for domestic or worldwide? For domestic. Okay. But, but it had the higher opening than sinners and weapons, right? Cause the only, the only higher opening was, um, conjuring. Yes. Yes. Conjuring lost rights was like over 80 million in its opening weekend but domestically. So yeah, cause this got 51, I think.
00:17:50
Speaker
And it's good enough for a top 20 all time, uh, worldwide gross, and gross for a horror film. And want to hear the craziest part about those top four horror films of the year?
00:18:01
Speaker
Huh? They're all Warner Brothers. Sinners, weapons, conjuring last rites and final destination bloodlines. All Warner Brothers released. They have been cleaning up. Yes. Well, that's amazing.
00:18:11
Speaker
And I do hope whatever happens with this acquisition, if it does happen, that the that we keep getting quality horror films, making us these scary movies, a non horror aside. ah One of my most anticipated films of the year, if not the most is one battle after another. Paul Thomas Anderson. Yeah, with out this weekend.
00:18:29
Speaker
Coming out this weekend. um It'll be part of my grieving process to go to a movie. No, going to give myself that gift going back to AMC because I'm stuck with a regal over in ah Bozeman, Montana. So I'll be back to getting the cushy Dolby experience.
00:18:44
Speaker
I believe this we are finally going to end the streak of $40 million dollars plus openings from WB because this is tracking to hit like 20, which is unfortunate, but not surprising given PTA is probably, i don't think ever made a profitable film, but they're all bangers. so You know what? This is why you do it, though. This is a good studio that makes a lot of money on these other films, and then that can help finance and offset the losses on these more precious arthouse films. so One for us, one for them.
Production Notes
00:19:15
Speaker
Exactly. Exactly. yeah Not a horror plug go see it Tell us about, um again, the filmmakers for this movie, for Bloodlines. Just like the cast, relatively unknown.
00:19:26
Speaker
Yeah, ah our directors here, Zach Lepofsky, he's a Canadian. He is, aside from ah now a now feature film director, visual effects specialist, as well as a former child actor.
00:19:38
Speaker
um ah He's been involved in a few B movies, I would say. ah Leprechaun Origins being one of them. He also co-directed some Kim Possible stuff. So you can see some of the Kim Possible influence here, right? People are...
00:19:52
Speaker
Jumping around. Yeah. And he's a pretty frequent collaborator with Adam Stein. Like they made the Kim Posse movie together. They made a movie called Freaks together, but these are all lesser known. I think you say it courteously in B movies.
00:20:06
Speaker
Adam Stein, smart guy, Harvard grad, and then went on to study at USC. Mm-hmm. in LA. um So that's who we have in the director's chair. i know you're going to tell us how they won the job, which is hilarious.
00:20:18
Speaker
But before we get there, um the writers we ended up getting were Laurie Evans Taylor and gu Guy Busiek, but they're not the writers who started on the project. So let's take a little trip down memory lane to um Final Destination 5 in 2011. So there was supposed to be- And pause you right there.
00:20:35
Speaker
Yeah. The last film, Final Destination 5, you just referenced. 14 years ago, there was a 14 year break in the franchise, which again, just makes it incredible that it was dead. Like the franchise death had come for the franchise and turns out someone un resuscitated it because it came back here over a decade later and did this well.
00:20:55
Speaker
We should give ah Jeffrey Reddick some some props here. The original writer. He wrote the story ah as a as a spec and then they brought in writers to refine it. And so um I think he did get a co-writing credit. he did. it But he's he he is less and less involved as this franchise goes on, but he's still credited as the creator.
00:21:14
Speaker
But so the initial idea was like after Final Destination five that they would go on to make more, um which I'm still a little confused why they didn't do it immediately after considering it did decent in the box office, made like 160 million um on a $40 million dollars budget.
00:21:30
Speaker
But reviews weren't kind of worldwide. Oh, yeah, maybe that's why you worldwide. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, definitely. um Third highest grossing movie in the franchise. But ah They they they dawdled back and forth for a bit. um It wasn't until 2019 where New Line says, OK, we we actually do.
00:21:49
Speaker
We believe the marketplace wants another Final Destination movie. I think the tepid reviews and not making as much as they wanted to in the last one maybe gave them some pause. um So initially, the guys who wrote Saw four through seven, ah Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan wrote the first draft.
00:22:07
Speaker
um So we almost had a Saw. Interesting. Yeah. Originated movie here. Um, they scrapped that. Not completely, though, because they are listed as um ah they get some credit for additional materials. So they must have used something from those nuggets, some nuggets from their scripts.
00:22:24
Speaker
And then in October 2021, Laurie Evans Taylor, who really has not done a lot of note, nothing that I recognized. um Guy Busick, who she wrote this with, wrote Ready or Not, Scream, Scream 6, Abigail.
00:22:37
Speaker
And Ready or Not is a great comp for this film or great companion film here. It's the same like weightless, fun, yeah, same tone. and a nice eat the rich story.
00:22:47
Speaker
Oh, I should also mention that in 22 January 2022, this is after the directors got the job. So we'll go back to that in a second. This was originally going to be just released on HBO Max. Oh,
00:22:58
Speaker
And it wasn't until March, 2024 where Warner Brothers is like, no, we're doing this. Maybe that was still pandemic thinking like, oh, we're just going straight to streaming. But, uh, most people already know this story, but it's still worth repeating.
00:23:10
Speaker
Tell us, out of a hundred plus candidates, how Lipovsky and Stein got the job trap. Yeah. So lesser known directors, they have some body of work, but not big names in the industry by any means.
00:23:22
Speaker
And so what has been reported is there was over 200 directors interviewed, but Lepofsky and Stein won the job because these interviews were over Zoom, think pandemic again, and they had pre-recorded and staged a mock accident during their pitch with the same film style like Rube Goldberg-esque sequences where...
00:23:45
Speaker
You know, there's there's a fireplace behind them and the mantle begin burning and then a ceiling fan drops off and decapitates one of them. And this is in their pitch to the producers. funny What's funny is that They separate those two accidents enough to where they get the producers off their guard because it's just the fire at first. Yes.
00:24:03
Speaker
And it's like, oh, ah the fire is creeping up the wall. Let's get a fire extinguisher. All the producers are clapping. And I think they even hinted. I wish there was a video of this because it has not been released yet. Somebody should.
00:24:17
Speaker
But one of the things they use to like quell the flames is not just the fire extinguisher, but they they do turn on a big fan. like So they they make the producers realize there's a big fan in the room, but that is part of the solution to get rid of that fire.
00:24:31
Speaker
And then, yeah, once the fire's out and they're clapping at the gag, that's not real. Then the fan falls and decapitates one of them. Is it Adam? is is that I forget which one, but anyways, it was cool. Super innovative. It was funny.
00:24:44
Speaker
mean, it's... predictive of the movie that would then come. And so really cool way to see how some directors want a job in such a competitive ah addition there.
00:24:55
Speaker
I think that's most of what I have for production notes other than talking about the cast outside of Tony Todd, just like the crew. The cast is relatively unknown, untested early in their careers as well.
00:25:10
Speaker
I was looking at their body of work. There's not too many familiar roles here. um But I guess we should still give a shout out to Caitlin Santawana plays our lead. She plays Stephanie.
00:25:21
Speaker
Her brother is Charlie is played by Tio Briones. And then, you know, we have a mom who's Raya Kilstedt. Richard Harmon, who I know we'll talk about later in the episode, but he's Eric, who is one of their cousins.
00:25:34
Speaker
It's all with Owen Patrick Joyner, plays their cousin Bobby. And their last cousin, Julia, is played by Anna Lore. Um, all those names that ramble them off fairly quickly, because again, look at their body work, very unfamiliar with them, but they all do a very serviceable job. You know, again, they, they knew their place where they lean a little into camp, uh, a lot into the gags and it makes it really enjoyable. I think they cast it really well.
00:25:59
Speaker
But yeah, as you mentioned, the, the one name that um people will recognize, whether it be on paper or, um, seeing him on the big screen is Tony Todd. So, um,
00:26:10
Speaker
You know, huge contributor to ah to horror who unfortunately passed away in November of 2024. um Obviously, Candyman is his big um his big legacy piece that people will remember. But um it's not the only thing he did. so you know, Joe talks about it a bit on our on our segment with him, but that he was a a returning character on Star Trek.
00:26:35
Speaker
which is cool. Yeah. um He's obviously ah miss William Bloodsworth in this movie and sorry, in this franchise. And he's ah ledin like the one returning character where he's not in every film, but he he has in most of them.
00:26:50
Speaker
And he's in one, two, three, two Three, he plays a disembodied voice of the devil ah before they go on the roller coaster. He's like Satan. I didn't realize that. He's the voice of the animatronic Satan saying like, yeah, enjoy the ride. And then he's back in five.
00:27:06
Speaker
Correct. He's not in four at all. Four is the worst film. i've read I think you've said that when as you've seen all of them and you're like, maybe the only reason that one is so bad is because Tony Todd's not there. Yeah. um But for a movie that is, ah you know, you can pretty much just have a whole new cast each time. It's nice to have a recurring character. And I think he's used amazingly in each movie, the ones that use them, at least, especially this one. um have a quote from one of the producers, Craig Perry.
00:27:34
Speaker
ah We wanted somebody who always looked like he had a secret that he wasn't telling, sort of enigma behind his eyes. And i think that checks out for the the moments that he's in this franchise. But for this one particular was special because if you've seen the other movies, you know that um he's the only expert on how these things work. And we don't know why he's an expert. We just know he's this creepy mortician who has ah he he can kind of be the delivery mechanism for some of the rules of how death operates.
00:28:04
Speaker
um that you know there's some there's some workarounds. Like if you die and come back to life, it skips you. Or if you kill somebody else, then you've passed it on to something like that. You fulfill death's requirements.
00:28:16
Speaker
Yes. it it It doesn't go into why he knows these things. And without spoiling, this movie still does add some ah meat to his past. It adds some lore to his past. And maybe you can infer how he knows these things.
00:28:31
Speaker
um But we can get into that during the spoiler part of our episode. Right. Well, I was just going to say for a franchise that is so focused on characters who become hyper aware of their mortality and see death quickly approaching.
The Legacy of Tony Todd
00:28:46
Speaker
This was really, really cool to have him in this film because at the time of production, again, he filmed the scenes, but he was very sick and, you know, art imitates real life sometimes. Like he was very aware of his own mortality And so this film was made kind of as a capstone where a lot of it applies to the film, but also life in general. And it gives them a very nice send off in that regard because his character blood worth in the film kind of packs things up when we're seeing one last time here. So they wrapped up his character arc through the franchise here.
00:29:18
Speaker
And you know, that it's sad to know that he passed before the film was released, but i also I'd say it's touching of a tribute as you could get from a campy slasher or franchise.
00:29:33
Speaker
I'm glad you said that because I think the way that the filmmakers collaborated with him makes it that way, makes it somewhat sentimental and a non-sentimental property. um Because when they asked him to come back, it wasn't public knowledge that he was sick. He disclosed to them that he was um and said, it's terminal stomach cancer. I'm not you know going to live that much longer.
00:29:55
Speaker
and they asked if he really wanted to do this and he said, yes, please, like, don't write me out. I would love to make a final appearance. um And ah so Adam Stein, one of the directors, ah said this to cinema blend. He said, you know, we went up to Tony and said, hey, Tony, what is all this final destination death stuff? What do you want to leave the fans with? If you had to say it in your own words and The take that's in the movie. Oh, sorry.
00:30:21
Speaker
So that's this question to Tony Todd. So the take that's in the movie is actually him speaking from the heart directly to the fans about what he thinks about life and death. And Adam said, I think that's why it's so emotionally powerful because it's really him.
00:30:34
Speaker
The final couple of lines he says are just him. The script ended with, I'm retiring and I'm going to enjoy the time I've left and that's it. But what he does in the actual movie is bring it to the next level with what he says about what what what he says at that door, which is basically,
00:30:47
Speaker
All life is precious. Enjoy the time you have left. Enjoy every single second because you never know when. And so on the very first episode of this podcast, two months ago, bring her back. We said that. yeah Oh, wow. Yeah.
00:31:02
Speaker
Time flies. Uh, That horror, but one of the reasons we like it is that it is a canvas to explore many different themes, social anxieties, interests.
00:31:15
Speaker
And like, here's a perfect example, is that the canvas is wide enough to have this really funny tongue-in-cheek movie, but then to honor somebody in a really...
00:31:26
Speaker
serious way and it still works. It doesn't feel out of place. Yes. hundred percent. So I'm sure we'll have more to say on Tony Todd and the cast in whole, but think this a good segue to go to our prerecorded interview with friend of the pod, Joe Gaspeck.
00:31:43
Speaker
You know you make me wanna shout, kick my heels up and shout, throw my hands up and shout, throw my head back and shout. All right, joining us on the pod today, we got former college roommate and name the year enthusiast, Joe Gaspick. Joe, how are we doing?
00:31:57
Speaker
Hey guys, glad to be on the pod. the show first time caller third time listener and and kind of a pioneer when it comes to getting on radio waves pirate radio Joe was a co-host of easy ride at our alma mater SMU what can you tell us about easy ride Joe?
00:32:14
Speaker
Well, first of all, don't forget that the the easy ride. I'm sorry. Never. But yeah, this is my, I think I'm ending my 15 year hiatus from the airwaves. Can you believe we're that old now?
00:32:25
Speaker
on The easy ride was a local campus radio show that me and Andy ran. We played some limited music selections from what the campus had purchased. Did some banter, had some segments.
00:32:38
Speaker
I believe I used to ask people out on dates when they called in. That was a good one. How'd that work? The intention was that they would never say yes, so I wouldn't have to follow through on it. this is You were successful in that then?
00:32:51
Speaker
One time it actually started to lead to a yes and we kind of panicked and had to pivot. Well, glad that we're breaking your hiatus. Maybe this will be some clickbait for people to tune in. Joe Gazbek has as broken as silence. The return. The return.
00:33:06
Speaker
um Awesome. Well, yeah, continue our conversation about Final Destination Bloodlines. We're jumping right into our awards now. Should we mention that we're in person? Oh, yeah. Well, that's why I guess we'll bring it up in the start top of the real episode, although we might not be recording that in person. So let this serve as apologize for any production quality right now. Rick and I are in person sharing a single mic.
00:33:28
Speaker
Joe is calling in on speakerphone right now. And so this is not a normal setup. But lot more intimate. you know I can stare directly into his eyes now instead of the computer camera. I'm i'm just sad we don't have any DONGs to talk about while I look into you. Yeah.
00:33:40
Speaker
Those probably movies. They could have in this one, too. Well, there's dong there's a DONG-focused part of a scene. We don't see the DONG. You know what I'm talking about? Yes, you're right. You see the outline of a DONG. Yeah.
00:33:52
Speaker
The tease. The tease. But ah yeah, in person, relationship first, production quality second on this one. Exactly. So thanks for bearing with us.
Awards feat. Joe Gaasbeck!
00:34:01
Speaker
Um, we're jumping right into our scarometer. So out of 10, how scary do we think this film is?
00:34:08
Speaker
Again, the high point is the ring at a nine. What's our, what's our lowest point? ah We have three ranked at three. oh Jaws, uh, 28, 28 weeks or years later, years later, you or me. I put a three there, maybe just two at three because of the dog.
00:34:26
Speaker
I thought years later was scarier because of that. I think I was one point higher out of four. i i can Honestly, i give this a one. This is more of a comedy for me. Wow. It's a one, but there's not a that's not an indictment. It's just like I wasn't scared at all, but I had a hell of a time watching It was lot of fun. But i I mean, if we're going to kind of have a scale here, I think this is the least scariest movie watched. Joe, no context here to anchor you. Where where are you? I'm curious getting your thoughts before get my own.
00:34:53
Speaker
Oh, for me, I kind of thought about how I felt about original Final Destination. Now, granted, I was like 11 year old watching it in my friend's room at night. But like that was way scarier than this. Agreed. this this and I felt like this movie was more of like a mystery film. And you were like, what's going to happen? But you weren't like scared of it.
00:35:15
Speaker
Yeah, I think the franchise pivoted a bit from actually trying to be a scary horror movie in its roots in the original films to embracing just the the comedy of of the absurd deaths here. And this leans into more of that and probably for the better, but because that little less scary, but I need a number. I need a number. Travis needs a number.
00:35:35
Speaker
i'll I'll give it a two simply because I live within 500 feet of several train crosses. It's personal. Yeah. Yeah. if If I lived somewhere else, it would probably be a one.
00:35:46
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, the deaths are so absurd. It's hard to scare you too much from those. I want to get us to two, so I'm going to intentionally say three on my end. So that just brings our average up to about a two. Because I, just to overrule Rick's one, I don't feel right giving giving this movie a one.
00:36:02
Speaker
think there will be less scary movies to we watch in the future, and I want to reserve that one for them. I guess if like a movie where no one dies would be a one, then maybe this happens. We've already done some Poltergeist No One Dies. Yeah. That's still spooky. Yeah, that's still spooky. mean, but we're going to watch like Nightmare Before Christmas soon. Yeah, that's okay. There might be some little ones there. I'm not going change my rating. Boogie Boogie Man?
00:36:23
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. It is a little creepy. I applaud the games and shit. Yeah. Let's go with that. All right. So we'll we'll agree on a two there. right. So we're going change up our format of our death-related awards and our highlight-related awards and kind of intertwine them all because this franchise is known for its deaths.
00:36:40
Speaker
So I think we're just going to give a rundown ah chronologically of all the deaths that happened in this film, a bit of a recap, and then circle back after going into detail on each one and try to rank what was the... ah worst death to the best death captured in the And keep in mind, some of these are death scenes. We're not going to talk about all 80 100 people that died at Skyview. Exactly. We'll call out some of them. We'll batch, especially the premonition scene, we'll batch them together.
00:37:06
Speaker
Yeah. um But starting with highlights, because this goes right into the start of the film and what Final Destination is for, for its premonition scenes. Definitely a highlight for me was the opening for this film.
00:37:17
Speaker
um You know, they're changing a few things out there. um It's a bit of a period piece. It's really cool. You see them driving over train tracks. They got, what is that, a red sports car. I don't know the make. I didn't capture it. And they bring it up again later in the film. So I apologize for missing that. But...
00:37:32
Speaker
You're introduced to some very likable main characters. As soon as you see this sky view tower, as soon as that's revealed, I think we know where the film is headed and what is going to happen in this premonition. but um When you say likable, can i piggyback off that? Yeah.
00:37:46
Speaker
Because that is what I think makes this scene work so well. we're always going to get the Rube Goldberg stuff. Uh, you know, it's going be creative and fun, but like, I love Iris in this.
00:37:57
Speaker
She doesn't care. This guy is poor as shit. All right. he's He's not, he doesn't have the reservation. Things aren't working. She's, she's going along with it. They sit at the bar. Um,
00:38:09
Speaker
He's OK with like which the the flowers that he he plucks, you know there that she plucks. It's all about the relationship. And it doesn't matter that this guy is like kind of a nobody or whatever.
00:38:20
Speaker
And then the free champagne. yeah She's like, that's my favorite type. yeah It's free. So it was like, she wasn't a money chaser, you know? And this is different than the first films. in the first ones, it's always like a group of friends or a group of characters you see getting killed off.
00:38:32
Speaker
I feel like every one past films always has the one asshole character you meet very early on in the premonition is going to be a thorn in their side for like the rest of the movie. But here you don't get that yet. Very likeable main characters from the get go.
00:38:44
Speaker
Yeah. i mean, the original was with rich spoiled kids in high school going to Paris. yeah So you can't, yeah who's relating to that yeah the lady who likes free champagne i'm like yeah i'm right there with it so i i really like the pivot here setting up the sky view and then right when they get to the hotel like everything they do a lot of it is textbook final destination movies but i think it's just done really well here so you get yeah know a radio being tuned to a song like lot the prior films do i think it starts playing ring of fire when they show up right before that is bad moon rising oh and bad moon rising okay yeah two big budget songs back to back. Yeah, so showing off they're tuned in with the music.
00:39:22
Speaker
They're tuned in with just the little hands to hear stuff that may go wrong. I think they're going up the elevator and the the bellboy saying like the entire project was completed five months ahead of schedule. And you're like, okay, I know exactly what's happening. She even she even said like, is that good? Is that a good thing?
00:39:39
Speaker
you know I feel like developers in horror movies, we're talking about this in the Poltergeist, they're always the villain. like If they were late on building this, a lot of people are complaining, like what's taking them forever? can't when If they're early, is it safe enough? like i I guess you have to be exactly when you promised it was going to be the worst. Joe, I know if know, but on this part... This is the real estate... This is big real estate. This is big real this is big real estate talking right now.
00:40:00
Speaker
I've heard it come up a few times. I try to keep them in check, Joe. Have either of you been to the Stratosphere in Vegas? I've been to the stratosphere. Yep. I've been to the top. I have not. The interior is like pretty modeled after. Spot on. Yeah. Circular bar level and it's slanted windows.
00:40:17
Speaker
And like the space needle as well. I'm assuming. Yeah, I've been to space. there Yeah. I'm assuming these are similar layouts, but yes, I, I did. Shout out reunion tower. shout out read yeah Shout out reunion tower in Dallas. I had to look up if this was a real tower.
00:40:29
Speaker
Um, after the film, I was like, Oh, is this a real place? But no, it was fictionalized just for the movie. Trap, the large volume slash green string didn't give it away.
00:40:41
Speaker
it looks so real. yeah Yeah. Where can I find this place? I'm i'm the audience who just gobbles it up. who I'm like, oh, that looks entirely realistic. I believe it. I believe it. Yeah, every piece leading up to as they're getting settled in there, you know.
00:40:53
Speaker
Final Destination loves the quick cuts to like seeing gears in like the tower, the elevators, the audio effects. they They're so dialed in with, I think while you're up there, you hear the wind howling, you see the skillets. And you also know that they're going to,
00:41:07
Speaker
They're to some red herrings in there. Oh, yeah. Like they're going to show you bits of pieces of things breaking apart or clinking or whatever. um I have a question for you guys, though. um Well, before my question about how this catastrophe starts, there's two other big songs that come in after that first pair that you mentioned, Joe.
00:41:24
Speaker
You got Shout. by the band singing that song. And then you have raindrops keep falling on my head. i know we'll get to that. But ah all of us between all of us, have we seen all the final destinations I've seen up until I've seen the first three and this one seen four. I have discovered I've seen them all. did I want to ask you this. Is this the first time that we have a ah set piece?
00:41:45
Speaker
where two separate incidents caused the catastrophe. Because you have the chandelier that drops and cracks the floor, and then you also have penny the penny. So I just noticed that my second rewat or my second watch, that you had two things happening. mean, the film is defined by a lot of, like a one in a million chance of...
00:42:04
Speaker
lightning striking in multiple places so i do think in other premonitions or death related events okay there are independent causes that that group together for the perfect storm so to speak yeah so i don't know if it's unique okay but um there's something i picked up i do like that they're kind of giving you context on each of those and and teasing what could go wrong and then getting right into it um I mean, before shit really starts hitting the fan, i think the only other things I had in my notes that was worth mentioning is that little snot-nosed kid who's stealing coins from a for wishing fountain, which we all know. like You can't do that. like so sorry. Who does collect that money eventually, though? like Does it go to charity? Does the owner of the establishment eventually fish it out?
00:42:46
Speaker
Does it sit there for all of time? you're not supposed to it. actually saw this happening in Italy. They sweep out all the money, and don't know where it goes. Maybe it's just those people keeping it, but they do periodically come. and clear it out.
00:42:58
Speaker
Someone's profiting off this. The man's winning somewhere. I hope it's going to charity, but regardless, the kid's taking the penny out of there. you know He's stomping and on the elevator glass as the elevator's making its way up, and he's trying to drop coins off the side of the building. Eventually does, which leads right into their everyone's demise. His little...
00:43:17
Speaker
Go ahead, Joe. This is the first time that I felt it was a little unrealistic because this is what, 1969 or Yes. Yeah, i think that's right. No one's going to slap that kid across the mouth as he's messing around in the elevator. That's a good point. That's today's toddling level of parents, which was not apparent in the 60s. If it wanted to be an accurate period piece, like,
00:43:36
Speaker
this boy should have at least shown like some welts from his dad. Maybe he was somebody's kid, you know, the Nepo baby. i just love that stupid little Eddie Haskell face that he makes. He's like, oh, of course, sir. I'm so sorry. It's like, it's a little shit.
00:43:48
Speaker
And yeah. And then as they get settled into the restaurant, you know, They end up going up on the roof. they get the free champagne. He proposes. You find out she's pregnant. All these great events.
00:43:58
Speaker
And they come onto the dance floor to start dancing. And this is, again, just why I really love this premonition scene. It's done so well. Whereas the band starts to play shout. Everyone dancing on the glass floor of this tallest level of the tower is intercut with slowly things starting to go wrong in the rest of the building.
00:44:15
Speaker
And it's synced perfectly to the music as well, which is so fun. So, I mean, I know we're talking about death rankings and we're about to get into it, but Final Destination Premonition rankings, this is the second time I've seen the film now.
00:44:28
Speaker
And I think this is my favorite Premonition. It used to be the famous- More than the logs? Yeah, used to be the log scene from Final Destination 2. But this is such an elaborate set piece. There's so much going on.
00:44:39
Speaker
It's so fun with the music as well. They they went from just something that's terrifying. mean, in real life, I'm still going to be more affected, more scared by the log scene. Like, I don't know about you guys, but if I'm driving down an interstate and I see a logging truck, I still make sure to avoid it, not be directly behind them.
00:44:55
Speaker
Where this, not that scared of tall towers, but it just does well. this leans into, like, this one is fully realized that it needs to lean into the laughs. Yeah. The other Final Destinations, I think they know that people are going to find this ridiculous and they know there's some playfulness at at you know in its soul.
00:45:11
Speaker
But here it's like it is comedic timing through and through. like it it is a comedy. Of course, there's still terrifying things happening, but were we don't care about these people when they die. we care about mean Maybe we like their stories. We're invested with them in a certain level, but...
00:45:25
Speaker
I just love that like we hear about her being pregnant. This guy dies, her ah fiance dies within one or two minutes and how he dies and things happening around him. You're more entertained than saddened yeah by the whole experience. That's a good point. As much as we liked him.
00:45:43
Speaker
it's easy to distance yourself from the characters and the rest of the film, which we'll go into, it does a really good job in this one. Like when characters die, there's very little grieving that it has to capture. anyways, I think this is sets us up now for where we can start talking about best deaths.
00:45:55
Speaker
um Stuff starts to go wrong at the tower while they are dancing to shout. And I believe the first deaths we see is the group of people dancing on the glass floor, which i mean, let's be honest here. This is one where I wasn't doing it.
00:46:10
Speaker
I'm not doing that. Yeah, well, I would maybe dance on that. Now i'm a little more frightened, but it clearly wasn't designed to sustain the load. Like this isn't one where there's a freak accident resulting in the floor breaking. It's just so many people on the dance floor that it starts crackling right away, right away.
00:46:27
Speaker
But it's because of the chandelier spear that hit the ground, right? Yeah, but it should be able to withstand... That, right? I was expecting maybe something more supernatural or phenomenal to start the cracking, but you really see it just start to go right as everyone's doing. In the 60s, they were big into tipping their chandeliers with tungsten.
00:46:46
Speaker
so i think that's kind of what led to that The tungsten steel, okay. Thanks, Joe. That's good knowledge. um But the glass floor goes and quickly this ah fun dancing scene turns to horror as, I don't know, it had to be at least a dozen people fall straight through the floor. Well, I i just love the, right when that happens, we get the POV of the valet guys and they're listening to, raindrops keep falling on my head.
00:47:12
Speaker
And I don't know if it's like right when this happens, but somebody just splatters right behind them and they start freaking out. Is it right here when there's a dong, like somebody's head hits a steel beam and there's a big dong. You know what I'm talking about? Yes. I do understand the fact. It breaks the beam. Yes.
00:47:29
Speaker
Yes. I just, I was like a, it was like Titanic except cartoonish. Yeah. So here's the one that I want to talk about. Yeah. And I've watched, I watched this scene like 10 times to make sure that I'm not this right.
00:47:44
Speaker
The floor breaks. right? 40 seconds of screen time elapses. Now I'm willing to say that that's 20 seconds of real time because we get the both perspectives.
00:47:56
Speaker
The chef is still doing his table side flambé.
00:48:01
Speaker
20 seconds after the floor has shattered. I don't think Jeff even planned that one. I think that guy got an assist by accident. A little own goal there? do you think like Did he have headphones in or was he just so in the zone that not even like a dozen people falling on the floor right behind you couldn't couldn't distract you? I think a kitchen's and a talk He was two minutes away from hitting overtime. He's like, I gotta to keep going.
00:48:32
Speaker
then, you know, just like, of course, when you notice that people are coming, don't like put your lid on the pan, flail around with it and find the woman with the most synthetic fabric and dump it.
00:48:43
Speaker
So we, yeah, so we, we get some people engulfed in flame, which is a final destination. feel like go to there's, there's been a lot of victims burnt to crisp and you you start to get that next. Um, but did then we see people pile into the elevator.
00:48:56
Speaker
i think. Oh, I love, I love the callback to the overcapacity guy. Yeah. Sorry. We're overcapacity. And he's getting the guy that told them that they were the host. Yeah. The host who did not let them get a table, get caught in the middle of the elevator and his body just gets severed. Um, drops wait, but before that happens, I had in my notes, that little shit kid is like bursting through people getting in front of them me. And he's like, out of the way children first kids are supposed to say that like adults are supposed to do that for you. yeah It's like giving yourself a nickname.
00:49:27
Speaker
Just a little, little shit. Yeah. this might be a spoiler for a future episode you guys do but I,
00:49:36
Speaker
yeah Do we ever see his parents? I think was man. don't it Like the movie The Orphan. I love that twist. There's just a man who was pretending to be a kid so get in there. There's just no other explanation for his pure malevolence than that.
00:49:50
Speaker
Joe, you so you had a stopwatch while watching this. Did you clock how long that lady was on fire going back to the ah Bobby Flay situation? That one wasn't too long because she runs into the gas vent, which was for some reason throwing out natural gas as well. Yeah. And then everything goes up.
00:50:07
Speaker
I mean, you see a lot of like clinks and stuff going on with the HVAC system earlier. You can't quite tell what it is. Yeah. I'm assuming somehow the, uh, the gas maybe from the furnace, which I don't, it looked like a pretty warm night. So I don't even know where the furnace would be on, but maybe start pumping the gas out through the system. I assume it was kitchen gas. Kitchen gas. Yeah. Yeah.
00:50:27
Speaker
Um, and then the woman who's, who we later learn is Tony Todd's mother. Yes. Her, she has a skin melting situation. Yeah. Not great. Yeah. Yeah. She, she's able to save Tony Todd for the time being has her skin melt off. You see the elevator drop out, I think is where we were going. And then the, uh, the tower starts to teeter over. i love that one side. Yeah. You see the entire side up against the glass. they just all, yeah.
00:50:50
Speaker
is As gravity slowly works on them and then they break through their glass. Um, um when the piano comes crashing through i think this has to be the most vindictive part of all the deaths because they set up this against not those little kid possibly adult like you were alluding to joe but this shitty kid who has now pushed past everyone made it through the stairwell has now exited the building thinking he survived and the baby grand piano just comes crashing down right on him in a huge, like over the top, 120% kind of blood splatter that they needed. Always appreciate a movie, make sure the kids aren't safe. You know but you know you're in for something good.
00:51:28
Speaker
I actually wanted a scene later in the movie where they showed us how that kid ended up dying via the bloodlines. Yes. wanted it to be bad. In real life, that would have been great. i i like I feel like there's a spectrum for horror directors where some of them will never touch a kid. Well, I hope they don't touch kids, Travis. Some of them do.
00:51:48
Speaker
Brian Singer, unfortunately. But where there will never be kid deaths. And kids are safe. They they have this like plot armor. And then this is on the other side of the spectrum where it just sets the kid up really to be the villain and then have this very satisfying kill.
00:52:03
Speaker
I think it helps that it it's just a thick layer of comedy. Yeah. Yes. No one's taking anything seriously here. That's a good point. I think there's no better mark of good filmmaking when the audience roots for a child to die. And then we get to the final desk of the scene. I know we've been talking about it for a while, but Iris and Tony Todd as a boy, as we find out, they both fall out of the tower.
00:52:26
Speaker
you know She's hanging from ah her wedding band that she just put on, which... You know, the load of what she has to be 150 pounds and it's supporting another like 50, 60 pound kid that she's holding up.
00:52:39
Speaker
I have a hard time believing that when it wouldn't just shredded her finger off. like it Sounds like you have a dull knife. But they they fall to their deaths and upon their deaths, the scene ends as we're then introduced to the main protagonist, Stephanie Reyes, who wakes up screaming in a lecture hall.
00:52:54
Speaker
And the last part I want to say about this, we've covered this on the earlier ep, Joe, and I don't know if you're familiar with this. But when I was at SMU, I fell asleep in Chinle's Intro to Finance course and had a night terror in the middle of that course and woke up screaming in the middle of a 100-person lecture hall.
00:53:10
Speaker
So it was very relatable seeing that portrayed in film here. Now, did the professor do a great follow-up like they did in the movie? Did they comment on your screen? yeah He was very nice. and he just asked if I was okay.
00:53:23
Speaker
He should have made fun of you. No, he's very courteous. I couldn't handle how embarrassed I was. I lasted for like another 60 seconds before I just had to leave the classroom. mean, as an educator myself, anytime I spot a kid snoring or drooling, you got to comment on it. You got to call it out. But what about screaming? Obviously, this guy doesn't think But what about screaming? Have you had a kid scream in your classroom, scream himself awake in your classroom before?
00:53:46
Speaker
I live in Texas, so I feel like I'd have a different set of responses go off if I heard a loud screen. That's a good point. and um But anyways, so that is the very long premonition sequence in most of our deaths, if you're talking about quantity.
00:54:03
Speaker
And yeah, very opening I brought this up. Yeah. Do you guys have a strong feeling one way or another? Is this best final destination opening of all time for you? Too soon for you to make that call? I've only seen one, two, three, and this one, but I think it was definitely the best out of them.
00:54:19
Speaker
it's good I was kind let down by the rest of the movie a little bit because of like how awesome good it was the opening was. I think the most terrifying for me is, I know two is the most popular.
00:54:31
Speaker
I still think the plane ride one is scary. scary Maybe it's because going to flight in three hours and so I'm thinking about it. But ah this is the most fun. i don't know if I'll say it's the best, but it definitely has the most playfulness and all the music drop the choices, the needle drops, and just like funny moments. you know yeah it's It's unique in that way.
00:54:49
Speaker
ah The other ones you can make maybe like make some subtle remarks about, but this is like overtly funny. Yeah. And Joe, I'm with you on your point where pacing wise, I think the next like 20 to 30 minutes of the movie really slows down after this, where it was a bit of a letdown. I think it does pick back up kind of as where they have some heavy lifting to do like show the purpose of the movie. Exactly. You have to have some plot there, but it was so fun that it was such a high where I had to, I guess you catch your breath for a little bit before you get back into it.
00:55:18
Speaker
So spin back into it. the next death then would be as iris's granddaughter stephanie goes to confront her at her comp her death proof compound that she's lived in for five decades apparently four five decades i love this scene um and so you realize that iris has figured out most of death's tricks but in the end says hey Death got her with cancer anyway, so she's going to die soon.
00:55:45
Speaker
Can I talk about the opening of this scene? Yeah. um I really like how it opens because it's It shows some really big wide shots of the vistas and these mountains. And like, even if this is a a funny horror film, I still got a little like sense of, oh, this is just showing you how big the world is. and And the canvas that death has to operate on, it's like, it could be anything. It be those trees. It could be animals. It could be whatever. So like, just shows how small these people are in this great cosmos. Right.
00:56:14
Speaker
And then, This is unique. And and Travis, call me out because, again, me and Joe have not seen ah four and five. But I feel like this is the first time we've seen the the consequences or the results of somebody running from death for so many years. Yeah. This is this isn an old survivor.
00:56:31
Speaker
And it's is both compelling and hilarious to see what she's doing. um You know, she's like. something's so something's like about to break what what she said. I see you. you Fuck. What is she? Yeah. Something happens where like ah magnifying glass yeah is, is now catching the sun in about to burn a rope that could drop like a planter. And she, she catches on to it so what I love about that is like, we are already ah primed with this franchise of like noticing closeups of items and mundane things starting to break.
00:57:03
Speaker
or twist or fall. And instead of only the audience being clued in, she catches onto the pens. And so you add her her seasoned combat-ready element. is yeah I like her as a character in that point.
00:57:19
Speaker
Curious, how effective do you guys actually think this compound is, though? Because there's like... It looks like she's preparing for an invasion. Maybe not like Rube Goldberg-esque guests. In fact, I think she's made it a bit more dangerous with all the razor wire and like stakes she has in in front of the home. like its Surrounded by six-foot pens. do people will deliver stuff? I want to talk about her book.
00:57:42
Speaker
Can we talk about her book? Yeah, that i had ah that is a point to bring up as well. Like, just write down everything that exists. This is a knife. It could stab you. This is gasoline. It could catch on fire.
00:57:53
Speaker
It also looks like she's had five decades, presumably, to prepare this book. And it looks like a children's craft book. Like, there's a lot of, like, scatterbrained, like, sketches and drawings and one-off notes where...
00:58:04
Speaker
If I was Stephanie, I can see why she thought her grandma was crazy when someone's like, this is my life's work and and that's what you're handed. It was a little ah Pepe Sylvia, if you guys are always funny fans.
00:58:17
Speaker
Yeah, so she meets her grandmother when her grandmother realizes that she cannot convince Stephanie that this is real and that death is coming for their family. She steps outside the house and death immediately takes the opportunity to well, let's, let's let let's back up a little bit. It's she makes it happen. She's, she's frustrated yeah that her granddaughter doesn't believe her. Yes. And then again, another first, when have we ever seen a ah final destination character weaponize their doom to prove a point? It was just, i I thought a really creative twist of like, all right, my time's up anyways. I'm old. I got cancer. I'm going to, I'm going to step into death trap to prove my point. yeah
00:58:55
Speaker
I loved it. And she knew that death was immediately waiting for the opportunity. Apparently all she had to do was step in front of the door. but So what happened? There's a gas canister that shoots into the weather vane up on the roof and that then gets impaled through her head. It's a bit confusing. She had some type of tank. I don't know if it was a fire extinguisher or anything.
00:59:14
Speaker
i don't know what else she would have, but the tank falls, the valve breaks, the wind vane falls from the roof in front of the gas valve and then gets launched right into the back of her head.
00:59:24
Speaker
Yes, immediately. So as it happens in pretty quick succession. This is not one where they're, I guess, teasing different elements of it right before she dies. It just suddenly happens. There's teases when they're inside, but she so she stops them all. Oh, okay. Like the magnifying glass. Yes, there's red herrings they tease.
00:59:42
Speaker
Right, right, right. I think death was like showing his respect and was like... I kind of see your real one. um I do have to kill you. i'm at least going to make it pretty fast and uncomplicated.
00:59:52
Speaker
Game respect game there. Yeah, they had they had a 50 year dance. So that is Iris's death. Now Stephanie takes it upon herself to warn her family, her extended family under Iris, that death is now coming for them, which leads to the next, probably the biggest set piece other than the opening, which is the barbecue scene with our family. So now she's with her uncle and his three kids.
01:00:14
Speaker
as well as her brother, her dad. Can just say, but before this scene, they do tease the lawnmower even before the barbecue scene. Do you remember that? Really? Yeah. They zoom in on him pressing the button to start it.
01:00:27
Speaker
Correct. Oh, okay. But it's like even before this scene. yeah Okay. Just to like get you thinking about it. and Nothing happens, but then yeah, we get the pina colada and go ahead, Trev. Yeah. and And so it's just an awesome set piece because There are so many things that the film is specifically focusing on and sound effects from the get-go as this barbecue is being set up, where you can't quite tell exactly how it's all going to come together. And if you keep second guessing, like, who is even really going to get killed next? How is this going to go down?
01:00:55
Speaker
And so you see, i think the most notable, right, is they're preparing drinks, ah bottle breaks, you have a shard of glass that then gets swept in the ice chest, that then when they pour ice in everyone's drinks, you know that there's a shard of glass in one person's drink, but you don't know whose it is.
01:01:09
Speaker
And so i love that build up of all the events leading up to the eventual death of Uncle Howard. Yeah, Uncle Howard played by Alex Zahara. um look Speaking of misdirects, when I think it's Julia who is choking, there's a bug. There was a bug in her drink, yep.
01:01:26
Speaker
Right. ah You have that. You have another misdirect of the peanuts. I mean, kind of a also yeah character development. Yes, that's learn about Bobby's peanut allergy because the mom shows up and brings peanut cookies having forgotten of his allergy. Yeah.
01:01:38
Speaker
um I like that. I also love hunk ah Uncle Howard decked out in a Hawaiian shirt, cargo shorts and Crocs. So very much giving off dad vibes. And again, another example of like this guy gives the most heartfelt speech.
01:01:51
Speaker
Okay. It's it's reminiscent to the opening scene where you have, the she reveals her pregnancy. They propose. He's like crying, talking about how happy everybody is together. And still when his face goes face first, the heads goes face first into a lawnmower. Hmm.
01:02:05
Speaker
The first thing you think is, oh, shit, that's awesome. from like That's gross. like there's They really don't let you grieve. yeah or and it's just I don't know how you balance that tone, but I thought that was great. The rake was, I think, supposed to kill Howard because it was under the trampoline. They pull it out, set it up. the I think someone turns the hose on, the hose inflates, knocks the rake over, push to start. Well, no, it's the beer hit the beer. She knocks over the beer. That's right. The mom. And then the beer hit turns theprint the the hose on.
01:02:37
Speaker
The hose inflates, makes the rake fall. The rake hits the lawnmower. Yeah. So this has to be up there the most Rube Goldberg-esque death in the film. Yes. Which is how many independent parts had to come together for this to happen.
01:02:51
Speaker
Also, he steps he's in the shard of glass, which is now in the yard. And that's why he's on his back. threw the glass out because of the lawnmower. because of the bug. yeah so ah So I guess the shard of glass wasn't her drink.
01:03:02
Speaker
Yes, I guess the glass got knocked over from the Jenga table. You're right. yeah that You're right. Yes, there was a Jenga table involved. Good call. product placement Yeah. um Yeah. So love, love the full set piece there. This is what I, I feel like you come to expect from final destination films. This was the death. Everyone was really itching for. and Well, they deliver, they tease a lawnmower, know, a few minutes earlier and you get, you get what you want. They have a few red herrings like we were saying. So they tease a lot of things and you never are entirely sure of what is actually going to contribute to the death or not.
01:03:33
Speaker
um So we go from that to probably the biggest red herring of the film, which is Eric's expected demise in the tattoo parlor. Trav, is this the only Rube Goldberg-ian scene in all the franchise that does not lead to a death?
01:03:48
Speaker
Well, we there's characters in Final Destination 2 who live. So that's what Tony Todd's talking about when he's saying some people have cheated death before. So their whole scenario gets set up, but they're ultimately able to survive. But in this case, no one died.
01:04:01
Speaker
Is that rare? Yeah. I think even in theirs, what was supposed to kill them didn't entirely kill them, although it's kind of weak, like an ambulance like sinking into the lake or whatever at the end of Final Destination 2. So this is, as far as a Rube Goldberg-esque related death, probably the only one where It set it up and then didn't kill anyone. So it was great misdirection because this again was the scene captured in the trailer.
01:04:23
Speaker
So everyone had seen a lot of exposure to this going in and they do a good job saying, hey, what we teased, that wasn't even really of key deaths. We got you. We got you. um So I love this. You know, Eric's just lost his daddy and the characters don't really grieve too much, but he does put on Eric's sad mix in the tattoo parlor, which I love. It's the same.
01:04:43
Speaker
ah ruco Well, yeah, I think we feel right to what the next sequences of deaths then, which is not Eric, but you find out which we can talk about a bit. I think we have another word that fits this, but that Eric was not next in line because he is not a blood relative of Iris.
01:05:00
Speaker
And so that leads us to Stephanie confronting Eric about maybe the myriad of ways he could die. This is the day right after he survived. And she just happens to call out like, I don't know, maybe what the tree trimmer falls towards the guy with the leaf blower who blows leaves in front of the kids playing soccer and they kick a soccer ball into your head.
01:05:22
Speaker
Yeah, I think is where she gets to, which is pretty spot on to almost exactly what happens to a sister, Julie, who um then goes on a run right past them. That exact sequence of events plays out. So great is that it happens completely in the background. Yes. Like we're so dialed into this franchise at this point that we don't even need to have a three camera set up with a bunch of cuts.
01:05:43
Speaker
It's just, it happens literally, it's blurry. You get it's like you can tell something's happening. I just love that like we don't even really see it, but you know what happens. Yeah. There's the conversation going on between Stephanie, her brother and Eric while this is all happening to Julie in the background.
01:05:56
Speaker
and the soccer ball hits her in the head, she falls into the trash bin right as the trash truck is coming by and it picks her up, dumps her in, and then compacts her. One of the gorier deaths, I'd say, having your head squeezed by a trash compactor. No. It's pretty cool. I did, Ricky. It was pretty interesting. You think in enlighten of me remember those things when you were a kid and you would like be able to push the pins and leave an imprint of your face? Yeah.
01:06:19
Speaker
help It was kind of a situation like that where they could push half of the like wall out and like you could still see the upper half of her face, but the bottom half of her face was covered.
01:06:31
Speaker
Yeah, it's like- that how they did it? Something like that? Yeah, yeah, it's exactly how did it. That's how i describe it. It's like, imagine the the trash compactor trap is one of those things with a billion little pins. Yeah. And so as it pushes towards her, it conforms around her face. Oh, okay. So looks like- Yeah. what the pi The two pin walls really did close around her. it was a practical effect and then they added CG on top. Oh, that's cool But it was revolved around an actual practical thing. So you could see the tear in her face as it's closing. Yeah, wow.
01:06:57
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, that's probably of the toughest toughest one watch in this film because Stephanie's right up on top of the compactor at that point trying to save her. Great. And then the scream match cut to the tea did tea kettle. Yeah, exactly. To the tea kettle. And the trash driver I love, he has his headphones and listening to music while he's driving and he's just swiping through a Tinder no it's it's a knockoff. No, it's like Crusher, I think it was. I think it's a Tinder knockoff that it's just swiping through distracted. Do we want to save this a dull knife later or do you want to talk about it now?
01:07:26
Speaker
Do you have a Dole Knife about this battle driver? I say bring it up I just brought him up. We'll have other Dole Knifes. He's been shown to be very interested in women. He's on the app. You're telling me he's not going to notice the scantily dressed young woman running down the street. He like had no eyes on her at all. And of opportunity missed.
01:07:44
Speaker
Opportunity missed. Yeah. Second thing, you're telling me you're not going to be like actively engaged in that claw every single time? That looks so fun. I can't imagine that becoming boring and you like not even being invested in with it anymore.
01:07:56
Speaker
Yeah, i agree. I don't know where technology is today if drivers still have to line up the claw themselves entirely manually or now it can just all be automated where it can sense the size of the trash bin and the claw is just doing I can tell that all my trash ends up on the street after they do it tomorrow. So you think it's... Obviously not an exact science yet. Yeah, okay, so what do you do you think that's the automation just in its early stages not working or you think specifically your trash truck driver is just horrible at what he does? Maybe starting to get the shakes in his hands, can't can't quite ah grab onto it the correct way. if it I think maybe he's lazy in the lining up process and the arm is automatic, but like he hits it and then it kind of comes in at an angle, it gets all shaky.
01:08:35
Speaker
yeah He needs to invest in hinge premium to make himself happier, more confident. That's true. Maybe he won't be as sloppy. Yeah. it was also really heartbreaking because they you know she almost saved her and then the guys jump in front he slams on the brakes and she falls over again Yeah, yep, yep, that's right. She falls back in when he sleeps on the brakes. So that leads us to the next set piece in Parafun Desk, which is where now we go to the hospital.
01:09:01
Speaker
um This is right after the remaining cast members have met with Tony Todd, ah Bloodworth, to try and get more context on what's going on to them. And when Eric and Bobby realize that death is imminent, but there might be some ways to get around it, they devise the plan to essentially have Bobby eat peanuts for him to...
01:09:19
Speaker
die or his heart to stop from allergic reaction then him. Call back to an older film. Call back to Fatal Destination 2. two yeah well I think that was a drowning that she got saved from. I'm not sure if an allergic reaction stops your heart. I'm saying when JB talks about rule the rule, I'm saying. oh yes yeah It happened at Hope or some hospital yeah and she drowned and they just referenced that. Exactly. yeah and as You're right there.
01:09:42
Speaker
um What do you think about like I have no medical knowledge Can you stop your heart from allergic reaction? i mean, I guess your heart would stop at one point if you It would have caused your airway yeah and your heart would stop from suffocation.
01:09:55
Speaker
Okay. Okay. So so you think there're a place to home right now tra you think their plan had merit? Yeah. I mean, he definitely would have died. The bringing him back part would have been the interesting part.
01:10:07
Speaker
Yeah. Because epinephrine, I don't think will work if your heart's not beating. so then... They would have to like trick him. This is a whole different show now. that's good god I will say this death resonated with me the most.
01:10:22
Speaker
Was that? Oh, I was going for a pun there. The MRI, magnetic resonance imaging. Oh my God. That's a deep cut. That's a deep cut. That's a deep cut.
01:10:34
Speaker
The IQ levels of Trav and I and our listeners are quite there. I'm a big acronym guy, so I guess that's just my specialized knowledge Um, so yes. So this leads them to, what Reese's peanut butter cup knockoff from the vending machine. Hold on. I wrote these down. that moment was great.
01:10:52
Speaker
Can we, work where he has his first bite and he's just loving it. Well, where he's like, i'm not going out on these salty motherfuckers. Yeah. Wait, unsalted peanuts. Can I, can I, make I did pause it. I wanted to see yeah these knockoff names.
01:11:06
Speaker
So we got, instead of planters, uh, nuts, we have sweepers. Okay. Okay. um The Reese's are our friendo peanut butter cups. Okay. They look kind of friendly. Yeah.
01:11:19
Speaker
But then we got this other line called the Wenke Whips. Now there's two types of Wenke Whips. Wenke is a name I i would imagine. W-E-N-K-E. One of the products is a red vine standing. Like Twizzler. Yeah. Okay.
01:11:33
Speaker
And um interesting departure from the Twizzler family because then you go right into the Wenke Whips sour worms. It just felt like those are two two. They're kind of the gummy subgroup of candies, right? But the packaging was very similar. and Okay. I just felt a little suspect.
01:11:50
Speaker
You had a Caramella. You had Frendo Velvet, which was, I don't know what it is. looked like a a bar. Sounds amazing. Mint chocolate. It's probably a dark, dark chocolate. and then a fur cup and And then a friendo velvet hazelnut.
01:12:02
Speaker
So friendos, it's really a friendo winky kind of monopoly, not a monopoly just yet, but those are two clearly that the two big guys go against each other. But yeah, so he has his friendos peanut butter cups.
01:12:13
Speaker
He loves them. Absolutely loves them, which is funny in and of itself. And then they go into an MRI room where again, a little less Rube Goldberg than the barbecue scene, but they accidentally turn on the um MRI machine, which little do they know.
01:12:30
Speaker
This one has a ah setting called research mode, which can really, really dial up the magnetism on it. So while they're prepping to revive him from his allergic reaction before they can even get to it, the MRI machine really starts humming and we're alerted to its impact on the characters as it starts to rip off Eric's piercings,
01:12:52
Speaker
I love the sequence of piercings here. I believe he first loses earrings and then he loses his septum piercing. which are all the piercings that were visible to us thus far into the movie.
01:13:03
Speaker
Then you see his, both his nipples pop out at the same time and it rips off his nipple piercings. And then finally, like we said, there's, there's no blatant full frontal male nudity in this film, but you do see a small bulge get pulled forward from his pants. I mean, he was doing okay. It was modest. Okay. A modest bulge.
01:13:21
Speaker
An average bulge. yeah Average bulge. yeah Give us some credit. um and hospitals are pretty measuring it for Hospitals are pretty cold too. It it pulls out his cock ring, which... um Does the cock ring actually get ripped out or does that just pull him to the... Not the right phraseology there. okay cock du Yes, thank you, Joe. A cock ring... Educate me. I'm not familiar. A cock ring is a device slash toy that you put on the base of your penis or around... The base? Yes, and it's to constrict blood flow to make...
01:13:48
Speaker
things harder okay more of that is not likely what that was no no he had a i think what just it's it's a stud it's an actual piercing on and on the tip of his penis oh my god and people do this i can't say i've seen one in person but you know the rule of the internet if you can imagine it yeah out there okay ah okay eric's a little edgy it only hurts for like the first couple weeks and So yeah, pulls out pulls out the piercings, and then it starts to pull in larger array objects, again, as research mode gets activated, including a wheelchair from behind Eric.
01:14:20
Speaker
So that actually pulls him into the machine and folds him in half backwards, again, with facing is group into the machine. It hits the wheelchair, hits him in the back, and... in Full scorpion. Full scorpion. Thank you.
01:14:35
Speaker
And then shortly thereafter, little less satisfying, but in quick succession after this, the vending machine spring that had been stuck when they tried to get peanut butter cups out of the machine gets pulled from the MRI as well and goes straight into Bobby's forehead, where it then continues to turn and get pulled in. I remember the doctor was there at this point. No, they see the doctor open the door.
01:15:00
Speaker
Yeah. which allowed the spring to come through and yeah just at that moment stephanie and that's right i see bobby take take a head shot yeah this the spring getting screwed into place yeah again i think this show is death really mad with eric yeah terrible way to die little nice peanut boy gets it quick Okay, so that leads us to the third act and the last deaths of the film, which admittedly didn't find as exciting, but you have... um These are pretty quick.
01:15:29
Speaker
You have, you know, Darlene and her kids, Stephanie and Charlie, going back to Iris' compound um to see what they can do now to to outlive death and really try to cheat death.
01:15:41
Speaker
Darlene gets taken out by a telephone pole shortly after they arrive in the ensuing chaos scene. Stephanie was a bisection was a bisection. The bisection. and They love that. They love those. Yeah. When the body was just a crushing.
01:15:55
Speaker
I think it was just a crushing. Was it it? was really lackluster. I think relative to the other big dark. It's hard to see. you talk about a minute with the rankings, but um she gets taken out there. Stephanie almost drowns is resuscitated by Charlie.
01:16:10
Speaker
um And they think they've cheated death, which takes you to the final scene of the movie, which I also love. um And you find out that her heart likely didn't stop if she just needed mouth to mouth to be revived.
01:16:21
Speaker
And right after finding out this information, a train from the tracks you see at the very start of the film derails. goes into a residential neighborhood, just running down the street while they're trying to run away. And logs, again, shout out to Final Destination 2, come off the top of one of the train cars when it comes to stop. Their momentum keeps the logs moving forward, and you get a quick one-two punch of both Stephanie and her brother Charlie getting just squashed by the logs before cutting to the credits and Shout starts to play again.
01:16:51
Speaker
No, you brushed over the derailment. It was caused by the original penny. Yes. True. We don't know for a fact that's the same penny. Yeah, we do. We do. Yeah, we do. Because you had the whole
01:17:04
Speaker
Yes, because it falls out of her booklet that Iris gave her. Then an old woman picks it up. That's right. Then she goes to pay for some lemonade it's falling out. It was the same penny. Oh, that's great.
01:17:17
Speaker
I love they they really, from the very start of the film they bring a lot of elements back to the end. and From the train track to the penny to shout playing again. So here's my question to you guys, though. Wouldn't the rules of these movies indicate that maybe what we saw at the very end was a premonition and not a death?
01:17:34
Speaker
I think that is them setting it up for a sequel if they want to make one. I think 100% they will make one. If they want that actress, if they want Stephanie played by Caitlin Santa Juana, if they liked her, which I did, I would see i would have her... Because they don't often have multiple the same people lead these things. They usually die off. It's pretty much entirely new cast to every film.
01:17:55
Speaker
um Yeah, that's good point. It ends so quickly after that where that could be the next premonition. And she's – not to step on – mean I'll leave the dull knife for later. But like she is said to have like a pretty sensitive premonition power. It's mentioned several times. you'd think she probably sees this first. but Yeah. believe they call it a visionary. in the series you anyways be so let's do we did did get a third villain here at the very end real quick if you if you noticed charlie's girlfriend's dad the doctor why do you feel the need to mansplain to a high school girl what she went through wasn't real he was such a dick dude well hey i i love his delivery on that though so because it happened right after he said that a legal analyst is running over a death they hear that like oh shit they needed a
01:18:43
Speaker
So, had he not said anything... You think death was bamboozled? until He literally like gave a time of life and then that made it so she could then be killed.
01:18:53
Speaker
i mean, think about it. Think of the timing. Daph who knows how to end lives just doesn't realize that her heart actually hadn't stopped. He's like Santa Claus, He's got lot of kids. There's rules that are even above him that he has to play with. Should we just, each three of us, say our favorite one instead of ranking all of them? Yeah, let's do that. don't have a lot of time, and we still got to do the rest of our awards. Yeah, and you can't duplicate Joe, you can have the floor for first pick since you're a guest. what you What's your favorite?
01:19:19
Speaker
Favorite kill? Favorite kill. I kind of like the lawnmower one because the buildup to it was probably the scariest part of the movie for me. thinking of someone just chugging down blast shard and then that didn't happen in lead. So I think I got to go with that one. Yeah, that's in my top three.
01:19:34
Speaker
I like it. Rick, what about you? Oh, you're letting me go? um Well, Trav, how about you go? Because I think I might steal yours and I like my second one. um Okay. Well, yeah, mine mine is the um MRI, pulling Eric in. um You know, you get a little bit of the bonus death with Bobby immediately after, but specifically what it does to Eric, going up to full research mode, whatever that is. and Three whole Teslas, Travis. Come on, you can't contend with that much power.
01:19:57
Speaker
Oh, that was great. So that, that has to be mine. rick what about thought that would be yours. that That is. Yeah. i I think the, the scene is believing. I just love the dump truck might be more interesting to me, but Iris choosing herself to be sacrificed.
01:20:11
Speaker
It's not the most interesting. It's not the most creative, but, its existence and decision to be in the movie and it's, it's what it's like functionally used as. I just really liked that okay idea. Like i' inviting death to take her out. I just love it. It's like 20 years later when the priest is just like, take me zombies. yeah And they're just like, it's like that. It's like, she's just giving herself to this evil entity.
01:20:32
Speaker
Okay. Well, let's see. We could probably run through a few of our categories, but we're going to do them real quick. So the way I'm going do this, if you guys are okay, The ones I think have less discussion points. I'm just going to say where I am at.
01:20:44
Speaker
If you guys agree, then let's just move on. If you have anything to add, we can we can stay on the point a bit longer. So next up is our Ben Gardner jump scare. Not a lot of jump scares in this movie. I did like right after Darlene and her kids, again, Stephanie and Charlie are leaving the hospital. This is right after Eric and Bobby's death.
01:21:03
Speaker
they get in the camper van they're about to get onto the main road and they're suddenly cut off by a logging truck so it's a quick cut skit it's barely a jump scare but it does come out of nowhere and it's a good call back to final destination too so that's what i had best jump scare you guys have anything else that was a ben gardner level jump scare in this film the kettle yeah the the kettle right after the screaming kettle i mean that was the biggest that was really the only jump scare Okay, so let's move on to... We call it the Cantaloupe Award. Rick's going to hate me, going to explain it again. He's a guest. It makes sense explain. But since probably don't know just from that context, this is a very cringy... Well, if he's listening to three of our episodes. Have you listened to our Bring Her Back episode?
01:21:42
Speaker
I've not heard that one. So there's a there's a scene in that film where one of the characters... Well, I don't want to spoil that film for people who haven't listened to it. It is very hard to watch. You are covering your eyes. You're covering your ears. It's very cringy.
01:21:56
Speaker
So not a lot of this, again, in Final Destination, they're going more for laughs, I say now, than really cringy scenes. um I think I had just what you said, Joe, actually, is the barbecue scene, just waiting for someone to swallow or chew on the broken piece of glass.
01:22:09
Speaker
That was the hardest part for me to watch because that is probably the most relatable out of all the deaths or way to harm yourself is it accidentally ingesting glass. Yeah, I worked at a restaurant once and I'll never forget the day that one of the waiters came up to me.
01:22:24
Speaker
was bartending. He's like, what do? I'm like, what? He's like, a guy found some glass in his and is ah and his drink. I'm like, is he okay? He's like, yeah, but he wants to know if there's any more glass in there. I'm like, well, is there? He's like, I don't know. I'm like, well, give him a new glass, man. so You gotta to dump everything. He's freaking out.
01:22:40
Speaker
um Luckily, he was cool. um Mine here was the finger the ring. Iris's finger is freaking out. Oh, yeah. I've had several finger injuries. I got stitches on one of them. I got a surgery on the other. just don't like fingers being fucked with. And that sliding up and seeing the muscle, just don't like that. I've heard of people like weightlifting and stuff where if they're wearing their wedding band, it can get caught and rip all the skin, shut all skin, and even muscle off your finger. So...
01:23:07
Speaker
Yeah, but that is hard to watch. Joe, I'll take your silence of agreement that those are some pretty good cringy scenes. Yeah, that's really the best ones out there. All right, so one one we can weigh in on collectively a bit more that's more fun to talk about.
01:23:20
Speaker
We like to highlight our M. Night Shyamalan twist to the movie. This one had a pretty good one in that when it is revealed that Eric is actually not a blood relative of Iris because... um his mother fooled around with, I believe his name is Jerry fucking Fenbury from down the street. The way they framed it though, it seems like it was not fooling around, but like plans to try and have a baby. Yeah. I don't, it sounds like it was ah a deeper affair. You're right. Then like a one night stand. i don't smoke for tenicac seat or Definitely. I will, we'll, we'll get to that, Joe. I actually disagree.
01:23:57
Speaker
and we'll get to why disagree later. Um, but I will step on my own best lines here. Cause I have a lot of best lines. So i'm going to use one now. I think the biggest laugh out of me, this whole movie was when Eric finds out that Jerry fit fucking Finbury is his dad. He goes, is this is why he always wanted to play catch with me. Yes. Yes.
01:24:17
Speaker
and i I had that down for best line as well. um Eric, I don't think we've given him enough credit yet. Again, this is ah Richard Scott Harmon. he He really brings the comedy to this film, I think, more so than any other cast member.
01:24:30
Speaker
So that's just amazing when you find out he's adopted in his reaction. It's a good twist there. Good twist. um Probably the only other twist I'd mention is that his mom, um Aunt Brenda, you see her in that scene, which is about the midpoint of the movie, and then you never see her again for the rest of the film, which is pretty funny.
01:24:47
Speaker
That's weird. Yeah. Well, her whole family gets killed off. So I guess there wasn't a good reason to bring her back when they're not showing grief scenes. All right. So don't go in there. i have a pretty easy one. um And I want to see what you guys think of this. When Bobby pushes to go with them to the hospital, what a liability.
01:25:03
Speaker
He is clearly next on death's list. He doesn't want to stay in the home. He wants to go with them. So he goes into the RV where like any logs could come out of the car. and I just thought that was like a don't go in there. I like that.
01:25:15
Speaker
I think they wanted whatever the safest environment for him could be. And there's clearly safer options than getting the RV, going to the hospital. yeah You shouldn't be driving at all. You shouldn't be driving.
01:25:25
Speaker
I think like, you know, just curl up in your room, you know, maybe a plane could like crash from out sky and into your house, but that's the way you're going go. You weren't going to able to avoid it anyways. Joe, did you have one other than that?
01:25:36
Speaker
I think that's really the only times somebody was pretty dumb. Yeah. Super dumb. Yeah. I think that's the only poor decision there. Well, let's go to best line. know you just shared one, Rick. Um, I also love, so right after they're talking to Bloodworth, right after they're talking to Tony Todd, this is when Eric takes Bobby aside to start saying like, hey, we let's go try and cheat death. Were you listening?
01:25:58
Speaker
And Bobby confronts Eric and he's like, you trust that guy? And Eric just says, he was just oddly charismatic. So I really like that line deliverer as well. But that's the only other one I had other than Jerry fucking Fenbury. And that's why I always wanted to play catch.
01:26:13
Speaker
You guys have any other lines? More shout outs to Tony Todd. yeah i yeah I mean, it was cool that he got his send off and the movie was kind of like a goodbye Yeah. Well, it was very meta, what he was saying in the movie about being sick and making the most of your life.
01:26:28
Speaker
I'm sure you guys know him through his horror roles, but he was also a primary feature on Star Trek. Oh, I didn't know that. I didn't know that. Yeah, he played Worf's brother. He was a Klingon. On Genesis? He also played on um Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Okay.
01:26:44
Speaker
He also played a feud this is deep good now but he played a future version who I spent 60 years trying to locate his father in a terrible world. So he got to play a lot of emotion.
01:26:56
Speaker
And it's like probably one of the best episodes of Star Trek. And Tony Todd is like the main guy in that episode. Damn. That's incredible. It's called The Visitor, I believe. he's his but his his All of his scenes, even in these... these like funny, silly horror film, uh, roles in Final Destination. They're always deeply felt. Yeah.
01:27:14
Speaker
You know, he doesn't have a lot of screen time. Honestly, this is probably of the most screen time he's had in one film, but he, he makes the most of it. Yeah. On that note for best lines. Um, I do like something that Iris said that Tony Todd also echoes,
01:27:27
Speaker
which is a huge like rule in the movie, and the whole franchise, which is death doesn't like when you fuck with those plans. Oh, and this one is a trademark quote for the whole movie, for this movie specifically, is death is coming for us because we were never supposed to exist.
01:27:40
Speaker
And I like it when a one single line kind of explains why this movie, like it justifies this movie's existence. oh This is what makes this movie different. It's coming after the bloodlines. Yep. um and then joe do you want to i have the peanut quote written out um unless you have i don't remember exactly what it was but that's definitely mine if i'm going out it's not going to be on those unsalted bitches give me those yeah there you go um all right well not exactly a quote or a line but the song what doesn't kill you makes you stronger playing i feel like that was a good when was that playing again music
01:28:15
Speaker
During in the dumpster truck. Oh, that's right. That is amazing. That's what the dump truck driver is listening to on his headphones. Right? yes like Yeah.
01:28:26
Speaker
Oh, awesome. Dole Knives, I know we covered a few of these print already in the episode. I talked about the glass dance floor. That was mine. Anyone else have one we haven't chatted about? Again, i know that sometimes Dole Knives are overlapped with confusion because maybe there was an answer for this.
01:28:39
Speaker
I didn't really understand the medical diagnosis between heart stopping in Final Destination 2 versus how she... heart What is death, I guess? How do you define death? It's not very clear to me.
01:28:52
Speaker
That doctor wasn't even there. so Well, I think there's just... fishing You got this, you know? Yeah, well, I think they're delineating between being unconscious, okay which can happen as a symptom of your air passages or not getting enough air in your lungs. But that would happen before the sequence of events that would then lead to your heart stopping. So she wasn't all way Then my dull knife is that how are they not smart enough to figure that out?
01:29:16
Speaker
Yeah. i Honestly, I didn't really think about it. either It got me. was like, oh, she passed out. Typically, if out if you're drownt in the process of drowning, you go unconscious because none of but blood's going to your brain. Mm-hmm.
01:29:28
Speaker
but you know' In this universe, the movie Flatliners doesn't exist. They don't have this knowledge. I mean, in CPR, there's two pieces, right? There's the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, which is getting air into your airwaves.
01:29:39
Speaker
But that's why you also pound the chest in case your heart stopped to hopefully get the heart going again. So I think it was, you know, she could have quickly gotten to that point, but wasn't there yet. i have I have probably 10 more minutes, but I want to make sure you have time to, can you go to Walgreens before go to your flight?
01:29:55
Speaker
I'm going to go do that. Right now. Yeah. Okay. Well, appreciate having you on the pod, man. This was fun though. Thanks for joining. Good chatting with you. was fun, guys. Love to do it again. All right. Sounds good.
01:30:06
Speaker
right. See ya. Bye. but doesn't kill
01:30:14
Speaker
All right, we're back as we teach at the top of the episode. Thanks to rick's medical emergency. Our interview with Joe got cut a bit short. So I figured we could just fill in with any remaining winners and losers. You may have Rick and in myself and then we get to scream King scream Queen and wrap this one up.
01:30:33
Speaker
Yeah, great to revisit all that with Joe. Really fun stuff. So i had And as we said in that pod, we kind of sprinkled in our dull knives. So yes, we're not going to have a dedicated dull knives award, but um you get the idea.
01:30:50
Speaker
So I had three, one winner, two losers. um One winner, unwilling absent fathers and Jerry Finberry. When I say unwilling, it's this guy clearly wanted to be part of, is it Eric? What is Richard Harmon's character? Yes, Eric.
01:31:06
Speaker
He wanted to be part of Eric's life. Yeah. Want to play catch? So sweet. Uh, but clearly, um his, you know, Harbin's, uh, Eric's mother and, and, and her father didn't want to, they didn't want to wreck the home. They didn't want to blow things up. So Jerry Finberry just has to stay off to the side. But, uh, I just thought it was a win. This is a guy who wanted to be a dad and, and, uh, was asked to step aside. He, you know, since whether that's right or wrong or indifferent, I don't know. but I just want to give a shout out to Jerry Finberry.
01:31:39
Speaker
have one winner we hadn't touched on yet, but it's when you show up to a crowded restaurant without a reservation and they say they can't seat you going immediately to the bar. That was a pro move at the start of the movie.
01:31:51
Speaker
Anna and I do that often. yeah but i don't think people know like bars, bar tops usually open seating. Anyone can sit there. And if anything, it's, it can be a more enjoyable experience because sometimes Waiters can be really busy or they can be too in your face and too involved.
01:32:09
Speaker
Bartender, if they're a good one and I used to be I used to bartend, so I was tried to do this too. They're giving you just the right amount of attention. You can you can get their attention if you need they're right there, but they're not going to be doting on you like you can have your own little time at the bar. I agree.
01:32:23
Speaker
What a win. It's kind of like riding shotgun when you call an Uber, but if you know going in, Hey, my Uber driver, he's, he is a professional at engaging in conversation while I'm sitting up there.
01:32:35
Speaker
This is what he does for a living is the conversation part. Yeah. If only you could like pre-select out of your favorites for Uber drivers, cause it's kind of a crap shoot. I'm not, I'm usually sitting back right. So I can still see them. Okay.
01:32:50
Speaker
While I'm in the back, I don't like to sit directly behind them cause I know what they're doing. I always sit back right. what percentage of Uber drivers do you engage in like a substantive conversation? Oh my gosh. You get in the Uber.
01:33:01
Speaker
Like 90%. ninety percent I hear about their dreams and ah nightmares and like everything. i yeah talk with them a lot unless I'm in a really bad mood. I think you're even more outgoing than I am, but I have fallen into the trap where I feel like I'm always engaging. I don't know where I've given the green light to be like, yes, let's have a conversation. But from the minute I sit down, it's always like, let's talk for a while. Yeah.
01:33:24
Speaker
You ever find i always find it hard to say like it's easy if you say, hey, can you turn the radio down because I'm about to be on a phone call or turn the radio down because I need to watch something. Sometimes I'm getting an Uber. I need to like read a script or read a document or like prepare a ah ah speech. i'm I'm making myself sound like I have all these important things to do, which is not the case.
01:33:45
Speaker
Reviewing documents. Have you ever had to be like, hey, can you turn the music down because I just need to like focus on something? How do you bring that up? Because I always find a hard time explaining why need you to turn off. I'll usually ask say I need hop on a phone call real quick. But what if you're not going on a phone call? there really is a well, then you better fake a good phone call.
01:34:03
Speaker
But what if you need to like study up on something before a presentation? and Well, then do the phone call first and then go right into your presentation. effort Very rarely are they going to turn the music back up after they see get off the phone. Speaking of which, that holy cow. Okay, going deep into a tangent. It has nothing to do with the film.
01:34:17
Speaker
Anna and I, my wife and I went to Newport Beach this past weekend. Shout out. When we flew into Orange County, we had an Uber pick us up. It was about 2007, 2008 Civic.
01:34:31
Speaker
He pops the trunk to put our bags in there. And I noticed a very gigantic subwoofer he's put in the back of his car. did do i did you Did I time travel back in time and pick you guys up? Because that was me. That was you?
Linkin Park (?!), Wrap-Up, and Looking Ahead to October
01:34:44
Speaker
Yes, in high school. I cannot help myself but say, whoa, nice subwoofer.
01:34:49
Speaker
And that's all I said. And he smiled. He was extremely appreciative. So, of course, right when we get in the car, he starts driving and he looks back at us. You know, Ann and I are having a conversation and he interrupts just to say like,
01:35:00
Speaker
You want to see what this subwoofer can do? We're like, no. Okay. And he turns his volume up to full blast to the point where the car is shaking with the bass to play Hell's Bells by ACDC and proceeds to play for the entire 20 minute car ride ACDC like full blast until we're literally pulling up to the home.
01:35:20
Speaker
it It was so loud. Like you couldn't even think. I tried to send a text message and I just had to put my phone down. because i was like, my brain's not working right now. I love that he goes to ACDC out of all like I love ACDC, but they're not the who I think of when I think of like deep bass.
01:35:35
Speaker
Yes. Like it's pretty tiny. A lot of rhythm guitar. is Like when I was in that guy's position in Orange County around 2006, 2007, I had two songs I would play that would just melt people's faces and is probably what caused my subwoofers to be stolen within two weeks of having them in the parking lot of my high school because I played them too loud and somebody noticed.
01:35:56
Speaker
But for those two weeks, I played Shoulder Lean by Young Dro in DJ Drama. Let me bounce with the baby. Let the shoulder lean. Oh, yeah. No, very bass heavy. You wouldn't know just by listening to it normally. ah And then i forget. I think it's um i think it's either the you know, the reanimation album by Linkin Park where they read that other old songs. Oh, of course.
01:36:20
Speaker
I think forgot for forget. So it's forgot without the O's forget slash 10. So forgotten the fifth track. Believe that one featuring Alchemist and Charlie Tuna, dude.
01:36:31
Speaker
the bass drops. And when it drops, your windows are about to shatter. so next you get that Reanimation, and then they also released Hybrid Theory around then, which was all their mashups with Jay-Z. No. Those were some heavy bass songs. Hybrid Theory is their first album. You're thinking of Collision Course. Oh, Collision Course. okay. Because Hybrid Theory was Reanimation. in the end Oh, yeah. I mean, it's it's the 2000s new metal rap rock like Hall of Fame.
01:36:59
Speaker
Yeah. Album. Anyways, where do we? we movie We're talking about winners for final decision. Park's Lincoln Park's our winner. R.I.P. Chester. So you I said unwilling absent fathers. You said but what did you say?
01:37:13
Speaker
ah go into the bar. when the restaurant And then you said that's like going to the shotgun of an Uber. Yeah, we got away. Of course, I had two losers. um I'll just say I'm in quick succession because one i don't have a lot to say about, but um the ah the Prince Albert piercing on the penis.
01:37:31
Speaker
So that's a stud that you have in your yeah penis. I just covered it with Joe. Yeah, but I wanted to we didn't call them Prince Albert. So I just want to shout out Prince Albert. why it's called Prince Albert.
01:37:43
Speaker
ah The other one is Paco, the turtle. I feel like there was mentions of the turtle. Bobby has a turtle. There's no payoff. And I felt like Paco could have...
01:37:56
Speaker
It's a good point. And I know we didn't do dull knives, but I think that would be... Maybe more of a dull knife. One last, you know, it needed one last 30 second scene to tie Paco back in at the end.
01:38:08
Speaker
He could have been at the the the ending scene, like the prom scene. But yeah, those were my... yeah challenges And then we wanted to also, we never did a scream king or queen in this.
01:38:18
Speaker
Yeah, well, I think we've mentioned him a few times, but I think this is an easy, unanimous decision. I know Joe's on board as well. If we give it to Tony Todd, RIP.
01:38:29
Speaker
um It's going to be different going forward in the franchise without him. I really hope they don't pull a Star Wars and try to have like CGI Tony Todd come back in the next one. This was such a perfect they send off yes that I hope they don't ruin that.
01:38:45
Speaker
First all, Trav, I, you know, I wasn't sure if i was going to do this pod and I'm glad we did. um It's nice to see you. And I'm excited that we're keeping on keeping the pace because I like doing this, but.
01:38:57
Speaker
Wasn't sure about it. that Yeah. Glad we did it. We will have a lot more to talk about with dogs. I'm sure next week when we cover the film, good boy until then follow us on social media.
01:39:08
Speaker
Well, hold on Trav. We have a lot to tease about Halloween. We have a whole slate of stuff. Next month is October spooky month, a month that all of us horror fans love. And we have some.
01:39:20
Speaker
tricks and treats ah planned for the month, don't we, Trav? Yeah, we got some special stuff that we're going to tailor for you guys a bit different than our normal schedule.
01:39:31
Speaker
Right. So we're not going to mention those titles. um You'll get a full slate on Instagram and Twitter and maybe our new subreddit. ah Our Instagram is at the Sunday Scaries dot pod.
01:39:43
Speaker
Twitter is the Sun Scaries. And I believe the the subreddit we made is just called the Sunday Scaries pod, I believe. um But yeah. maybe some guests, maybe some, uh, different types of podcasts, maybe extra episodes, bonus episodes. So you'll have to just wait and see, but it's going be a fun October and we're excited to, uh, share, share the scares with you.
01:40:06
Speaker
Awesome. See you guys in October. Looking forward to it. That's all for us at the Sunday scaries until next week. Bye.
01:40:25
Speaker
You sure about that? I literally was opening my letterbox. Is that intentional?
01:40:33
Speaker
literally opening my letterbox that digital No.