After initially being planned as a streaming exclusive, Final Destination: Bloodlines roared into theaters earlier this year and proved that the franchise all about death still has a lot of life. On the backs of mostly great reviews, the franchise relaunch/sequel scored a whopping $285 million at the box office and reignited a passionate fan base.
Now, a couple of months later, Final Destination: Bloodlines is available to purchase and rent from on-demand retailers like Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home — which you can do right here. The film is getting a full physical rollout on July 22nd, with 4K and SteelBook editions already available for pre-order.
In the wake of this home release, ComicBook spoke with Bloodlines directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein about some of the movie’s most shocking deaths, where the franchise goes next, and saying goodbye to the iconic Tony Todd.
Killing Your Darlings
The Final Destination franchise is all about finding the most creative ways to kill your characters, and Bloodlines had more than its fair share of shocking death traps. Death is certain in these movies, but it still came as a surprise to see come characters get the ax — mainly Erik, an instant fan-favorite who many already consider to be one of the best characters in the whole franchise.
Richard Harmon’s scene-stealing tattoo artist was the biggest breakout from Bloodlines, and some narrative twists in the film actually created what appeared to be a bubble of safety around the character, allowing him to continue onto more franchise stories in the future. But, as the film says, screwing with Death has consequences, and Erik learns of those fatal consequences firsthand.
While speaking to the Bloodlines directors, we asked about Erik’s fate in the film, and whether or not his ending was always set in stone.
“The biggest obstacle as a filmmaker is how to do it in a way that’s unpredictable. And so we approached all the deaths in the movie with that idea of how do we make sure the audience doesn’t know where this is going, which is really tricky when you literally tell the audience the order in which it’s going to happen,” Lipovsky explained.
“And so a lot of things with Erik are related to changing up that order and basically making you convinced he’s going to die next, and then revealing, ‘Oh, he’s actually safe.’ But then revealing, ‘Oh, shit, he’s actually not safe.’ And so you constantly have no idea where this is going, because that’s so much fun as an audience member and especially when you’re having that experience with everybody in the theater. So that’s how we approached that and tried to do that within every scene and over the course of the movie structurally.”
Final Destinations: Bloodlines 4K SteelBook
That notion about Erik’s unpredictability being his greatest strength was really extended to every other character in the family. The goal of the filmmakers with Bloodlines was to make them feel real and lived in, while still making sure everybody knows every single character is expendable.
“You try to make all the characters feel kind of real and unpredictable. So often when you come back into franchises like this, it’s very much like, ‘We’re going to reopen the whole narrative and go forward and have all these options,’” added Stein.
The Future of Final Destination
It’s that idea that informs everything in Bloodlines, including the very last scene, which puts the final nail in the coffin of its ensemble, no pun intended. Death gets his way by the time all is said and done, which is certainly exciting for this movie but does make it difficult to potentially continue the franchise.
Thankfully, Lipovsky and Stein weren’t as worried about building a series as they were just making one solid movie. That doesn’t mean there won’t be more Final Destinations, and the directors know that there are all kinds of ways to tell new stories within the franchise.
“Final Destination has proven itself that it can be relevant forever, and it has,” Stein said. “And the format of it is so much fun that it can work in our film or even in a period piece, which you wouldn’t necessarily have thought. Or, in this case, be all about a family.”
“One of my favorite pitches that I read on Reddit is that NASA diverts an asteroid that would have otherwise taken out the entire planet,” he added with a laugh. “And now everyone on Earth is marked for death. I thought that the Roland Emmerich version of that would be pretty great.”
Tony Todd’s Final Scene
The legendary Tony Todd passed away from stomach cancer back in November, and he had already received a terminal diagnosis when he had signed on to participate in Bloodlines a year earlier. The film represents his final big screen performance, and his scene is a beautiful swan song that speaks directly to the fragility of life, and making the most of the time you have.
“I intend to enjoy the time I have left, and I suggest you do the same,” Todd’s Mr. Bludworth says before he exits. “Life is precious. Enjoy every single second. You never know when… Good luck.”
While the scene was written with Todd’s illness in mind, those final words came directly from the actor, speaking to the fans who have adored his work for so many years.
“We knew he was sick for a long time, as the movie was being written, to the point where we didn’t know if he would even be able to participate or want to participate. But we kept hearing from him, like, ‘Don’t write me out of this movie. I have got to be in this movie.’ He was very excited to be a part of it,” Stein said. “Even though he was physically ill, he was emotionally incredibly joyful and excited to be there. He loved acting, he loved performing, he loved the other actors. So when he was there, you could tell he was physically diminished from what he used to be, but emotionally just so connected and excited to be there. And, in a way, he was living the words he said on-screen. That made it so powerful to film with him.”
“And the scene that was written ended with him saying, ‘I’m retiring. I’m going to enjoy the time I have left.’ And he goes and he leaves. And we realized that wasn’t really enough. There needed to be one goodbye to the fans,” he continued.
“And so we asked him if he’d be comfortable really improvising and speaking from the heart, directly to the fans, to say what’s on his mind about life and death. So we talked to him a lot about that. And in the movie, what you see him say at the doorway were his own words, speaking from the heart. And that’s why it’s so emotionally impactful to people when they watch it, because you can see in his eyes how much it means to him.”
Final Destination: Bloodlines is now available to buy and rent from digital retailers. The 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD physical editions go on sale July 22nd.
The post Final Destination: Bloodlines Directors on the Film’s Most Shocking Deaths and Saying Goodbye to Tony Todd appeared first on ComicBook.com.
