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Fans ofhorrorand gore are in for a treat withFinal Destination Bloodlines. The sixth installment in Jeffrey Riddick’s highly successfulFinal Destinationfranchise arrives 14 years afterFinal Destination 5(2011) and is all set to offer up even more creative (and gut-churning) ways for Death to strike when it releases on June 06, 2025. It is directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein and written by Guy Busic and Lori Evans Taylor, based on a story they developed with Jon Watts.
Initially announced as a re-imagining of the franchise after the success of the fifthFinal Destinationfilm, it was later turned into a sequel to the series, connecting up with events and characters from the previous outings, and bringing back Tony Todd for his final appearance as William Bludworth. The film, which stars Kaitlyn Santa Juana in the lead, currently holds a Rotten Tomatoes score of 92%, becoming one of the best-reviewed films in the franchise. While it has received praise for its opening premonition sequence, its ending has garnered mixed reviews.
Final Destination 6mostly sticks to the franchise’s tried and tested formula. The protagonist has a premonition where they and everyone around them dies horrifically, and they’re able to act in time to prevent it. But this messes with Death’s plans and forces it to adapt to rectify the situation. Death goes on a rampage, picking off these saved people one by one, but it gets creative in delivering these death sentences. And people trying to cheat Death have to do the same while playing by Death’s rules.
What Happens InFinal Destination Bloodlines?
The film opens in 1968 withone of the best opening premonitionsever in the series. Iris Campbell (Brec Bassinger) and her boyfriend Paul (Man Lloyd-Jones) are attending the opening of the lofty Skyview Tower Restaurant when she has a premonition that a kid’s mischief with a penny will cause the tower to collapse and kill everyone, including her. But here’s a twist: The premonition is a recurring nightmare seen by college student Stefani Reyes (Juana), Iris’ granddaughter.
Stefani manages to track down her estranged grandma (Gabrielle Rose), only to find out Iris is super paranoid and sees death everywhere. She lives in a remote cottage set in a booby-trapped compound, and never steps out to avoid Death from “getting her.” She has even compiled a sort of guidebook to decipher signs and patterns of how, when, and where Death would strike, which she tries to give to her granddaughter. When Stefani doesn’t believe her and tries to run, Iris sacrifices herself to prove her point.
Stefani now believes her grandmother’s claim that all the people that Iris saved at the Skyview, and their bloodlines, which shouldn’t have existed, are being eliminated by Death in a course correction. Iris kept death at bay for so long, but now with her gone, her bloodline will be picked off next. Stefani must now go home and attempt to convince her uncle Howard (Alex Zahara), his three children Erik (Richard Harmon), Julia (Anna Lore), and Bobby (Owen Patrick Joyner), her own estranged mother Darlene (Rya Kihlstedt), and her younger brother Charlie (Teo Briones), that they’re all going to die. Only Stefani’s father, Marty (Tinpo Lee), and her aunt Brenda (April Telek) are safe since they aren’t blood relations.
Even after Howarddies in a horrific lawnmower accidentat the family barbecue, no one believes Stefani. Howard’s eldest, Erik, manages to cheat death twice, which reveals a shocking family secret. But Julia isn’t so lucky. After she is crushed by a garbage disposal exactly as Stefani had predicted based on Iris’ book, the cousins, Charlie, and Stefani’s mom, Darlene, team up to save cousin Bobby.
They seek out Iris’ friend JB at the hospital, who turns out to be William Bludworth (Todd), the child that Iris had saved back in 1968, finally giving us a backstory to the recurring character. Bludworth bids his own farewell before giving Stefani and crew the idea that “Only new life can beat death.” It inspires Erik to come up with an absolutely bonkers plan to save Bobby by letting him die medically before bringing him back to lose Death’s tail for the entire family. However, their plan backfires, and not just Bobby, but Erik also dies horrifically in a freak accident with the MRI machine.
How DoesFinal Destination BloodlinesEnd?
It’s aFinal Destinationfilm, so it’s pretty evident how it is going to end. But rest assured, thedeaths will be messy. With their uncle’s family tree wiped out, it is Stefani and Charlie’s mother, Darlene’s turn next. Darlene agrees to hide out forever in Iris’ fortified cottage to avoid Death from getting through to her kids. However, as they arrive at the cottage in Darlene’s RV, it crashes as they push through the locked gates, and Stefani’s seatbelt jams. Even as Darlene and Charlie rush out to get inside, Death’s already waiting for them at the doorstep.
The cottage catches fire, and the resulting explosion sends the RV into a water body nearby. Stefani starts drowning, while Charlie and Darlene try to escape Death’s attempts at killing them in the fire and destruction. Darlene manages to extricate a trapped Charlie from the debris, only to die seconds later when a lamp post falls on her. Stefani is next and loses consciousness until Charlie manages to cut her seatbelt and get her out of the water. He resuscitates her, thus fulfilling the Death rule JB mentioned—Stefani had died and was born again, and her new life made her and Charlie safe from Death.
A few days later, on the day of Charlie’s senior prom, Marty introduces the kids to a “Dr. Reddick” (a nod to the franchise creator), who corrects Stefani that she never really died and was merely unconscious during the drowning. Stefani and Charlie shockingly realize that Death might still be after them. The next moment,a derailed train (nod toFinal Destination 3)crashes into the neighborhood. The siblings narrowly manage to avoid it, but in an excellent callback toFinal Destination 2,the train’s cargo hold containing wooden logs breaks free, and both Stefani and Charlie are killed by the falling logs, thus ending Iris’ bloodline.
In the end credits, a red line appears to run through the visuals, linkingBloodlinesas a prequel to theFinal Destinationfranchise. The people who died in the previous films in the franchise could’ve been the descendants of the people who were at the Skyview hotel with Iris and were saved by her premonition. The entire franchise is Death just retconning the changes to its plan from 1968.
