Thursday, September 10, 2026

2K Replay: FINAL DESTINATION 3

 by Adam Riske

Nominated for “Highest Body Count” at the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards. It lost to Slither.

• Best Scene/Moment: The Devil’s Flight rollercoaster derailment at the beginning.

• Best Song: “Tribal Dance” by 2 Unlimited.
• Best Merch: A “Final Destination 3 Movie Promo Portable Fan…” which you can bid on for $19.99. On one hand, a portable fan always comes in handy. On the other hand, it seems obvious this will be the cause of your death if you buy it.

• Director Grade: Final Destination 3 was directed by James Wong.
Great Movies: N/A
Good Movies: Final Destination, Final Destination 3
OK Movies: N/A
Bad Movies: N/A
Unseen By Me: The One, Dragonball Evolution
Overall Grade: B

• Double It with This 2006 Movie: Saw III

• Year 2006 Movies to Trailer Before Them: The Grudge 2, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, Underworld: Evolution

• Ella McCay or Final Destination 3? Ella McCay
• Mall Movie? Yes. Horror sequels are almost always mall movies.

• Only in 2006: A character brings a Panasonic PV-GS39 MiniDV camcorder on a rollercoaster.

• Scene Stealer (tie): Kris Lemche (who looks a little like The Trickster in Brainscan in this) and Tony Todd (RIP).

• I Miss (tie): James Wong-directed Final Destination movies and Tony Todd.

• I Don’t Miss: The lovefest for Final Destination Bloodlines. I don’t get it. It’s cool if you’re a fan, but yeah, I must have missed something there.

• 2006 Crush: Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

• 2026 Crush: Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
• What I Thought in 2006: I liked it. Up to that point (in 2006), Final Destination 3 was my favorite of the franchise. I didn’t understand why it was considered bad when it was first released (maybe it was just by the critics, but I thought fans didn’t like it either initially). At least that’s what my memory of it is. I’m pretty sure its reputation improved in subsequent years.

• What I Think in 2026: I’m not the biggest fan of the Final Destination franchise but I still like Final Destination 3 (it’s now my second favorite in the franchise after the original). I think it suffers from a weak finale, but Mary Elizabeth Winstead gives maybe the best performance across the whole series and the opening sequence with the rollercoaster crash is suspenseful and the rest of the set pieces are fun, too.
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3 comments:

  1. Paul CalvertSeptember 10, 2026 at 6:20 AM

    Alternate best scene: Tanning salon with Love Rollercoaster song playing. Other than the opening, it's the only other scene I really remember.

    I still haven't seen FD Bloodlines. Everyone seems to either love or hate/dislike it. Nothing in between. I should make up my own mind this October.

    I'm surprised to see the internet doesn't consider The One to be a good movie? I remember liking the mashup of sci-fi and martial arts. And I loved Jet Li's early '00s, when he started doing stuff outside of his usual Wushu/period China movies.

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    1. MashkeSeptember 10, 2026 at 11:13 AM

      Paul: put me in the love...well, strong like category. I think the movie did some creative world building, has a killer prologue, and several twisted rube golberg deaths. Its a bit of "making the lore up as we go along" but still a fun time if you like FD flicks.

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  2. MashkeSeptember 10, 2026 at 11:11 AM

    Great 2k Replay Riske!

    I love these movies but the opening scene of part 2 was so brilliant that i feel everything else (including pt3) lives in its shadow. That being said, when pt 3 came out i was BEYOND stoked to find out that the movie started in an amusement park. As a kid i used to love it when the cat and mouse thriller Rollercoaster (1977) showed up on network TV and always felt that an amusement park is the perfect setting for a disaster or horror film. Yet it seemed like its rarely been adopted. I do think that pt3's prologue and crash is pretty good but i did want more with that concept.

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