The most terrifying 'Final Destination' deaths, ranked

AHEAD OF THE RELEASE of Final Destination: Bloodlines on May 14th, and in honor of its 25th Anniversary this month, we've gathered twenty-five of the scariest comeuppances in Death's Grand Design as they happen across all five previously released films.

Final Destination is more than a bit of guilty pleasure: the first film is an unironic modern classic, replete with suspense and thrilling set pieces. No matter how low the filmmaking devolved (looking at you, The Final Destination!), Final Destination films seemed unable to stop traumatizing millennials from everyday, mundane objects — from fire exits to LASIK surgeries. With Bloodlines, directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein (Freaks), Gen Zs and Gen-Alphas can finally join in and trauma bond.

And since there's barely anything we know about the upcoming film, we figured it's great timing to look back into some of the franchise's greatest hits.

Quick note before we get to the list: We're excluding "premonition deaths" in this list. Meaning, the highway pileup on Final Destination 2 and the absolutely bonkers bridge collapse sequence in Final Destination 5 will not be included. Oh, and also spoilers ahead.

25. Terry Chaney, run over by a bus

Terry's death isn't notable for its gore, it's the swiftness with which it happens. Every death thus far in Final Destination showed Death tending to his deliberate Designs. Here, we learn, that it can happen randomly too.

24. Brian Gibbons, blown up at the family roast

This one's a cheeky little kill from Final Destination 2. It might seem like an inconsequential kill, but it asserts that Death's immovable position: It will get you...eventually. Brian was just a Samaritan at the wrong place at the wrong time. And Death prowled during the most unsuspicious time.

23. Dennis Palmer, wrenched (no, literally)

Dennis Palmer's real-world death pales in comparison to his "premonition death." In Sam's grisly opening vision in Final Destination 5, Dennis gets scorched to death with asphalt sludge. Later in the film, he meets his demise by way of a big wrench wedged across his face.

22. Nathan Sears, buried under the rubble of Flight 180

As far as deaths go, Nathan's is a bit tame. Basically, Flight 180's plane crashes on top of a bar, crushing Nathan underneath. His death deserves to be on the list because if it's still not so easy to discern, Death is one cruel MF. He almost cheated death for real.

21. Julie & Wendy Christensen and Kevin Fischer, derailed subway

In the same spirit, we have sisters Julie and Wendy, along with Kevin, who, after surviving a whole film of freak accidents, find themselves in the same subway train. Like clockwork, Death goes to town on them, derailing the train and mangling the purported survivors of Final Destination 3 in the process.

20. Carter Daniels, dragged and burned alive

Carter's death feels a bit like a throwback, in that, much like in the first Final Destination, this kill feels very slasher-y. It's giving Texas Chainsaw Massacre, if Leatherface were to take his pick for kills: his victim chained to the back of a pickup truck, their skin scraping the asphalt, burning, as the truck revs full speed ahead.

19. Billy Hitchcock, decapitated by a metal scrap

Gnarly way to go for Billy. Like Terry's, his happens so abruptly, but it's in service of explaining yet another mechanism to the franchise. When you escape death, the next person bites the bullet...or, in Billy's case, gets their head sliced off by a flying metal scrap from underneath a speeding train.

18. Samantha Lane, enucleated by lawnmower

If there's anything the Final Destination films do well, it's the art of the misdirect. Sure, there's plenty of better examples in the entire franchise (think Evan or Mrs. Newton in the first two films), but Samantha's kill is done greatly. We're offered a menu of possible ways she'll meet her end, but it's something as inconsequential as a golf-sized stone that does it.

17. Frankie Cheeks, brains got blender'd

Final Destination 3 understood the brief about the franchise. Go in and make it nasty. Frankie's death is just that: a drive-thru pileup resulting to a car engine quite literally blending his degen lil' brain.

16. Lewis Romero, head crushed between massive gym weights

James Wong's threequel had an unusual supply of douchebag characters, and part of the film's appeal was truly seeing arrogant figures like Lewis get popped. All the iron he pumped finally went to his head — literally.

15. Andy Kewzer, chopped by a sharp fence

A kill served like holiday ham to gore-heads. Final Destination is big on slapstick and so often they defy the laws of physics (see: the giant, gravity-defying tree logs in Final Destination 2). Andy's death is one such example.

14. Olivia Castle, got the worst Lasik surgery

Olivia Castle's visit to the ophthalmology clinic could not have gone worse. These films have always had a stroke of technophobia in them, and a Lasik surgery going awry is just about as horrifying as it could get.

13. Rory Petters, sliced by flying barbed wires

Fondly calling this one the Rory rind slice. Bro got chopped clean by a whipping barded wire fence. The effects are unmistakably early aughts, but it holds up.

12. Kat Jennings, betrayed by safety car airbags

Convinced Final Destination operates strictly between cruel and funny. Kat Jennings' is chucked right in the middle. The irony of surviving a car crash then going out by way of airbags is so…𝒹𝒶𝓇𝓀 𝒽𝓊𝓂𝑜𝓇, let's just say that.

11. Evan Lewis, impaled in the eyes by emergency exit ladders

It's just the franchise's characters' luck to have their best and worst day. Evan Lewis' won the lotto and pulled the worst hand in this gnarly slapstick of errors.

10. Isaac Palmer, found religion the gnarly way

New fear unlocked: Acupuncture spas with cheap furniture. While no establishment will pass safety inspections having isopropyl alcohol inside a room full of candles, I forgive it for giving us the sick PSA of "yeah, maybe Buddhism is the way."

09. Nora Carpenter, decapitated by a moving elevator

I like that even Death admits that incel sex pedos are active conspirators in going after women's heads. RIP Nora, our queen.

08. Erin Ulmer, lobotomized by a barrage of hammer nails with an automatic nailgun

There's a reason why our parents keep the power tools inside toolboxes. The practical effects still look horrifying, like, FD3 did not come to play. What a brutal way to go.

07. Hunt Wynorski, siphoned by the pool drain

Bro couldn't handle the pressure of the — excuse my crassness — suckage. This kill is obviously one big morbid innuendo and it happened to the most deserving character.

06. Ashley & Ashlyn, roasted inside tanning beds

👑 𝓲𝓬𝓸𝓷𝓲𝓬 𝓺𝓾𝓮𝓮𝓷𝓼 𝓰𝓸𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓸𝓾𝓽 𝓲𝓬𝓸𝓷𝓲𝓬𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂. No other notes. Also, the match cut is just delicious on this one.

05. Tim Carpenter, crushed by a giant glass pane

O.K., we're in the Big Leagues now. Timmy's visit to the dentist went as badly as any pimply teenager would expect, but shocker, it's going to get even worse. If FD2 gruesomely killing off the youngest character doesn't indicate we're watching a sequel, what else will?

04. Valerie Lewton, stabbed freakishly by kitchen fixtures

Mrs. Newton's is a classic example of Death being an actively sinister presence. It seriously considered the idea of Death as some kind of serial killer with twisted designs and machinations. Its M.O. goes beyond typical stab wounds; the stab needs to come from a knife falling off of a rack.

03. Molly Harper & Sam Lewton, died inevitably in a plane crash...in 1999

When people say Final Destination 5 is a return to the original, they mean that literally. After an entire film of brushing with Death, Molly and Sam's short-lived celebration is cut short after boarding the ominous Flight 180 from the original Final Destination.

02. Candice Hopper, nosedived to her gruesome death

I know, I know. This kill (so far) is the poster kill for the franchise: Elaborate set piece with plenty of misdirects to sustain the tension. Then, it happens. I remember seeing it in theaters with a roomful of people shellshocked with what they've just witnessed. It's a Grade-A FD kill, but I think I've saved the very best for last.

01. Tod Waggner, garroted by a shower clothesline

Tod's is the first "real-world death" in the franchise, and it had to be horrifying. It presented Death clearly as an insidious, omniscient force, out to "balance his books." It truly felt like an invisible killer is doing Death's bidding, which made the original such a twisted slasher, categorically. The reference to Psycho isn't lost on me, as if the world needed another reason to fear showers and bathtubs.

Final Destination: Bloodlines, the sixth film in the franchise, is set to hit theaters May 14th.

Watch the official teaser-trailer here: