‘Final Destination’ Producer Reveals That One Scene Left a Stuntman With 47 Stitches

Craig Perry, the producer behind all the Final Destination movies, is currently promoting the latest installment in the franchise. Final Destination Bloodlines revives the horror franchise with more Rube Goldberg-like kills, and elaborate set pieces that make you feel like no situation is safe. When going through the entire franchise, Perry highlights one moment where the gore transcended the camera and things got a bit bloody on the set. It was during reshoots of 2000’s Final Destination, the first film in the franchise, which ends when three survivors head to Paris, and, well, death makes an appearance once again to deal with unfinished business.

Perry appeared in a retrospective for Entertainment Weekly where he went through the main kills in all the previous Final Destination movies. They’re all there: the logs coming loose from the truck on the highway to hell, Tod’s strangulation in the bathtub, and even the wire fence that cuts Rory’s body into several parts. But the one that stands out the most is the final scene in the first movie, when Alex, Clear, and Carter are in Paris celebrating that they were able to fool death. Or did they?

The producer says that this ending was part of reshoots, as audiences were not happy with the original ending (the film originally ended with Alex sacrificing himself and Clear having his baby, a resolution that wasn’t really in tune with the rest of the movie). Perry says: “The audience was very clear about what they were responding to and what they did not like, and they did not like the original ending.” It was at this moment that he mentioned the incident during the shooting of the scene when a bus that was about to run over Alex actually hits a pole, and a stuntman suffered the consequences of what came after:

“When the bus hits the thing that swings up and hits the sign, there was like a do-not-park sign that had a metal band affixed, and that got knocked off, ricocheted off the building, and hit the stunt guy. He had 47 stitches literally—his skin flaps over his face. The shot is in the movie, but he stood up, and he goes, ‘Uh, medic?’

“But he wound up coming back to the set that night, his head had been shaved, he had staples in there, and he’s like, ‘Can I see the shot?’’and I’m like, ‘You sir, are a rare breed. Yes, you can, enjoy.'”

The “Death Always Finds a Way” Franchise Returns With ‘Final Destination Bloodlines’

Death returns full throttle this year with Final Destination Bloodlines, the sequel reviving the franchise that has been dormant since 2011’s Final Destination 5. Back then, the very underrated fifth installment delivered a full-circle final act that satisfyingly ended the franchise. Or so we thought.

Final Destination Bloodlines began as a sequel that would reimagine the franchise from scratch. But then it turned into a simple revival of the concept, with the usual gnarly kills that will make you paranoid and afraid of your own shadow. The film is currently playing in theaters and, by the time of writing, it sits at 93% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Source: Entertainment Weekly (YouTube)

Final Destination

Release Date

March 17, 2000

Runtime

98 minutes

Director

James Wong

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  Kristen Cloke

  Valerie Lewton