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Final Destination 5 Retconned The Series’ Death & Murder Rules
One of the most terrifying aspects of the Final Destination franchise is the notion that Death is inevitable; Final Destination 5 retconned the rules of Death's design to make them even more horrific.
Since the first movie's release in 2000, the Final Destination movies have been giving audiences a reason to fear everyday objects and mundane situations like driving behind a log truck in traffic. However, part of the reason behind why these films are so effective is the reason behind why people are dispatched in horrific accidents and catastrophic disasters: Death has a plan for everyone, and when someone's time is up, there's little that can be done to avoid it or escape. The past installments have toyed with concepts like suicide taking players off the board, skipping turns by saving the lives of other people, but the fifth movie - which was actually a prequel to the original in a surprise twist ending - suggested another rule in Death's design.
Helmed by horror icon Tony Todd, the Candyman himself, the character of William Bludworth has been a staple of the franchise as the mysterious coroner seems to know details about all of Death's intricate rules. He has presented them in his own way to survivors in the past, always warning them to be careful about trying to trick or cheat Death. However, Final Destination 5 added a more sinister way around avoiding one's untimely demise.
Final Destination 5 Retconned Death's Rules
Previously, Bludworth established that Death is a difficult foe to defeat for understandable reasons. After all, everyone is subject to Death at some point or another: nobody lives forever. Horror traditionally plays with the concept of death being inflicted on people through the actions of a serial killer, slasher, or even more mythological beasts like vampires, werewolves, and other creatures. However, Final Destination makes the young people who find their cosmic paths intersecting with Death battling their mortality and the knowledge that, for whatever reason, their time is up.
Though the only method introduced that has been a solution to defeating Death is "new life", which was brought about in the second movie when one character drowned and was brought back to life by doctors. She was one of the only characters to survive. Another way this has been discussed as avoidable is through the birth of a child, more specifically, the birth of a child who was meant to die in one of Death's incredible disasters or through some other means. It also seems possible that someone who is pregnant with a child that isn't meant to die might be preserved long enough for the child to be born before it is their turn again, and Death starts to intervene. The rules are tricky, and Bludworth has explained that it's also possible to "skip" by intervening and saving someone who is meant to die - this is possible if one knows the order of deaths and how they are meant to occur.
Final Destination 5 introduced the concept that murdering someone would give the killer the ability to essentially absorb the rest of their remaining lifespan. For example, if someone had another thirty years to live, and are killed, the person who killed them would get to trade their impending death for thirty more years of life. Whether this is actually true is also unclear, as the deaths that occurred in the fifth movie are of people who were already intended to die, granting those who shed blood to prolong their own fate a mere manner of days instead of an entire life. Final Destination 5 made the rules even darker than they already were, taking away the notion of being a savior and exchanging it with the concept of being a killer, selfish and determined to live longer at any cost - cheating for as long as one can before, ultimately, their life is also claimed because, as the films' canon continues to prove: Death cannot be outrun forever.
