# Why such an incredibly aggressive TV campaign for Final Destination 5? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 9, 2011, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-such-an-incredibly-aggressive-tv-campaign-for-final-destination-5/592046 "2011-08-09T07:11:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-such-an-incredibly-aggressive-tv-campaign-for-final-destination-5/592046/21 "2011-08-09T20:07:27Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Okay, it’s a shaggy dog story. I just figure that, if Death gets mad when people live who were “supposed to die,” why isn’t Death constantly punishing doctors and paramedics and firemen? Aren’t THEY screwing up his plans, too? I assume it’s only the lives saved by prescience that Death objects to. If a doctor saves someone’s life, he was destined to do so. If a doctor has a vision of future events that lets him save someone’s life, Death’s coming to balance the books. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-such-an-incredibly-aggressive-tv-campaign-for-final-destination-5/592046/22 "2011-08-09T20:25:41Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > I assume it’s only the lives saved by prescience that Death objects to. If a doctor saves someone’s life, he was destined to do so. If a doctor has a vision of future events that lets him save someone’s life, Death’s coming to balance the books. Agreed. This also explains why Death balances the books by killing those meant to die in ways much more painfull and terrifying than how they were originally meant to die (as opposed to simply making their hearts stop or bursting blood vessels in their brains, which would also make a really boring film). Besides nobody watches these movies for the plot; it’s to watch pretty young adults get killed in comically absurd ways. ---
**Author:** ![3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/47e85d/32.png) [@3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3_20_59_or_bust)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-such-an-incredibly-aggressive-tv-campaign-for-final-destination-5/592046/23 "2011-08-09T21:07:05Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > If anything, I’d expect scenes like this to get people to distrust complex machines of all kinds. Are you _sure_ you want to use cruise control? Are you _sure_ it’s not going to rev your car to 140mph and careening off a cliff… no, wait, that’s too prosaic… rev your car to 140mph and smashing through the doors of a bottle factory where foot-long and razor-sharp shards of glass will cascade all around you, making painful cuts in your skin while you scream in terror and finally fall from your wrecked car onto a conveyor belt headed for the furnace, unable to move because all your tendons have been cut… Some worker might have the presence of mind to hit the emergency stop button (which performs as designed, surprisingly), but that’s no respite since the demolished car will also tumble onto the conveyor in pieces and the steering wheel will land near your head, perfectly placed for the belated inflation of the airbag to hammer-slam two brand-new Coke bottles through your eyes and out the back of your head. Oh, if only you’d recognized the future irony when earlier in the film you joked about that nerd’s “Coke bottle glasses” but now it’s too late. That’s quality stuff. If that scene ends up in FD6, make sure you get your cut up front - I don’t think this is the movie series to request back end points. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2011, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-such-an-incredibly-aggressive-tv-campaign-for-final-destination-5/592046/24 "2011-08-09T22:23:17Z")
> [@3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](#): > > That’s quality stuff. If that scene ends up in FD6, make sure you get your cut up front - I don’t think this is the movie series to request back end points. That’s very kind of you, and I guess the FD movies are unusual in that credibility is actually a negative. Personally, I see them in pretty much the same category as “torture porn” movies like _Saw_, the only difference being that the comically elaborate deathtraps are not the product of some meticulous psychopath, but the fickle hand of fate. Further, as CGI improves, it will be easier and easier to render realistic (if improbable) deaths in all their gory detail. The character at the beginning who has the psychic vision won’t just be seeing a plane crash or whatever, he’ll see (and thus the audience will see) fully detailed splatter-time renderings of his college buddy being cut in half by a shard of metal (intestines spilling out), his girlfriend being crushed like a toothpaste tube (intestines spilling out… _of her mouth!_), his younger brother’s skull being pulverized by a runaway beverage cart (his eyeballs popping out, letting him see himself die the moment it happens), etc. And, after the audience has been treated to this over-sized appetizer, it’ll be course after course of equally detailed death-kebabs as the “meant to die” characters get taken out one by one, with the sweet after-dinner mint of the blink-and-you-miss-it dispatching of the last victim - roll credits. ---
**Author:** ![MeanJoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanjoe/32/5693_2.png) [@MeanJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanJoe)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2011, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-such-an-incredibly-aggressive-tv-campaign-for-final-destination-5/592046/25 "2011-08-20T14:18:28Z")
So has anyone seen it now? I saw it last night. First let me say, I only vaguely recall seeing part of the first movie on HBO or some cable channel years ago. I cannot even remember if I watched all of it or only part. Didn’t catch my interest enough to even remember the details now nor ever see any sequels. Last night friends of ours wanted to go see it, with dinner and drinks, and invited us along. I’d have never chose to go see this one as it just wasn’t on my radar but what the heck - good friends, some beer-lubricant before hand, and should be a good time. I honestly enjoyed the movie, much to my surprise. It won’t win an Oscar but as my friend said afterwards - It knows exactly what it is and delivers it. The opening scene was fantastically over-the-top and having almost no recollection of the first movie or the standard “set-up” I was caught right up in the mayhem. I liked the mix of complicated long set-ups for some of the deaths and suddenness of some of the others. Also having only vague memories of the first movie, the surprise ending of this one was clever and well done. MeanJoe MeanJoe ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2011, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-such-an-incredibly-aggressive-tv-campaign-for-final-destination-5/592046/26 "2011-08-20T15:56:15Z")
I caught the opening seconds, in French, before I and a number of other patrons realized we’d walked into the wrong room, this particular theater having a confusing layout. My girlfriend and I hastily moved next door to _30 Minutes or Less_ which proved quite enjoyable. I suppose in a little while I’ll watch the various death-capades of FD5 on YouTube. It’s not like there’s any reason to care about the characters and their intra-splat conversations. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-such-an-incredibly-aggressive-tv-campaign-for-final-destination-5/592046.md?page=1)