The REAL Stories Behind Final Destination (2000) And The 10 Creepiest Times Celebrities Predicted Their Own Deaths
It must’ve happened sometime in the early 1980s.
‘81, or ‘82, perhaps.
Some 15 year old in the ass-end of Aberdeen, Washington, was stuck in the teen funk of wanting to ditch high school forever whilst simultaneously spray painting ‘god is gay’ on hick trucks.
But when he wasn’t pissin’ off the rednecks, he was telling his friends that he was pretty sure he’d become a famous rockstar, and end his life surrounded by fame and riches by committing suicide.
He was the emblem of the era.
He would be the emblem for the next.
Kurt Cobain died on April 5th 1994 at the tender age of 27. He would not be the last person to have a premonition of his own death.
In fact, the peculiar phenomenon of predicting one’s own death or sensing something foreboding is due isn’t just some forgotten urban legend. It’s been immortalised in a franchise that has achieved a cult status similar to Cobain’s band Nirvana:
Final Destination (2000).
The thing is, the 5 Final Destination films aren’t just based on this unexplained phenomenon of predicting one’s demise. They’re also based on several horrifying, infamous deaths that have haunted America for decades.
They’ve been mocked, marketed, and made out to be utter rubbish - but the luring call of the Grim Reaper might be more real than you think.
First, let’s recap the Final Destination franchise.
James Wong has made his name in horror. From the cutting-edge directing of Insidious, to his recapturing of the media-frenzy that was the caseload of Ed and Lorraine Warren, he has led the genre in a new direction that deals with supernatural phenomena which tend to be all too real.
His earlier work, Final Destination, was no different.
The Final Destination franchise consists of 5 movies and a couple limited edition comic books. It’s achieved cult status for its innovative plotline and Truman Show-like impact on the viewers. But the thing is, like most cult horror movies, it tends to be, well, trash.
And that’s what they were.
For 5 feature length movies we see the same plot play out:
(No, I’m not being cynical, it literally follows the same damn structure every damn time.)
A gaggle of high school or college aged friends head out on a trip. One of the crew has a mysterious premonition that they’re gon’ die in like a 4K-HD-put-your-3D-glasses-on-now-and-switch-off-your-mobile-phones worthy video clip.
That person then, understandably, flips out and somehow causes a fight. The group of friends then get asked to get off the plane, or aren’t allowed on the roller coaster, or are no longer partaking in the deadly activity.
The event that was seen in the premonition then takes place. For the rest of the movie we see a series of bizarre events that threaten and take the lives of those who cheated death.
A sixth instalment is in production and attempts to break the cycle by looking at EMT workers who face ‘death’ on a daily basis.
The following of this film can be traced back to a number of reasons: there’s the vibrant lives of the characters, there’s a lovable chemistry between the actors, and there’s that idea that fate might just have our lives set out for us.
But when the last unpopped kernels are left at the bottom of the bowl and the credits fade to black, we are left with only our faces to look at in the reflection of our laptop screens. From there, those laughable traps set by death themself don’t seem so hilarious.
They seem to be real.
Maybe we are fated to die at a certain time in a certain way? Maybe the Grim Reaper does exist? Maybe we have no control over our destiny?
Jeffrey Reddick, the writer of Final Destination, directly sought out to ask these questions. And he based the original film off a true story.
“[He] read a story about a woman who was on vacation and her mom called her and said, 'Don't take the flight tomorrow, I have a really bad feeling about it.'"
She switched flights, and the one she was supposed to be on crashed.
This urban legend taps into a haunting history of premonitions of death. For millennia humans have predicted the fates of themselves and those around them whether they boasted psychic powers or not.
(We will get to that.)
Unfortunately, this franchise is based on more than just an urban legend. Some of the most traumatic death traps left by the Grim Reaper are actually inspired by real life tragedies.
Many believe the original film featuring a flight fault and exploding plane was based on the TWA Flight 800 explosion - but this occurred 2 years after the original script (which was intended for 90s icon The X Files) was penned.
But there are 3 real-life events that inspired the franchise.
#1 - The 125 car pileup in Ringgold, Georgia
In 2002, approximately 120 cars and 20 tractor-trailers collided on the Interstate just south of Chattanooga as a result of the blanket of thick fog that Thursday morning. 4 were killed and 39 were injured.
It began when a tractor drove into the wall of fog and smashed into the back of another. It then crossed several lanes, and spread the wreckage. The visibility at the time of the collision was at most 15 feet.
Only an hour later, when the fog finally lifted, could the emergency services see the full extent of the disaster.
#2 - The Le Mans Motor Racing Disaster
It’s been labelled the most catastrophic crash in the history of motorsport. No CGI could do justice to what occurred.
On June 11th 1955, Jaguar driver Mike Hawthorn pulled to the right of the track and braked for a pit stop. Austin-Healey driver Lance Macklin was following closely behind and swerved out from behind the braking car into the path of another driver, Levegh. Levegh rear-ended Macklin, overriding Macklin’s car and launching his own into the air at 125mph.
The car collided with the spectator area several times and then disintegrated, throwing Levegh onto the track where he met his instant death.
The engine and bonnet was thrown into the crowd.
Levegh’s severely burnt body lay on the track until someone finally lay a sheet over it.
It is estimated that 84 died, and 178 were injured. We still don’t know the full extent of the death toll.
This tragedy - which was blamed on the nature of the course for cars of such a speed - caused Mercedes-Benz to withdraw from racing for 44 years.
#3 - The collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge
4 months after the opening of the bridge to traffic, the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapsed as a result of an aeroelastic flutter initiated by a 42mph gust of wind.
Fortunately, there were no human fatalities, but the shocking collapse was caught on film. A dog named Tubby, however, did die from being abandoned in a car on the bridge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XggxeuFDaDU
So we know that the most iconic scenes from the franchise can be traced back to shocking disasters and tragedies. But there’s another side to the reality behind Final Destination:
The well laid plans of the Grim Reaper.
What are premonitions of death and what do they mean?
To many, having a niggling feeling about when one may pass away or even seeing it in a vision or a dream is a common part of life. And to many more, they will deem this as something as simple as anxiety making us believe we are due to die soon. However, from a spiritual standpoint, premonitions of death have much more meaning.
According to psychic mediums and spiritualists, the nagging feeling of impending death or dreams or visions of death are common - and can be real. They believe that souls can choose when they depart this world and thus signal to us when this is due.
Those with souls that are more evolved and have been reborn many times have greater ability to sense this.
Even souls that have connected together for many years - and even many lifetimes - and have formed bonds can have death premonitions regarding each other.
Whether it’s a specific date or a certain age, foreseeing your own or another’s passing can be a terrifying concept. But on the same note, this premonition could refer to a symbolic death, a bit like the death card in a Tarot deck.
Perhaps a part of yourself is dying.
(This certainly won’t be as graphic as a Final Destination death cameo.)
History has a different version of events, however.
Many have had premonitions of their own death. And many have been correct. It’s time to talk about them.
Here’s the 9 other times celebrities predicted their own deaths to an uncomfortable degree.
#1 - Tupac Shakur
This rap icon’s death wasn’t just a tragedy.
It was a mystery, too.
Many still believe that the death was faked and that Shakur is very much alive and well, whether he’s hiding in Mexico, New Zealand, or South Africa.
But the mystery surrounding 2Pac starts long before the drive-by shooting that took place in 1996 that would kill him.
“I been shot and murdered, can tell you how it happened word for word” is a line from a hit song with Ritchie Rich.
Sure, the rap genre is closely with such themes that highlight gang crime and gun violence, and sure, Tupac had been involved with violent interactions and assaults before, but this eerily accurate lyric is bound to raise eyebrows.
That being said, if he did fake his own death he would know how it would take place, right? This may be less a premonition, and more an actual plan.
#2 - Bob Marley
Music icons don’t just have a knack for writing a catchy hook and a couple verses, too. Turns out they have this habit of predicting when they will die.
Kurt Cobain’s prediction of his own passing can quite easily be overlooked by the typicality of this death within the rockstar lifestyle. But Bob Marley didn’t actually predict how he would die - he told his friends when he would die.
Marley claimed he would die when he was 36. He was right.
But the coincidence doesn’t end there.
According to Allan Cole, one of his closest friends who was told this secret, Marley had psychic abilities that he would often flaunt to the locals where he grew up in Jamaica. He was even deemed a prophet to those close to them.
#3 - John Denver
“Cause I’m leavin’ on a jet plane,/
Don’t know when I’ll be back again”
This singer-songwriter wasn’t just a keen musician - he was also an amateur pilot. Unfortunately, his second pastime would eerily echo his first, and foreshadow his death.
28 years after he first released Leaving On A Jet Plane, he took off on his last flight where he would ultimately have a fatal crash.
#5 - Mark Twain
As the father of American literature, Twain was used to creating universes to engage readers with timeless classics like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. But it's our own world that would provide as poetic an end to Twain’s own story as he would to his fictional characters.
Born shortly after the sighting of Halley’s Comet in 1835, Twain would often joke that he would go out with it.
“Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.”
A day after the comet was sighted once again in 1910, Twain died of a heart attack.
#6 - Pete Maravich
He will go down in history as one of the greatest NBA players to ever hit the court - and he left it in a mysterious manner.
Having played in the world-famous league for 4 years, he claimed in an interview that “I don’t want to play 10 years [in the NBA] and then die of a heart attack at the age of 40.”
An injury caused him to leave the NBA 6 years later, completing the first part of his prediction. He died from a heart attack at age 40.
Even more intriguing, however, is what caused him to die: Maravich claimed he had a missing heart valve and should’ve died at the tender age of 20. His ability to predict his death which according to doctors would’ve been a bold assumption for such a heart problem is fascinating (and freaky).
#7 - Jimi Hendrix
He might’ve passed 4 decades ago, but the death of this guitarist is still tinged with as much mystery as the other legendary musicians and athletes populating this list. Shortly before claiming this status in 1965, he recorded The Ballad of Jimi.
“Many things he would try/
For he knew soon he’d die./
Now Jimi’s gone, he’s not alone/
His memory still lives on/
Five years, this he said/
He’s not gone, he’s just dead”
Hendrix died September 18th 1970. It was 5 years exactly to the day that he recorded that song.
#8 - Buddy Holly
On one evening in January of 1959, Buddy Holly and wife Maria had bad dreams. In fact, they had exactly the same bad dreams. They both involved a farm, an airplane, and Holly leaving Maria.
Weeks later Holly would tour the Midwest in an attempt to raise money for his family. Unfortunately, one of the airplanes he chartered for the tour crashed shortly after taking off into a cornfield. He was instantly killed.
#9 - W T Stead
The Titanic has been associated with many unexplained circumstances. This is one of them.
In 1886, Stead wrote a tale of an ocean liner colliding with another ship. Many of the passengers on that fictional ship would go on to lose their lives as a result of the lack of lifeboats.
“This is exactly what might take place and will take place if liners are sent to sea short of boats”
He would then go on to write a different story featuring a ship crashing into an iceberg.
In 1912, Stead boarded the RMS Titanic. And we all know how that ended - with a lack of a lifeboats causing excess deaths. He drowned with the rest of the victims of the tragedy.
#9 - Rasputin
As a former history student, I can boldly put forth a critical opinion of the dying days of the Romanov dynasty: Rasputin was one dodgy bloke. But what made him really dodgy was his ability to predict not just his own death, but that of the Russian monarchy, too.
Shortly before he was assassinated, he wrote a letter to the Tsarina claiming he would be killed by New Years. He also mentioned that her own family would die within 2 years.
Two days before New Year’s, he was poisoned in a rather messy assassination (no, seriously, look it up).
Within 18 months the Romanovs were dead.
Well that was a bit deathy.
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