[Music] till this day this is still one of the most unsettling on-screen deaths of any movie I have ever seen and no one knew it at the time but this would be the beginning of Death's endless hunt to track down those who cheated their demise the first kill of the franchise and that's not counting the actual plane crash where the other 39 students died but the first one where death comes back for those who escaped its design i love this franchise although the later films after the third one became lively basically murder porn with the symbolism and remorse for the characters being completely forgotten which might just be a reflection of how numb the world has become in general when it comes to these tragedies but that's a different discussion for another day what I would like to focus on in general is how this franchise especially the first one along with two and three mastered death anxiety the amount of effort that went into crafting these scenes was so over the top that probably the majority of effort that went into shooting these scenes went unnoticed that's why I wanted to discuss Todd's death scene and how meticulous the creators were about it see at this point in the film the kids have attended their school memorial to pay respects to those who have died on Flight 180 and we later cut to Todd who seems to be entering his nightly routine before he goes to bed the director has stated that ever since the characters cheated death the world around them has become more skewed and the objects around them begin to change their positioning a great example of this is how the photos on the wall at the airport terminal are rearranged after Alex and the others are kicked off the plane right before they board the plane these three bright green photos are positioned directly behind Alex and Todd as they face the gate then once they're kicked off the plane those three photos are now rearranged with three different ones and the same thing happens to these line of photos near the door they were arranged one way and now they're different this type of cinematography and visual storytelling is done to portray that visceral feeling you feel in your gut when you just know something isn't right about a situation but you're just not sure what and you can't quite put your finger on it but you just know something feels off that feeling is what the director James Wong accomplished here this is the end of Todd's journey and where we'll ultimately explore the cinematography the hidden signs and how much deeper this scene really was than you originally remember the scene begins in the hallway where the camera is already creeping towards the bathroom and by this shot alone we're already aware of an ominous presence throughout the film Death's presence is represented by wind and shadows and in this scene we eventually see both in the first shot panning down in front of the house if we look closely there's obviously no wind blowing outside because the leaves are completely still but cutting to the inside once Todd enters the frame that allows us to instantly notice the leaves blowing outside the bathroom window symbolizing how death has now arrived then we have to acknowledge how the environment has suddenly become skewed once we notice the photos on the wall are actually stretched which was a detail that was pointed out by the director himself and how the hallway feels like it's closing in on Todd this type of cinematography is known as forced perspective it's a technique that's used to emphasize Todd's last moments the lines of perspective in the hallway also tell an interesting story as well before Todd enters the frame our eyes are already drawn to the bathroom as though there is some significance about this place before the character arrives we could even go as far as to say the main item that sets all of this in motion is already in the frame as well waiting at the end of the hallway and the perspective lines in the frame are leading us to the focal point visual foreshadowing has always been a core strength of the Final Destination films especially the first one this whole composition reinforces the director's statements of wanting the characters to feel like they were being cornered by death now let's bring Todd back into the picture as the push-in camera movement sort of turns into a tracking shot but not really notice how the camera is following Todd but at the same time it also seems to move around in a way that implies that at the moment he's really not that important yet now of course Todd is important to the scene i mean we're here because of him but right now the focus is more so the environment he's in and the placement of the objects around him so we can see what's different later right now is a very pivotal moment to establish that there are other forces at play that he is not aware of it feels as though something is actively and carefully scoping his environment to find the most effective way to take his life and that's actually pretty unsettling to think about i mean if you're home right now imagine how something could be planning to drop the ceiling fan on your head the next time you're under it or how there's possibly a small sharp item waiting for you on the staircase once you're done watching this video or maybe it's just not your time and thank you for letting me put those thoughts in your head but anyway you get the point now after Todd feels the breeze from the window which is basically death entering the bathroom he closes the window and we see that slow panning camera work that shows death closing the door now if you're just watching this scene casually then seeing the wind swing the door shut or not seeing the wind swing the door shut is just another creepy horror trope added to this scene preparing the audience for something ominous and while this is true there's a little more meaning behind it see Todd has already cheated death once and although this is death here we're talking about I mean an otherworldly force tracking down its victims it's still no fun to completely strip the viewers of hope for the characters and in the film the presence of death does have its limits and can't directly hurt you like cause a sudden aneurysm or heart attack but it can put you in a situation to hurt or rather kill yourself and the last thing it wants is someone disrupting that plan when the victim is already alone and vulnerable so closing the door not only traps Todd but it helps to keep others from possibly interfering and that smart visual storytelling combined with established rules all packed into one camera pan and before the scene makes its first cut away from Todd to Alex we're left to ponder with one of the strangest close-ups you could imagine which is the toilet water valve leaking now as a viewer watching this for the first time it's impossible to know where this is going and your mind is struggling to calculate the endless possibilities of how this guy is about to die from something as small as a leaky water valve at this time it feels like it's pretty clear that Todd is going to die but cutting to Alex in this moment does something very interesting for the viewer it introduces the idea that although all hope is probably lost the one kid with the magical premonitions might actually be able to save his best friend and keep in mind there is no dialogue throughout this whole sequence this is all completely visual narration now the moments with Alex actually won't play a major role throughout this analysis except for what I just mentioned pertaining to the visual narrative pointing out his premonitions and one other important hidden clue that I don't think I've ever seen anyone else discuss but we'll talk about it later what you'll come to notice a lot in this analysis is that the objects that tend to play a major role in this visual narrative are always positioned in a close-up shot front and center shots like this could be visual foreshadowing for what's to come or it could easily be a misdirection attempt from the creators there's actually a lot of shots like this with Todd's death scene that I'll further expand on throughout this analysis but either way it's an important element to the story and the anticipation of finding out how things will unfold demands our attention once the camera cuts back to Todd notice how once again the focus isn't immediately on him and instead it's on the razor laying on the counter then right after he cuts himself in the mirror the puddle gets closer and he notices death's shadow and at this very moment there's two reoccurring themes that the film is establishing for us and that's the use of shadows and reflections throughout the film reflections act as a way for characters especially Alex to perceive things that others can't reinforcing the idea that he has a heightened awareness of fate mirrors and glass surfaces often distort reality hinting that what's seen isn't necessarily what will happen the use of mirrors and shadows in the film also suggest a fractured reality where fate lurks just beyond perception blurring the line between what's seen and what's inevitable and once again this is another impressive method the film uses to reinforce the narrative another thing that I'll also point out here that's actually difficult to notice but I still think it's worth mentioning and that's the fact that every set that was built for the film had an exact duplicate set where things would be slightly off the director James Wong has mentioned that the floor towel and walls in this scene eventually become skewed and if you think back that's exactly what we saw in the airplane terminal scene that I mentioned previously with the pictures on the wall these alignments are just a little off just enough to feel strange but this is also something you'd never notice as a viewer even now it's difficult to see but even if you don't notice it it's still the fact that this information may now encourage you to watch the film with a different perspective and on top of that if you didn't already have enough to pay attention to well you know that window Todd just put down like a second ago yeah well if you pay close attention in this pan across the room after he sees the shadow that window is up again at this point there's so much happening that it's easy to miss a detail like that now back to Todd cutting himself a detail that feels like it could be tied to his death happening with a razor and we see the sight of blood but it's actually not tied to his death besides the fact that Todd is fiddling with an area of his body that he'll soon be hanging from even afterwards when he picks up the sharp pair of scissors you might imagine him slipping in the scissors getting shoved up his nose and then there's another third sudden misdirection where he unplugs the radio and we can see the puddle near his feet assuming that this could all end in electrocution but once again it's just another way to tease the audience and add suspense with scenes like this you want to add suspense but you also don't want to bore the viewer which means the buildup needs to be justified but we can be pretty sure though that at this point the puddle will be a part of Todd's death in some way since it seems to be the only common denominator between all of these shots we constantly cut back to the progression of the leak and how the puddle is basically following Todd around the bathroom and fun fact while we're at the radio scene which I'm pretty sure most Final Destination fans might be aware of by now but that was a John Denver song playing on the radio and there are John Denver songs playing multiple times throughout the movie as sort of a bad omen anytime one of his songs are playing something bad follows but anyway Todd walks to the shower and then there's a quick cut watching the puddle follow closely behind now once we cut back to Alex as he seeks a little stress relief from his porn magazine there's another detail that I've never really seen anyone talk about before as previously mentioned that I would like to point out right now it's another one of those visual narrative elements that this movie is filled to the brim with and it's also shown many times throughout this scene with Alex once he throws the magazine and sees Todd's name on a shredded piece of magazine page as a clue we are presented with a perfect medium closeup which contains another hidden clue in this shot Alex's attention is directed offcreen at the shredded paper on his knee but then right beside him is a foreshadowed clue and the mechanics of a concept that he will soon come to understand later alex is positioned beside seven interlin monkeys that are hanging from his bookshelf and along with all the other hidden details in this film we're now presented with seven monkeys that represent the seven survivors of Flight 180 that's Alex Clear Carter Terry Billy Valerie and Todd but now let's dive a little deeper let's think about why they may have chosen monkeys to represent this connection when they technically could have shown seven of anything to represent this link well this hints at the popular phrase monkey see monkey do that suggest mindlessly following a pattern which is similar to how death's design operates even though Alex tries to break the pattern the others tend to fall into predictable responses like fear skepticism and outright refusal to believe him leading to their inevitable deaths this is a symbol of how trying to outrun fate is futile and how everyone eventually follows the design just like the monkeys are linked in the chain Alex and the others are bound by an invisible thread each pulled along the same path unable to break free as if their fates are echoing one another in a silent inescapable rhythm now here's the moment that's somewhat comedic but also still hard to watch till this day for me we get another brief shot of the puddle creeping towards Todd he slips and falls into a retractable clothes line and while he struggles to maintain his balance the line does about three laps around his neck he collapses into the shower knocking over the body wash on the way down which makes it impossible for him to stand and release himself now that death finally has Todd back in its grasp after a meticulous setup the camera now pushes in aggressively on Todd's face his struggle and his expressions as mentioned previously the camera movement expressed how Todd wasn't important yet but now he is or rather his demise is at this point is where things become very intense and it becomes difficult to acknowledge all the hidden signs and foreshadowed elements that led up to Todd's death so first let's look at the moments that foreshadowed this scene then we'll point out the hidden moments throughout this scene when the film starts the first image we see is a man hanging from a wire symbolizing how Todd is the first death amongst the group hanging from a wire then after boarding the plane and the girls ask Alex to move he looks up at Todd and he gives Alex a knife slit and a noose around the neck gesture and this foreshadows how Todd mistakenly cuts his neck and how he was later hung in that same exact order while Todd struggles to survive they pay homage to Psycho here with the showerhead shot because the creators saw a great opportunity and it also works for the scene we also get a shot of the door and Todd's dad sleeping to establish that help more than likely won't make it and he will not be heard then if you remember the earlier establishing close-up shot of the shelf in the bathroom where things were one way and now you can see the objects have moved and all of the toys are now repositioned to watch Todd as he fades away also the clock beside Todd's father shows 10:39 and there's the number 39 popping up once again 39 students died on the plane and the next victim street address after Todd is also 39 and there are other references of the number 39 throughout the film but this is once again just more secrets in the cinematography now instead of watching Todd completely struggle throughout this moment until he dies the creators wanted to introduce one last possibility of hope for the character to once again tease the audience he spots the scissors on the counter something we would have originally questioned as a possible cause for his death but now the creators have changed the context along with our perspectives and now we see it as a way of Todd cutting himself free if only he could reach the scissors because they seem so close there's even a close-up shot to establish the distance build suspense and hope but unfortunately Todd loses his life and we get to see the puddle returning to the toilet as though the leak never existed and this is a super rare occurrence because this is the only time in the film it ever happens where death basically cleans up after it's done and actually if I'm not mistaken I think this is the only time this ever happens in the franchise such an iconically terrifying moment that still holds up till this day in my opinion it honestly doesn't feel like this much effort goes into the kills anymore in the franchise but hopefully we're able to get some fun stuff like this in the upcoming new Final Destination Bloodlines but as always guys thank you for watching