inal Destination 2, the sequel to 2000's hit Final Destination, brings back Ali Larter as the doomed but resourceful Clear Rivers and unites her with new characters Kimberly (A.J. Cook) and Thomas (Michael Landes). David Ellis, who built his career as a stunt coordinator and second-unit director, steps behind the camera, taking the place of the original film's director, James Wong. Wong and his longtime genre writing partner Glen Morgan (The X-Files) created the first movie, which turned teen horror-film conventions on their heads by making Death itself the villain—an unseen, lurking presence that dispatched its victims in unusual and gruesome ways.
In the sequel, Kimberly has a premonition of disaster: a massive freeway crash that kills her and several others. In avoiding it, Kimberly discovers that she has managed to cheat death only momentarily. She and Thomas enlist Clear's help to understand Death's design and, hopefully, to defeat it.
Final Destination 2 is the second directorial effort by Ellis, who recently supervised the second unit and coordinated stunts for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and the upcoming two Matrix sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.
Since she appeared in Final Destination, Larter has made a name for herself in several movies, including Legally Blonde and Drive Me Crazy.
Landes is best known to genre fans for starring in UPN's Special Unit 2. Science Fiction Weekly spoke with Ellis, Larter and Landes on the Vancouver, B.C., set of FD2 last year. FD2 opens Jan. 31.
David Ellis, what attracted you about Final Destination 2?
Ellis: When I read it, and after I saw the first film, which they did a great job on ... I thought there was an opportunity for the sequel to improve upon the original, instead of just rip it off and be cheesy. So I thought we really had a script with integrity, based on the kind of parameters of what the movie is about. And so it sounded cool.
How do you expand on the universe that was created in the first film?
Ellis: What's cool is we tie it into the first film ... how there were some loose ends, how Death is coming back to clean that up, and we keep it more ambiguous as far as what the exact rules are, so it's not so predictable. You're not just waiting for each person to die. You're not sure who's next. And because of that, it keeps the audience guessing a little bit more. And I think we have some great deaths.
The first was sort of moody and creepy.
Ellis: After getting the job and not being a big follower of sci-fi, scary films ... I felt all of them ... set the same tone. They're always dark, always a lot of blue light, always really smoky. And I thought it would be interesting to just have a real film, with people in unusual circumstances. So we tried to make it just like everyday life, so that we're not always setting up by the camera movement or by the lighting. ... What I didn't want to do is I didn't want to make it real predictable. I just wanted to make it real, and then have things happen like they do in real life, in your face.
You've got a lot more action in this film?
Ellis: I think there's more action than the first film, yeah. Definitely, there is. Because we have things that didn't happen in the first film. ... They had their big plane-crash sequence. We have a big freeway sequence. We're constantly flashing back to that, and to other different things that are happening in the film. ... It was important for us to raise the bar, and come up with something more, because the audience has already seen all that.
Without giving away the secrets, can you talk about some of the bigger action and surprises that people can see? Some of the deaths sound pretty creative.
Ellis: Yeah, I think with the deaths in the film, the thing that worked in the first movie are the times when you didn't know the deaths were coming. You know, like I think one that stood out for me that was really well-executed was the bus crash. And that was because you didn't hear the bus coming; it just came right away. So we have a couple of those. They had one. We tried to put three of those. And then in the other ones, we tried to trick the audience. Because they're going to be looking. They'll be all over the place. And they're smart. And so they're going to be looking for, OK, how are these guys going to kill this guy? And I think we have enough fake-outs with misdirecting them so that hopefully for 99 percent of them, it's going to come as a big surprise. Even the ones that aren't the abrupt deaths, like the bus-crash one.
The way you're timing this people will naturally cover their eyes.
Ellis: Yeah, I want to get them when they come back. So I'm thinking of it as kind of a great date movie. Because all these guys could bring these chicks, and the chicks would just be hanging on them the whole movie. But I want to get the girls, too. I don't want them to be able to look away. ... So when you would anticipate that they would naturally look away, that's when you don't get the guy. And you wait a beat until they think it's all over and it's all cool, and then they come back, and then you get them.
You start the movie with this chain-reaction auto accident. What sets that apart from what people have seen before?
Ellis: People have seen car crashes. ... I think what sets this one apart is that usually when you see car crashes, you don't get to meet the people in the crash. ... In this movie you get to meet 12 different people who are on the highway for all the wrong reasons. ... You're in each seat of these people as they're traveling down the highway, and then you get to experience with them the crash and their deaths. Each individual death. And I'm shooting it mostly through the point of view of the passengers and the drivers in the car. ... And we've got some really cool stunts for each individual person at their death.
Ali Larter, what's different about your character this time around?
Larter: I think what's different is some time has passed. She's lost most of her friends and her family, and I think that she's just kind of hardened to the world, you know? I think that when anybody experiences that much loss, she's just not open to helping people. She's just kind of taking care of herself, and she's kind of become this shell of a person.
How big a part do you play in the film?
Larter: It's pretty similar to the first one. I'm not the one who has the premonitions this time. A.J., who's playing Kimberly, starts having these premonitions, and she comes to me to try to understand what's happening. So I end up coming out. I've committed myself into this safe house, and I end up coming out to help her, and she kind of brings me back into the world.
You're the only character returning from the first film.
Larter: I'm one of the only ones that lives. ... I think it's great that the audience wants to bring her back, and the producers and the studio made that choice. I think it's fantastic. You know, as an actor you don't have a choice of these things.
For you, was it a problem wanting to do a sequel?
Larter: I don't know if there's anybody who really wants to do a sequel. You know, but I'm really glad that everybody enjoyed the first movie and that New Line believes in it and wants to do it again. And that they chose to bring me back is a wonderful thing, so I'm here.
Were there things that you thought you could do with this character that you didn't explore in the first?
Larter: It's just not that kind of movie. ... This movie is about death. It's about the action sequences. It's about the supernatural element, the thriller aspect of it. So as an actor, I kind of think we're farther down the totem pole. But I think that, just as a sequel, this one is going to be a lot more exciting. I think that in the first one, there wasn't as direct of a vision, and I think that on this one, David just really knows what he wants. [Producer] Craig Perry's collaborating with him really closely, and I think that they're going to come up with a cool movie.
This film seems like it's bigger and faster and more action.
Larter: Yeah, there's definitely more action in this one, and I think that the bus crash in the first one, which is really something people remember about it, almost every single one of the deaths in this movie is like that one, so it's going to be shocking, and it's going to be a ride.
Michael Landes, tell us about your character.
Landes: The movie starts out with a big car sequence on a highway bridge. And I play a state trooper. And just like the first movie, this one takes place in Westchester County, N.Y. So I play a state trooper in New York City, and I come onto the scene, and that's where I meet A.J.'s character, Kimberly, who's the girl. And after the wreck, we all come back to the police station, and that's where everything unfolds.
And there's a bit of history in my character. In the first movie, the character Billy Hitchcock was decapitated by the train wreck. I was the cop that got to go to that scene of the crime. So that's my connection to the first movie. ... I guess he's kind of secretly intrigued by what happened a year ago, but he kind of believes it and kind of doesn't. And after all this happens, and I sense that Kimberly might be having a premonition, I start to get more intrigued again by this. ... After another death happens, I go and meet Kimberly off duty, and together we go and meet up with Ali Larter's character.
Had you seen the first film?
Landes: I didn't. I saw the trailer. They marketed the first film really well. And I hadn't seen the movie until ... I got the job. I rented it. ... Rather than this being a horror movie, I think it's more like a ... horror/thriller movie at the same time. Like there's no monster with a mask. So I like that. It appeals to me personally more than somebody chasing you with a mask, because that's harder to imagine. ... I like that there's nothing there. It's like this thing in everybody's imagination that they're worried about.
When they tested that first film, and the bus hit, everyone jumped out of their seats. Is there anything like that in this film?
Landes: There's a couple of freaky deaths. What they do that's really nice is, David Ellis, the director, said something really poignant. He said, when people cover their hands in the movie theater, he said, I want to make it like just when they think that something happened, and they pull their hands away, wham, we do something. Which I think is really neat. And they set you up. But they'll give you 10 different ways that the person could die, and then the 11th way you never even thought of, and that's how they die. So I think that's very clever. ... There's gory ones, and there's shocker ones.
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