Death from 'Final Destination'

 

Death is an invisible, relentless force that seeks revenge against those who evade its plans. Normally death is never felt nor is it encountered directly as entity or issue…but…. when those who are appointed to die through serious accidents or similar activities evade death (even unknowingly), death will become a remorseless force dedicated to rectifying the situation.

There are key situations with Death that occur to draw its ‘ire’:

Premonition: usually someone amid a large catastrophic accident has a psychic flash of the events that are about to transpire. These events follow a specific pattern and are usually most horrific. Victims of the events are shown to die in specific order – Either how they are arranged, proximity of themselves to the accident, or even the actual order of death with the last victim always being the person who had the premonition first.

Mechanically, the Judge has the players roll a Psyche FEAT secretly. These FEATS are arranged in order of success and rank. The highest actual roll followed by the highest rank determines the order in which Death had planned to take the characters. The person with the lowest roll has a flash/vision which lasts upwards of three minutes of a situation in which everyone dies…be it through natural or freak disaster. Should the character with the vision convince the people around him to leave or avoid the upcoming event, Death begins to ‘hunt’ the character along the established order.

Death Hunt: after 24 – 96 hours, Death begins to hunt the victims. No presence of Death is immediately detectable, save for perhaps a shadow or movement from the corner of the eye. Each victim must be aware of what is happening, but once aware they may make Intuition FEATS to spot situations in which Death may utilize or be encountered. Death will follow its list and attempt to set up situations which are gruesome and violent, murdering along that list until all victims that have ‘escaped’ it are dead. Death does not outwardly attack – instead what it does is create situations that will lead to fatal accidents by affecting the physical environment, unseen of course. Such things include opening a valve of compressed gas while working near flames, causing a lasik laser to malfunction, remove safeties from weapons, cause a freak garbage disposal accident, and weaken the restraints on parallel bars due a gymnastics event, and a sudden hit and run by a city bus among others. Each death is usually set up to be violent and extreme as revenge.

When Death moves on a character, the Judge makes a roll vs. Death against the character’s Endurance. If the Judge gains a success, the Judge waits for opportune moments to make the Character make a roll vs. Death against their Endurance Rank’s intensity with no Karma allowed. Should the character fail, they will encounter a situation which will be fairly normal, but immediately go into the dying process with the type of event being the manner of death (Slashing/Energy/Etc). The Judge is free to use whatever they wish to describe or enhance the scene.

The Rules of Death: Death must follow the rules as they are established – Although no one outside of a lone ME seems to know them immediately. Death must follow the order that was established in the accident, although Death is creative to interpret how to follow it. For instance, in the first Final Destination, Death followed the list according to seating arrangement. Should someone be able to ‘skip’ the order, Death skips them for a period of time. Another rule is that Death cannot take someone who is giving life, such as one with child. Death also does not kill those who are not ‘on the list’ (at least on the first few films). William Bludworth, owner of the Bludworth Mortuary seems to understand these rules and often cryptically offers the doomed victims the basics, but always informs them of the inevitability of death. It is fan-theorized that Bludworth is some sort of assistant to Death, but there is no proof of this.

As of the final film (and only the films…not the novel or anything else), there are no survivors still alive who have avoided Death. Perhaps that will change….