The Final Destination films like to play around with the horror genre in fun ways, and took this a step further by adapting interactive storytelling as a special feature for the third installment’s DVD.
There likely wasn’t a franchise in mind when the first Final Destination was developed, but the idea of turning Death into the world’s most ironic serial killer really resonated with audiences. The films found increasingly savvy ways to tease mortality and turn everyday objects and bad luck into the biggest killer of all. There have been many times where it appeared Final Destination was finished only for it to be gloriously revived down the road. Final Destination 3, for instance, is one of the series’ most popular entries.
Final Destination 3 doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel with the franchise, but rather it turns to well-developed characters and creative deaths for success. The film uses an amusement park ride gone awry as its central tragedy and taps into a relatively common fear regarding the breakdown of amusement park rides. Final Destination 3’s cast is headlined by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who does a phenomenal job. She turns an ordinary character into someone who’s really compelling. Even though Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch on Netflix is one of the most public and popular experiments with “Choose Your Own Adventure” narration, Final Destination 3 got creative with it more than a decade earlier.
Final Destination 3’s DVD Includes “Choose Their Fate” Interactive Mode
The DVD release for Final Destination 3 features a “Choose Their Fate” mode that allows viewers to alter fate whenever a character’s life is put into jeopardy. It harkens back to an older kind of storytelling, but is a concept that fits perfectly with the random fate angle of the Final Destination series. Granted, some of the ways in which viewers can change events are minimal, but it does have a lot of fun with the idea. Viewers can even prevent the cast from getting on the rollercoaster in the first place, never placing them in jeopardy, which immediately ends the movie.
“Choose Their Fate” mode impressively features additional footage that needed to be filmed to cater to these new routes, but sometimes they get clever with alternate takes or other scenes instead. This “Choose Their Fate” mode is even a bit of a lost art now with the increase of streaming media. Final Destination 3 may be available to stream in a number of places, but the “Choose Their Fate” options are only on the DVD.
Final Destination 3’s “Choose Their Fate” mode earned acclaim for the DVD release, but it didn’t make a big enough splash to continue on as a special feature for the subsequent films. With the success of Bandersnatch and rumblings of a revival of the Final Destination series underway, perhaps the best option available would be for Netflix to produce the next film in the series and incorporate the same technology with it. Rather than a “Choose Their Fate” mode being a bonus feature, it could be the main avenue of storytelling. In a way, it ostensibly turns the viewer into Death as they make the decisions that determine the fate of these characters. Final Destination 3 was wildly ahead of its time, but with the resurgence that interactive storytelling has seen, maybe it will find a way back into the Final Destination series.
More: Final Destination: 10 Best Death Scenes, Ranked
