Final Destination 3...
—1. Overview
—2. Cast and Crew
—3. Photo Pages
—4. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—5. Posters (Current Movies)
—6. Production Notes (pdf)
—7. Spiritual Connections
—8. Presentation Downloads
Intense, but provocative. Well, Final Destination 3 is at least provocative if you can get past what are arguably the most gory, intense death scenes in any movie I have seen recently.
But while Final Destination 3 will fail to win any awards or the hearts of many parents, the movie will get its viewers to think about death. Not death in the sense that we all are going to die, but death as an inescapable force that will some day have its success. We are all going to die, and a movie like Final Destination 3 forces us to deal with that.
For this reason, I love it when movies like this hit the main stream. Granted, this movie is not cinematic genius, but it will get many teens and college students to think about something we never think about, our death.
Final Destination 3 is written by Glen Morgan and James Wong (The X-Files) and stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Wendy) and Ryan Merriman (Kevin), although I do not expect any of these names to ring a bell, and quite honestly, after watching this movie it is not their performances that stood out. Rather, what stood out is the main character of this movie, Death.
Death is described as a 'force' which is out of 'your control.' Not necessarily groundbreaking ideas, but when you place this with a series of gruesome deaths, suddenly Death becomes an intimidating force, something to even have me afraid on the drive home from the movie theater. Death is linked to all kinds of imagery here, a huge Satan in front of a roller coaster, fire, but most importantly Death is successful against all odds. And yes, some of the deaths are completely unrealistic, and although that could take away from the power of the deaths themselves, for me it did not.
To be honest, I left this movie really shaken, and that is saying something for me, considering Kill Bill (which has 10 times as many gruesome scenes) did not lead me to really contemplate my own mortality. But here I am, a few minutes after the movie finished and I am just shaken. And these feelings lead me to Scripture, where I find some pretty important truths about death.
First, Death is not a force, it is a sentence. Romans 6:23 reads "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Death is not some being, it is our gift for turning our backs on God. I say gift with a hint of sarcasm, because it is a gift no one wants.
Second, Satan has nothing to do with our death. Final Destination uses a huge character of Satan as one of the intimidating images of death. But nowhere in Scripture is Satan given any control over our death. And that leads me to my next point.
Third, Death is not the final word! Romans 3:23-24 says "...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified FREELY by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." I know this is going to sound cheesy, but the whole Final Destination franchise could have been averted if the characters had called on Jesus rather than on themselves. And to me, that is where Final Destination 3 is a reminder of where we are today in our culture. We live in a world that tries to cheat death in so many ways, by false fulfillment (sex, drugs, rock/roll), by plastic surgery, and by promising ourselves that there is some pie in the sky heaven where we'll hang out with our best friend and our dog.
But that is not the truth. The truth is we are going to die. No, the truth is we are ALREADY dead. But that is not the final word. The final word is Jesus, and He has overcome the force of death. The only is question, what we will die to? A life filled with meaninglessness? Or a life devoted to the true God of the world, Jesus. I think 2 Corinthians 5:15, "And Christ died for all, that those who live should no longer liver for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again."
— Overview
—2. Cast and Crew
—3. Photo Pages
—4. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—5. Posters (Current Movies)
—6. Production Notes (pdf)
—7. Spiritual Connections
—8. Presentation Downloads
Intense, but provocative. Well, Final Destination 3 is at least provocative if you can get past what are arguably the most gory, intense death scenes in any movie I have seen recently.But while Final Destination 3 will fail to win any awards or the hearts of many parents, the movie will get its viewers to think about death. Not death in the sense that we all are going to die, but death as an inescapable force that will some day have its success. We are all going to die, and a movie like Final Destination 3 forces us to deal with that.
For this reason, I love it when movies like this hit the main stream. Granted, this movie is not cinematic genius, but it will get many teens and college students to think about something we never think about, our death.
Final Destination 3 is written by Glen Morgan and James Wong (The X-Files) and stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Wendy) and Ryan Merriman (Kevin), although I do not expect any of these names to ring a bell, and quite honestly, after watching this movie it is not their performances that stood out. Rather, what stood out is the main character of this movie, Death.
Death is described as a 'force' which is out of 'your control.' Not necessarily groundbreaking ideas, but when you place this with a series of gruesome deaths, suddenly Death becomes an intimidating force, something to even have me afraid on the drive home from the movie theater. Death is linked to all kinds of imagery here, a huge Satan in front of a roller coaster, fire, but most importantly Death is successful against all odds. And yes, some of the deaths are completely unrealistic, and although that could take away from the power of the deaths themselves, for me it did not.
To be honest, I left this movie really shaken, and that is saying something for me, considering Kill Bill (which has 10 times as many gruesome scenes) did not lead me to really contemplate my own mortality. But here I am, a few minutes after the movie finished and I am just shaken. And these feelings lead me to Scripture, where I find some pretty important truths about death.
First, Death is not a force, it is a sentence. Romans 6:23 reads "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Death is not some being, it is our gift for turning our backs on God. I say gift with a hint of sarcasm, because it is a gift no one wants.
Second, Satan has nothing to do with our death. Final Destination uses a huge character of Satan as one of the intimidating images of death. But nowhere in Scripture is Satan given any control over our death. And that leads me to my next point.
Third, Death is not the final word! Romans 3:23-24 says "...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified FREELY by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." I know this is going to sound cheesy, but the whole Final Destination franchise could have been averted if the characters had called on Jesus rather than on themselves. And to me, that is where Final Destination 3 is a reminder of where we are today in our culture. We live in a world that tries to cheat death in so many ways, by false fulfillment (sex, drugs, rock/roll), by plastic surgery, and by promising ourselves that there is some pie in the sky heaven where we'll hang out with our best friend and our dog.
But that is not the truth. The truth is we are going to die. No, the truth is we are ALREADY dead. But that is not the final word. The final word is Jesus, and He has overcome the force of death. The only is question, what we will die to? A life filled with meaninglessness? Or a life devoted to the true God of the world, Jesus. I think 2 Corinthians 5:15, "And Christ died for all, that those who live should no longer liver for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again."
— Overview
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