Final Destination

TICKET CLERK

Have you recieved any packages

from persons unknown to you?

Alex quickly runs the day through his head and flashes her the REALITY

BEYOND MATTER book. She smiles, then leans over toward the baggage scales.

Alex's eyes turn toward...

CLOSE - (MOTION SLOWED)- ALEX"S LUGGAGE

a new airline I.D. marker is attached to his bag.

RETURN

Alex eyes the new tag hoping it's "good luck." As the clerk returns his

ticket and passport... CLACK, CLACK, CLACK.

TICKET CLERK

Same as your birthday.

Alex is puzzeled by the comment. He shakes his head if, "pardon me?" CAMARA

INCHES INTO the ticket clerk gesturing pleasantly to the passport and

ticket...

TICKET CLERK (CONT'D)

April 25th. Four-twenty-five...

your birthday is the same as your

departure time.

CLACK. CLACK. CLACK. Alex's eyes flash toward...

ALEX'S POV - (Full FRAME) - FLIGHT INFORMATION BOARD

the title settles upon... "TERMINAL."

CUT TO:

INT. SECURITY AREA - AIRPORT - MONITOR

The ghastly green and reds of the X-ray monitors flash as carry on bags

flash through the machine. CAMARA MOVES COUNTER to the direstion of the

conveyor belt. The pace and excitement of the collective group escalates as

departure approaches.

Carter Horton and his girlfriend, Terry, take cuts in line with smug,

bullying expressions. Unseen by the chaperones, no student, has the nerve to

protest Carters action. Alex, Tod, George and BILLY HITCHCOCK, heavy set

with a New York Rangers jersey watches Carter and Terry with disgust.

BILLY

I can't believe they let that dickhead

on this trip.

GEORGE

His parents bought a ton of those trip

certificates we had to sell, just

to get him out of their hair for ten days.

Excited, Tod speaks in a convert tone over Alex's shoulder.

TOD

Dude, I so worked the ticket clerk

so your sittin' next to Christa and

I'm next to Blake.

Alex looks up ahead of the metal detectors...

ALEX'S POV - TWO GIRLS

Attractive and they know it, CHRISTA MARSH and BLAKE DREYER appear clearly

out of Alex and Tod's league.

TOD (CONT'D)

That's seven hours and most of

it is in the dark.

ALEX AND TOD

The boys dump their change in a plastic bowls...

TOD

Dude, if we don't get someone

going on thif flight, we should

just call Dr. Kervorkian and put

ourselves out of our fuckn' misery.

As Alex and Tod pass through the metal detector, their eyes performing

reconnaissance on Christa and Blake, the opening drum BLASTS of Boingo's "No

One Lives Forever" OVERLAPS...

CUT TO:

INT. AIRLINE GATE - AIRPORT - AFTERNOON - CLOSE - GATE 39

CAMERA ADJUSTS from the sign indicating GATE 39. The class is squirrely and

excited. Mr. Murnau, Ms. Lewton, and the parent chaperones are allowing kids

to burn off steam at the gate, hoping for a calm flight.

CAMERA MOVES ALONG the awaiting passengers... Carter and Terry are making

out, a step away from heavy petting...

Blake and Christa are flipping through Parisian fashion magizines... Billy

Hitchcock lays into a Burrito Supreme...

CAMERA MOVES to an empty seat. Clear Rivers ENTERS FRAME and sits,

struggling with her Walkman, coffee, books, and a cassette box handmarked

"Boingo" (a cheat the We hear the song)

As she places her stuff on the unoccupied seat beside her, a Paris guidebook

falls on the floor, opened but face down. A passing, unidentified, student

reaches down and hands her the book, still open and face down.

CLEAR

Thanks.

The student continues down toward the observation deck. Clear looks at the

opened guidebook.

CLEAR'S POV - GUIDEBOOK

Princess Di's Mercedes is totaled in a Paris tunnel. Besides the photo are

two portraits of Diana and Dodi Al Fayed.

CLEAR

CAMERA INCHES IN as she shakes off a shiver down her spine. She looks up

from the book toward the student who handed it to her, the identity of which

is fully REVEALED to be Alex Browning.

He stands at the gate window, looking out at the plane.

ALEX'S POV - 747

It is raining. In the distance, MUFFLED THUNDER RUMBLES.

CAMERA CREEPS AWAY from the plane... huge, seemingly incapable of flight and

yet we unquestioningly trust our lives in this machine. Emotionless. Cold.

Lifeless, and yet soon full of life.

ALEX

Camera inches in on him

TOD (O.S.)

Dude, let's take a dump.

Tod MOVES INTO FRAME beside Alex...

ALEX

Man, that is one George Michael

notch from being gay.

TOD

Dude, get wisdom. We're about to

board a seven hour flight. The toilets

in coach are barely ventilated closets.

What if your body wants that airplane food

out of your system and you have to go torgue

a wicked cable and then right after you walks

in Christa or Blake? You want them

to associate with you with that reflexive gag

and the watery sting in your eyes?

Alex takes a beat to consider...

CUT TO:

INT. MEN'S ROOM - AIRPORT - OVERHEAD

CAMERA LOOKS DOWN on two stalls. Alex sits in one, Tod sits in the other.

O.S., OVER the airports P.A. SYSTEM John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High"

begins...

ALEX

John Denver...

Upon the mention, CAMERA CRANES DOWN, TURNING, TWISTING UNTIL FINDING ALEX

in a straight on CLOSE-UP. He listens, tense...

JOHN DENVER (O.S.)

He was born in the summer of his twenty

seventh year...

ALEX

He died in a plane crash.

A P.A. ANNOUNCMENT breaks into the song...

P.A. SYSTEM

Ladies and Gentlemen, thank-you for

your patience, at this time we would

like to begin pre-boarding of Euro-Air

Flight 180 to Paris through gate 39.

Really for the first time, Alex appears a bit tentative and pale. It is

intensified by the return of the song...

JOHN DENVER (O.S.)

It's the Colorado Rocky Mountian High/

I've seen it rainin' fire in the sky...

CUT TO:

INT. BOARDING AREA - GATE 39 - CLOSE - ALEX'S BOARDING PASS

is torn along the perforated edge and handed back.

ALEX

looks down the paasenger ramp.

ALEX'S POV - RAMP TUNNEL

CAMERA CREEPS toward it... lit to cheat of feeling of no return.

O.S., distant THUNDER RUMBLES...

WIDER

There is something more emotionally tense about the moment of boarding than

take-off. CAMARA PICKS UP Ms. Lewton searching...

MS LEWTON

Anyone seen Billy Hitchcock?

How'd we lose him?

Tod nudges Alex toward the tunnel, the three boys start down the ramp,

passing Mr. Murnau who checks his list, counting heads...

MR MURNAU

Vingt huit, vingt neuf...

passenger ramp

Alex, Tod, and George catch up to Christa and Blake, excited. As always,

everyone becomes bottlenecked just at the point of entering the plane. Alex

looks out the ramp's side porthole window toward the back of the plane.

ALEX'S POV - THROUGH PORTHOLE

The enormous engine. The expansive wings. Behind the tail, distant, a bolt

of lightning FLASHES!

ALEX

looks away. Just ahead, in the plane, FLIGHT ATTENDANTS greet the

passengers. He is next to enter the plane.

CLOSE - FLOOR

a slice of opening from where the ramp meets the plane provides a sense of

how high up one actually stands.

ALEX

CAMERA PUSHES INTO HIM as he takes his first step into the plane.

CLOSE - AIRLINE CABIN FLOOR

Alex's Nikes land on the carpet.

INT. 747 - FIRST CLASS CABIN - AFTERNOON - CLOSE - BABY

SCREAMS! It's parents desperetly comfort the child.

CAMERA ADJUSTS, LEADING George, Alex and Tod through the aisles. Alex and

Tod wince at the screaming child. George, however feels comforted.

GEORGE

Good sign. Younger the better.

It would be a fucked up God to

take down this plane.

INT. ECONOMY CLASS CABIN - 747 - AFTERNOON

In the first row slumps a young man with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. A

cannula is set in his nostrils leading to an oxygon tank beside him.

The kid sneak sympathetic yet anxious glances at the man while continuing in

their seats. George whispers over his shoulder...

GEORGE

A REALLY fucked up God.

Alex's tension increases as he continues up the aisle.

ALEX'S POV - OVERHEAD COMPARTMENTS

CAMERA INCHES IN ON "Row 25. Seats H, I, and J."

ALEX

climbs into the row, carrying his backpack. He takes his window seat and

reaches up to the air flow valve.

CLOSE - AIR FLOW VALVE

turns, HISSING, air streaming full blast.

CAMERA INCHES IN ON HIM as he takes in deep breaths of the stale air. He

presses his face to the window.

ALEX'S POV - THE LEFT WING

Rain falls. GEARS WHIR as the ailerons are tested.

CLOSE - ALEX

CAMERA CREEPS TOWARD HIM, face to the glass; eyes scanning the plane and

outside area.

CHRISTA (O.S.)

Alex?

He turns toward the aisle.

ALEX'S POV -CHRISTA AND BLAKE

Man, they look great and they're workin' the sex appeal.

CHRISTA

Could you trade seats with Blake

so she and I can sit together? I

asked Tod, but he says he's got some

medical thing?

ALEX

sneaks a quick check with Tod.

ALEX'S POV - TOD

shakes his head. "NO! NO! DON'T DO IT."

ALEX AND THE GIRLS

He looks to them and knows he is just plain overmatched. Alex shrugs,

"Sure." In front of him Tod throws up his arms, disgusted. Alex climbs out

of his seats. The girls are touchy - feely thankful, but only know guys dig

that.

CHRISTA AND BLAKE

You're so sweet. Thanks, Alex.

Alex crames up into the aisles, making his way to Tod, sitting two rows up

in 22 H.

Alex climbs over Tod to take the window seat. Clear Rivers sits in the seat

directly behind Alex.

TOD

(mouths)

Fag.

ALEX

C'mon, man, like you really

thought you were tittie fuck 'em

over Greenland, or something?

TOD

Because of you, I gotta sit

here and watch fuckn' "Stepmom."

As Alex sits, the tray table falls from it's upright position.

He lifts the tray back up, but as he turns the latch, it BREAKS OFF in his

hand. He briefly tries to jimmie the tray into postition, then gives up.

CAMERA FOLLOWS ALEX'S HAND as it rises. CAMERA SWEEPS IN EXTREAMLY CLOSE to

the ATTENDANT CALL BUTTON. As Alex's finger engages the button, it lights up

orange.

ALEX

The jet lurches. He looks...

OUT OF THE WINDOW - ALEX'S POV

The 747 begins rolling out of the gate.

ALEX

As he looks back, searching for the nearst flight attendant...

ALEX'S POV - THROUGH THE SEATS - CLEAR RIVERS

reads her book. Another leans to look out the window.

ALEX

lifts a bit out of his seat, searching for any flight attendant O.S., A

PING.

CAPTAIN (V.O)

Flight Attendants prepare for

departure.

Looking fore in the cabin...