An excerpt from Reals’ script review for Flight 180 (X-Files Spec Script) which will be available 05/25/25:
What Worked
The Page Count – Right off the bat I like that this thing comes in under 60 pages. Remember, with horror (and comedy) shorter is almost always better. And it is true here as well. Sure, there are things I think could have been expanded, but for the most part this hits all the beats it needs to without dragging.
Connection to Scully – I like that the one who has the premonition of the Flight 180 blowing up is Charles Scully – series lead Dana Scully’s younger brother. This immediately raises the stakes and makes the characters (and the audience) invested in the character’s plight.
This is something that the Final Destination films, largely, have struggled with. We know going in that most of the people we meet are doomed, so it’s pretty hard to care about, or get too attached to any of the characters.
The Tall Man – I like this wrinkle – there is a Tall Man in a trench coat who Mulder and Scully spot at all of the crime scenes. It’s very reminiscent of Tony Todd’s William Bludworth from the Final Destination franchise: someone who is always there, who knows more than he should, and is slightly sinister.
(Also, shout-out to the most recent Final Destination: Bloodlines for giving his character some backstory and a really touching send-off to the great Tony Todd.)
From a story perspective, this is great, as it adds intrigue and makes the audience want to know more about this character and their connections to the incidents.
The Mulder / Scully Dynamic – I really like the two perspectives given in this script: you have Mulder who is a true believer in the paranormal, and then you have Scully, who is a much more grounded character who is a firm believer that all things have a reasonable explanation.
Sure, this is why The X-Files was so popular, but it also works here.
From a writing perspective, it’s great that the writer leaned into this – you have something strange going on, and if you have the characters disagree as to what exactly is happening, and how to fix it, you have some solid tension and a foundation to allow the characters to explore and grow.
Quick Clean Up – In Hank’s review of the first Final Destination script, he talked about how it was strange that the FBI wasn’t more focused on Alex after his premonition saved the people on Flight 180.
Here, this is taken care of in one line, when Scully says:
SCULLY
Yes. I also know my brother was cleared of any involvement in that crash.
See, this script starts with Charles having a premonition and saving the people on Flight 180, and then jumps two months into the future.
So, in this scenario, Charles plausibly could have already been detained by the FBI until they were sure he didn’t bomb the plane. He also may have been forced to get a lawyer, and/or go through who-knows-what to clear his name.
However, while this is important to the narrative, it’s nothing that we, as a reader / audience, need to see.
Remember, leave a scene / situation as early as possible and enter as late as possible. This script did a good job with that so that we are focused and moving forward with what we (the audience) want to see the whole time.
The Deaths – Later in this review, I talk about how I don’t like that this version of death “speaks” and has a tangible form. However, what I did like was that this version of death just gets down to it and does the job without so many red herrings and Rube Goldberg traps.
I don’t know if anyone is a fan of Jordan Breeding’s Youtube Channel (if you’re not, check it out! He seems like a cool dude.) but he recently did a “review” of the Final Destination movies (HERE) and pointed out, accurately, that, in this reality, death seems kind of like a minimum wage employee who isn’t very good at their job, or at least doesn’t take their job very seriously, and is just looking for the wildest ways to kill people to amuse themselves.
Now, I realize part of the appeal to this franchise is seeing the crazy build-up and gory deaths, but this script offered us a much darker, much more business-like representation of death (a sentence I never thought I’d type ).
It may not be for everyone, but I did like that this script gave us something a little different from the movies.
The Twist – Mild Spoilers: Adding to the theory that Death in the Final Destination Universe is not very good at its job is the fact that one of the survivors always has a premonition of what is about to happen and saves several other people.
It never really made sense to me why this kept happening, and why death was allowing it to happen. And I don’t believe it’s ever fully explained in the movies (though, if it is, please correct me).
In this script, however, it is fully explained: Charles wasn’t supposed to die in the plane crash. That is why he had the vision, and why he can escape unscathed. The other people who get off the flight with him were supposed to die, so they are being picked off one-by-one.
If they used this idea in the films, it would open up a whole new avenue of tension – how can our hero save his or her friends / family from their impending deaths?
This is a plot point that the film franchise foolishly discarded, and it seems like this should have been kept to clear up any plot holes.
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