Final Destination 5 may seem like just another entry in the Final Destination franchise at first, but it was revealed to be a prequel to the originals as the film progressed. The end scene found Sam (Nicholas D'Agosto) and Molly (Emma Bell) dying in Flight 180's crash, which the Alex-led group from the first Final Destination escaped. Although the revelation only happened at the end of the fifth installment, this decision retroactively changed how viewers perceived the original franchise.
Final Destination 5's storyline followed the franchise's usual route: Sam, a worker at a company, accidentally glimpsed Death's plan to kill everyone except his ex-girlfriend Molly on the bus in a bridge collapse. He warned everyone and grabbed Molly's hand, trying to get away before it happened, which resulted in a group of people escaping their death. Death then hunted them one by one with even more horrifying and bizarre deaths until the last two, Sam and Molly, got on Flight 180 and died in a crash, linking back to the beginning of the first Final Destination.
The fifth installment subtly suggested more ominousness, shedding new light on one mysterious character. Tony Todd's Williams Bludworth, the strange man who went on informing the "players" about Death's rule and design, returned to the prequel after disappearing from the past two films. Bludworth made the most appearances in the Final Destination franchise. His "rules" were also significantly different from one another throughout the installments.
Final Destination 5 didn't see anyone make it out alive, not even Molly, who didn't "cheat" Death in Sam's vision. With the fifth installment revisiting Bludworth's previous advice, it seemed to be hinting at a deeper connection between Bludworth and Death beyond God and its avatar or "just the guy doing the cleaning up." Bludworth played a role in shaping each design, though he manipulated the players from a different angle. Interestingly, as fans now know that Final Destination 3 and The Final Destination were the last in the franchise's chronological order, Bludworth's disappearance after the second installment is worth exploring. There's no telling how much he participated in the "accidental" Death or why he stopped, but there was more going on than what was suggested in the original films.
At this point, the reoccurring patterns stopped being "mysterious" but were more "suspicious" than ever. For example, every time Death was approaching, "Dust in the Wind" played on the radio and gave out a fabricated feeling, and so did Candice's gymnastic accidents, as Peter pointed out. A few other deaths in the fifth installment also didn't have much of Death's fingerprint. On the other hand, they weighed between the line of murder.
Final Destination 5 also hinted at an even clearer vision of Death's design by highlighting numerology, symmetry and irony. The number 180 played an important role throughout the franchise, and it was even more true in the fifth installment. 180 Corporate Consulting was the name of the business retreat; Le Cáfe Miro 81 was the restaurant where Sam worked. Additionally, 180 trust exercise video was on the bus monitor.
The ending, linking the Death of Sam and Molly to the beginning of a new game with Alex and Clear in the original Final Destination, reflected the idea of a complete cycle and brilliantly orchestrated an eerie balance of life and Death. It provided additional insight into the connections between two groups of victims and how their stories "evolved" over time. However, Final Destination 5 isn't the final installment in the franchise. Since The Final Destination is set to be the end, the sixth installment will likely add more context between the victims and Death's design.