Death Has a Design That Can Be Changed

Rating: 5/10 (10 May 2017)

The movie has an interesting premise: A high school student, aboard an airplane and waiting to depart on his French classes' flight to Paris, has a premonition: a ghastly vision of an explosion. He then raises a commotion and bolts from the craft. A few minutes later the plane explodes in midair just after takeoff, killing everyone aboard. The view from the terminal is terrific, with glass shattering everywhere.
The young man and six others – who have disembarked during the turmoil – have cheated death, but death, though unfeeling, hates to be cheated. And so for the rest of the movie death stalks the survivors, and picks them off one by one. Meanwhile the main character tries to figure out the death patterns to stay ahead of fate. As a mortician later tells Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) and sympathizing friend Clear Rivers (Ali Larter), "The risk of cheating the plan, of disrespecting the design, could incite a fury that could terrorize even the Grim Reaper."
The whole feeling is one of doom, that something is out to get you, as writer Mark Twain thought of his family tragedies. Inanimate objects turn against people, like water, wind, electrical wires, vodka, gas cans, knives, lanterns, fish hooks, candles, a garage- door opener, etc. And folks die in various ways, like an elaborate strangulation, decapitation, traffic accident, fire, etc. When John Denver's tune, "Rocky Mountain High" is played, watch out for a falling sign! So we have a bizarre chain of connected events, like a Rube Goldberg machine. In the early 20th century Goldberg created cartoons for newspapers that depicted complicated gadgets that performed tasks in complex ways.
FBI agents and others think that Alex is some kind of freak, especially because of his theories about death's design. The last half of the film focuses on Alex's increasing paranoia and precautions, like his opening of tin cans while wearing heavy gloves lest he should severely cut himself and get blood-poison. His lit candles are placed in water bowls as protection against an ill wind that may knock them over.
Despite an interesting story-line, the film has its negatives. For one, the acting is just so-so, especially with co-lead Ali Larter. In addition, this morphs into just another horror film. Also, there are the plot flaws. One may say, "Why save someone's life as he will be doomed anyway?" You may come to the same conclusion by adding, "Why do we have doctors?" Nevertheless Director James Wong's concept was popular enough with teen viewers so that four sequels were produced. But the characters were mostly created just to be knocked off, although not quite as badly as those in the "Friday the Thirteenth" series. You may be entertained by it.