Before the first Final Destination movie arrived in theaters, it started life as a proposed pitch for an episode of The X-Files. Final Destination writer Jeffrey Reddick tells Bloody Disgusting that he plotted out the film's initial idea in a script titled "Flight 180", a teleplay which involved an investigation by Mulder and Scully. And when you think about the notion of people cheating death - it's a perfect fit for one of the show's early season standalone episodes.
“I think fans will be most interested in seeing how the kernel of the concept started in 1994," Reddick says. "Death worked differently in this version. Since Mulder and Scully had the believer/skeptic relationship, I had to keep Death vague enough, but clear enough, to fit the concept and investigation in to a one-hour show."
A massive fan of the show, Reddick wrote the episode "on spec" for an agent back in 1994. That means he wasn't contracted by Fox or X-Files creator Chris Carter to write it, but instead went out on a limb in the hopes of it becoming a future episode.
“I decided to use the basic concept of people cheating Death as the catalyst,” Reddick explains, “But when you write a spec for a series, you want to follow the framework of the show and go deeper. So, I had Scully’s brother have the premonition, which made the story more personal. I won’t spoil the rest, but for the spec script, the concept isn’t front and center, it’s more about Scully, Mulder and her relationship with her brother."
Obviously Reddick made plenty of changes to his early draft, but if you fancy seeing how Mulder and Scully would have responded to death's design, you can check out the entire script here.
Images: New Line, Fox
