While each movie in the Final Destination franchise tells a self-contained story, some recurring elements tie the franchise together. Among these is Tony Todd’s William Bludworth, a mysterious coroner who often crosses paths with the plucky teens marked by Death. Appearing in Final Destination, Final Destination 2, and Final Destination 5, Bludworth always has some knowledge to impart to the survivors, helping them understand the rules Death follows when tracking down victims who escape its previous traps. Yet, the franchise never addresses Bludworth’s past or explains why he has such detailed knowledge of Death’s design. The latest installment in the franchise, Final Destination Bloodlines, finally addresses the matter, telling fans why William Bludworth knows so much.
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Warning: Spoilers below for Final Destination Bloodlines
Final Destination Bloodlines revolves around Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana), a college student who starts to have horrific nightmares about an accident that happened 56 years earlier. Stefani’s dreams recount, in detail, the fall of the Sky Tower restaurant, a tower that collapses, killing hundreds of people, including her grandmother Iris (Brec Bassinger). However, Stefani never met her grandmother, who is still alive, so her nightmare makes no sense to her.
[RELATED: Final Destination Bloodlines Becomes Best-Reviewed Entry on Rotten Tomatoes]
As the movie unfolds, we learn that Stefani’s nightmare is the exact premonition Iris had in her youth. Her visions allowed Iris to prevent the Sky Tower catastrophe, saving all the people who were supposed to die. As a result, Death began to hunt down survivors, killing them one by one. Since there were so many people to cross off its list, Death took years, meaning that some survivors eventually had children. These people were never supposed to exist, so Death decided to kill them too, eliminating one bloodline at a time before moving on to the next.
When Iris became aware of a pattern of freaky accidents, she started investigating the matter, uncovering the truth about Death’s design. As a result, Iris knew she had to remain alive to protect her children and grandchildren, as Death would come for them once she died. That’s why Iris hid herself in a protected cabin in the woods, living in complete isolation and challenging Death daily to give her descendants more time in the world. Iris’ only source of companionship was William, one of the original victims of the Sky Tower accident.
Tony Todd Plays an Original Survivor in Final Destination: Bloodlines
As Bludworth himself explains in Final Destination Bloodlines, he was the last person that would have died in the Sky Tower accident. In 1968, William was a child taken to the Sky Tower by his mother, a singer hired to entertain the audiences during the restaurant’s opening party. During the premonition sequence, we learn that Iris and William were the last people standing before eventually falling to their deaths. However, since Iris was pierced by a metal pole on her way down, William was the final victim of the first accident in the Final Destination timeline, hitting the ground seconds after Iris died.
After Iris began investigating Death’s design, she tracked down Bludworth, telling him the truth about the Sky Tower accident. By then, he was already a young adult, capable of understanding the grisly implications of Iris’ premonition. From that moment on, Bludworth started to help Iris understand the rules of Death and document the decades-long trail of victims. This backstory explains how Bludworth knew so much about Death and why he was drawn to the new batch of survivors every time a new premonition event occurred. It was all part of Iris’ and Bludworth’s joint efforts to decipher the clues and find a way to beat Death in the long run.
Final Destination Bloodlines also underlines how William Bludworth and Iris became friends as years passed, pulled together by their shared trauma. Tragically, no one can ever fully escape Death’s grip, and when we find Bludworth in Final Destination Bloodlines, he’s dying from cancer. This tragically mirrors the real-life passing of Tony Todd, who died of cancer before the movie’s release, making Final Destination Bloodlines the actor’s final posthumous appearance on screen. It’s a touching scene that gives Todd’s coroner closure while tying his story with the real-life struggles the star faced before passing.
Final Destination Bloodlines is currently available in theaters.
What did you think of Tony Todd’s farewell in Final Destination Bloodlines? Are you satisfied with the answer about William Bludworth? Join the discussion in the comments!
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