FINAL DESTINATION Was Originally Envisioned as an X-FILES Episode
Here’s an interesting bit of movie trivia for you. The 2000 film Final Destination was originally a concept for an episode of The X-Files that was pitched to Fox by writer Jeffrey Reddick.
The info was revealed by Reddick himself during an interview with Bloody Disgusting. The title of the episode was “Flight 180,” and it involved Agents Mulder and Scully investigating the notion of people cheating death. The writer said:
“I think fans will be most interested in seeing how the kernel of the concept started in 1994. 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."
Reddick wrote the episode on spec. Fox did ask him to write it, but he gave it to his agent to try and get it in front of the eyes of X-Files creator Chris Carter. Obviously the episode didn’t happen, but he sure did start a lucrative film franchise! He explained what he had envisioned for the episode, saying:
“I decided to use the basic concept of people cheating Death as the catalyst. 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."
For those of you who want to read the full script for “Flight 180,” click here. It’s actually really freakin’ good and would have made a fantastic X-Files episode!