Final Destination
Literally every death in this movie was avoidable, and I'll prove it.
Tod: Probably the most avoidable death in this movie. To recap, Tod slips in his bathroom due to some water on the floor and gets strangled by a clothing wire outside of the shower, and falls into the tub, the bottom of which is slippery due to some body oil spilling into it.
Now, what Tod failed to realize is that the top sides of the tub were indeed not slippery, so he could've swung his legs one at a time over on top of the side, and stand up and quickly reach the shower curtain rod to support himself. He would then be able to either reach something to cut off the wire with or call for help; either way, he would've survived.
Terry: While her death may not be as complex or as 'Rube Goldberg-Esque' as Tod's, it was still unavoidable nonetheless. Terry dies after being hit by a bus that came very suddenly and very fast.
I'll keep it short and sweet and say that Terry should have known better than to stand in the middle of a road with heavy traffic, even if the road seemed empty at the time.
Valerie Lewton: On the other hand, Valerie Lewton probably had the most brutal death in the movie. In summary, after Valarie has a mini freak out and throws her boiling water out of her mug, she quickly composes herself and puts cold water in the mug, causing it to crack due to previously having hot water inside of it. Valerie, with her cracked and leaking mug, goes into another room with a computer. One thing to know is that this movie takes place in the early 2000s, when they had those big, blocky computers. So some water leaks on top of the computer without Valerie knowing. Valerie sets the mug down and goes to do another task when she notices the computer smoking. She gets real close to the computer when it explodes into flames, and a shard of the computer screen gets lodged in her neck. As Valerie goes into the kitchen, presumably to get her phone for help, she gets knocked down by the force of the other flames that have spread around the house. As she is lying down, she notices a rag, a rag she could use to stop the bleeding. Unfortunately, that rag was on top of a knife rack, and as Valerie is reaching for the rag and pulling it down, the knife rack comes down to. One of the knives ends up falling and stabbing her in the stomach, which ultimately causes her demise. Then, to add insult to injury (or 'insult to death' in this case), her house explodes.
While it may seem unavoidable to some, there were actually two ways Valerie could've avoided this fate. The simple answer would've been to just use common sense and get a different mug before getting some colder water. The other way Valerie could've avoided her fate is as follows. After getting stabbed in the neck by the computer shard, Valerie was still able to walk around. What Valerie failed to do was find a different rag close by and put it on her neck to try to slow down the bleeding. Then, instead of going into the kitchen to get her phone, Valerie should've gotten out of the house as quickly as she could to avoid the spreading flames. We see that Valerie lives on a street with a bunch of neighbors, so once she got out of the house, she could've gone to a neighbor and asked for help, thus saving her life.
Billy: Honestly, Billy was screwed from the get-go. After Valerie Lewton's death, the remaining survivors get into Carter's (one of the survivors) car. Carter then freaks out as he realizes he's next to die. He then goes on a manic speeding spree before stopping the car in the middle of some train tracks, where a train is approaching rapidly. The others get out, but not Carter, as he realizes he's stuck. Fortunately, one of the people managed to get Carter out before the train hit the car. Billy then yells at Carter for his foolishness, claiming that he is still going to die next. However, a piece of sharp metal from the car, which was under the tracks, flies at rapid speed toward Billy's neck and decapitates him while he was yelling at Carter.
Now, why I say Billy got screwed over is because nobody had realized yet that death could skip someone if they survived death's initial plan and move on to the next person. So Billy was within his rights to have his guard down at that very moment. The only way I think Billy could've avoided his fate would've been to not be so close to the train as it was still speeding past, or to have better reflexes. But honestly, if anyone has permission to die in this movie, it would be Billy.
Carter: Last but not least, we have Carter. Before we dive into his death, I have to say something. Genuinely, what the fuck was Carter's problem? Like, at any given moment, he was being an asshole to somebody (mainly Alex). Like before the plane takes off, and after Alex (the protagonist) has his premonition and tells everybody to get off the plane, Carter, out of nowhere, just decides to try and fistfight him on the plane? Like, make it make sense. There are more examples, but this review is becoming long as is, so let's move on. Six months after the main events of the film, Alex, Clear (another survivor), and Carter all make a trip to Paris. It is important to know that they all believe that they have beaten death once and for all. Anyway, Alex realizes that that might not be the case and warns the others. Carter and Clear try to convince him otherwise, but Alex leaves. While Alex is leaving, Carter notices a billboard about to slam into Alex and saves him (this is like the only helpful and good thing he did in the movie, btw). Unfortunately for Carter, the billboard ends up swinging back around and slamming into him, ultimately causing his death.
Now, two ways Carter could've avoided this death were to A) get the hell out of the street after the billboard tried to slam into Alex. Or B) Carter is aware of how the death system works; he knows that after he saved Alex, he would be next, which is why I don't understand why his final line before his death was, "So who's next?" Like, it's YOU, dumbass, maybe like use your noggin before saying such stupid things. Also, another avoidable mistake Carter made was quickly standing up after jumping onto Alex to save him from the billboard, like, I don't get why he didn't realize that the billboard would swing the other way.
Anyways, I still really enjoyed this movie, while it may not be my favorite in the franchise, I think it still serves as a good introduction to the series as a whole.