Twenty-five years later, the Final Destination franchise still holds up, and so does the story of how it was born from an X-Files episode’s script. With the sixth film, Final Destination: Bloodlines, set to release on May 16, 2025, now is as good a time as any to revisit the origins of the first movie.

Few horror films feel as terrifying as Final Destination, especially given how real its freak accidents feel and their nightmarish impact on the audience. It’s hard to believe the franchise almost never happened and could have stayed as ideas on paper, but that was nearly the case. After all, every great idea has to start somewhere, no matter how unlikely it may seem years down the line.

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Is Final Destination Based On X-Files?

Jeffrey Reddick’s Unused Script Became A Franchise

In June 2015, Final Destination creator Jeffrey Reddick revealed that the film’s original idea started as a spec script for The X-Files in 1994. Speaking to Bloody Disgusting, Reddick confirmed that he had written it as a spec script for his favorite show, The X-Files, back in 1994, before he got his big break. This original episodic pitch, titled Flight 180, was inspired by a magazine story about a woman who had a premonition, got off a plane, and later found out it had crashed. Evidently, the script went unused and later evolved into the 2000 movie.

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… But when I decided to write it as a feature, I made the story all about the concept. And tweaked it.

Reddick’s colleagues at New Line Cinema loved his X-Files pitch so much that they encouraged him to turn it into a movie instead of a TV episode. The studio eventually bought it, and producers Craig Perry and Warren Zide helped refine the story. But thanks to the Scream phenomenon, teen horror was at its peak, which led New Line to make the characters younger than in the original concept. Ironically, The X-Files writers James Wong and Glen Morgan were later hired to rewrite Final Destination’s script.

What Happens In The X-Files Episode Script?

Flight 180 But With Agents Mulder, Scully & Team

Take a look at Final Destination back when it was still set in the world of The X-Files and centered around its main characters. The story follows the same plane premonition scenario, except this time, it’s Agent Dana Scully’s brother, Charles, who is on the flight. He has a vision of the plane exploding midair and wakes up in terror, realizing it was only a dream. He wakes up in terror, convinced it’s a warning, and panics until security removes him and a few others from the flight.

Moments later, while in airport security, he learns Flight 180 has exploded. But the survivors aren’t safe for long. One by one, they start dying, and every time a murder happens, Charles blacks out, making him the prime suspect. The big twist here was that the sheriff investigating alongside Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully had actually died at the same time as the crash. Death brought him back to finish off the survivors, including Charles.

Final Destination & The X-Files Have A Lot In Common

Death As An Invisible Villain, But Done Differently

Both Final Destination and The X-Files deal with paranormal horror and forces beyond human control. The Fox sci-fi series may have leaned more into conspiracies and aliens, but its influence is still evident in all six Final Destination movies, including the upcoming installment. Final Destination: Bloodlines also follows the same idea: fate is inescapable and Death has a design. At the same time, this also feels like something straight out of Mulder’s case files, doesn’t it?

Creator Explains How The Flight 180 Script Evolved

Moreover, the parallels between the horror movie and the sci-fi series are clear as day. The movie’s opening plays out almost exactly like the X-Files script, which itself was inspired by a real woman’s story. However, had it retained the TV show’s flavor, Final Destination wouldn’t have gotten the distinct identity it’s known for today. Reddick explained that in the original X-Files version, Death had to be portrayed differently to fit the show’s dynamic and its characters.

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 into a one-hour show. But it’s interesting to see how this kernel evolved into the original draft of Flight 180 in 1997 – and finally the finished version of the 2000 Final Destination.

Reddick’s thoughts on the script’s early stages clearly show how the idea evolved. Over time, Final Destination started to embrace its gruesome yet wildly entertaining death scenes. But in doing so, they lost the eerie, mysterious tone that The X-Files could have given them. Honestly, that may have been for the best.

Flight 180 Would’ve Felt Nothing Like Final Destination

Great X-Files Episode, But Possibly Not Enough To Build A Saga

If Flight 180 had remained an X-Files episode, it would have focused more on the fear of knowing the future but being unable to change it. Instead, Final Destination turned the idea into a full-blown horror movie and proved that some concepts work better on the big screen. If it had stayed on TV, it probably wouldn’t have inspired a whole subgenre about the fear of sudden, unavoidable death.

Clearly, this spec script had all the makings of a killer episode. Just imagine the entire flight sequence ending with the plane exploding, and then the X-Files title credits roll. That surely feels like one of the most iconic TV moments never made. But Reddick certainly wouldn’t be complaining, given how well Final Destination fared. The film not only became a sleeper hit but also gave birth to a franchise that’s still relevant in 2025.

Is Tony Todd In Final Destination 6?

Several X-Files alumni appeared in Final Destination, most notably the late franchise regular Tony Todd as the ominous mortician William Bludworth. Todd appeared in an X-Files episode in 1994, probably around the same time Reddick was developing his pitch. Twenty-five years later, Final Destination: Bloodlines, directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, will be Tony Todd’s final appearance in the film series.

Final Destination: Bloodlines

Release Date

May 16, 2025

Director

Zach Lipovsky, Adam B. Stein

Writers

Lori Evans Taylor, Guy Busick, Jeffrey Reddick, Jon Watts