When you look back at the Final Destination death scenes, you’d think they’ve come up with every morbid accidental death possible. Then, when the Final Destination Bloodlines teaser revealed a gnarly kill at a piercing store, it looks like Death still has creative ways to kill off the franchise’s lead characters. While the opening scene of Final Destination 6 reveals a fiery blaze on top of the Skyview Tower, the upcoming horror movie apparently broke a “world record” during filming that I find morbidly impressive.
We’ve seen fire play a role in the Final Destination movies, from seeing the passengers of Flight 180 engulfed in flames or the ridiculous death scene in The Final Destination when Carter is set on fire after being hooked to and dragged by a driverless tow truck that randomly flames up. Final Destination Bloodlines includes a flashback to 1969, which shows the crowded Skyview Tower catching fire before collapsing. Director Zach Lipovsky told EW that apparently a “world record” was achieved with a retired stunt performer achieving a maneuver that’s never been attempted before:
We lit so many different people on fire, including breaking the world record for oldest person on fire with Yvette Ferguson, who did that full body burn in the silver dress. That was the oldest person ever on fire, on camera.
As morbid as it is for so many people to be lit on fire for the new movie, it sounds like an impressive feat for directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein to showcase the oldest person ever set on fire on-screen. You better believe the duo didn’t ignore this accomplishment. Final Destination 6’s stunt team made sure to contact the Guinness World Records for consideration, but haven’t heard back. Hopefully, the 2025 movie release will find its way in there.
If you’re curious who the brave “oldest woman on fire” is, her name is Yvette Ferguson. The former stuntwoman/actress was pulled out of retirement at the age of 71 to play Mrs. Fuller in Final Destination Bloodlines. Before Skyview Tower goes down, Mrs. Fuller catches fire inside its restaurant before it collapses.
While I have no idea how Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein pitched their horror flick to the retiree, I guess you can’t say no to showing the world you can be engulfed in flames onscreen and live to tell the tale in real life. Brec Bassinger, who plays Iris in the flashback, commended Ferguson for her fire-blazing scene, where she said everyone clapped for her. Well deserved!
It appears that the Final Destination franchise’s sixth movie plans to become a standout. The previous five movies contain the same plot of trying to cheat Death after receiving a premonition of future grisly accidents, but Bloodlines has been trying to change the way Death works. While we don’t know for sure how yet, there will apparently be a different layer to the Rube Goldberg device that maybe has a better way of surviving Death’s door.
We’ve never seen throughout the franchise that Death existed so far back in the ‘60s. As Iris survived the Skyview Tower explosion, she could be the key to teaching her granddaughter and her peers how to survive it like she did.
How morbidly impressive is it for a 71-year-old stuntwoman to come out of retirement and show she’s still totally on fire (literally)? With that remarkable “world record,” Yvette Ferguson sets the bar for stunt performers and shows that age doesn’t define what you can handle. Make sure to catch her graphic death scene in Final Destination Bloodlines in theaters on May 16th.
