The mysterious William Bludworth (Tony Todd) appears to seemingly help the protagonists in the Final Destination movies, but he’s not what he appears. As fun as the Final Destination movies are, their overall rules and story progression really don’t make much sense. It seems like Death’s design works differently in every film, and the ways of possibly avoiding one’s demise are never the same twice. This makes sense as a way to keep the plots from feeling repetitive, but things are always very loosely defined.
Not that Bludworth, who appears in three of the five Final Destination entries, ever seems confused or flustered. He’s always calm, cool, and collected, and never at a loss for words when it comes to addressing those under siege by Death for upsetting its grand plan. How he knows so much about Death remains a mystery, but with genre icon Tony Todd playing him, Bludworth has been a fan favorite since the beginning, despite his limited screentime.
A new Final Destination movie is in the works, and it’s currently unclear whether it will be a sequel to the prior films, or instead reboot the franchise. Thus, it’s also up in the air as to whether or not Todd’s Bludworth will be involved. If he is, though, Final Destination 6’s characters would be wise to take his “advice” with a grain of salt.
Final Destination Theory: Bludworth Is Actually a Villain
Considering his extensive knowledge of Death’s design and how it works, many Final Destination fans have theorized that Bludworth must just be the human personification of Death, or at least some kind of representative for the reaper. However, both Tony Todd himself and Final Destination’s producers have denied that being true. So for the purposes of this theory, Bludworth is what he appears to be, a human being.
So, if Bludworth isn’t Death, then just who is he? It’s hard to be sure, but it seems likely that he’s not on the side of Final Destination’s central characters. For one, when meeting Alex and Clear in the first film, Bludworth seems to take pleasure in making them uncomfortable, doing gross-looking funeral home procedures to their friend’s corpse. The way he talks about trying to cheat Death also almost seems more like a taunt than advice, and his cheeky “I’ll see you soon” line to Alex doesn’t help that perception. Plus, their encounter with Bludworth didn’t actually help, as both Alex and Clear end up dead by Final Destination 2.
Speaking of which, the advice Bludworth gives Kimberly and Thomas about how to survive in Final Destination 2 is unnecessarily cryptic and unhelpful, and even though they think they’ve figured it out in the end, both die gruesomely later according to extra material on Final Destination 3’s home video release. Then, in stealth prequel Final Destination 5, Bludworth advises the characters that only by killing someone else can they go on living, as doing so allows them to take over that person’s lifespan. This leads to lots of likely unnecessary deaths, and again, doesn’t seem to solve anything, as everyone remaining dies in the plane explosion that began Final Destination. Bludworth may not be Death itself, but he’s clearly either much less knowledgeable than he lets on, or is simply tormenting the characters for fun.
More: Final Destination Almost Starred Maguire & Dunst (BEFORE Spider-Man)
