George Lanter is a supporting character in the 2009 horror film, The Final Destination. He was a security guard at the McKinley Speedway and one of the survivors of the horrific accident that claimed the lives of 52 people. As one of the survivors of the tragedy, George found himself being stalked by Death itself.
History[]
Years before the events of the film, George had a wife and daughter, whom he accidentally killed as a result of driving while drunk. Due to the weight of his guilt, George swore off alcohol and struggled with suicidal depression.
On January 6th 2009, George was working security in the stands at McKinley Speedway. While walking the stands, he saw Carter Daniels sticking his leg out into the aisle and told him to move his foot so no one would trip over him. Moments later, Nick O'Bannon went into a panic after witnessing a premonition of a deadly crash that would result in many deaths. George ushered Nick outside and his friends followed. A minute later, the crash occurred, starting a chain of events that would end with the deaths of 52 patrons.
The day following the accident, George attended a memorial service being held for the victims. While there, he once again met Nick and asked him how he knew what was going to happen. He was then confronted by Carter, who directly blamed George for the death of his wife Cynthia, one of the victims of the accident. George suggested that Carter leave, but Carter made a thinly-veiled threat that his time was coming. Later that night, while reading a book and talking on the phone to his mother, George heard a ruckus coming from outside. Opening the front door, he saw Carter being pulled across the road by his tow truck whilst on fire. Suddenly, the truck was set ablaze and exploded, blasting Carter to pieces and throwing his severed head onto George's front lawn.
The following night, George was patrolling the ruined arena when he caught Nick and his girlfriend Lori snooping around. They told him about their theory that Death was picking off the survivors of the accident, which George seemed to have little trouble believing. After deducing that Andy Kewzer was next on Death's list, they visited him at his auto-repair shop the next day in order to try and save him. It was there that George told Andy about how he was responsible for killing his family due to driving drunk. However, the group were unable to prevent Andy's death, which occurred right in front of them.
The trio then realised that Hunt and Janet were next. After George and Lori saved Janet from a malfunctioning car wash, George told her that he would accept his death because of his family's accident. That night, George attempted to commit suicide but was unable to do so. Nick and Lori found him in the midst of trying to hang himself, but the wooden beam that his rope was tied to broke. Lori believed that saving Janet must have defeated Death and they all decided to celebrate.
However, days later, Nick saw a news report on Jonathan Groves, who survived at the speedway and was comatose in the hospital. Nick contacted George to find Jonathan, and they met at the hospital, but they arrived too late as Groves was crushed by an overfilled bathtub that crashed through the ceiling from the room above.
Death[]
After an unsuccessful attempt at rescuing Jonathan from the hospital, George and Nick walked outside to find Lori and Janet. As they were walking, an ambulance sped down the road and hit George at full speed, completely obliterating him. Nick experienced a premonition of this just seconds before, but was too late to prevent it.