Aahana Swrup
The 2016 supernatural horror film, ‘Flight 7500,’ directed by Takashi Shimizu, presents the disastrous journey of passengers aboard Vista Pacific Airlines flight 7500. Traveling from Los Angeles to Haneda, the overnight flight faces some minor turbulence, after which one of the passengers, Lance Morrell, inexplicably dies. Following Morrell’s death, the 10-hour trip becomes a waking nightmare when supernatural forces start haunting the passengers with no means of escape. If you’re curious about how this flight ends and what happens to the passengers, here is everything you need to know about the ending of ‘Flight 7500.’ SPOILERS AHEAD!
Flight 7500 Plot Synopsis
Even though Brad and Pia broke up a while ago, they can’t bring themselves to cancel their plans with close friends Jack and Lyn. As such, they decide to keep their breakup a secret and settle in for a no-expenses-spared three-week vacation to Japan with the other couple. Others on their flight include newlyweds Liz and Rick on the way to their honeymoon and their seat neighbor, gothic Jacinta, a petty thief Jake and a young woman, Raquel.
Shortly after the take-off, the plane experiences some turbulence that quickly passes. Although the passengers are all safe, one fidgety businessman, Lance Morrell, starts having trouble breathing. Soon, blood dribbles out of Morrell’s mouth, and after a few seizures, he takes his last breath. Brad, who is a paramedic, takes Morrell to the back with Rick’s help and performs CPR, but to no avail.
The plane staff relocates all the first-class passengers to economy seats and uses the upstairs area to store Morrell’s body until the plane lands. Most of the passengers who are aware of the incident get adequately spooked by the entire ordeal. Things worsen when the cabin pressure unexpectedly drops, leading to chaos as the oxygen levels lower. Nevertheless, the pressure is restored to normal, and the air hostesses ensure the passengers’ well-being.
After Suzy notices that Jake has disappeared from his seat, they realize he has gone upstairs to steal Morrell’s Rolex from his dead body. However, now both Jake and Morrell’s bodies have disappeared. Meanwhile, Liz and Brad undergo eerie experiences that compel them to investigate Morrell with their partners, Rick and Pia. The couples find his carry-on and go through the constituents finding vials of hair inside, each labeled with a different woman’s name.
When Jacinta learns what Brad and the others are doing, she brings them Morrell’s mysterious wooden box that he boarded the plane with. Before they can open it, Suzy and Laura catch the gang, sending them back to their seats, finding the idea of going through a dead man’s belongings invasive. Nevertheless, they know something weird is at play in the vessel. Therefore, Laura goes to look through Morrell’s checked luggage to find out more about him.
In the meantime, Brad and company unlock the wooden box and find a creepy doll inside. Jacinta informs the group that the doll is a Shinigami, a spirit of death according to Japanese folklore. Soon, a supernatural force comes for Laura from the shadows inside the luggage hatch. Similarly, Suzy finds her end after something drags her into the upper head compartment in the plane’s first-class section. Eventually, after Liz discovers the pilot dead in their cabin, the gang comes to a startling realization: the plane is full of the passengers’ dead bodies in their seats, including Brad, Liz, Rick, and Pia.
Flight 7500 Ending: Are the Passengers Dead?
Once Brad and the others find their own dead bodies strapped to their seats, they realize that, like everyone else on the plane, they have been dead from the start. Earlier, when the cabin pressure drops in the plane, the lack of oxygen kills every passenger and staff aboard the vessel. However, since Morrell’s Shinigami doll is on the plane, it has a supernatural effect on some passengers.
According to Jacinta, who is fascinated by death, Shinigami is a Japanese spirit of death. If an individual’s life ends too quickly and abruptly, their soul finds it hard to cross onto the other side. Unless the soul can let go of whatever keeps them tethered to the living world, they can’t find peace and will remain stuck between realms. Once the individual lets go of their unfinished business, their Shinigami will take them to the afterlife.
Since the story’s primary ensemble of characters each has unfinished business, their souls find it hard to let go. Jake, the first death, is a petty thief who hates rules and authority and meets his end after stealing Morrell’s expensive watch. In that scenario, Jake doesn’t die since he’s already dead. Instead, the Shinigami takes his soul so that he can cross on over to the other side. Raquel, his seat neighbor, has a complicated relationship with her boyfriend, likely caused by her nervousness about a potential pregnancy.
As such, after Raquel takes the pregnancy test, her soul crosses as well. Likewise, Suzy can’t leave until she faces the truth about her relationship with Nick, who has been her fiance for months but hasn’t yet married. After Suzy admits the faults of her relationship out loud and takes off her engagement ring, the Shinigami takes her. Inspired by Suzy’s honesty about her romantic life, Laura ends things with Pilot Pete, a married man, and finds closure.
Every character who dies on screen, except for Morrell, is just a ghost who leaves the living world. In the end, only Brad, Pia, Liz, and Rick remain. Since Brad and Pia broke up due to trouble having kids, they still had feelings for one another. As such, they likely saw this trip as an opportunity to rekindle things between them, which serves as their unfinished business.
Nevertheless, Brad and Pia, alongside Rick, are able to reconcile with their deaths only after they find out the entire truth. After discovering everyone’s dead bodies, they watch the plane’s television come to life as the news reports Flight 7500’s status. After realizing they have died already due to oxygen cut-off, their souls cross over once the plane crashes into the ocean.
What Happens To Liz?
Although the last passengers, Brad, Pia, and Rick, travel to the afterlife, Liz’s soul is left behind. The plane, flying on autopilot for five hours, barely has much fuel left. The news reports the same and predicts that the vessel will fall into the Pacific Ocean soon. Brad, Pia, and Rick accept their deaths and pass. However, things aren’t as easy for Liz. Since her initial introduction, Liz acted as a “bridezilla” obsessed with herself and her new marriage.
Liz wants to show her wedding photos to everyone, whether or not they are interested in the same. In the same vein, she also wants to ensure that everything about her honeymoon is perfect and spends the early hours of the flight hoping for the same. As such, when she dies, her soul is left behind. On the other hand, Rick’s soul stays behind because he wants more out of life and can’t accept that it will end in a plane mid-air.
Although Rick accepts his death after the plane crashes into the ocean, Liz still does not. It isn’t until she’s alone in the plane wreckage that she truly realizes the gravity of the situation. Regardless of their relationship, Liz loves Rick and needs him as her support. Therefore, after Liz realizes Rick’s spirit is gone and her dream life is truly over, the Shinigami comes for her from inside a trash disposal can.
How Did Lance Morrell Die?
Even though all the other Flight 7500 inhabitants die due to low cabin pressure, Lance Morrell is the only one who finds a different death. Given that the exact details of his death are difficult to capture, several theories can be plausible. Initially, the most obvious explanation seems to be that he dies from natural causes. Although for a long time, the common assumption is that everyone is dying at the hands of some ghost— most likely Morrell’s— we eventually find out their deaths were nothing but a consequence of asphyxiation.
As such, the supernatural activity aboard the plane is confined to what happens to the characters’ souls. Due to the same, one can conclude that Morrell also died from natural causes. Morrell appears as an increasingly panicked man. After the plane faces minor turbulence, he swiftly goes into a panic attack that develops into a heart attack.
Inversely, his connection to the Shinigami also proposes sinister alternative explanations. Since Shinigami is the spirit of death, Morrell traveling with a doll containing the spirit may have caused the Shinigami to attach to him. It is clear that Morrell is a doll enthusiast, given the hair found in his luggage and his off-beat conversation over the phone about eyes. Still, whether or not he knew the supernatural potential of the doll he carried is up to speculation. Nevertheless, Morrell has an association with death, leading him to be the first victim on a plane that only has death in store for the future.
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