Trivia: The filmmakers originally had an ending in which Alex grabs the cable that lies on Clear's car, Alex catches fire and dies. Then Clear gets her baby and Carter survives. The test audience didn't like this, so the filmmakers shot another ending in which Alex is decapitated by a crashing police helicopter. But again, the test audience didn't like the fact that Alex dies, so they shot the finish with the billboard, which took 6 days to film and cost nearly $2,000,000.
Trivia: In the airport after the plane explodes, it shows Terry with a terrified look on her face. Right behind her is a picture of a bus, which is the way she would die later in the movie. Also, at Ms. Lewton's house, when she is standing in front of her computer, behind her is a stained glass window with a picture of a knife, which is how she would later die.
Trivia: The sign that falls down at the end is "180", which was the number for their flight.
Trivia: Something to watch for, (though fairly obvious if you know the song) especially considering John Denver died in a plane crash; whenever someone's about to die, listen for the song "Rocky Mountain High" by John Denver to play. The obvious one is when Ms. Lewton is about to die and she plays her mother's John Denver record. Next, after Todd shaves and cuts himself, he plugs in the radio and you think he's going to get electrocuted. What do you suppose is playing for about 3 seconds? At the beginning, when Alex is having the nightmare, he and Todd go to the bathroom, guess what's playing on the loudspeaker. Also at the end, when they are in France, the man playing the guitar is singing "Rocky Mountain High" in French.
Trivia: This is more of something to notice, but when the students are walking onto the aeroplane Alex looks at the scrapes on the door of the plane, then he looks down through the gap and a baggage car passes underneath. Look at the numbers on top of the car...they read 666, unless you want to be picky then its 999 which wouldn't mean anything.
Trivia: In the very beginning of the movie you see many different shots of Alex's room, in one shot you see the shadow of a little figure hanging by the neck foreshadowing Todd's death.
Trivia: James Wong, the director for this movie, was also a writer/producer/director for the X-Files TV show. The script for this movie was based on a script writer Jeffrey Reddick wrote for the X-Files that wasn't used. In the original script, titled "Flight 180," Dana Scully's brother was one of the characters who survived the plane incident.
Trivia: The German dub of Final Destination doesn't change Tod's name. "Tod" means "Death" in German.
Answer: The scene where Terry was killed was most likely shot during the day. It is quite common for film makers to film a scene during the day to get the right lighting effects and then later CGI the night sky and the proper shadowing. This is most effective when you have an area that would otherwise be too dark or have environment that wont allow for the proper lighting for a night shoot. As for the bus, your guess is as good as mine.