Fictional character biography
Details about Burke's life are not widely known in the Final Destination 2 movie, where he is first featured. In the film, he is shown as a New York state trooper who drives his patrol car on Route 23. In Kimberly Corman's precognition, Burke becomes the first fatality of the pile-up. A large log breaks free from a truck, falls onto the highway and smashes through the windshield of Burke's patrol car, decapitating him.
In the movie's development, Kimberly has this vision while she is driving her SUV on an entry lane to Route 23. Accompanied by her three friends: Shaina, Dano, and Frankie, she gets upset by the paranormal experience and blocks the entry to Route 23 with her SUV. Burke, who is some cars behind Kimberly, turns on the patrolling lights and moves to check what happened.
In the SUV, Shaina, Dano, and Frankie, do not understand what Kimberly is doing. When Dano sees Officer Burke approaching them, he hides a bag of marijuana in his pants, while Shaina urges both Dano and Kimberly to remain calm. Burke looks suspiciously at Kimberly and her friends and, when a visibly distressed Kimberly tells him that a huge accident is about to happen on Route 23, a confused Officer Burke asks her to step out of the SUV.
Some other drivers in the entry lane grow increasingly frustrated at having their way blocked by Kimberly's SUV, and two of them —Evan Lewis and Isabella Hudson— ask Burke to take Kimberly out of the way. He orders them to go back to their vehicles, and tries to calm Kimberly as she gets hysterical when the log truck of her vision passes rapidly on the route. Shortly afterward, an explosion on the highway causes a massive accident and fires. Burke sprints back to his patrol car and requests back-up and assistance for a major accident. He is subsequently seen saving Kimberly's life by grabbing her to a side, away from the way of a truck, which destroys Kimberly's SUV, killing Shaina, Dano, and Frankie.
At the police station, Burke informs Detective Suby about the accident. He tells Suby that the drivers are "freaked out", but he does not tell him about Kimberly's vision. In an interrogation room, Burke asks Kimberly to tell him what she saw, which she explains as a vision similar to the one that Alex Browning had on Flight 180, exactly one year earlier. No one, except for Burke, believe her, with some even mocking her, including Nora Carpenter and motorist Eugene Dix. All of them leave the station as Michael Corman, Kimberly's father, enters the room and consoles her crying daughter. Michael and Kimberly leave, as Officer Burke looks at Kimberly with sympathy.
After the death of Evan Lewis, Burke tells Kimberly to consult Clear Rivers. Clear is the last survivor of Flight 180 and voluntarily lives at a mental hospital, where she tries to stay safe by remaining in a padded room and under strict conditions for her visitors. In her visit to Clear, Kimberly learns that she is the last on Death's list. When Tim Carpenter dies outside a dental clinic, Clear joins Kimberly and Burke and try to save the rest of survivors. Nevertheless, their attempts prove unsuccessful. Clear leads Kimberly and Officer Burke to mortician William Bludworth, who claims that "new life" can defeat Death. Officer Burke later reveals that he was one of the responding officers to the death of Billy Hitchcock one year prior on the train tracks. Hitchcock was one of the survivors of Flight 180, which was meant to take a French class group of the fictional New York town of Mount Abraham on a school trip to Paris.
Realizing that Isabella Hudson, one of the drivers in the entry lane to Route 23, is pregnant, Burke, Kimberly, and Clear try to keep her safe until the baby is born (which would match the "new life" concept that Bludworth gave to them). Using an automatized police system, Burke issues an arrest warrant for Isabella; she is pulled over shortly afterwards and taken to a local station by another officer. While in the station's small cell, Isabella breaks her waters and is subsquently rushed to Lakewood Hospital by her arresting officer. Kimberly erroneously interprets one of her visions and believes that Dr. Ellen Kalarjian will kill Isabella at the hospital. When they reach the facility, Burke shows Kalarjian his police badge and stops her from going into the delivery room. Despite a hard labor, Isabella gives birth to her baby. Kimberly, Burke, and Clear feel a short-lived relief, until Kimberly has another vision and realizes that Isabella was not meant to die, not even in the premonition. As they become aware that they have not defeated Death, Clear dies in an explosion along with Eugene Dix, who was hospitalized due to a traffic accident. Determined to stop the cycle, Kimberly steals an ambulance from the hospital's driveway and plunges the vehicle into a nearby lake, where she drowns. Officer Burke runs after the ambulance and jumps into the water. Diving deep into the lake, he manages to take Kimberly out of the vehicle and takes her back to the surface, where she is resuscitated at Lakewood Hospital by Dr. Kalarjian.
Now believing that they have truly defeated Death, Burke and Kimberly develop a friendly bond. They are both present at Brian Gibbons' death during a midday barbeque at the farm of the young boy's parents, putting into question whether they are truly safe.
Officer Burke appears in the novelization of Final Destination 2 by Black Flame's authors Nancy A. Collins and Natasha Rhodes. The book features certain changes from the film, such as Kimberly's father being named Ambrose instead of Michael, and Rory being named as Rory Cunningham instead of Rory Peters. As in the film, both Officer Burke and Kimberly survive.
In the book, Officer Burke is on duty the morning of the accident on Route 23, suffering from a strong hangover as a result of having stayed at a "sleazy downtown bar" until 3 am the previous night, drinking heavily with a fellow officer named Drake. Burke is tired and sleepy, as well as annoyed with Drake, who left with some women, leaving Burke at the bar's parking lot and forcing him to take a 30-dollar cab drive to his apartment.
In Kimberly's vision, Burke drives through the highway; he takes some pills of paracetamol (in the book named as Tylenol) to ease his headache and puts a cup of coffee on the car's dash. He also has a box of Dunkin' Donuts. Burke is driving behind the log truck when he sees that a "spray of sprinkles" come from the road at the tires of the truck. Mentally congratulating himself, Burke takes the radio to inform the station of the vehicle's hazardous driving. At that moment, the coffee spills over onto his legs, unfolding the chain of events.
In the real life, Kimberly blocks the entry lane, annoying a heavily tired Burke, who was not even meant to work that day. He was called that morning at 6 am to replace an officer. Angry, Burke approaches with the intention of arresting and booking the SUV's driver, and to free the highway's entry. He is taken aback by Kimberly's anxiety and fear, who urges him to stop the log truck as it passes by.
At the police station, the book details that Detective Suby is suspicious of Officer Burke, having reprimanded him twice that month for interfering with issues that were none of his business. That night, still at the office at 11 pm, Burke searches the police archives and reads news articles about the tragic deaths of Flight 180 survivors. Detective Suby enters the room and cautions him against obsessing himself with the Flight 180 theories. Before saying goodbye, Detective Suby informs Burke about the death of Evan Lewis, leaving him shocked.
The book includes details of a deleted scene of Final Destination 2, where Officer Burke, along with Kimberly and Clear, pay a visit to Isabella Hudson's home in an attempt to warn her and keep her safe until the baby's birth (it is later known that Isabella was not a part of Death's original design). The chapter describes a tense dialogue between Burke and Isabella's abusive husband, Marcus Hudson, who says that Isabella left, without elaborating on any motive or why she did so. Officer Burke and Clear see a naked blond woman inside the house, which makes Marcus even more impatient, telling Burke that he is busy. Burke asks Marcus to let him in to check the house, which Marcus vehemently rejects, telling Burke that he doesn't have a warrant and reminding him that he (Marcus) is a lawyer. In a chapter describing Isabella's brief stay at the police station, Marcus is revealed to be a wife beater.
Officer Burke is a single man who struggles to pay his apartment's monthly rent. He lives in a one-bedroom loft with "natural brick walls and exposed wooden beams and lintels", which includes a stairwell to an upper level, a big living room, and an "ultra-modern" kitchen. Burke is further described as a non-smoker, drinking only in social occasions, and leading a modest life, with his car being leased to him by the police department.
The book chronicles several instances where Burke faces consequences for his involvement in the investigation on the Route 23 pile-up. While Kimberly is driving to the hospital where Isabella waits to give birth to her baby, a police car attempts to pull her over for driving too fast. Burke, who is with her in the vehicle, tells Kimberly to ignore the sirens and to keep driving.
In the last chapter of the novel, Burke learns that Isabella Hudson filed charges against him for harassment and serving a false arrest warrant against her. Likewise, he is sued by Dr. Kalarjian, who accused him of police brutality over their interaction at Lakewood Hospital.
In the "Choose Their Fate" DVD bonus edition of Final Destination 3 , a newspaper article shows that Kimberly and Burke ran into each other at a hardware store and a vehicle crashed through the building, knocking them into a nearby malfunctioning woodchipper. Kimberly's coat was tangled and snatched into the machine. Burke attempted to save her, but is suctioned into the machine, and they are both dismembered. The article includes an interview to the physician who signed their death certificates, where it is revealed that it was Dr. Kalarjian. However, the scene is confirmed to be non-canon as per Final Destination Bloodlines and an interview with producer Craig Perry. [23] [24]
