Movie Review: Send Help

SEND HELP (2026)

Rachel McAdams: Linda Liddle

Dylan O'Brien: Bradley Preston

Screenplay by Damien Shannon and Mark Swift

Directed by Sam Raimi

Rated R for Strong/Bloody Violence and Language

I've worked with people like Linda Liddle and Bradley Preston. Linda is the worker bee, dedicated to the job that she does all too well. Maybe too well. She was promised a promotion only to see it given to Donovan, the younger, inexperienced golf buddy and fraternity brother of the CEO. She doesn't have the right personality, he tells her. Linda is socially awkward so Bradley (the new CEO, taking over for his later father) needs someone who can woo people. Never mind that the guy he picked completely stole Linda's work and passed it off as his own at the Big Meeting. I've worked with people like that, too. It's maddening, frustrating, and encapsulates the most toxic elements of Corporate America.

All of this is established in the first few minutes of Sam Raimi's wildly entertaining Send Help. Linda is the loner from Planning & Strategy who knows the company better than anyone, probably. She lives alone with her bird and dreams of being a contestant on her favorite TV show, Survivor. Rachel McAdams gives one of her career-best performances as Linda, refusing to shy away from the character's rough edges and weirdness. Meanwhile, Dylan O'Brien is very funny and cutting as Bradley, the spoiled brat son of an entrepreneur who doesn't really know how to do anything for himself but considers himself an alpha male. Bradley and his male sycophants are cruel bullies, though. This comes through when they discover Linda's audition tape for Survivor online.

Their dynamic becomes the centerpiece of this dark comedy when the company plane they're on crashes somewhere in the Gulf of Thailand. Everyone onboard except Linda and Bradley is killed. This includes a particularly gruesome but hilarious death/comeuppance for Donovan. Stranded on a remote island, Linda and Bradley must work together in order to survive.

Linda jumps right in. Due to her preparation for a hopeful Survivor appearance, she knows how to build fire, make shelter, collect rainwater, and prepare food. Bradley, who has suffered a gruesome leg injury, says they need to focus on being rescued. That's the goal, after all. Linda is more focused on day-to-day survival. This conflict alone will likely set off countless LinkedIn posts about differing managerial styles and what it can mean for leadership and blah, blah, blah.

Of course, Send Help definitely uses its survival tale to explore workplace power dynamics, misogyny and sexism, and the dark side of human nature when the tables are turned. Bradley tries to remind Linda that she works for him. He's her boss. We're not in the office anymore, she declares. From there, the movie presents a cat-and-mouse game of two people trying maintain the upper hand in a situation that clearly requires collaboration. I'll stop there before I get too far into my own LinkedIn-esque pontification about blah, blah, blah.

Send Help is first and foremost, though, a thoroughly entertaining two-hander featuring superb performances by Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien. They're put through the ringer by Sam Raimi, who does this kind of picture so well. One of the movie's best traits is the way Raimi and the screenplay by Damien Shannon and Mark Swift play with out expectations. You think you know where they might be going with things. Only to have the rug pulled out from under you at key moments. The best parts involve some really fun and gory practical effects and make-up. It also begins to play with our allegiances to the characters. A survival movie usually gives us a protagonist to root for. We want to see them get out of this mess. Happy endings and all that. The most compelling and watchable element of Send Help is the realization that both of these characters have moments where they're unlikeable. Bradley, of course, is a composite of every entitled little shit we've ever met. We expect him to not be trustworthy. But Linda makes choices that confound us. She's hiding something from the very beginning (we see it with her) and from that moment on, her motives are always in question. There are three big reveals that pack a wallop. I wouldn't dream of telling anyone who hasn't seen this movie how it all plays out.

January/February are usually dumping grounds for studios. They offload movies that were meant to be bigger but they ultimately decide didn't turn out as hoped. Send Help is as good as major release out there. If you can catch it in the theater, all the better. But, if you'd rather wait for streaming, I get it. Just make sure you watch it as soon as it hits.

Oh, one more thing. Send Help has the most intense jump scare I've experienced since Mike Flanagan's The Haunting of Hill House. If you know, you know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4wiXj9NmEE