“Send Help” Needs a Little Help of its Own
We’ve all had that one boss who we have hated for myriad reasons. They’re arrogant, selfish, disrespectful, and, perhaps worst of all, terrible at their job. So bad they couldn’t even be an intern at the company they’re fully in charge of. It’s one thing to be stuck in an office with that person, but Sam Raimi poses a worse scenario in Send Help. A scenario rooted in survival, trust, and what happens when coworkers are forced to hang out outside of the office.
Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) is the thankless mid-level employee who’s the only reason Preston Consulting is staying afloat. Yes, she’s kind of weird and commits the cardinal sin of bringing a tuna salad sandwich to work, but she’s also kind, hardworking, and desperate for human connection. On the other hand, it’s difficult to find a single nice thing to say about Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien). He’s just been named CEO of the company his dad built and that he knows nothing about. Instead of respecting his late father’s wishes and promoting Linda to vice president, he promotes his fraternity brother (Xavier Samuel). Bradley wants to fire Linda, but is pushed to give her a shot, so he invites her on the company merger trip to Bangkok. Somewhere near Thailand, the plane crashes and Linda and Bradley are the only survivors. Now the two must find a way to survive on a deserted island.
Photo by Brook Rushton. © 2026 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
In true Raimi fashion, Send Help finds a way to get ridiculously gory. He even manages to slip in a little zombie action. This is a good, old-fashioned bodily fluids flick. It’s got blood, guts, vomit, spit…pretty much everything except pee and poop. It’s not a gross-out movie per se, but it is going to make you squirm at times.
The undisputed star of Send Help is McAdams. She’s an undeniably captivating actor, reveling in this rare opportunity to deliver a gonzo performance. McAdams, wholly bloodsoaked, standing above the carcass of a wild boar, and cackling maniacally is a far cry from Regina George or Allie Hamilton, but what a delicious ride she takes the audience on. Even when Linda is supposed to be awkward and meek, she’s captivating. When Linda transforms into a Survivor contestant, McAdams dives headfirst into pure absurdity. Even though it’s only January, it will be difficult to find another 2026 performance as uninhibited as McAdams’ in Send Help.
Photo by Brook Rushton. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
It seems a little cliche at this point to blame all a film’s problems on its runtime, but that does feel like the problem that looms over Send Help. O’Brien and McAdams make for a charming duo and there are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, but it begins to feel monotonous. One could argue that’s the nature of a movie set on a deserted island, but Castaway doesn’t suffer the same problem with fewer actors and a longer runtime. Perhaps it’s not the runtime but the script. Over the course of the film, Linda and Bradley are friends, then adversaries, then friends again, then trying to poison one another. It’s a series of escalations that grows a little tiresome as they flip and flop again and again.
There’s some meat on the bones of Send Help about the way rich guys with money tend to fail upward while smart, awkward women are overlooked, but some of the twists that happen later in the movie undermine its themes. The film, as one can imagine based on the trailer, ends in a pseudo-Girl Boss moment that’s supposed to make the audience feel good about the story, but it’s not right or earned in a narrative sense. It’s impossible to describe what that means without spoiling the film, so all that will be said on the matter is that Send Help exists half in a world of silliness and half in a world of sincerity. It’s exceptionally difficult to spin the plate of a topic like abuse while also spinning the plate of Rachel McAdams flying through the air with a spear she sharpened herself to kill a boar. There’s a way to keep those plates going, but it takes a lot more effort than Send Help wanted to give.
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