Displaying items by tag: Send Help movie

SEND HELP

US, 2026, 113 minutes, Colour.

Rachel McAdams, Dylan O'Brien, Edyll Ismail, Xavier Samuel, Chris Pang, Dennis Hayesbert, Thaneth Warakulnukroh.

Directed by Sam Raimi.

More than 30 years ago director, Sam Raimi, acquired a reputation for successful horror films with The Evil Dead, initiating a franchise which still continues. 25 years ago, he directed his first Spiderman film with Toby Maguire, showing his versatility. In the meantime, he has created quite a number of films ranging from sports dramas to creepy thrillers.

There is something of all of this in Send Help. It is a film of many moves moods for the characters – but also for audience response.

The initial setting is an office, talented but dorky worker, Linda, a lively and versatile performance from Rachel McAdama. Her work is stolen by an ambitious fellow worker, promised promotion and then humiliatingly denied it by the smug new young CEO, Bradley, a challenging role for Dylan O’Brien.

Suddenly, the whole tone changes, Linda invited to accompany the group to Thailand but the plane crashing, her survival and then discovering Bradley washed up on the beach. Moviegoers may immediately remember Castaway with Tom Hanks. And there are echoes of those idyllic stranded couples in Blue Lagoon settings.

The audience has seen Bradley and his cronies mocking a video made by Linda, auditioning for Survivor, exercising all the necessary skills. So, we are not surprised when Linda expertly sets up shelter, water, food (and a strangely comic pursuit and conquering of a huge boar). But, of course, Bradley is surprised, his inherent misogyny surfacing, but ultimately his having to depend on her.

The issue is will they come to terms with being cast away, will there be a rescue? Or, will continue to be a Battle of the Sexes with Linda becoming more dominant (and some memories of Kathy Bates and James Carr in Misery)?

Needless to say, Linda relishes becoming queen of the jungle, so to speak. But, Bradley shrewdly opposes her. She even more subtly subdues him. A rescue? Not.

Most of the critical commentary refers to Send Help as horror. And, certainly Sam Raimi draws on some of the horror conventions. But, it is much more than this. On the one hand, it can be seen as a 21^st-century vindication of women, talents and abilities. On the other hand, any men in the audience who are like Bradley, may well be dismayed (or go into denial).

And, where can it end – without revealing an unexpected plot development, the answer is probably that he can end quite cynically.

1. The title, the ironies throughout the film?
2. The world of big companies, offices, international flights and deals? The contrast with life on the island? The discovery of the mansion? And the end with the world of glamour and celebrity? The musical score?
3. The story of Linda, Rachel McAdams performance, initial appearance, gawkish, her age, dedication to work, obsessive? At home, talking to her bird? At the office, awkward interactions, her success with the documentation, done it and taking it over, claiming the work himself, her observing, reactions, resentments? Accosting Bradley, blunt talking, the tuna stain on her lip, her deciding to go to his office, confronting him, plain talk, his reaction? His blunt telling her she did not have the job, the choice of Donovan?
4. The company, the founder, his death, his son taking over, the executive in the sun bossing him around, his friends from college, indoor golf? Male camaraderie? Ridiculing Linda? In fear and misogyny?
5. Bradley inviting Linda to join the trip to Bangkok? On the plane, her work, their watching her audition for survivor, the details of the video, her enterprise, they’re laughing and mocking? Her reaction, not saving the work she had done on her computer?
6. The disaster, the men out the windows of the plane, the crash, the sea, Linda under water, surviving? Bradley surviving on the beach?
7. The castaway themes? Possible idyllic blue Lagoon style? Struggle survival, Triangle of Sadness?
8. Linda, her enterprise, her survival skills, the water, the shelter, branches, binding, fire, fish…? Her strategies and competence?
9. Finding Bradley, his injuries, his leg, unconscious, her caring for him, waking up, water, shelter, food? His negative reaction? His emerging personality, arrogant, misogynistic, suspicious of Linda?
10. Time passing, her enterprise, explorations, managing, Bradley, gradually recovering, begging for food, her demands, her power? His response, walking, starting to work? The food? The suggestion for the raft?
11. The gradual truce, working together, Bradley recovering, Linda enjoying life on the island, in command? The walk on the cliff, her falling, Bradley saving her?
12. Linda, seeing the yacht, not telling Bradley? Her warning him away from the distant rocks? The issue of poison berries? Bradley using them, poisoning Linda, his getting the raft, escaping, the calamity in the waves, stranded again? The contrast with Linda, the poisoned fish, paralysed, pretending to castrate him with the rat? The blood and his terror? Hostilities?
13. The tension, I to beat each other, Linda and the encounter with the fiance, the past introduction to her, the ring? The boat, the Thai captain, her leading them over the cliff, the collapsing rock, the fiance falling, heating the captain over the head, their deaths? Not telling Bradley, her having sick days, her nightmare and the fiance struggling to shore and confronting her?
14. Bradley, walking off, going to the far island, discovering the mansion? The luxuries, Linda story, seeing the caretakers and the food?
15. The buildup to the final confrontation, bargaining, lying, trying to outwit each other, the gun, not firing, Linda and battering Bradley?
16. Linda, her motivations, each exercising power over the other, how genuine her feelings, her mental state, emotions? His wanting to survive, dependence, the experience of dependents, manipulative, betrayal?
17. The atmosphere of the ending, he later, Linda a celebrity, the book, the film, the interviews, her driving away to a future?