Director and producer Sam Raimi reemerged on the big screen in the new survival thriller, Send Help, starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien.
Written by Mark Swift and Damien Shannon, the movie takes place on a deserted island where an employee (McAdams) and her boss (O’Brien) find themselves stranded after a plane crash.
The movie was released in the U.S. on January 30, 2026, by 20th Century Studios and has received positive reviews from movie critics.
McAdams plays a quirky corporate strategist, Linda Liddle, who has been eagerly expecting to be promoted to a job she has long been loyal to. Though her late boss promised her promotion, his son, Bradley (O’Brien), gives the position to his unqualified former frat brother, Donovan. To make matters worse, out of disgust for her insecurity and unflattering appearance, Bradley plans to have Linda moved out of sight in the office.
Bradley agrees to let Linda accompany him, Donovan (Xavier Samuel), and their alpha-male coworkers on a business trip to Bangkok, Thailand, so she can prove her worthiness for the job. While finalizing a document for the company, Donovan shows Bradley and the other guys Linda’s old audition tape for the show Survivor, which they mock and humiliate her for.
After the plane’s engine fails, it crashes and sinks into the ocean. Linda awakens on a deserted island to see that she and Bradley are the only ones to survive the crash.
Linda’s love of Survivor has given her the skills to help keep both alive while Bradley nurses an injured leg.
While labeled a survival thriller, Send Help also includes bloodthirsty horror and humor throughout. The tension between Linda and Bradley leaves the audience snickering and on edge as to what the characters’ next moves will be. We see the two coworkers’ roles in each other’s lives reversed as Bradley must rely on Linda for survival and accept that he needs her help if he’s going to survive. “We’re not in the office anymore, Bradley,” she says to him, indicating that she’s the one in charge now.
In some scenes, the audience gets hints of possible reconciliation between the two. In others, they ponder who can be trusted. We wonder if the two are on each other’s side while also waiting for one of them to turn on the other.
As the film progresses, we see Linda morph from dorky and socially awkward to a woman who can brutally kill live boars and terrify a grown man.
The audience likely finds themselves relating to parts of Linda Liddle. Not the parts of her that are completely nuts, but the parts that feel unappreciated and humiliated.
If anything, the movie shows the audience that sometimes, the quiet ones are the ones not to be underestimated.