Send Help (2026)
Who hasn’t, at one time or another, tried to stick it out at a job they couldn’t stand? I think we all have, which is why a lot of us chortle fiendishly at movies like 9 to 5 and Office Space. Well, we can now add Sam Raimi’s new movie, Send Help to the list.
Linda Liddle has been on her job in Strategy and Planning for seven years, and while she’s extremely capable, she’s also kind of a mess. Her boss, Bradley, is a jerk of the highest order, or would that be the lowest? Either way, he likes telling Linda how much he dislikes her and he loves rubbing his swanky lifestyle in her face.
Amazingly enough, though, Bradley invites Linda to go on the big trip to Bangkok for the impending corporate merger, and while Linda is sitting in the back of the private jet working, Bradley and some of the other executives guffaw at Linda’s audition video for Survivor. How old are these guys? Grade school?
Anyway, the plane ends up breaking apart midair because of the storm and excessive turbulance, and Linda and Bradley are the only survivors. Washed up up a deserted island, they only have each other to depend on.
Here’s where it gets really funny, though: Linda is one bad boss babe with survivor skills that would make MacGyver proud. Bradley is mostly a helpless brat who can barely put a shelter up. It would seem that they would have to reconcile somehow so their time in exile is relatively pleasant, but there’s a constant push-pull of them getting along and then hating each other.
What doesn’t happen is a tacked-on Blue Lagoon-style romance. I’m not going to tell what happens, actually, except to say that it’s a blindside. A really, really good blindside that is quintessentially Sam Raimi with a heavy dash of Hitchcockian irony.
Full disclosure: Sam Raimi’s grown on me over the years, and while I like a lot of his later stuff like the Spider-Man movies, I’m still not a huge fan of his earlier stuff like The Evil Dead, although Army of Darkness has a lot of classic spots. Other than that, I kinda go on a case-by-case basis with Raimi.
Send Help, though, is genuinely enjoyable, with a lot of typical Raimi-isms, including an appearance by Bruce Campbell, which I won’t ruin. The movie does get pretty gross now and then, but there’s a lot of irony and tasteful black humor going on, and it’s a lot of fun, mostly because it’s intriguing to think about what Linda will come up with next. People at my showing were laughing and having a ball.
The other thing is that Send Help is Rachel McAdams’ movie. She really gives an incredible performance. It’s fun and perfectly timed and intense and flawlessly comic. I’m pretty sure Send Help is not Oscar bait in the slightest, but McAdams’ performance should be. She’s ably matched by Dylan O’Brien, whose Bradley is an effectively clueless jerk and a good foil for Linda even if his character is irritating.
So yeah, not many of us are going to find ourselves marooned on an island with a boss we can’t stand, but in an ideal world, it would look (mostly) like Send Help.
Send Help is currently in theaters. Rated R.
My grade: A-
Principal Cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Edyll Ismail, Dennis Haysbert, Xavier Samuel, Chris Pang, Thaneth Warakulnukroh, Emma Raimi, Kristy Best, Francesca Waters, Olivia Sawyer, Brad Flett, Nana Miya, Anuwat Pornladawong, Benjawan Teawsomboonkit, Aaron Shore
Directed by Sam Raimi.
Written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift.