An insufferable alpha-male boss, a quirky survivalist, and a plane crash. Released in theaters Jan. 30, “Send Help,” starring actors Dylan O’Brien and Rachel McAdams, is on track to be the movie of the year.
Spoilers ahead.
When Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) finds herself stranded on an island with her misogynistic boss, Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien), she puts her survival skills to use. In the past, Liddle had auditioned for survival game shows and done a lot of research on surviving in the wild, while Preston had lived a comfortable, almost boring, life. Throughout the movie, Liddle is revealed to be sabotaging their rescue, purposefully running from boats that pass the island, while Preston is secretly building a raft to escape without her. It seemed for a while that the two might fall in love, but that could not be further from the truth. They continuously fight, poison one another, and threaten one another with violence. When Preston’s fiancée comes searching for him on the island, Liddle kills her. When Preston finds her body, he accuses Liddle of the murder and chases her across the island. Preston jabs his thumb into Liddle’s eye while choking her, and she stabs him in the side. While Preston runs away, he stumbles upon a house on the island in an area that Liddle had warned was full of poisonous vines. It becomes a game of cat and house, where Liddle confesses to keeping them on the island for selfish reasons. Preston tells her he has fallen in love with her, but she sees through it and kills him. There is then a time skip, where Liddle is famous for being the “only” survivor of a plane crash and living alone on an island for months.
“Send Help” was not only hilarious but also suspenseful. When it feels like it is going one way, it goes the other. This movie might be the best thing to have released since the beginning of 2026, and deserves as much recognition as it gets.
Humor plays a very important role in this movie. With its comedically timed close-ups and montages, “Send Help,” is a laugh until tears start pouring kind of film. The way the movie is shot in the beginning is similar to a documentary or parody movie, as there are a lot of close-ups of mouths, noses, etc. Later, it is filmed more like a horror movie, which adds a lot of interesting contrast to the film. Dylan O’Brien brought a lot to the role of Bradley Preston, and his angry facial expressions and reactions were some of the best parts of the movie. And not to forget Rachel McAdams, whose role is so quirky and different from the kinds of movies she usually stars in. The two make a great acting pair as they play off one another and have a lot of chemistry. If casting directors know what’s up, they should be in more projects together.
The plot twist. It is clear from the start that something is off with Liddle, but the reveal of her finding a house on the island and keeping it from Preston, forcing him to stay on the island, and murdering his fiancée was an unexpected twist. Viewers likely assumed the two victims would have some forced-proximity love story, but Liddle is no victim. Preston’s death was an exciting twist, as it seemed that he might be able to escape. The interesting part, though, is whether Liddle is really wrong for killing Preston. He treated her like gum on the bottom of his shoe, expected her to care for him in the wilderness, and was a genuine misogynist. Whether or not his fate was deserved is up in the air.
The main reason this movie lost a star was the end. Without revealing any spoilers: it was anti-climactic, and Liddle’s escape was not only random but completely out of character.
Overall, “Send Help” is a great movie that should be on everyone’s to-be-watched list. It provides the audience with a good laugh, chills, and endless anticipation to find out what happens next.
