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Send Help: AMC Early Access Screening
- Niomi Dylan Sass
- 11 hours ago
- 6 min read
Written by Niomi Dylan Sass
“Experience it in the theaters the way it was meant to be seen,” said Rachel McAdams. She and Dylan O’Brien open up the early access screening of the 2026 movie Send Help. They both give short but sentimental messages about the movie waiting to unfold in front of public audiences for the first time. This film is directed by Sam Raimi (also directed Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) and written by Damian Shannon alongside Mark Swift (both wrote the 2009 Friday the 13th). On January 24, 2026, I got to see this movie a week earlier than most of the world. The audience I was a part of filled the theater with energy, adding to the overall joy and suspense of seeing this.
Linda (Rachel McAdams) is a number-crunching genius who is extremely strategic in company planning. Sadly, she is the kind of person that big executives like to take advantage of by working them to the bone. However, Linda was promised an Executive Vice President position at the company, but the CEO died before making that happen. His son, Bradley (Dylan O’Brien), inherits the company and gives his fraternity brother the position, knowing that it was promised to Linda by his father. Linda storms into Bradley’s office to confront him about his decision, and he says that he needs someone with more likable qualities “who likes golf.” Then he proposes that she prove him wrong by going with their corporation to secure a major deal, the Bangkok Merger.
She accepts the challenge and meets them the next day, packed and ready to secure this deal. It’s Bradley, his new Vice President, a couple more frat desk jockeys, and Linda on a private jet to Bangkok. Linda is doing the heavy lifting of the technical aspect of the trip, creating a great proposal that’ll be sure to get the company the deal and herself the position. She sees over her laptop that the guys are laughing. At closer inspection, they appear to be laughing at her audition tape for the show Survivor. What they don’t know is that Linda’s whole apartment is filled with memorabilia, trophies, and accolades that all pertain to some outdoor survival activity. In this moment, I think she realizes her self-respect is much more valuable than being the employee of a person like Bradley. As she deletes the project she just worked so hard to finish, the plane hits a little bit of turbulence. The flight attendant tells everyone to sit down and buckle up; Bradley tells everyone to “take your seats, if you're a little b*tch.”
In the next moment, they hit a patch of turbulence again so hard that it throws the guys who aren't seated all around the plane. Toxic masculinity didn’t save the ones too cool to take their seats. Linda and Bradley are the only ones buckled. She looks out the window and sees the engine explode. All of the debris flying around caused a hole to erupt in the side of the plane, launching several passengers out to their imminent deaths. Two of them are left attacking each other while bombarding Linda, trying to steal her seat. In a brutal, grotesque, bloody battle in the air, the frat bros get ejected through the gaping metal hole. Linda sees the ocean coming fast towards her from the unexpected opening in the plane and braces herself for impact. The pilot was able to land-ish on the water, and it quickly started sinking. She is trying to unbuckle her seatbelt before the aircraft is fully submerged in the ocean. Thankfully, she can free herself, but not before a jump scare from the flight attendant's dreadfully damaged corpse.
With a little bit of luck, Linda washes ashore on a tropical deserted island, paradise if the circumstances of landing there were different. As she is gaining an awareness of her new surroundings, scoping the lay of the land, she spots the body of Bradley in the distance. After giving him a quick inspection, he is unresponsive but alive. He has a huge gash on his leg, and guess who feels obligated to nurse him back to health?
Bradley remains unconscious for almost two whole days. While he is having a siesta, Linda is putting her survival skills to damn good use: creating adequate shelter for them both, scavenging for food, and maintaining a fresh source of water. He finally wakes up and starts to get upset that Linda hasn’t tried to make contact for help. He starts being rude to her, and she sarcastically apologizes for being too occupied ensuring their survival. Bradley tries to pull a power move on her, saying that she works for him and has to do what he says. However, Linda knows whose world they're in now, hers. She leaves him and his “soft baby hands” to take care of himself and see who really needs whom. Who’s laughing at her now?
She left him for a few days, and as Bradley is on the verge of dehydration. As what seems as if he is about to give up on his life, Linda appears refreshed and rejuvenated and gives him water. “We’re not in the office anymore, Bradley,” said Linda calmly yet sternly, letting him know she’s standing on business. More time goes by, and she realizes that they are going to need some protein if they are going to give their body the proper nutrients to survive. She goes to hunt a Boar with a spear she made. This part of the movie reminded me of the game Crash Bandicoot because he is always in some tropical landscape, jumping on the backs of wild creatures. Just as Linda jumped onto the back of this boar. After an intense battle, she comes out on top, decapitates it, and throws the head at Bradley, showing off her trophy from the hunt.
This is the Linda Show, and Bradley is lucky to be the supporting character. On another scavenging trip Linda is embarking on, she sees a boat that could rescue them in the distance. As she is about to yell for help, something sinister comes over her, and she silently lets the boat drive away from the island. Why didn’t she try to wave down the ship to get saved? Is she trying to make amends with the person who stands between her and an executive position? Is she weirdly falling in love with her pathetic boss? Is she trying to be the hero? Will another boat go by? Who is getting off the island? You’ll have to see the movie for yourself to find out the answer to those questions.
Rachel McAdams popped off so hard in this movie. Her character in this movie is honestly bananas in the best way possible. She lived the lives of five different people just in Linda’s one life. One thing I noticed was how much more attractive she was becoming the longer she stayed in her natural habitat: the great outdoors. At the beginning of the movie, they have McAdam’s character in the wrong shade of lipstick, unflattering clothes, and a neutral color scheme, making her look so dull. The more time that passed, literally, the prettier she got. As for Bradley, Dylan O’Brien did just as fantastic a job because I hate his character with a passion. He plays an arrogant, rich jerk very well. He had this chopped laugh he would do, which was so annoying, but the character Bradley is definitely that dude who irritates everyone. They both had great on-screen chemistry together, which amplified the intensity of the ‘will they, won’t they’ aspect of this whole plot.
Don’t walk, run to the movies this weekend to see this. It opened in the theatre on January 30, 2026, and I’m sure it’ll be there all February. There is plenty of time to go see how the relationship between an employee and their boss goes awry. All the parts that aren’t suspenseful and spooky are hilarious and histrionic; vice versa. I am a fan of gore, and this film has it in all the right spots. It’s sitting with a 92% Tomatometer with over 100 reviews, deservedly so. I’m really not trying to give away the ending, but Linda is my kind of final girl. I stan about ninety percent of her actions, and for the other ten percent, I’m willing to look the other way. I've seen three newly released horror films so far this month, and this is hands down the best one. Before you go, just remember, “no help is coming, so you'd better start saving yourself.”
Has just enough written to get me wanting more, def gonna see it this weekend!