Official Trailer
Rating: 7/10 | Genre: Horror, Thriller, Comedy | Runtime: 113 min
Starring: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O'Brien, Edyll Ismail, Dennis Haysbert, Xavier Samuel
Send Help is a weird little movie that shouldn’t work but kind of does. It’s a survival thriller wrapped up in dark comedy, and it mostly succeeds at being entertaining for its two-hour runtime, even if it stumbles a few times along the way.
Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien play coworkers who hate each other. Like, really hate each other. They’re stuck on a plane together, the plane crashes, and suddenly they’re the only two people on a deserted island. The setup is simple enough, but the movie spends a good chunk of time making you understand why these two can’t stand one another before it starts forcing them to actually work together.
The first half moves slow. I’m not going to lie. There’s a lot of awkward banter and tension that doesn’t always land. Some of the jokes feel forced, and McAdams especially seems to be struggling with the tonal shifts between the thriller parts and the comedy parts. But then something clicks around the halfway mark. Once they stop bickering about who gets to use the fresh water first and start dealing with actual danger, the movie finds its rhythm.
What Actually Works
Dylan O’Brien is the standout here. He leans into the comedy without making it ridiculous, and when things get tense, he actually feels vulnerable. There’s a scene where he realizes they’re not being rescued as quickly as they thought, and his whole demeanor shifts. That moment alone made me care about what happens to him.
The island itself becomes a character. It’s not some tropical paradise. It’s rocky, uncomfortable, and genuinely hostile. The cinematography makes it feel oppressive rather than beautiful, which works perfectly for a survival story where nature is trying to kill you.
Dennis Haysbert shows up about halfway through, and I won’t say much because it would spoil the turn the movie takes. But his presence changes everything, and suddenly you’re not sure who you should be rooting for anymore. That’s when Send Help stops being just a survival movie and becomes something stranger.
Where It Loses Me
The ending is ambitious. Maybe too ambitious. The movie tries to pull off a twist that questions everything you’ve been watching, and it doesn’t quite have the narrative foundation to support it. There are plot holes big enough to drive a plane through, which is a bad joke but also kind of accurate.
The pacing in the third act also gets shaky. Things move too fast, characters make decisions that don’t track with what we’ve learned about them, and the tone gets confused about whether it wants to be funny or scary. It’s like the movie ran out of runway and had to just land whatever way it could.
Is It Worth Watching
Yeah, I think so. It’s not perfect. It’s not even great. But it’s interesting enough to hold your attention for 113 minutes, and there are genuine moments of tension mixed with actual laughs. McAdams and O’Brien have good chemistry once they stop treating each other like enemies, and the supporting cast keeps things unpredictable.
Send Help sits at a 7/10 on TMDB, and I get why. It’s a solid middle-ground movie that takes swings at being smart and funny and scary, and lands some but misses others. The kind of thing you watch on a streaming service on a Friday night and have a decent time with, then probably forget about by next month.
Have you seen it yet? What did you think of that twist ending?
Where to Watch
Stream on: Hulu, Disney Plus, JioHotstar
Rent on: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Fandango At Home, Sky Store, CosmoGo, maxdome Store, MagentaTV, Videoload, Freenet meinVOD
Buy on: Google Play Movies, YouTube, Rakuten TV, Fetch TV