Sam Raimi’s Return to Horror is Deeper Than You’d Think – Here’s What Send Help’s Ending Really Means

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Sam Raimi’s new movie, Send Help, is out now, and here’s a breakdown of what happens at the end. While known for horror like Evil Dead, Raimi takes a different approach with this 2026 thriller, focusing on a more realistic story. But don’t worry, it still has his signature style and a surprisingly intricate plot that deserves a closer look.

In the movie Send Help, Rachel McAdams plays Linda Liddle, an assistant who travels with her difficult and controlling boss, Bradley Preston (played by Dylan O’Brien). Their trip takes a disastrous turn when their plane crashes, leaving them stranded on a deserted island. Forced to rely on each other, the constantly arguing coworkers must navigate the challenges of survival. Please be warned: the following contains spoilers for *Send Help, and explains the movie’s key events.

What Happens In Send Help’s Ending

The movie Send Help reaches its peak when Bradley finds the bodies of his dead fiancée and her guide. He quickly realizes Linda must be responsible, which leads to a brutal and darkly funny fight between them. Though the battle is intense and bloody, Bradley manages to escape to a dangerous, overgrown section of the island, hoping to find refuge among the vines and poisonous plants.

When Bradley reaches this part of the island, he realizes Linda hasn’t been truthful with him. Instead of dangerous land, he finds a large mansion. Linda had actually discovered the house soon after they first saw the boat. It belonged to a wealthy owner who used it as a vacation home, and Linda had taken supplies from it – including the knife she carries. She kept this a secret from Bradley and made up the story about poisonous plants to cover her tracks.

Linda reached the mansion soon after Bradley and immediately told him the truth about the place. She then used the security cameras to watch him as he tried to figure out what to do. Suddenly, she confronted him, holding a shotgun. Bradley tried to apologize, and Linda almost believed him, until she realized he was planning to attack her with a decorative object. He then rushed at Linda and managed to take the shotgun from her.

Despite everything, Linda ultimately prevails. She knocks Bradley unconscious with a golf club, and just as she’s about to strike a final blow, the scene jumps forward in time. We then see Linda safely at home, competing in a celebrity golf tournament. During an interview, she claims she survived the plane crash by escaping on a raft, successfully convincing everyone she was the only survivor and concealing the fact that Bradley was with her on the island.

Why Linda Killed Bradley’s Fiancée & Her Guide

Near the end of Sam Raimi’s film, Send Help, Linda spots another boat approaching the island. This boat carries Bradley’s fiancée, Zuri, and a guide she hired to help find him. Linda welcomes them and offers to lead them to Bradley, who is located on the opposite side of the island.

As the group returned to camp, Linda led them along the dangerous mountain path where she’d almost slipped earlier. Zuri stumbled but managed to hold onto a ledge, and the guide quickly caught her. Both Zuri and the guide then asked Linda for help standing up. What happened next isn’t shown immediately, but a later flashback reveals that Linda deliberately pushed the guide, causing both of them to fall to their deaths.

Linda’s choice to eliminate those characters is the most extreme part of her scheme to trap Bradley on the island. Before the plane crash, Linda felt like she wasn’t taken seriously. She lacked influence at work and in her personal life, and people generally dismissed her.

Life on the island suited Linda perfectly. She was stronger and more capable than Bradley, using the skills she’d learned on Survivor to take control. She relished the shift in their dynamic and didn’t want their time together to finish. Linda realized Zuri would eventually come for them, ending her new life, and she was determined to prevent that.

Who Is The True Villain Of Send Help?

Initially, the way Send Help is marketed and the first part of the movie suggest a straightforward story about right and wrong. Bradley is presented as a cruel and controlling boss, while Linda seems like his ignored and undervalued employee. Even after they’re stranded on the island, Bradley continues to act badly – he’s rude, selfish, and still exhibits sexist behavior. But Linda’s character isn’t so simple; the film doesn’t present her as consistently good or innocent.

Once Linda takes charge, she starts exhibiting similar negative traits to Bradley, becoming controlling, verbally abusive, and even physically threatening. As her power grows, she manipulates Bradley by keeping them stranded on the island, refusing to reveal the means of escape. She goes to extreme lengths to maintain control, even resorting to murder.

Despite their flaws, both Linda and Bradley are presented as sympathetic characters. We learn about Linda’s difficult situation at work with Bradley before the plane crash, which makes us feel for her. And on the island, Bradley reveals a troubled past and admits he’s unhappy with who he’s become. Their connection seems genuine for a while, making their eventual descent into darkness all the more heartbreaking.

What I really found compelling about Send Help is that it doesn’t rely on a typical villain. Both main characters are deeply flawed, and while you might sympathize with what they’re going through, they use those feelings to justify really awful behavior. It’s this messed-up dynamic between them that truly drives the story and ultimately reveals what Send Help is really about.

What Send Help Really Means

Even though Send Help is funny, it actually has a lot to say. A key idea in the movie is that people aren’t born as monsters—they’re created by their experiences. Linda states this directly when she talks to Bradley about his past. The film then shows Linda herself transforming into a monster while stranded on the island, proving that even a normal person can change under the right circumstances.

A central idea in Send Help is that power can change people, and those who have it will fight to keep it. The story uses the island where Linda and Bradley are stranded as a symbol for the work environment, simply switching who holds the authority. Once Linda gains power on the island, she becomes unwilling to give it up, even wanting them to remain stranded indefinitely.

Linda will do anything – lie, even kill – to stay in control. When she’s forced to choose between losing her power and harming the person she controls, she chooses to harm him. She always avoids consequences by manipulating the narrative after she’s saved, presenting herself as the victim. This mirrors an earlier event where her boss stole credit for her ideas, as she even utilizes Bradley’s raft plan to rescue herself, effectively taking credit for his ingenuity.

Linda and Bradley are strikingly alike, and the writers of Send Help, Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, use their characters to examine how power structures impact people differently depending on their position within those structures. This insightful approach is what makes Send Help so compelling, demonstrating that a film can be both funny and gory while still offering meaningful commentary.

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2026-01-30 22:12