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There’s Something Anti-Feminist About “Send Help”
A bad-girl revenge story that won’t let her take revenge.
[Note: This article contains spoilers.]
Anyone who’s seen the third act of Triangle of Sadness (2022) will recognise the premise: washed ashore on an apparently deserted island, class hierarchy collapses and power returns to those with real skill. Send Help (2026) follows this structure almost beat-for-beat, but proves far less capable of handling what makes the concept so enticing.
A woman’s life is taken with more readiness than a castration. Testicles are worth more on the moral scale than a woman’s life.
The film frames itself as a bad-ass woman survival story, and I tapped in — paying $20 for some easy Friday night entertainment — expecting strong comeuppance from Linda (Rachel McAdams), a hardworking but downtrodden corporate drone who misses out on her promised Vice-Presidency role after the death of the business founder, replaced by his son Bradley (Dylan O’Brien), ushering in a boys’ club that takes credit for her work and makes it clear her days are numbered.
