What actually happens
A Survivor audition tape gets played mid-flight
Linda Liddle is a socially awkward corporate strategist who has been waiting for a promotion that Bradley Preston, her old boss's son, promised her. When he becomes CEO, he gives the job to Donovan, a new hire and old fraternity brother, and plans to park Linda in a dead-end role because he finds her unattractive and lacking in charisma. She confronts him, and he invites her on a business trip to Bangkok to help close a merger, saying he is impressed by her nerve. On the flight, Donovan humiliates her by playing her audition tape for Survivor. The plane hits a storm, loses an engine and drops fast. In the decompression Donovan tries to strangle Linda to take her seat, and she stabs him with a fork. Everyone but Linda and Bradley is pulled from the plane, which then crashes into the sea.
Reading this instead of watching it is the correct decision. Scaredy Cat makes that decision automatic, for free.
The boss learns to eat what his employee catches
The next morning Linda wakes up on a deserted island in the Gulf of Thailand, where she finds Bradley alive but badly hurt. She builds a shelter and finds food and water, while Bradley, who depends on her, keeps treating her like an employee. Linda leaves him alone for two days, and when she returns he is close to collapse from dehydration. He starts to accept that she is in charge, even if he resents it. Linda turns out to be very good at survival: she catches fish and also kills a wild boar. On a trip to the far side of the island she lets a passing boat go by without signaling it. As Bradley recovers she teaches him survival skills and warns him that the far side is full of poisonous plants. One night over homemade fruit wine she admits that she once let her abusive husband drive drunk, and he died. Bradley seems sympathetic and offers to cook, but he puts poisonous berries in her dinner to get her out of the way, so he can leave on a raft. The waves wreck the raft, and Linda, who survived the poisoning, rescues him.
Octopus toxin and a staged castration
To get back at Bradley for the raft, Linda paralyzes him for a while with octopus toxin and fakes castrating him, to make the point that she is in control. Later, while picking fruit, she meets Zuri, Bradley's fiancee, who has come by boat after the official search ended. Linda is afraid of losing her new life and sense of purpose, so she walks Zuri and the boat captain out onto a cliff she knows is unsteady, and both go over the edge. She goes back to camp alone, shaken and withdrawn, and lets Bradley hunt by himself. While hunting, Bradley finds Zuri's buried remains.
A beach house Linda forgot to mention
Linda says the deaths were accidents, but Bradley calls it murder and attacks her. In the fight he injures her eye and she stabs him. Bradley runs and finds a luxury beach house on the other side of the island. Linda follows and admits that she has known about the house since she saw the first boat, and that she made Zuri and the captain fall. She points an unloaded shotgun at him, and he begs for his life and says he loves her and wants to stay on the island. Then Linda sees that he is hiding a weapon, and he grabs the shotgun. This is the scene people dread most, so here is the end of it: Linda overpowers him and kills him with a golf club.
The ending, explained
A year later Linda is rescued, wealthy and beloved, and the public believes she is the only person who lived through the crash. At a celebrity golf tournament she promotes a film version of her best-selling memoir and announces that she is writing a self-help book. She tells the audience that nobody is coming to help them, so they had better start saving themselves. Donovan, the other executives, Zuri, the boat captain and Bradley are all dead.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: no dog, though a boar does not make it.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Send Help scary?
Somewhat. Send Help is a 4 out of 10 with low dread: a dark comedy with some jump scares, a few gory moments and a lot of cruelty between a boss and his employee.
How does Send Help end?
Linda kills Bradley with a golf club in a luxury beach house on the other side of the island. A year later she is a rich celebrity, promoting a book at a golf tournament, and everyone thinks she is the only survivor of the crash.
Does the dog die in Send Help?
No dog dies in Send Help, because there is no dog in it. A wild boar, a rat, a large insect, some fish and some small octopuses do die.
Is there a post-credits scene in Send Help?
No. Send Help has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
Did Linda push Zuri off the cliff in Send Help?
Yes. In Send Help Linda leads Zuri and the boat captain onto an unstable cliff, and they fall. She first tells Bradley it was an accident, then admits in the beach house that she caused it.
