Rachel McAdams & Dylan O'Brien Defend Send Help's Divisive Ending

The survivalist horror-comedy Send Help goes in a ton of wild directions. And of course, the final twist is the most jaw-dropping of all. It’s so charged, that audiences are split in their opinion on it — should we feel happy, or is it meant to be upsetting? For Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien, the answer is kinda both.

Spoiler alert: Don’t read on if you haven’t seen Send Help yet.

The two leads discussed Linda Liddle’s unnerving victory in Send Help’s final act. After O’Brien’s character Bradley discovers that Linda has gone so far as to murder his fiancée in order to keep him trapped on an island, he and Linda have their climactic final battle. It ends with Linda killing Bradley with a golf club, and later returning to society to take over his high-powered job.

But because Linda has been such a sympathetic character the whole rest of the movie (and Bradley’s been a jerk), it can be difficult to fully blame her for the gruesome murder. McAdams told The National that she loves how viewers initially celebrate that Linda “got away with it,” before starting to feel uncomfortable with that reaction.

“She’s turned rotten, you know? It’s such a rollercoaster,” McAdams said. “I love those moments when you think you’ve landed on solid ground, and then suddenly the rug is pulled out from under you. I loved that this movie had a few of those, when suddenly you feel sick to your stomach.”

O’Brien spoke about the ending in much more detail in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Specifically, he is proud to stand up for Linda’s murderous twist.

“For me, personally, I ride for Linda,” O’Brien said. “It’s not that I don’t also ride for Bradley, but it’s been really interesting to hear the various reactions that people have. I have been very surprised to hear how many people are like, ‘Well, Linda is a murderer.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, yeah, but she was abused.’ There’s so many interesting pieces of these characters that provide a certain texture to their choices and make it quite debatable. It’s clearly already drawing sides, but I love that it isn’t so clear cut. I love that it isn’t a black-and-white dynamic.”

The actor pointed out that although Send Help is set up for audiences to choose a side, he hopes nobody finishes it feeling solidly in support of one character. “I hope that there’s no team anyone, to be honest,” O’Brien said. “We were conscious while making it that you may be siding with Bradley over Linda at some point in the film, but it’s very interesting to see that scale tip back and forth. It’s one of the most fun parts about the movie.”