Rachel McAdams trades her sweet image for a blood-soaked battle in Sam Raimi’s ‘Send Help.’ In an exclusive first look, the ‘Mean Girls’ star proves she’s the ultimate survivor when she takes on a ferocious boar, marking a shocking and empowering transformation for her character.
If you thought Rachel McAdams was a formidable screen presence as Regina George, just wait till you see her face off with a maniacal boar. The “Mean Girls” actress stars in director Sam Raimi’s survival thriller “Send Help” as Linda Liddle, a dowdy strategy-and-planning expert passed over for promotion and treated badly by her sexist new frat-bro boss Bradley (Dylan O’Brien).
On a business trip to Thailand, their plane crashes and the two wind up on a remote deserted island. He’s injured and a hot mess. She, on the other hand, is a huge “Survivor” fan with some serious skills for staying alive. While Bradley recuperates, Linda builds shelter near the water and goes hunting for food in the forest.
In an exclusive scene, Linda runs into a nasty boar that attacks her. You’ll have to see how their fight concludes on the big screen, but it’s extremely gory, doesn’t end well for the boar and covers Linda in blood. It’s a critical character moment “where her killer instincts do come out, and she learns what she’s capable of in a very physical, ugly act. If necessary to survive, she’ll go there,” Raimi says.
“It’s also about a comparison to the inept Bradley. It’s like a seesaw, as the power dynamic shifts: She becomes the powerful one, and his weakness is revealed. “I also wanted to make it a thrilling, fun, scary, ‘Oh, my God’ moment for the audience,” the director adds. “And I really wanted the hero to taste blood.”
The scene throws back to the kind of splatter-iffic spectacle that Raimi is known for in his long career, going back to the days of “Evil Dead.” To create the boar, the director used a mixture of puppetry and physical contraptions – including a device that looked like it came right “out of the 1930s with a wheelbarrow bicycle pedal” to drive the animal – and digital wizardry to craft “an old-fashioned monster for the kids.” He got the biggest kick when it was all puppets, all the time: “Even though they were sticks, you could see the puppeteers fighting for their lives, trying to kill the character of Linda.”
McAdams, the boar’s extremely game scene partner, also came ready for a brawl. The film needed a “brilliant actress” who could take Linda through “this tremendous transformation,” Raimi says. He also wanted a performer with “a sweet image where we would care about her and be surprised” when she rose to become an unexpected “badass of the jungle.” The filmmaker had worked with her in Marvel’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” and was impressed at the way McAdams was able to play three different versions of the same character. What really won over Raimi, though, was filming one scene where she battled a bunch of nonexistent ghosts with unquestioning gusto: “Nothing’s beneath her.”
After the first few takes of the boar scene, she told him, ” ‘I can do it better, throw me with some more blood,’ ” Raimi recalls. “ ‘All right, go back to makeup. I guess we’ll try and do it better.’ ” This commitment to the role highlights the depth of McAdams’ performance, promising a Linda who is far more than her initial dowdy appearance suggests.
“Send Help” arrives in theaters on January 30, positioning itself as one of the most talked-about releases of early 2026. For fans of Raimi’s signature style and McAdams’ range, this exclusive scene is a definitive sign that the film will deliver a unique and thrilling cinematic experience.
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