Dylan O'Brien attends the "Send Help" world premiere at TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX in Hollywood, California on January 21, 2026. Jesse Grant/Getty Images Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text [This story contains major spoilers for Send Help.] Send Help star Dylan O'Brien is not going to say what you think he's going to say about the victor of Sam Raimi's deserted island duel. In a previous conversation with THR, O'Brien stated that he doesn't buy into the common philosophy among actors that one must function like a defense attorney for their antagonists. He certainly empathizes with his acclaimed villainous characters in River Gallo's Ponyboi (2024) and Jan Komasa's Anniversary (2025), but he doesn't necessarily feel an obligation to justify their unforgivable behavior or paint them as victims. That mindset remains especially true when it comes to his smarmy CEO character, Bradley Preston, in Send Help. (Major spoilers ahead.) Related Stories Movies Box Office: 'Melania' Bests Jason Statham's 'Shelter' to Place No. 3 With $7M, 'Send Help' Soars to $20M Win Movies Dylan O'Brien Doesn't Care If You Like Him Case in point, he sides with Rachel McAdams' Linda Liddle, a strategy and planning exec for Bradley's inherited consulting firm. O'Brien's position is all the more surprising when you consider that McAdams' Survivor enthusiast character ultimately kills Bradley, as well as his fiancée (Edyll Ismail's Zuri) and a local skipper, who was merely helping the latter search for Bradley and any other survivors of his company's plane crash in the Gulf of Thailand. O'Brien specifically feels for the fact that Linda is a widowed survivor of an abusive, alcoholic husband. He also sympathizes for her after Bradley refuses to honor his late father's promised promotion to his most valuable employee of the last seven years. Instead, he decides to exile her to a satellite office because her dowdy aesthetic doesn't suit his boys' club mentality. But before that can happen, Bradley is convinced to bring her on the fateful business trip to Bangkok in an effort to protect an imminent merger. That reluctant decision to include Linda saved Bradley from a more immediate death since he washed ashore on the same tropical island with a survivalist. "Personally, I ride for Linda. I have been very surprised to hear how many people are like, 'Well, Linda is a murderer.' And I'm like, 'But she was abused,'" O'Brien tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of Raimi's most critically well-received film alongside 2004's Spider-Man 2. "I love that it isn't a black-and-white dynamic. 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." Written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, Send Help sets itself up a lot like Breaking Bad in that you have a highly sympathetic main character who's been unable to reach their utmost potential, either through systemic barriers or their own self-sabotage. Both stories then become a test of how long our initial sympathies can last once roles reverse and immoral acts accumulate. The dealbreaker for a number of viewers, including this writer, is Linda's aforementioned double murder of Zuri and her local skipper/tour guide to prevent a return to the mainland. At first, Linda delayed her and Bradley's rescue in order to prove her worth to her new boss and guarantee her promotion as soon as they're back in the States. But her ongoing interference evolved into a version of Lima Syndrome, having developed feelings for her "new sweetie" she was holding captive. (She previously referred to her pet bird as Sweetie.) There are still plenty of Linda defenders besides O'Brien. He says the majority of the Send Help crew are "Team Linda stans." But he hopes that the audience's response doesn't become overly tribal because the film was never meant to be a gendered showdown. (Personally, I don't align with either person.) "I hope that there's no team anyone, to be honest, and I also hope that there's no gender factor in it," O'Brien admits. "Sam and Rachel were very conscious about not wanting to be too heavy handed [regarding] women versus men in the workplace. It's more universal than that. Anybody can relate to being on the short side of this dynamic in a human society. Again, it's where I get sympathy for Linda." Below, during a spoiler conversation with THR, O'Brien also discusses how he approached one of his favorite scenes in which Bradley is drugged and temporarily paralyzed. *** Send Help's Bradley Preston seems like he's cut from the same cloth as Vincenzo from Ponyboi and Josh Taylor from Anniversary. Maybe this is just me trying to create an "era" of work