Director: Sam Raimi
Cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O'Brien, Dennis Haysbert, Edyll Ismail
Released: January 30, 2026
If Cast Away were a horror movie and it was two people stranded on a desert island instead of one, it would be this movie. I'm not really a horror movie person (as you've probably noted from my lack of horror movie reviews), but I am a Survivor person and the main character is a fan of the reality show. I wouldn't call myself a Survivor Super Duper Fan, but I would refer to myself as a Survivor super fan. I've watched the show since the first season in 2000 and there are only two episodes I missed while watching live: the very first episode and some random episode during season 4, Marquesas. I missed the very first episode because I didn't have any intention on watching it, but my parents saw it and told me about it and I was intrigued so I watched it and I was hooked. I can't remember why I missed the Marquesas episode. It might have been because the weather was bad and it kept getting interrupted by the stupid weather man. God, how the hell did we ever survive without streaming? I mean, seriously? How did we do it? Considering I just wrote that sentence, I would not be long if I were ever stranded on a deserted island! Anyway, back to Survivor: I could name you all the winners from all the seasons (though I don't know everybody's last name!). I even found about the Survivor connection in this from a Survivor podcast (Rob Has a Podcast).
Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) is the Survivor aficionado. Actually, I would say she's more of a survival aficionado and a Survivor casual fan. She seems more interested and well-versed in the survival aspect (like making fire or building shelter) than the strategic and social aspects of the game. We see she is socially inept at work where she is the strategy and planning manger of a company where she's been promised a big promotion, but after her boss dies his swarmy son, Bradley Preston (Dylan O'Brien) takes over and gives the promotion to one of his bros.
When she finds out she's been passed over for the promotion and marches into Bradley's office and demands to know why, he basically tells her she's lacking the social skills. He invites her to join him and the rest of the team on a business trip to Bangkok for a meeting. (I have to be honest...I'm not exactly sure what business they're in.)
While on the flight, Linda is working on some important document for the meeting (she's pretty much doing al the work) and has her earbuds in. When she takes them out, she can hear laughter in another part of the plane and she realizes everyone is laughing because they found her Survivor audition tape online. I'm confused: does Survivor just upload everyone's audition tape online? I highly doubt that, so how did they even find this? Did she upload her audition tape online? Judging by her horrified reaction, I highly doubt it. She hits the delete button and everything she's worked on completely disappeared in a matter of seconds. We'll never get to see how she handled that because the plane crashes into the sea and the only survivors are Linda and Bradley. Of course.
Because of his leg, he is unable to walk so he's completely dependent on Linda. He gets a little snippy with her, telling her he's the boss and she walks away leaving him without water for an entire day in the hot sun. When she comes back with water, she reminds him that the power dynamics have shifted and they're not in the office anymore and he's going to have to listen to her. He knows she's right and he needs her help especially after he's starving and tries to eat a disgusting bug that just turns into goo into his mouth (we know this because he immediately spits it out) and she's a few feet over eating sashimi in frond leaves. She's cutting it with a knife which she tells him she found washed up on the beach.
While Linda is exploring one day in another part of the beach, she sees a small boat and is about to call out to it, but then quickly hides from the boat, obviously not ready to be rescued. This is a place where she can thrive and she's not ready to go back home. I have to say, if I were stranded on a desert island with someone and I later found out they saw a boat and didn't say call out for help, I would be a little ticked off!
When Bradley's leg gets better, Linda suggests they go for a walk for him to exercise his leg. She takes him up and around this very precarious path that is carved out on a cliff face. It is very steep and very narrow and very high up. I wouldn't want to walk that with two good legs, sheesh! There is no way you would get me to walk that path, I'll take the long way around, thank you very much! Bradley is hobbling around with a stick as a cane and I thought for sure (even though we were only halfway through the movie) Linda was going to push him off or he would fall to his death. But instead, she points out to a couple of large rocks in the distance and tells him to stay clear of that part of the island because it's covered with poison ivy or some kind of vegetation that will cause his skin to flare up. I knew she was lying and didn't want him there because that was the area of the island where she spotted the boat. I just assumed that was a part o
f the island where a boat could get close enough to land. She also points out some berries that they can eat and those that would be poisonous to them. When they're walking back across the cliff face, there's a piece of rock that's jutting out and when Linda steps on it, she falls. Of course I gasp! Bradley is able to grab her and pulls her up. They are high up! Again, I would avoid walking this cliff at all costs!
f the island where a boat could get close enough to land. She also points out some berries that they can eat and those that would be poisonous to them. When they're walking back across the cliff face, there's a piece of rock that's jutting out and when Linda steps on it, she falls. Of course I gasp! Bradley is able to grab her and pulls her up. They are high up! Again, I would avoid walking this cliff at all costs!
One evening, Linda makes "wine" by fermenting some tropical fruits and they get drunk. I'm not really sure how she made it because she just tells him she made "toilet wine" (yuck!) and she had it ready. I think the script just wanted her to have an excuse to be drunk so she could reveal some dark secrets about herself. She tells Bradley she was married once, about ten years ago, but her husband died. He had been an alcoholic who wasn't a very nice person and whenever he got drunk, Linda would hide his keys so he couldn't drive. One time when he was being particularly cruel to her and asked for his keys, she took them out of her purse and laid them on the table. She tells Bradley that she poured her husband his last drink then after he took the keys, she never saw him alive again.
Bradley is itching to get off the island. He has a beautiful fiancée, Zuri, back home, who Linda had met because when she barged into Bradley's office, Zuri came in a few minutes later wearing her humongous diamond engagement ring. He says it's been two weeks and there's been no sign of help so he wants to build a raft and find a ship, but Linda quickly nixes this idea. Again, if I were out there with her and found out she had already seen a boat, I would have throttled her. I don't think Linda is against the idea of making a raft for the same reason I would be: the ocean is a vast place. Trying to find a ship would be nearly impossible and the ocean is no place for a makeshift raft. But I'm guessing Linda just wants them to stay on the island.
Bradley tells her he's made dinner for her. He wanted to do something nice for her since she's been making island life so easy. His intentions become clear when after a few bites, she collapses on the sand. He runs into the jungle and seconds later he reappears, dragging a wooden raft behind him. He shouts, "F*** you, Linda!" and hops onto his rickety raft. I honestly don't know what he's thinking. It's pitch black and the waves are rough. He's okay at first; the first two or three waves are rather gentle, but then the next wave he hits is large and crashes over him. He's relieved because his raft is still intact, but that doesn't last long and the next wave (even bigger than the one before) completely demolishes his raft. He really didn't put any thought in his escape plan. He is soon taken under the water. Linda, who has been poisoned by the berries she told him they couldn't eat, is throwing them up. She pulls Bradley from the water and while attempting to save him, keeps throwing up the berries in his face, so every thirty seconds this yellow goo keeps getting on his face. It was really gross, but also really funny. I mean, he kind of deserved it. She tells him he didn't serve her enough berries to kill her.
There's some tension between them the next morning and the tension will only rise. She offers him some octopus the next morning which he takes. Personally, I thought it looked disgusting You could see the tentacles. I feel confident that even if I were starving, there are some things I wouldn't eat, that included. She tells him she's still feeling queasy from the poisonous berries, so her stomach can't handle anything right now. It doesn't take long before he realizes something is wrong after he takes a bite of the (absolutely disgusting looking) octopus. (And it's not just that it looks disgusting, it looks like it would be chewy! Ugh! I guess what I'm saying is that I don't buy that anyone would voluntarily eat that!) Linda calmly informs him that he's just eaten blue-ringed octopus that has paralyzed him. She tells him it's not deadly and the effects will wear off in a couple of hours. She adds that he won't want to feel "this" and we see her put the knife in the fire to disinfect it. Immediately, I'm having images of Misery and I'm thinking for sure she's going to hack his foot off, though I'm not sure if that little knife can saw through bone, so maybe she's going to cut off a few of his toes so it's difficult to walk, therefore it will be difficult for him to try to escape again. But, no, that's not exactly what she has in mind. She tells him a story about how growing up, she used to have a dog who would keep running away and they solved that problem by having him "fixed." I was like, Oh no, she's not really going to - is she? We see a close up of his face (with tears streaming down) as she takes off his underwear (completely filthy; now I'm sure dirty underwear is the least of your worries if you're stranded on a desert island (and it certainly is the least of Bradley's worries at this very moment!), but eww! It would driver me crazy if I didn't have a clean change of underwear/clothes and had to wear the same thing days on end! :::shudder::: Again, another reason why I wouldn't be able to hack it alone on a deserted island!), then takes the knife. Even though I don't have the same anatomy as Bradley, I was squirming during this scene. We see blood cover his face (ughgughgh!) and Linda jokes that he's "a bleeder". Then she holds up a dead rat and it becomes apparent where the blood came from. She tells him the next time he tries to pull a stunt like the one from last night, "it won't be a rat." Yeah, I think both Bradley and the audience are relieved that she didn't go through with castrating him!
No surprise, Bradley gives her the silent treatment after this!
Okay, I may have bit a little bit spoiler-y in some of the things I already shared, but trust me, I'm about to spoil some major things so if you haven't seen this movie yet and do not want to be spoiled, don't read beyond this!
Spoilers ahoy! You have been warned! Don't say I didn't warn you!
Linda is back in the area where she first saw a boat and lo and behold, she spots another boat! But this time she recognizes one of the people on it. It's Zuri, Bradley's fiancee (it's hard to miss that giant rock on her hand!) and she's with a Thai man who brought her on the boat. Linda doesn't have time to hide. Zuri is thrilled she's found her. She tells Linda the officials gave up the search a while ago, but she never gave up. I feel like the odds are one in a million that you would find someone like that. Unless there was only one island in that area where they could have washed up to, but I highly doubt that's the case.
Immediately I know this is not good for Zuri and the Thai man. Zuri has already spotted Linda. We all know Linda doesn't want to be rescued (at least not yet!) and she can't just tell her two visitors to go on their merry way. When Zuri asks about Bradley, Linda tells her he's doing great and offers to take him to her. Linda has her handmade woven backpack with her (seriously, she could make a killing on Etsy selling those!) that she has put bananas and other fruit in. The man tells her there's plenty of food on the boat and she doesn't need to take that back, but she tells him she still wants to take it back. This probably should have been the first red flag for him and Zuri, but I can understand them for overlooking that. They're probably thinking Linda is just used to gathering and bringing back food; perhaps she's hasn't quite grasped the fact that she's being rescued!
However, when Linda asks them if anyone else knows that they're there, that should have been a huge red flag! Also, whenever somebody asks you this questions, even if it isn't true, always say yes! This goes into my life rules I learned from movies along with never help a stranger haul stuff into a van or never help somebody find their dog. They tell her exactly what she wants to hear: that nobody else knows they are here.
Linda takes them on the perilous trek across the dangerous cliff face. Zuri does not seem like the type of girl who would be okay with this so I find it a little unrealistic she doesn't have qualms about this, but she must have been so relieved that she found her fiancé that she doesn't care she has to cross this scary path to get to him. Right before they get to the unsteady part of the path (you know, the one where Linda fell!), Linda bends down to tie her shoe (or pretend to tie!) and tells the others to go around her. They do and Zuri is the first to step on that piece of the path. Down she goes, but the man is able to grab her. He pleads for Linda to help him because he can't pull Zuri up on his own.
The next scene is back at the camp. We didn't see the outcome, but considering that neither are with her, I think we all know what happened. It's this part of the movie where it's hard to root for Linda anymore; she just killed two innocent people. This is definitely weighing heavily on her conscious because she just sits around, not wanting to do anything. She tells Bradley she's sick and needs a day off from gathering food. That night, she hears a female voice moaning her name and when she walks towards the beach, she sees a tall, gangly figure emerge from the water. It's Zuri, hunched over, walking towards her asking her why she did it. I'm thinking, There's no way she could have survived that fall...and as soon as I think that, we see Linda wake up from her nightmare. But wait...she's still dreaming because we get a jump scare of Zuri as a zombie, THEN Linda finally wakes up. We will see what happened on the cliff later. Linda grabbed a rock and smashed the guy's head with it and he and Zuri fell to their deaths.
The next morning (or maybe it's a few days later...I'm kinda cloudy on how much time has passed), Bradley has seen a boar and decides he's gong to hunt it since it's been awhile since they ate meat. Ha! Good luck with that, I say. Linda had a hard enough time killing one and she is definitely more adapt at island life than he is. Bradley is sneaking up on the boar who is on the beach, sniffing at something and digging around at the sand. The boar hears Bradley and runs off. Bradley sees a hand sticking out of the sand with the glint of a giant diamond ring blinding him. He runs over to it, knowing immediately whose hand it is. He confronts Linda about it and she has to come clean and tell him that Zuri was on the island and that she accidentally slipped on the cliff. It's obvious he doesn't believe her. He asks her why she didn't tell him, which is a good point.
This results in the two of them getting into a pretty nasty fight which you know was eventually going to happen. Linda had always kept the knife close to her, but while she was sleeping, Bradley had taken it. She runs into the woods and he follows her. I don't know how she had time, but she took off her shoes and unlaced them and when he found her shoes by a tree, she pops up behind him and starts to strangle him. He takes a big chunk of her hair and yanks so hard a part of her scalp falls off. Ughhh - ugh, no, just no. They continue to viciously fight until he runs off. He's headed towards the direction she told him not to go and instead of following him, she takes another way. (Presumably over the dangerous cliff which is a short cut.)
Bradley keeps on running until he stumbles upon a huge house! Okay, that was a twist I did not see coming! Now I see why Linda didn't want him in that part of the island - it had nothing to do with seeing a boat! He runs up to the house and bangs on the door and window, but it's obvious no one's home. When he looks around there kitchen, he finds a fridge stocked with water and he notices there are no knives in the drawer. Hmm, I wonder where Linda got that knife!
The movie goes back to the moment Linda saw the boat and this time we watch her watch the boat dock at the house and two men get out and stock the house with essentials (probably all that bottled water). She's close enough to see them punch in the numbers of to the door and now she's able to come and go as she pleases. Apparently some billionaire lives there and didn't notice when she disabled the security. She is talking to Bradley over the intercom.
He walks cautiously around the house, trying to find her. He's in a room when she rounds the corner with a gun in tow. He holds up his hands in surrender and tells Linda his bs lie about how much he loves her and wants to stay on this island with her. She seems to believe him because she's crying and softening her defenses. I felt this was a little unrealistic that she would actually believe him after all that's happened. But then she notices a statue of a bull or something and it's missing its horns and she knows he has them. Bradley somehow gets the gun and when he turns it on her and pulls the trigger, nothing happens. She overpowers him, grabs a golf club and swings it, but before it reaches his head, we are now on a golf course with Linda dressed in a cute golf outfit with a stylish pony tail and visor. We learn that she was the "only survivor" who was rescued and has written a book about the ordeal. She tells the woman interviewing her, "No help is coming, so you'd better start saving yourself."
I like the last shot of the movie which is her driving away in her convertible and she gives the camera - and the audience - a knowing look. I bet she would have been a shoo in to be on Survivor after all that!
Sam Raimi directed this. He's probably best known for directing the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies, but I really loved A Simple Plan. I haven't seen it in a while, but I remember thinking it was quite good. I'll have to review that movie in the future.
