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This movie was released in 2026, and for a change, I actually saw it the same year (albeit several months after it came out). It was directed by Sam Raimi, with music by Danny Elfman. It was a little bit hard to peg the movie's genre. It starts out as a sort of cringe dramedy, before becoming more of a psychological horror/survival movie, with a darkly comedic edge. Because I don't have a section for survival movies, I vaguely considered filing it under "disaster movies", since it does involve a plane crash. But ultimately I think "thriller" is the most apt category.

It's always kind of hard to believe beautiful Hollywood actresses as characters who are meant to be kind of frumpy, and socially awkward. But Rachel McAdams does a serviceable job of that as Linda Liddle, a corporate strategist whose coworkers seem to have no interest in socializing with her, despite her best efforts. Also, one of her coworkers claims Linda's work as his own. Despite all this, the late CEO of the company had promised Linda a promotion before he died, because at least some people at the company recognized the value of her work (including an executive played by Dennis Haysbert). However, when the former CEO's son, Bradley Preston, becomes the new CEO, he gives the promotion to a former frat brother of his named Donovan. (I honestly couldn't tell you whether Donovan was the same schmuck who stole Linda's work earlier, or if he was a different guy.) But Linda is invited along on a business trip to Bangkok. During the flight, the executives watch a video Linda had apparently sent to the show "Survivor", on which she hoped to become a contestant, and they all laugh at it, which discourages Linda. Then, their private jet has some trouble, and ends up being torn apart, crashing into the ocean.

Linda washes up on shore, and soon finds Bradley has also survived (though he is injured, and requires time to recover). Because of the skills Linda had cultivated in the hopes of being on "Survivor", she is now in her element. (And not so frumpy, anymore.) Bradley depends on her for survival, but desperately wants to leave the island. Linda eventually realizes they have an opportunity to be rescued, but she hides that fact from Bradley, as she wants to stay on the island, at least for now. (She thought she just needed a little more time, but I'm not sure what she hoped to gain. Maybe she thought Bradley would change his mind and give her a promotion after all, as a reward for keeping him alive during their ordeal. It also seemed vaguely as if she might want him to fall in love with her, but I don't know why she'd even want to be with a jerk like him, and I'm not sure she did want that.) Anyway, the two of them have a tense relationship, with ups and downs. Oh yes, they had some major downs.

Well, I'm not sure what else to say, without spoiling any further developments. I have this vague feeling that before the movie came out, I saw a trailer that made it look really interesting to me, like there was supposed to be some kind of big plot twist. I don't remember if I had any idea what that twist might have been (maybe I thought it was something sort of sci-fi or supernatural, I dunno), but I must say that I ended up being mildly disappointed that the twist wasn't quite as wild as I'd expected it to be. Which is not to say it wasn't a good twist. It really was, because it eventually becomes really hard, if not impossible, to know who to root for. (After watching the movie and before starting my review, I read on Wikipedia that many viewers found this to be the case, but I was already planning on mentioning it, anyway. I'm just glad to learn I'm not alone in this.) In any event, it was a good movie. It got pretty dark, and suspenseful, but it never completely lost its comic edge. And it was definitely an interesting character study. And the final scene is pure comedy, despite having a basis in dark actions, and a lie. And, yeah, I guess I don't know what else I can say.


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