Send Help delivers crucial character background in an unconventional way...humiliation.
Listen at the podcast providers of your choice.
Sam Raimi and Rachel McAdams were a match made in movie heaven this year as the acclaimed director and star combined for a deliciously good time with Send Help. An absurdly fun and equally silly survival horror thriller with McAdams as a former underlying who finds herself in a position of power over her boss after their plane goes down in the Pacific Ocean and they're the only two survivors.
But before the shenanigans on the island occur, the movie drops in one of the best examples of character-specific exposition in a wildly unconventional way...via humiliation.
The Scene
At this point our protagonist Linda Liddle is doing her best to keep a brave face. Which is pretty much all she can do after she was denied a promotion over the new boss' golfing buddy Donovan. But after slightly impressing said boss, Dylan O'Brien's Bradley, by standing up for herself after this injustice, Linda has been tagged to join the boys club on the company plane to close a major business deal in Singapore.
Already feeling awkward, things go from uncomfortable to humiliating, when Donovan, decides to share something with the rest of the group: Linda's audition tape for the tv show Survivor. Well-aware that she's still the target of ridicule, all Linda can do is press forward and continue her work to prove her value to these jerks...
Already feeling awkward, things go from uncomfortable to humiliating, when Donovan, decides to share something with the rest of the group: Linda's audition tape for the tv show Survivor. Well-aware that she's still the target of ridicule, all Linda can do is press forward and continue her work to prove her value to these jerks...
Why I Love It
There's a lot of novel ways to drop in character details or exposition. I'll use Back to the Future to highlight a couple of examples. In Back to the Future almost all of the elements that allow Marty to succeed is getting back home to his life in 1985 are shown in the first 10-15 minutes of the movie.
We see Marty play guitar in Doc's lab and watch his band try out for a school dance. Which introduces a skill that saves the school dance later. We see him skateboard to school. A skill that allows him to elude Biff and also complicates his mother and father's meet cute. And we also see someone handing out flyers to save the clock tower, and that flyer is what gives Doc and Marty the timing and power they need to fuel the time machine. All in an extended intro sequence. And that's before Christopher Lloyd drops most of the film's crucial information in an enthusiastic monologue about flux capacitors and all that.
In Send Help's case, the movie wants to plant the seed that of anyone on this flight, Linda is the best suited to survive. And we've already seen that she's a Survivor fan based on a brief interlude at her apartment.
So Linda having an audition tape, reveals that not only does she watch the show, she's also a survival enthusiast who has studied and put in the work to learn/know skills to survive on a desert/tropical island.
What's uncommon is that instead of being a bright spot, Send Help uses this to amplify Linda's humiliation. So instead of it being a moment of triumph, it's completely undercut by the gaggle of suited dickheads laughing at Linda's expense.
I think this is so smart, because it gives the audience the rationale behind Linda's superb survival skills while also reinforcing the movie's themes and the vile nature of these men around her. Instead of being something fun, silly or humanizing this is just ammunition to these men. Ammunition one of them is going to desperately need very very soon.
Because as soon as she makes it shore, Linda is the one who knows how to make shelter, start a fire, and find food that won't kill her. Skills everyone else thought were silly a few minutes ago are now crucial to her boss Bradley living another day.
Yet another example of the men around Linda are taking her and her skills for granted.
Yet another example of the men around Linda are taking her and her skills for granted.
And as for Donovan, the golf buddy who decided to show said video, knowing full well how it would be taken by this gaggle of chuckle fucks, it serves as an extra justification for his own humiliating end: being slammed up against the side of the plane while being choked by own tie.
So to recap. This little moment:
- Reinforces the toxic atmosphere Linda is a part of, to make future death and dismemberment more satisfying
- Helps us empathize with Linda
- Establishes Linda's competence in a survival scenario
- Sets the stage for turned tables once Bradley pulls up on shore...
No comments:
Post a Comment