This Survivor Winner's Audition Tape Helped Inspire Sam Raimi's Send Help

20th Century Studios

As a fan of "Survivor" and Sam Raimi's twisted mind, "Send Help" was right up my alley ... so imagine how absolutely pleased I was to find out that this movie did its homework. In fact, the audition tape for "Survivor" that stars downtrodden corporate worker Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) in her quest to join the very real reality competition show is based on a real "Survivor" audition video — a winner's "Survivor" audition video, at that.

I do have to give credit where credit's due, of course. Eagle-eyed "Survivor" fan and former "Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin" writer Neil McNeil is the one who uncovered this absolutely glorious detail about "Send Help." On the social media platform X, McNeil posted a video of Aubry Bracco's original "Survivor" audition — which, presumably, was for the show's real 32nd season "Survivor: Kaôh Rōng" — and wrote, "Realizing that Bracco's audition tape for 'Survivor' was the inspiration for Linda Liddle in 'Send Help' is absolutely sending me."

McNeil is right; the two videos line up almost perfectly, from the opening where Bracco (and Linda) pop through a bunch of plants to announce themselves to the frankly intricate "plot" of Bracco's video describing her everyday commute to her job. Frankly, because Bracco is such a fan-favorite player — and she went on to win what the landmark 50th season of "Survivor," which Raimi couldn't have possibly known at the time — there's almost no way that this is a coincidence, but it's a very, very fun Easter egg for people who love both "Survivor" and "Send Help." So, is there any other overlap between Bracco and Linda? Kind of!

Robert Voets/CBS

Let's turn our attention to Aubry Bracco for a moment, the woman who managed to eke out a win, the title of Sole Survivor, and a $2 million prize (doubled by, uh, MrBeast) on "Survivor 50." Unfortunately for Bracco, a player about whom I have very few strong feelings whatsoever, this wasn't a particularly great outing for "Survivor" as a whole, and the lackluster vibe of the season only felt worse when we made it to the end with a pretty rough final three. At the end of the day, Bracco's competitors for the big prize, Jonathan Young and Joe Hunter, weren't really competitors at all — Hunter played one of the weakest strategic games in recent memory, and people just didn't like Young — so Bracco became the winner of "Survivor 50" largely because she was the least hateable person on the dais.

If you're familiar with "Send Help," you can see there's some overlap between Bracco (a real person) and Rachel McAdams' character, Linda Liddle (a fake person). Bracco comes off as meek and unassuming, and nobody would be immediately intimidated by her in physical challenges. In "Send Help," Linda, who gets passed over for a promotion before going on a business trip with her inept nepo baby boss, Bradley Preston (Dylan O'Brien), only for them to crash on a deserted island, comes off as meek and, honestly, weird. (I don't want to impugn Bracco by suggesting that she, like Linda, eats stinky tuna fish sandwiches in an open office.) Still, Bracco surged ahead at the end of the day and became the Sole Survivor of the show's long-awaited 50th season, even though her on-screen "counterpart" Linda is considerably nastier.

20th Century Studios

The reason that "Send Help" is so incredibly fun from start to finish is that it is, without question, one of the most delightfully nasty movies in recent memory. (Spoilers ahead, by the way!) After Bradley and Linda emerge as the only survivors of the small plane's crash in the ocean, it becomes immediately evident that Linda, a superfan of "Survivor," knows exactly how to survive in the wilderness by making the most of natural resources. (This is, to be clear, movie magic. I am a "Survivor" superfan, as are many of my friends; I would not trust a single one of us to figure out how to survive on a deserted island.) Linda, who's finally in a position of power over Bradley, is clearly delighted to finally have him under her thumb, and after leaving him stranded and dehydrated until he nearly dies, she begrudgingly keeps him alive. (For a while, anyway.)

Again, with the utmost respect for Aubry Bracco, I do not think she would physically threaten a fellow "Survivor" player as Linda does to Bradley. (I also, for that matter, don't think Bracco could make a beautiful sashimi platter like Linda somehow does in "Send Help.") There's an element to Linda that reminds me a lot more of "Survivor" legend Parvati Shallow — who has her own opinions about what "Survivor" has become, all of which are correct — in that she's playfully cruel and conniving when she needs to be. Ultimately, this is a pitch-perfect Easter egg for Sam Raimi and his crew to sneak into "Send Help."

"Send Help" is available to watch on Hulu, and you can stream every season of "Survivor" on Paramount+.