Worried about the job market or stuck in a toxic workplace? These 2 movies can feel like ‘catharsis’
Are you frustrated with your job or job search? Two recent movies may spark interest.
Park Chan-wook’s “No Other Option” and Sam Raimi’s “Send Help” imagine what can happen when distressed workers are pushed to their limits, with deadly consequences, whether in a stagnant job market or a toxic workplace. They offer a comforting, if violent, view of workers’ anger and despair in the zeitgeist. Part dark comedy and part horror, they touch on perpetual workplace anxieties but are especially timely right now.
Slow hiring means many workers are feeling stuck and many job seekers are having trouble finding work. Last year, U.S. employers added just 181,000 new jobs compared to the previous year 1.46 million in 2024him Worst year for hiring since 2020and the worst, short of a recession, since 2003. As of January, 1 in 4 unemployed Americans, or about 1.8 million Americans, had been looking for work for more than six months, according to BLS data.
Meanwhile, business owners are worried about losing their jobs due to economic uncertainty, artificial intelligence adoption and layoffs. Layoffs announced in January reached the highest monthly total at the beginning of a year since 2009, according to a report by global staffing firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Additionally, the turnover rate of workers who voluntarily leave their jobs remains relatively low at around 2% through 2025, which may reflect their level of confidence in the labor market.
In this vein, movies offer “a way to feel like you control something you can’t,” says co-author Alicia Grandey. “Emotionally Charged: How to Lead in the New Business World” and professor of workplace psychology at Penn State University. Movies make our work concerns feel “distant and more controllable, like you can turn them off.”
This can be a welcome detachment for many who feel powerless in the job market and workplace today. Career and leadership coach Phoebe Gavin previously told CNBC Make It that the fear of losing your job can be “paralyzing” and you can feel “like you have absolutely no control over the situation.” Steven Vallas, professor emeritus of sociology at Northeastern University, previously told Make It that the fact that “work is the most important way to prove your worth” as a person in the U.S. “can actually exacerbate those feelings of shame and anxiety about being unemployed.”
“Taking these emotions that many people have to extremes.”
Alicia Grandey
professor of workplace psychology at Penn State University
The over-the-top plots of “No Choice” and “Send Help” are part of their magic.
“It takes these emotions that a lot of people have to extremes, so you know it’s not real,” Grandey says. “You can still enjoy this shift in power, you can still connect with the character and understand that it’s an over-the-top fantasy, but it’s definitely a catharsis, a release.”
And then he adds: “When you get back into the real world, it doesn’t seem so bad.”
killing the competition
Adapted from Donald Westlake’s 1997 book “The Axe,” “No Choice” follows middle-aged Korean Yoo Man-su (Lee Byung-hun), who is laid off from a private paper manufacturer following a business takeover. When his Job applications for new positions fail, and his family begins to feel the pressure of their comfortable middle-class life. Man-su begins killing his fellow candidates to increase his chances of getting a job.
“I’m sorry, but you have to disappear for me to live,” he tells his first victim.
The film touches on the desperation of job seekers today, the tough competition they face, and the zero-sum calculation that makes job hunting necessary for many candidates.
In June, for example, LinkedIn said it had seen a 45% increase in the number of applications submitted to its platform in the past year, with nearly 10,000 applications being submitted per minute. A ZipRecruiter in the fourth quarter of 2025 questionnaire It saw the lowest Expectations Index, which measures applicants’ thoughts on how the job market will fare over the next six months, since the survey began in 2022, with 39.5% expecting a decline in available positions during that period.
Even those who have jobs on screen, as in reality, feel precarious in their positions. Korn Ferry consultants noted in August that work engagement has been making headlines in recent months; It’s a phenomenon that describes workers “clinging on to their jobs for dear life” amid global uncertainty, fears of AI disruption, and a tough job market, he wrote.
When talented Choi Seon-chul, who works at a rival paper company, says he is choking at work, Man-su tells him to pass out, so the higher-ups hire Man-su to split the work. However, Seon-chul says the bosses won’t hire Man-su to help; they would fire Seon-chul instead.
“No Choice” also touches on concerns about AI-related job disruptions. In Man-su’s final interview in the film, the committee tells him that the employer is using automation and plans to lay off people soon. Man-su could only smile and agree: “Of course. How can you fight against time?”
Spoiler alert: Man-su eventually gets the job where she is the only human among many machines in a sterile factory. He celebrates and pumps his fists before his expression turns into a haunting, resigned acceptance. Right now we see that its reward is a dismal business and is probably heading towards obsolescence in that regard.
Even traditional indicators of career success, such as landing a long-sought job, are disappointing.
Bringing the bacon home
We see this frustration at work in the “Send Help” section. The film brings the film of female anger, where fed-up women finally explode, to the workplace, to dangerous effect.
“[It’s] It’s the fantasy of anyone who’s been mistreated at work.”
Alicia Grandey
professor of workplace psychology at Penn State University
Grandey says this is “a fantasy of anyone who’s been mistreated at work.”
The executive report power dynamic and gender roles are clearly reversed in the office, where Bradley, as CEO, wields power over Linda, who has hit the glass ceiling at a company men’s club. On the island, Liddle, a hopeful “Survivor” contestant, houses and feeds them, literally hunting wild boar to bring home the bacon, while a sullen Bradley tries to write “HELP” in the sand but only manages “HEPL.”
As Linda reminds him, “We’re not in the office anymore, Bradley.”
In both films, the protagonists feel so disillusioned with the current systems of finding, keeping, and succeeding in the workplace that they believe their only hope lies outside of those systems. Of course, Man-su follows an extrajudicial path in his murders. At one point, Linda hides from the rescue team, afraid of returning to a society where the Bradleys of the world oppress the Lindas.
He closes “Send Help” with a brave, if discouraging, piece of advice: “Help isn’t coming, so you better start saving yourself.”
Back to real life
In the real world, workers and job seekers do not see the results as dramatic or decisive as Man-su and Linda appear on the big screen. But some persist in roles they’re unhappy with or feel like they’re sending job applications into a black hole.
Grandey says the market and the world are experiencing “major seismic shifts that are making everyone feel job insecure.”
The relatability of the heroes’ struggles “makes us feel more in control and empowered because we can feel like them in that two-hour period,” Grandey adds. “And then we have to go back to our lives, but we carry some of that strength with us.”
If you are experiencing a mental health crisis or experiencing mental health symptoms, you can contact the free, confidential National Mental Health Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
