Title: Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die
Describe This Movie In One Terminator Quote:
KYLE REESE: Come with me if you want to live.
Brief Plot Synopsis: Just another night in L.A.
Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: 4 Sids from Toy Story out of 5.
Tagline: N/A
Better Tagline: “The future’s so bright, I gotta wear a hazmat suit.”
Not So Brief Plot Synopsis: It’s dinner time at Norm’s Diner when a man (Sam Rockwell) bursts in, claiming to be from the future. He says humanity is doomed unless seven diners join his revolt against the looming A.I. menace. Will that number include troubled teacher couple Mark (Michael Peรฑa) and Janet (Zazie Beetz)? Timid wallflower Susan (Juno Temple)? Goth-adjacent loner Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson)? After 117 trips back in time, the Man is willing to try anything. One thing’s for sure, Scott (Asim Chaudhry) is *definitely* going to make it.
“Critical” Analysis: “Social media has robbed you of your dignity and turned you all into children.”
A Man From the Future pitches his revolution with an eerily accurate assessment of 21st century digital life. That, combined with his insider knowledge about the patrons’ favorite movies and bad knees, only boosts his cred. If I was enjoying dinner and a dude burst into the restaurant and started his tirade like that, I might give serious thought to joining his quest.
It doesn’t hurt that Rockwell does unhinged exceedingly well. It’s an effect only magnified by his homeless-by-way-of-Fry’s Electronics appearance. The Man’s assertion that the impending doom is our fault is also hard to argue with. I mean, have you been online lately?
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is Gore Verbinski’s return to the director’s chair after a nine year absence. Known primarily for the American remake of The Ring and the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Verbinski’s latest skews more towards the latter in tone. Funny, yes, thanks largely to Rockwell’s apocalypse version of Phil Connors. Peรฑa and Beetz also stand out as paranoid(?) schoolteachers, and the whole thing is shot through with absurdist satire. So much so that I wouldn’t be surprised to learn Verbinski spent a lot of his off-time watching Boots Riley movies.
It’s also almost unrelentingly bleak. High schoolers zombified by their phones, while a bit on the nose, is bad enough. And that’s before we get to the top secret program that clones children killed in school shootings. Or a VR game that promises an existence more rewarding than our current reality.
Not exactly a difficult proposition, I admit.
In fact, GLHFDD plays out like an anthology of Black Mirror episodes (especially with horrific lines like “They’re just gonna shoot each other anyway”). The Rockwell through-story serves as a link to the principal characters’ various technological horrors. And in fairness, the technology they experience is pretty terrifying.
But none of this works if the characters can’t sell it. Fortunately, Rockwell is just one part of a stacked ensemble. We’ve already talked about Peรฑa and Beetz, but Juno Temple continues to impress. Best known for Ted Lasso, she shines here as the (temporarily) grieving mom. Likewise Haley Lu Richardson, who crosses the most plot terrain as a young woman both allergic to technology and inextricably linked to Rockwell’s character.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a solid return for Verkinski. Props as well to Matthew Robinson for scripting this madness. To be honest, I didn’t think the writer behind Monster Trucks and the live-action Dora movie had it in him. And despite the clear Terminator and Groundhog Day references, it owes much of its DNA to the dystopian works of William Gibson and Neal Stephenson. But there’s one significant exception. When the end comes, it (probably) won’t be the work of some cyclopean cyberpunk monstrosity. It’ll be brought about by otherwise boring rich white guys, chasing the latest NFT/blockchain/crypto bullshit.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is in theaters today.
This article appears in Private: Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2026.