Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a Timely Warning

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die
Director: Gore Verbinski
Constantin Film, Blind Wink Productions
In Theaters: 02.13.2026

Movies that can make us take a step back and question reality for even a moment have always held a special appeal to me. And between the prevalence of generative AI and the current state of things in America, reality has never felt more questionable. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is an ambitious, dystopian comedy thriller that is out to make you laugh, while messing with your head. 

In the near future, a disheveled stranger bursts into a late-night Los Angeles diner, looking for volunteers to join him on a mission. This “Man From The Future” (Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri) announces that a rogue artificial intelligence will soon bring about global catastrophe, unless he can assemble the right team to stop it in a single chaotic night. At first, the confused diner customers aren’t sure whether he’s a genuine time-traveler — or a crazed lunatic. A small group joins his quest, including Mark (Michael Peña, Crash, Ant-Man) and Janet (Zazie Beetz, Deadpool 2, Joker), a couple who are both high school teachers; Susan (Juno Temple, Maleficent, Ted Lasso), a single mother who had recently lost her son; and Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson, Montana Story, The White Lotus), a princess party entertainer who is somehow allergic to cell phones and Wi-Fi. Together, they face bizarre obstacles and peril and must work together and decide if this man they are following is crazy or if they really are working to save the future of humanity.

Verbinski (The Ring, Pirates of the Caribbean) is clearly banking on this film to get him out of the director jail he’s occupied since spending roughly the same as a third of the national budget on The Lone Ranger, then following it with A Cure for Wellness, which many of us never saw in theaters because we were sick that day. The good news is that Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is Verbinski’s best live-action film since The Curse of the Black Pearl way back in 2003, thanks to a witty and inventive script by Matthew Robinson (Love and Monsters), a stellar cast, great cinematography, an outstanding score by Geoff Zanelli (Christopher Robin) and the director’s own considerable skill. The basics of the premise — namely, time travel and a future threatened by controlling AI overlords who keep humans complacent travelers — is hardly new, but the approach is fresh and clever. Where the machines of the Terminator and even The Matrix films seemed at the time like a distant concept we’d never see realized in our lifetime, Robinson and Verbinski’s AI threat is disarmingly relatable and based very much in what we’re seeing around us on a daily basis. The movie delves in very dark and risky satire that mostly lands, even with a shockingly comedic indictment of a society that just accepts shootings as another part of everyday life.

Rockwell is perfectly cast as the Man From The Future, mixing cynicism and snark with a weary resolve that makes for a very compelling character, effortlessly spewing speeches that are equal parts plot exposition, scientific theory and standup comedy. Temple is superb as Susan, pulling off a near flawless American accent and balancing many of the darkest story elements and wildest comedy. As good as these two are, for me, this movie belongs to Richardson, who has the ability to dazzle in even the thinnest of material, and her vivid and nuanced portrayal of Ingrid deserves to be remembered at Oscar time. Richardson always brings her characters beautifully to life, adding layer upon layer of reality and emotional complexity. Ingrid, an unusual girl who has always been seen as the weird outsider but may well be the last truly normal person left in the world, is genuinely riveting. Whether or not the film itself finds a wide audience, her character and the performance are all but guaranteed a certain level of pop culture immortality; she’s that good.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die struggles to step out of the shadow of earlier films in the genre, though like its villain, the movie is self-aware and tries to play off of this. What it lacks in total originality, it makes up for it in enthusiasm, and I’ve already seen it three times. It’s to be at least a cult favorite, and Verbinski clearly still has the ability to tell a splendid story and build vivid worlds. Here’s hoping that he gets more chances but sticks to the kind of budgets that force him to focus on creativity over spectacle and performances rooted in truth rather than indulging a superstar’s ego. —Patrick Gibbs

Read more film reviews by Patrick Gibbs:
Luc Besson’s Dracula Lacks Bite
The Incomer Proves to be a Welcome Visitor