Movie Review – ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’ is a gloriously unhinged sci-fi ride

You might be surprised to know that the original apocalypse film premiered over 100 years ago. Verdens Undergang, a foreign silent film, followed the fallout from a passing comet. Since that time, film and TV have continuously returned to a premise that both fascinates and terrifies audiences worldwide. Already this year we’ve had three films — 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, We Bury the Dead, and Greenland 2: Migration. Now comes the funniest yet with Gore Verbinski’s appropriately named Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.

Sam Rockwell stars as The Man from the Future, who returns to the present for the 117th time to try and save the planet. Tasked with assembling the right group of people, The Man will stop at nothing to find the exact combination of heroes that can prevent an AI apocalypse. Each time, he returns to the same diner, telling the same story — that “humanity can be saved and this is where the revolution begins” — only to be met with blank stares as the patrons assume he’s nothing more than a deranged homeless man. Like life itself, many don’t look up from their phones, because nothing is more important than the useless information being fed to us through these tiny machines. As Verbinski puts it, “In this movie, our future is so fucked up, it didn’t send us Arnold Schwarzenegger—it sent us Sam Rockwell! It’s like someone said, ‘Sorry, all the heroes are dead; this is who we got.’”

After gathering his unwilling flock, the film flashes back to the stories of each unsung hero before they were coerced into saving the world. That includes Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson), a seemingly lost soul who no longer cares much for living; Susan (Juno Temple), the mother of a recently murdered child; Janet (Zazie Beetz) and Mark (Michael Peña), high school teachers simply trying to survive their students; and Scott (Asim Chaudhry), an Uber driver. Detailing each of their backstories would ruin some of the film’s fun. Together, however, they must stop a nine-year-old kid from building an advanced AI. Along the way, they’re met with hordes of teenagers trying to kill them, men in pig masks trying to kill them, and, well, a whole lot of people trying to kill them. Bonkers? Totally. A ton of fun? For sure.

Verbinski returns to directing a decade after the release of A Cure for Wellness. No stranger to blending action and comedy having directed half of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, the director leans harder into comedy than ever before, with hilarious results. Many people die along the way, but each death is funnier than the last. Each scene grows more absurd while still feeling oddly grounded. Written in 2017 and updated to reflect advances in AI, Matthew Robinson’s script wastes no time skewering modern obsessions with cell phones, social media, and general indifference toward emerging technology. As one character says, “No one sees anything. Everyone is invested in their phones.” And how true is that? Walk ten feet in a restaurant and you’re guaranteed to spot a dozen people staring at their screens. Pull up to a stoplight and, despite cell phone bans in most states, someone’s still scrolling away. Robinson also pokes at more controversial topics, including America’s emotional numbness around school shootings and the ethics of cloning. Verbinski adds, “Often, humor can be the harshest form of criticism. The audience allows us in when they laugh. It’s like putting a drop of medicine in the cake.” I’m not entirely sure what that last line means, but either way, you know you’re in for a wild ride.

Rockwell continues to be one of the most underappreciated actors in Hollywood. Whether it’s his small but unforgettable role in the latest season of The White Lotus or his rage-filled performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the thespian never disappoints. He’s an actor you simply can’t look away from, and here he’s on screen for nearly the entire runtime, save for moments spent exploring the other characters’ backstories. Verbinski has dubbed him an “American treasure” and asked Rockwell to play The Man from the Future as a cross between Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future and Robin Williams in The Fisher King. Once you see the film, it’s hard to argue with how spot-on that comparison is.

Still, it’s not just Rockwell who makes this film work — it’s the entire cast. While none are traditional household names, they’re faces that either leave you asking, “Where have I seen that actor before?” or spark a mid-movie lightbulb moment of recognition. Richardson — most recently seen in Peacock’s Ponies — continues to build an impressive résumé with turns in The White Lotus, Split, and The Edge of Seventeen. Here, she plays the mysterious Ingrid, and it feels like she’s right on the cusp of a role that pushes her to the next level. Ted Lasso’s Juno Temple is nearly unrecognizable as a grieving mother clinging to the memory of her son. Michael Peña, best known for the Ant-Man films, has appeared in so many movies and TV series that listing them all would make your head spin. These three, along with Beetz and Chaudhry, provide the perfect counterbalance to Rockwell’s wonderfully unhinged performance.

Every studio initially passed on this film, which is a shame, because movies like this don’t come along often. Verbinski explains, “It’s hard out there for original material these days. The studios want sequels, the streamers are enslaved to their algorithms, and IP franchise filmmaking has started to lose its luster. Meanwhile, audiences say they want something new, but don’t always show up when someone takes a swing.” Verbinski absolutely swings for the fences here. While the script bogs down toward the end with a bit too much exposition — and maybe even gets a little too silly — the laughs more than make up for Robinson and Verbinski’s attempts to tie everything together. If you’re a fan of films like Shaun of the Dead, or if you simply need a good laugh to escape this maddening country we live in, check out Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.