{"id":2277754,"date":"2026-02-11T19:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T19:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2277754"},"modified":"2026-02-11T19:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T19:18:10","slug":"in-good-luck-have-fun-dont-die-a-man-from-the-future-fights-an-ai-apocalypse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/in-good-luck-have-fun-dont-die-a-man-from-the-future-fights-an-ai-apocalypse\/","title":{"rendered":"In \u2018Good Luck, Have Fun, Don\u2019t Die,\u2019 a man from the future fights an AI apocalypse"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By JAKE COYLE<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Gore Verbinski\u2019s absurdist AI sci-fi satire \u201cGood Luck, Have Fun, Don\u2019t Die,\u201d<\/a> a strange unnamed man (Sam Rockwell) steps into a Los Angeles diner and declares that he\u2019s from the future. \u201cAll of this is going to go horribly wrong,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Norm\u2019s diner on La Cienega might not seem like the most likely battleground to decide the fate of the world, but that\u2019s exactly what this fellow \u2014 bearded, with a wreath of wires around his head and a bomb strapped under a translucent rain coat \u2014 contends.<\/p>\n

This image released by Briarcliff Entertainment shows Sam Rockwell, center, in a scene from \u201cGood Luck, Have Fun, Don\u2019t Die.\u201d (Briarcliff Entertainment via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He is there, while customers sip coffee and bite into an omelet, to enlist recruits for the resistance. In the future, he says, people have entirely stopped participating in life. \u201cIt all started with morning phone time,\u201d he says. In the enjoyably oddball, forebodingly bleak and ridiculously plausible \u201cGood Luck, Have Fun, Don\u2019t Die,\u201d a ragtag group fights a coming AI apocalypse across a handful of nondescript West Hollywood blocks.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been argued that with the onset of AI, storytellers need to get weirder, more imaginative, more human. The Daniels\u2019 \u201cEverything Everywhere All at Once,\u201d<\/a> which likewise married cosmic and mundane, was animated partly in this spirit. \u201cGood Luck, Have Fun, Don\u2019t Die,\u201d scripted by Matthew Robinson, isn\u2019t that creative, and it grows more wayward the deeper it goes into its too-lengthy runtime. But there\u2019s a bonkers charm to how Verbinski tackles contemporary anxieties head on.<\/p>\n

This is the first film in a decade from Verbinski, the director of \u201cPirates of the Caribbean,\u201d \u201cMouse Hunt\u201d and one of the better animated features of the century, \u201cRango.\u201d But after a few flops (\u201cThe Lone Ranger,\u201d \u201cA Cure for Wellness\u201d<\/a> ), Verbinski cobbled together a more modest budget for this independent production.<\/p>\n

This image released by Briarcliff Entertainment shows Sam Rockwell in a scene from \u201cGood Luck, Have Fun, Don\u2019t Die.\u201d (Briarcliff Entertainment via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The lack of scale is noticeable in the climatic moments of \u201cGood Luck,\u201d but Verbinski\u2019s penchant for lush detail and movie-reference onslaught remains. Our central figure is a hobo prophet who looks straight out of Terry Gilliam\u2019s \u201cThe Fisher King,\u201d only more tech-enabled. He has a countdown on his watch, and the imminent attack on the diner means time is extremely short.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s done this before, he says, 117 times, to be precise. His speech is well-rehearsed, but Rockwell\u2019s future man more resembles an actor who\u2019s been doing the same play for too long. His \u201cGroundhog Day\u201d-like time loop has drained him of optimism. He\u2019s left to desperately and cavalierly keep trying various combinations of recruits in the hope they survive, escape and do something that will prevent the AI apocalypse. It\u2019s a remarkably well-suited role for Rockwell, whose stumbling charm lifts \u201cGood Luck\u201d nearly as much as Johnny Depp did in \u201cPirates of the Caribbean.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGood Luck\u201d never quite matches the electricity of its diner-scene opening, but as a group forms, the movie ropes in other characters whose backstories make for fablelike flashbacks. They play like mini \u201cBlack Mirror\u201d episodes.<\/p>\n

This image released by Briarcliff Entertainment shows Juno Temple in a scene from \u201cGood Luck, Have Fun, Don\u2019t Die.\u201d (Briarcliff Entertainment via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One volunteer, a single mom named Susan (Juno Temple), is still mourning the death of her son from a school shooting, which in this reality has grown into such a common occurrence that scientists have developed clones to replace deceased children. The clones aren\u2019t quite right, though. They all say \u201cThank you for your service\u201d and the cheaper ones come with ads. (This is the movie\u2019s darkest and best joke.)<\/p>\n

Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson) is allergic to phones and Wi-Fi. Her story includes a boyfriend who matches her in a technology-free life until a virtual reality headset leads him to drop out of real life, entirely. Also in the mix are a pair of high school teachers (Michael Pe\u00f1a) and Janet (Zazie Beetz) whose students never look up from their phones.<\/p>\n