“Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” – Movie Review
Directed by: Gore Verbinski
Written by: Matthew Robinson
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Haley Lu Richardson, Juno Temple, Michael Pena, Zazie Beetz, and Asim Chaudhry
Runtime: 134 minutes
‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’ is a wild, hilarious, and frightening midnight-madness flick
“You’re in for a really weird night.” – The Man from the Future (Sam Rockwell)
And how!
This on-screen night is wonderfully weird, wild, crazy, hilarious, frightening, endearing, and fabulous. Why is it frightening? “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” feels like the near future for our own society, as we careen down a designed, destined, and (potentially) dreaded path laid out by technology in 2026.
Director Gore Verbinski’s (“The Ring” (2002), “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” (2003), “A Cure for Wellness” (2016)) gloriously twisted movie – based on Matthew Robinson’s screenplay – places humanity in a 15-round heavyweight bout against technology, and the gloves are off.
The person to lead this fight is unnamed, so he goes by The Man from the Future (and let’s also call him “Future Man” in this review). He claims to be from another time, but who knows?
Future Man could be John Q. Crackpot from 2026 A.D, as he sports a clear, plastic raincoat that covers a vest full of wires, knobs, valves, and switches, an elaborate substitute for a tinfoil hat, perhaps. He bellows platitudes about a dark, disturbing future after walking into Norms, a Los Angeles diner, as shocked patrons – previously going about their business – are suddenly forced to listen to him spout “nonsense.”
He attempts to recruit a team from the said eatery and exclaims, “Who’s ready to save the future?”
Future Man eventually drafts his crew that consists of ordinary bystanders: a couple named Mark (Michael Pena) and Janet (Zazie Beetz), Susan (Juno Temple), Scott (Asim Chaudhry), Bob (Daniel Barnett), Marie (Georgia Goodman), and Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson), and they embark on this noble but out-of-bounds quest.
Rockwell’s recognizable, charismatic, and manic charm gusts and gushes like a hectic hurricane, as his new posse dubiously follows him. Whether they believe he’s from a yet-to-come time or not, they hang on his every word as they try to keep pace with him conversationally and physically, and so do we!
Sam is perfectly cast for this character, and in a 2025 YouTube interview with Collider Interviews, Verbinski said, “I sent (Sam) the script, and he immediately was like, ‘That’s me! The Man from the Future. I love this character.’”
One way that Verbinski and Rockwell hook the audience is that Future Man repeatedly refrains from announcing each next step (and potential landmine) on this treacherous trek on foot in the City of Angeles, even when his new squad – who seem shellshocked and uncomfortable, like unprepared teenagers just picked, and about to be pummeled, for a Darwinian battle of dodgeball – find the courage to ask.
(For the record, “Good Luck” was filmed in South Africa, not Southern California, and, admittedly, the locale doesn’t quite look like Los Angeles. It’s close but not exact, but that’s perfectly okay, because the slight unfamiliarity gives the entire setting a dystopian look and feel.)
Sometimes, Future Man is too preoccupied with his focused mission to stop his momentum and explain the dangers that await his new troop, or he’s unwilling to share the impending peril for their own good.
He says at one point, “I really don’t like to say it out loud. It’s kind of a morale killer.”
Tell us, Future Man! Please!
This eccentric leader eventually reveals each menacing turn right before they individually blast on the big screen, and the cinematic bends involve slapstick violence, insane visuals, and complicated choreography that beautifully fall into a midnight-madness space where laughter, disbelief, and mayhem playfully and philosophically blend into simultaneous feels.
To help cut away from the here-and-now conflict that threatens humanity’s future, the narrative thoughtfully jumps into Mark and Janet’s, Susan’s, and Ingrid’s compelling backstories during the first and second acts.
Each flashback offers clarity into their individual perspectives, dramatically increasing our investment in these characters. These cinematic devices also serve a dual purpose as insightful, valuable 15-minute (or so) jewels that explore different slants on technological nightmares, ones that involve cell phones, the aftermath of gun violence, groupthink, abandonment, and a new meaning for the word “sabbatical.”
One tale delves into slapstick, as our protagonists run for their lives. The other two remembrances carry desperation and heartbreak, one is laced with sarcastic humor, while the other is soaked with pain and irony.
Temple and Richardson deliver a pair of moments where audience empathy will flood theatres everywhere. Visually, we also learn the reasons for Ingrid donning a princess costume and appearing defeated in the opening diner scene. Still, she finds herself joining the team through an accidental fall and spin of a well-known condiment bottle that eventually stops and points in her direction.
Verbinski’s film and Robinson’s script have a singular, unique vision, but if one needs more explanation or direction before walking into “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die”, the film’s comical and dystopian tones could be compared to “This Is the End” (2013) and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (2022).
“Good Luck”, however, is its own thing and is more impactful than the aforementioned flicks, especially with its distressing vision of our potential destiny, a warning sign that should ring alarm bells in every man, woman, and teenager who relies on technology.
After experiencing “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die”, you might want to heave your phone, laptop, or smart TV into the nearest lake. Then again, how could you find your way to that new pub that opened across town, show your ticket at a concert venue, or call your brother, sister, or BFF? (For the record, do you know anyone’s actual phone number? Future Man “calls” that out in the diner, by the way.)
Here’s an almost certain guarantee: you will use your phone less after watching “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die”, a wonderfully weird, wild, crazy, hilarious, frightening, endearing, and fabulous midnight-madness flick.
Jeff’s ranking
3.5/4 stars
A member of the Phoenix Critics Circle, Jeff Mitchell has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic. Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.
