Gore Verbinski, the director who successfully navigated the supernatural high seas with Pirates of the Caribbean and chilled audiences with The Ring, has returned to the director’s chair with a high-stakes temporal heist.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a genre-bending sci-fi odyssey that feels remarkably urgent in 2026, landing as a poignant, if terrifying, critique of our growing reliance on gilded digital cages.
The narrative follows a mysterious time traveller, portrayed by Sam Rockwell, who arrives at a mundane diner with a singular, desperate mission. He must recruit a specific group of patrons to join him on a quest into the future to thwart a looming apocalypse triggered by an uncontrollable Artificial Intelligence.
Rockwell leads the ensemble with his signature madcap charisma, sporting a costume that includes a notably eccentric hat, effectively grounding the film’s high-concept stakes with a volatile, human energy.
A Human Ensemble vs. The Machine
While the threat is technological, the heart of the film is strictly biological. The cast is a powerhouse of talent, including Haley Lu Richardson, Zazie Beetz, Michael Peña, Juno Temple, and Aslam Chaudry. Verbinski uses the diner setting as a staging ground, scooping these disparate characters into a journey where survival is far from guaranteed.
The film excels by making these characters intensely relatable and deeply flawed – the antithesis of the cold, calculating AI they are destined to face. Through a series of clever flashbacks, we learn the recent histories of the recruits. For instance, Zazie Beetz and Michael Peña play teachers struggling with a generation of students who have effectively become “social media zombies,” while Juno Temple portrays a woman with a physical allergy to smartphones and Wi-Fi. These threads weave together a narrative that suggests our current path toward digital escapism is a “gilded cage” of our own making.
Visual Storytelling and Subversive Horror
The cinematography by James Whitaker is a standout feature, utilising visual foreshadowing that rewards the attentive viewer without spoiling the momentum. There is a sense of inevitability to the plot; the twists are rarely shocking in their direction, yet they feel earned. This predictability actually enhances the horror elements, mirroring the creeping, inevitable integration of AI into our modern lives.
Verbinski’s roots in horror are evident here. The “chaos” that ensues is framed with a realism that makes the absurd premise feel terrifyingly plausible. By focusing on the characters’ human lifelines, the film ensures the audience is emotionally invested before the inevitable casualties begin to mount.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a lie. People are going to die.
Verdict
Despite only being February, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die sets a high bar for the year’s cinematic offerings. It is a visually stunning, intellectually provocative piece of science fiction that manages to be anti-technology without being anti-youth. It is a firm reminder that while AI may be efficient, it lacks the messy, beautiful humanity that defines our species. It might also “win”. This is a film that demands to be seen on the largest screen possible before the awards season inevitably comes calling.
Quick Links
- Tickets: Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.
