Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die Movie Review

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die (2025)

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Written by: Matthew Robinson
Directed by: Gore Verbinski
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Juno Temple, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz, Asim Chaudhry
Rated: R
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Plot
A "Man From the Future" arrives at a diner in Los Angeles where he must recruit the precise combination of disgruntled patrons to join him on a one-night quest to save the world from the terminal threat of a rogue artificial intelligence.

Verdict
It's a wild romp that only gets crazier with every scene. I was never quite sure what was going on or what to believe. That leads to more than a few surprises. The goal is to stop a destructive AI before it's built facing opponents ranging from zombified teenagers to sentient electronics. This is a metaphor more than anything. Each person helping the future man has their own experience with technology and how it's harmed the human experience. The movie is as much about stopping an AI as it is unplugging from technology and media as we see how detrimental it is to a society wholly dependent on it. The way to save society is to disconnect.
Watch It.

Review
Perhaps this is best read as a metaphor about our present and pending future relationship with a technology that enslaves, consumes, and overtakes.

This begins in a diner. We don't see any faces, just close ups of food and many people on their phones, distracted. Then the "man from the future" (Sam Rockwell) walks in. He claims to be a time traveler from a world destroyed by technology. He seems deranged. His story very well could be imagined, though he does have quite the costume. He rants about social media and current culture's reliance on technology. He claims to have a bomb which stops people from attacking him.

 Sam Rockwell plays man from the future

Future man claims he's done this before, having assembled various groups from this very diner over a hundred times. He does know a lot of personal information about the people, and he further claims they can save the world together. Specifically a group of seven people, including Mark, Janet, Susan, and Ingrid can band together to lead a revolution. Then this cuts to a few days earlier. I don't know what's happening, but it's a great hook.

Before the diner, Mark (Michael Peña) and Janet Zazie Beetz) were teachers. The students do whatever they want, and the other teachers seem to be afraid of them. Mark tries to teach students that are zombies, glued to their phones. When Mark glances at a phone and becomes hypnotized, he touches the student's phone which lead the hypnotized mob to pursue Mark and Janet.

We still don't know whether we can trust future man. While he claims to have done this before, each attempt is a different experience with multiple variables with a new team each time. He either doesn't know the answers or is making this up. This time Susan (Juno Temple) leads the group to the cellar, something future man didn't know existed despite doing this over a hundred times.

Asim Chaudhry, Zazie Beetz, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Peña, Juno Temple play 
Scott, Janet, Ingrid, Mark, Susan

Susan's child was killed in a school shooting. We learn, this is so common that parents just clone their children. They're so nonchalant about it, but Susan is disturbed. This seems like a Black Mirror (2011) episode. One couple admits they've lost their child and three subsequent clones. They're so glib, admitting the last clone's features were selected to be comical. It's no wonder future man is trying to save the world. This movie is unhinged.

We get these vignettes of how technology has ruined life. Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson) is allergic to technology. She finds a boyfriend that's also anti-electronics, but he soon becomes so addicted to virtual reality that he wants to upload his consciousness and leave reality behind.

Future man's plan is to stop the boy that's developing the world ending AI. As they approach, that's where this really takes a turn. You can read this, as I do, as a metaphor or posit they somehow have entered a virtual reality. Otherwise how else do you explain a giant hoofed animal composed of cats with a giant cat head? That's not possible, not even in this world. Such a thing just can't exist. Future man states they prompted it by talking about it, but how does that even work? If they are in VR, when did the enter the simulation?

It can't be a coincidence that a movie dealing with virtual reality blurs the line between what's real and not. I don't see how the final confrontation can be real. It must be some kind of construct. Future man and his few remaining team seemingly stop the AI development, but future man soon begins to question the victory. While this is the farthest he got, he may have to try at least one more time.