Is it already too late to save humanity from its certain doom in the Information Age? That’s what “the man from the future” (Sam Rockwell) is here to try and do. In a Los Angeles diner, he arrives in tattered, dingy garb, claiming to be from the future where artificial intelligence has crippled the populace, rendering us useless and mindless husks oblivious to everything but what’s on a screen or through a headset. He sounds crazy, but he also has a bomb. He’s here to recruit a handful of patrons who will aid him in his mission, which happens to be preventing a young computer whiz from maturing AI past a point of no return. The man from the future has the protocols in place to allow AI to be a tool and not an enemy.

116 times, the man from the future claims he’s been to this same diner only for the mission to have failed. He’s yet to get the right combination of folks to spearhead success. Through a mix of self-selection and selection by Future Man, the group joining attempt 117 includes the teaching couple Mark (Michael Peña) and Janet (Zazie Beetz), Uber driver Scott (Asim Chaudhry), grieving mother Susan (Juno Temple), and enigmatic Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson). Distrustful of Future Man but also connecting with what he’s saying on a base level at least, the group will find this night to be full of chaos. There’s living in a matrix, and then there’s rebelling against it.

The meme “It’s so over/we are so back” has become one of the definitive ones of the 2020’s, applicable across industries and use cases. In the case of Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, the subject being back is director Gore Verbinski, with the movie marking his first released feature in nine years after the tepid A Cure for Wellness. Is he Gore “Wearesobackski?” Possibly. It’s hard to talk about “GLHFDD.” Sometimes it feels chaotic for chaos’ sake, but it’s rarely inert, which makes it worth the viewing investment.

It’s not often a film begins with a lengthy monologue, but in Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, the decision to do so is a risky yet successful one. With the help of Rockwell delivering his words, screenwriter Matthew Robinson wastes no time in setting up the stakes, the conflict, and what’s to come, all delivered with a humorous, edgy, and stirring fashion, as well as an ever-so-slight winking to the audience. It makes sense that narratively the feature isn’t straightforward, but with a loose chapter-esque structure that reveals more about most of the characters who join the man from the future (more on that later). Clocking in at a tick under two hours and fifteen minutes, the pacing gets bumpy here and there, and a late monologue has the opposite effect of the one that opens the film. It does stick the landing enough, though the ending invites a few questions of what truly are the aftereffects of this supposed reality—or any reality, if everything can be reset. Homages to works like Repo Man, The Terminator,The Matrix, Groundhog Day, and Edge of Tomorrow are evident.

There’s absolutely a levity in the movie, yet so too is an undertone of a sobering, scary, and cynicism-laced reality where AI is indomitable. The sentiment can be seen in Verbinski’s direction, as certain scenes carry a cold and almost sterile aesthetic. But that’s not to say everything is so muted; the man behind the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies and The Lone Ranger still knows how to create scale, even on a significantly smaller sum of budget money.

While the script for Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is undeniably of the moment and relevant today, it’s not without its shortcomings. Thankfully, the movie leans into an able cast who can cover for script whiffs. The eccentric Rockwell is a perfect choice as the lead, as he balances irreverent with introspect. However, the heart of the movie belongs to Richardson (underrated as an actress) and Temple, whose characters each have emotional reasons for being compelled to take part in this journey. Beetz and Peña are solid enough and their segment is deliriously bonkers. The only person who feels like an afterthought is Chaudhry, as he’s the one character who doesn’t receive a flashback and is solely there for ineffective comedic relief.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die may very well end the year as one of 2026’s more outlandish and wackiest feature presentations. Living in the age of AI, movies that focus on it are no longer prescient, but maybe, just maybe, it’s not too late to course correct before we truly have a deadly fight on our hands.

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Photo credits are courtesy of Briarcliff Entertainment.