‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’: A Wonderfully Manic Sam Rockwell Is Out to Stop AI in Gore Verbinski’s Deliriously Rowdy Tech Takedown

Alci Rengifo

The machines have taken over. Even before the rise of AI, we were already locked into our phones and other digital gadgets. Director Gore Verbinski tries to resist with “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,” a deliriously fun sci-fi adventure that doubles as this year’s first great bit of vicious social commentary. This is Verbinski’s return from the belly of the beast, having attained fame and fortune with massive franchise projects like “Pirates of the Caribbean.” After a nine-year break, he returns without having lost his stylish eye and energy, but now taking aim at a world being consumed by digital fantasy. This is such a refreshingly irreverent movie that cheerfully feeds off our paranoia and justified anxieties. 

A mystery man (Sam Rockwell) dressed in a clear plastic raincoat, mismatched shoes, and wearing some kind of wired vest to a trigger in his hand, steps into a diner. The man claims he is from the future and has come to the past to save us from an impending technological apocalypse. Already the diner’s denizens are hypnotized by the phones. The man asks for volunteers to join his “revolution.” Eventually, he collects a small band of followers, some hesitant, for his mission. They include Susan (Juno Temple), Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson), Mark and Janet (Michael Peña and Zazie Beetz), Bob (Daniel Barnett), Scott (Asim Chaudhry) and Samantha (Dominique Maher). They all come from different backgrounds, some having already encountered dangerous new technologies. The man from the future then reveals his mission: With their help he must find a boy developing the first sentient artificial intelligence.

The screenplay by Matthew Robinson is a great collection of various strands of satire and science fiction, used by Verbinski as a launch pad to play. This was always a wonderful visual director responsible for some great entertainments like “Rango.” Eventually expensive box office duds like “The Lone Ranger” and “A Cure for Wellness” would mark an end for Verbinski atop the Hollywood tower. His comeback is an example of how a good filmmaker can do even better work without the indulgences of a blank check. At 134 minutes, “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” never feels slow and breathes with plenty of creative freedom. The story structure doesn’t even stick to just one cohesive flow. In reality this is an anthology. After Rockwell’s time traveler escapes the diner with his new friends, the narrative switches to telling the stories behind some of the key players. 

These narratives eventually connect to the main plot, but work like excellent short stories about where we’re headed, with shades of recent shows like “Black Mirror.” We learn Mark and Janet were high school teachers working in a cynical environment where colleagues have given up on reaching out to students living in their own gadgets 24/7. When Mark is compelled to touch the screen of a student’s phone, a bizarre “Children of the Corn”-style crisis erupts. Even more tragic is the story of Susan, whose son is killed in a school shooting and is offered the chance to clone him by a mysterious company. Ingrid has also lost someone, but in a different way. She was born with a possible allergy to certain technologies, and watches helplessly when her boyfriend is so consumed by virtual reality that he decides to abandon the real world for his newfound cyber utopia. Look around and these stories are not so far-fetched. Like the best stories concocted by writers like Charlie Brooker, there is a doomed sense of inevitability to it all. Relativity and questions of time are also thrown in, as we learn Rockwell’s characters have already attempted this mission and failed about 117 times.

Verbinski then balances gloom with wicked satire. The man from the future leads the gang into a suburban neighborhood where they encounter a giant, walking equivalent of a cat meme like some sort of internet kaiju. How did this happen? The answers the movie will provide are deliciously paranoid. There is also action, of course, including a surreal maniac in a ski mask chasing the group, firing a machine gun. An eventual showdown with the kid developing the AI that will enslave us all turns into a smart commentary on where computer technology is going even as it also has the sort of riveting suspense we used to get from movies like “The Matrix.” The stakes are always high because the future is at stake, for Rockwell’s character, played with such demented charm, on a truly personal level. His raincoat-wearing traveler is a spirit animal for everyone wondering if they’re going insane when pondering just where billionaires and their tech are taking us. “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” is sci-fi that speaks to us now, with great fun and genuine urgency. On an artistic level, it marks the return of a good director who proves you can still make visually enticing films that comment on the state of things, without holding back.

“Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” releases Feb. 13 in theaters nationwide.