By Alex McPherson

Furious and scattershot, director Gore Verbinski’s madcap sci-fi parable “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” has numerous incisive ideas about humanity’s dependence on technology but muddles them with a heavy dosage of smug humor.

One cannot accuse Verbinski of not being ambitious, though, with his latest effort bringing to mind a range of films including “Groundhog Day,” “The Terminator,” and “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” The film takes place in a near-future in which humanity’s addiction to technology has created a society of apathetic, homogenous-seeming beings doing nothing to stop society’s descent into tech company servitude. 

We open with an extended sequence featuring a disheveled, sardonic Man From the Future (Sam Rockwell) bursting into Norm’s Diner in Los Angeles in search of people to join him on an epic quest to prevent the AI apocalypse. He claims to have a bomb strapped beneath his transparent raincoat and launches into a speech about how technology has ruined modern life, insisting that time is of the absolute essence. 

This isn’t the Man’s first rodeo, though; it’s actually his 117th attempt with this same batch of disbelieving patrons. All of his previous 116 attempts have ended in death for everyone involved (except him), with the Man “resetting” and trying to find the right combination of people necessary to complete his mission. This time could be different, though. 

The group the Man pseudo-forces to participate includes Mark (Michael Peña) and Janet (Zazie Beetz), a couple going through a rough patch who recently started new jobs as high school teachers. They are increasingly disturbed by their students’ obsession with their smartphones and cynical detachment from the outside world, even during a school shooting, which is treated like “just another day.”

There’s also Susan (Juno Temple), a mother who lost her son in that same shooting and whose grief is brushed away — there is, as a squad of local mothers tells her, a company that specializes in creating clones of children who died in school shootings. Yikes. 

There’s Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson), a severely depressed woman wearing an off-brand Disney princess costume who is literally allergic to Wi-Fi and smartphones. Along with a few other people who aren’t given much meaningful character development, the Man and his team embark on an increasingly loony journey.

Mixing madcap sci-fi action with a decidedly nihilistic streak, “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” is alternately amusing and exhausting over its 135-minute runtime. For all of Verbinski and screenwriter Matthew Robinson’s sharp thoughts on our technological hellscape (did you see how many SuperBowl ads were about AI?), there’s a shakiness to the film that draws you in and subsequently pushes you away. 

The film mines plentiful deadpan humor from the populace’s matter-of-fact reactions, whether it be judgy, entitled high schoolers glued to their phones, or Susan’s newly-cloned kid who is “ad-supported,” all while nobody is taking action to turn things around.

Even so, the film can’t decide between championing these idiosyncratic, reluctant heroes and reveling in the tech-addicted nastiness that surrounds them. Poignant moments are offset by edgelord, shock-value humor that is deeply proud of itself and leaves a cold aftertaste.

Rockwell is the perfect choice to play this snarky antihero. He’s goofy and sometimes callous but strong in his convictions, with an increasing desperation creeping in as he nears closer to finally stopping the horrors of an AI-controlled future.

The rest of the cast aren’t anywhere near as dynamic to watch as Rockwell, but they get the job done, effectively emphasizing their feelings of displacement with an environment that refuses to recognize their empathy and, indeed, their humanity.

Verbinski and Robinson take ample time to provide backstory for the “core group,” structured in “Black Mirror” -esque flashbacks that periodically break up the immediate action of the Man and co. escaping from Norm’s and venturing to their next objectives.

This vignette structure works well enough (albeit padding the runtime to an excessive degree), and helps illuminate the personal costs of living in this reality that’s not all that dissimilar from our own. Less impactful are the labyrinthine multiversal shenanigans that arise in the finale, difficult to follow and messy in a decidedly hand-made way.

“Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,” then, is a rickety experience that’s still impossible to discount. Verbinski and Robinson take rightful aim at the devices and companies that are hijacking our attention and transforming us into passive, homogenous consumers rather than informed people with agency over our own lives.

The crafts, too, are noteworthy, especially James Whitaker’s energetic cinematography and a techno score by Geoff Zanelli that pulses with rambunctious life.

Verbinski and Robinson are clearly interested in sounding a 5-alarm fire about doing something now rather than waiting until all hope is lost. The messiness of living in the real world, the film says, is worth fighting for, even when the digital one offers an illusion of safety and happiness.

There’s definitely merit to that message in 2026, although “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” is ultimately a mildly entertaining, pitch-black yell at the Cloud.

“Good Luck, Don’t Die, Have Fun” is a 2025 sci-fi action-adventure horror comedy directed by Gore Verbinski and starring Sam Rockwell, Juno Temple, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Pena, Zazie Beetz, Georgia Goodman, and Asim Chaudhry. It is rated R for pervasive language, violence, some grisly images and brief sexual content and runs 2 hours, 14 minutes. Opens in theatres Feb. 13. Alex’s Grade: B-.