Gore Verbinski’s angry sci-fi caper takes aim not only at AI, but at you and I.

While it’s far more indebted to 12 Monkeys (1995), Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is more likely to be compared to the more recent Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022). The good news: both (all three, really) are great, absurd, and urgent, though this film is the least essential of them. GLHFDD is the whacky offspring of 12 Monkeys, and the angry cousin to EEAAO – but if the latter movie was about Twitter, this movie is about AI.

Director Gore Verbinski has a lot to say about AI, and GLHFDD, with screenplay by Matthew Robinson, is his platform to be manically preachy, ruefully funny, and visually playful. If you enjoyed the original Pirates of the Caribbean instalments, you’re familiar with Verbinski’s outstanding visual storytelling game.

Sam Rockwell is the perfect embodiment of and focal point for the film’s messaging: charismatic, chaotic, riveting. His “The Man From The Future” is Doc Brown returning from a presumably Twelve Monkeys (1995) future, on repeat à la Groundhog Day (1993) or Edge of Tomorrow (2014), but with his thumb literally on the reset button, until he can solve the dystopian future AI will create, if left unchecked, in this moment. The opening scene encapsulates the entire film’s dizzying dance between director, star, and audience:

pay attention, take a leap, and we may just make it, together.

The one distraction for me, at least in my screening: James Whitaker‘s striking cinematography is at times colour graded to be as murky and muddy as Sam Rockwell’s wardrobe. It’s the first time I heard myself echo the criticism so, so many others have already made about movies, and particularly prestige series, in recent years.

GLHFDD‘s inventiveness and playfulness traffic in the audience’s movie literacy: it anticipates your anticipation, and alternates between genuinely surprising and necessarily satisfying moments. The action is propelled by a mix of video game mechanics and unapologetically boomer burns on social media brain rot (which… fair). GLHFDD even employs a nonlinear storytelling device similar to Weapons (2025): each of the characters in the supporting ensemble (which includes Zazie Beetz, Michael Peña, Haley Lu Richardson, and Juno Temple) is given a backstory break, which in turn gives us a series of showcases of cinematic flair, short-form storytelling, and topical rage. Like its hero, GLHFDD isn’t perfect, but it’s sincere, and it’s all in on its message.

Further Viewing

“If you get me started on AI…” (via DiscussingFilm):

Speaking of Pirates of the Caribbean – Verbinski’s commentary is… wow:

verbinski's commentary in one deleted scene from dead man's chest, discussing the philosophy behind the east india trading company and the dying of the old myths.

"the illegitimate has become legitimised." pic.twitter.com/WCttidWbtb

— pessoa ka protagonist (@cinesansar) February 24, 2026

These two movies are an obvious double bill – so why not?