Trash Can Future Man Saves World From AI Apocalypse In Unhinged, R-Rated Sci-Fi Comedy

By Robert Scucci
| Updated 21 seconds ago

My biggest regret this year was not sneaking out to see Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die in theaters when it was making its rounds this past February. It has all of my favorite things in a sci-fi comedy, and having Sam Rockwell lead the charge against an AI apocalypse feels right in every conceivable way. Time travel films are always hit or miss, but there are three golden rules that Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die lives by to make this one a hit: don’t overexplain, keep the pacing up, and situational humor always softens the landing.

Throw in an eccentric ensemble of supporting talent, and you’ll wish you were standing right next to this ragtag group of future-proofing miscreants who one evening decide to save the world from itself.

I’d Love To Be At That Diner

I’m a family man, but if I wasn’t, there’s no place I’d rather be than Norms Diner when Sam Rockwell’s “the man from the future” arrives looking like he came off a three-week bender, bellowing to anybody who’s willing to listen to his insane rant about how he’s from the future and tonight is the night the world needs to be saved before everything goes to hell. I’ve spent enough time in late-night diners to know that sometimes people barge in acting like this, and you just need to ignore them. But the attention to detail this man has would be enough to convince me to join him on his mission.

The man from the future, who looks like what would happen if Kyle Reese got caught dumpster diving behind a Circuit City, asserts that he has lived this same night 116 times and needs to find the right combination of people to join him before starting his 117th attempt. Following Terminator 3 logic, the man explains that the AI singularity takeover is inevitable and can only be postponed. Judgment Day will always eventually happen, but the end goal is to keep pushing that date further back on the calendar until a definitive way to stop it has been discovered.

At the diner on this fateful night are Mark (Michael Pena) and Janet (Zazie Beetz), who witnessed the start of the AI takeover when the former accidentally touched a boy’s phone in class, causing it to interface with other devices and kids, forcing them to flee the scene.

Joining in on the fun is Susan (Juno Temple), who has nothing left to lose after her son was killed in a school shooting and replaced with an AI bot that’s nothing like the boy she knew. It wouldn’t be a war against technology if one of our heroes, Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson), wasn’t allergic to all forms of modern technology and just a little salty about her boyfriend leaving her to live in an AI fantasy land. There’s also Scott (Asim Chaudhry), Marie (Georgia Goodman), and Bob (Daniel Barnett), but their backstories aren’t really as juicy as the others, and we need to remember that everybody’s expendable on this mission.

Once the team is assembled, the man from the future, who is basically Sam Rockwell wearing garbage and running around like a live-action Rick Sanchez, makes the first goal escaping Norms and taking to the streets, so they could basically beat up the 9-year-old child who perfects his AI technology on this night, commencing the beginning of the end.

The Adventure Of A Lifetime That Everybody Wants To Be On

One of the biggest criticisms I have about movies is when the on-screen talent looks like they don’t want to be there. Don’t get me wrong, our protagonists are all reluctant at one point or another, with the man from the future being the most reluctant of all. But this reluctance comes from their characters’ unwillingness to believe what the crazy man is telling them. When they finally have enough compelling reasons to believe him, everybody’s all in, balls out, ready to save the day because they either have nothing better to do, nothing to lose, or neither of the things that would make any other person weigh their options before committing to the bit. Nobody’s moping here, they’re all in attack mode. 

Sam Rockwell is so fun in Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die because he brings not giving a crap to a whole new level. The man, if we’re to believe every single word he says, must be exhausted from all the time travel and botched missions, and you see him trying so hard to connect with his new group of heroes without going full-blown fatalist because he needs them to succeed in order to break the never-ending time loop he’s trapped in. It’s basically Edge of Tomorrow set in LA, except our hero is wearing old computer parts.

By the time we get to the third act, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die goes full ridiculous with creature-feature glitter farts, a monolithic mountain of wasted technology and AI ideations, and the man from the future gasping at the revelation that he’s never actually made it this far before. And just when you think things can’t get any crazier, they absolutely do.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die wastes zero time escalating, and then it never stops. It’s yet another cautionary tale about the upcoming war between man and machine, but it’s one of the versions I’d willingly participate in if it ends up being nearly as fun as it looks on screen.

As of this writing, you can stream Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die on Hulu.

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