Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die

The first time I had heard of Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (GLHFDD) was a trailer for it in front of my theatrical screening of Return to Silent Hill. Its concept and style of humor immediately piqued my interest, and my own familiarity with some of director Gore Verbinski’s previous work certainly helped. Although I didn’t end up seeing it in a theater, I was able to eventually watch it through streaming, however I had to rent it through Amazon Prime due to the Hulu/Disney+ option hitching up only on the device I intended to watch it on. Not only was I thoroughly entertained by the execution of its premise, it also provided some interesting commentary on the state of technology that made me think about my own usage of it.

At a Norms restaurant in Los Angeles, a man (Sam Rockwell) walks in and, while announcing he is wearing a bomb, claims he is from the future and that he has been looking for the right combination of patrons across 117 attempts from this specific point and location in time to prevent a powerful AI from being created within an hour and ruining the future. After selecting another unique combination from 7 volunteers, things get off to a rocky start when they have to evade police to escape the Norms and set off on their journey. Although their end goal, the house where the AI was born, isn’t that much of a distance away, just getting there proves to be an increasingly difficult uphill battle.

While the premise is interesting enough on its own, what makes it interesting is how the events are interspersed with flashbacks to the volunteers’ lives leading up to The Man from the Future’s arrival and how they relate to the looming AI threat. While their depictions may be exaggerated, there is also some thought-provoking commentary about AI, phone usage and the (unfortunately) increasingly-common occurrence of school shootings in North America in a way that doesn’t come off preachy and helps tie everything together as the events unfold. In particular, The Man’s speech at the beginning about how long people check their phones in the morning got me thinking (at least momentarily) about my own habits and how to potentially fix them. Some elements also reminded me of The Electric State (the original 2018 graphic novel by Simon Stålenhag) and its handling of similar commentary on tech addiction, and the in-universe origin of the titular phrase (“good luck, have fun, don’t die”) made me think of how crypto bros have been reported to have similar rituals (“good morning” and “good night”). The last quarter of the movie has proven to be contentious and, while I didn't mind it that much, I can easily see how someone else might.

The acting is a strong point of GLHFDD, particularly Sam Rockwell as The Man from the Future with some clever dialogue and humorous mannerisms reflective of his experiences as a time traveler that don’t detract from the gravity of his mission. Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson) is another surprisingly strong character due to her interesting backstory fueled by an unusual allergy to cell phones and Wi-Fi, leading to one of her later moments feeling more triumphant. The CG effects, though sparing for the most part, are used effectively when necessary, especially as things escalate in the final act.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die isn’t likely to be a candidate come awards season, but its blend of humor and thought-provoking messages mixed with Sam Rockwell’s strong performance make it a worthwhile watch regardless.