Sam Rockwell Fights A Sci-Fi Apocalypse In Gore Verbinski’s Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die Trailer

**Movie Ping List: Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die**

I’ve had my eye on this one for a long time. The teaser trailer dropped this morning, and the theatrical release date is set for February 13. There are several touchstones I consider when suggesting films for the movie ping list: recency (to push back on the cliché “no good movies are made any more”), quality (audience and critical reviews from two genre festival screenings over a month ago have been strong), and broadly defined “conservative” themes.

I’ve actually seen several good, thematically conservative 2025 releases that I’ll mention some other time, but they fall into genres that never really stir interest on FR. Lest you think I’ve gone soft with my appreciation for introspective indie character dramas, I’ve been holding off until I found one that falls into Freepers’ strong suits.

(Although if you are ambitious, hustle out and see *Nouvelle Vague* in a theater in the next couple of days before Netflix puts it into streaming. It is charming, very funny, and the most old-fashioned movie you’ve seen in a long time. It really should be seen on the big screen, which demands that you pay attention. It’s subtle, witty, and quick, with character-driven and situational humor that will mostly be missed by channel-surfing, couch-potato at-home viewers who aren’t focused.)

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### Why This Film Has Potential

*Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die* (GLHFDD) hits several boxes: sci-fi; an action/drama/comedy/horror mashup; fast pacing; and some very serious themes emerging from the chaos. By all accounts from early screenings, the audience was laughing throughout — with some snarking here and there from apparently woke types who sniffed that it was inappropriate to laugh at certain moments.

I’m not going to go out on a limb and suggest this rises to the level of *Blazing Saddles* or *Tropic Thunder*, but in today’s era of PC/woke Hollywood, I am all in for goring sacred cows. At this point, especially in cinema, most of those cows seem to be on the left.

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### Behind the Scenes

I made some inquiries on other platforms that discuss movies, and a little birdie closely connected with the project messaged me privately. They said one of the reasons EVERY major studio and all the streaming platforms passed on this project was due to its daring content. Chew on that for a moment.

This is director Gore Verbinski’s first movie in nine years and his first independent film. He is best known for the first three *Pirates of the Caribbean* movies, the first of which is a genuine work of genius on the level of the original *Star Wars* or *Indiana Jones*. The second was okay; the third lost me. Then Verbinski left, and Disney ran *Pirates* into the ground with cash-grab sequels — which is basically how Disney ruins every classic franchise it acquires.

The first *Pirates* was blazingly original, funny, action-packed, and a children’s movie that adults could enjoy. That film benefited from a big Disney budget and lavish special effects. GLHFDD, by contrast, is a pure indie film with a very low budget that has had to fight for every dollar.

Some of the special effects look a bit retro, which is no doubt partly due to budget constraints. But given the themes of the movie — and the current crisis facing the industry — Verbinski has been emphatic that **no AI was used** in making this film.

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### The Story and Characters

The cartoonish characters who appear to defend the rogue AI will make a lot more sense once you learn who the genius about to unleash a humanity-destroying apocalypse really is. The enemy is not Skynet, and the man from the future isn’t here to kill him — just to save humanity. Not all of his unlikely volunteers will survive the mission.

I’m going to stay out of spoilers — the reviewers, both critics and festival audiences, have done the same. But after reading all the reviews and piecing together hints, I think I have a notion of where this is going — in a chaotic and unpredictable way. Freepmail me if you want to inquire.

The film opens with Sam Rockwell’s “man from the future” bursting into a nondescript Norm’s Diner in LA, looking like, in the words of one reviewer, a “junkyard astronaut,” or as another put it, “someone who crawled out of a dumpster.”

He then goes on a frantic, extended rant to assemble a team of volunteers to help him save the world. He needs to find the precise combination of people who can fight through the maze of obstacles the rogue AI will throw at them.

You see, he’s done this 117 times before; this is attempt number 118. Yes, a time loop is part of this mashup, but this time feels different. He rejects some volunteers in hilariously blunt ways — they tried before, and they’re worse than useless. But tonight, a woman who has never volunteered before steps forward. For the first time, he agrees to take along a young woman he always rejected before because she scares him.

Will they get it done this time? Will any of them survive? Watch the movie and see.

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### Nonlinear Storytelling and Themes

The storytelling is nonlinear. The throughline is a desperate six-block sally through the late-night streets of LA to the lair of the threat, where the team must complete their mission.

The story loops into flashbacks that reveal why these core characters are willing to risk their lives to follow the junkyard astronaut — whom they still don’t fully trust and think may be mad — on this lunatic quest.

I’ll just say that all the characters are highly motivated — for different reasons, of course — enough that all reviewers agree you will be rooting for them by the end.

Their motivations connect deeply to current-day issues that Freepers wax indignant about more or less constantly. The surrealistic and comedic future threats are extrapolations of things already happening, some of which aren’t far off at all.

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### Final Thoughts

There is very pointed social commentary here, and Verbinski is swinging hard at many of our usual targets. This may be a surprisingly conservative film.

It’s based on a spec script that circulated several years ago, passed on by all the big studios, so it is original intellectual property. The film is set in LA but was actually shot in Cape Town — part of the movie industry’s now-rampant movement away from California.

If GLHFDD is good — and early signs say it is — I’d love to see it become one of those rare indie surprise hits that comes out of nowhere, finds an audience, and sticks around in theaters, especially since it’s the kind of project big studios passed on.

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Have you seen the trailer? Planning to catch the theatrical release in February? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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