Final Rating: 4/5
At the start of Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, a man (Sam Rockwell) bursts through the doors at Norm’s Diner and proclaims to be from the future. This is his 117th time reliving this same night, he says, the night on which a young boy only a short walk away will complete work on an artificial intelligence that will destroy the world.
The man knows that some combination of guests at Norm’s is the key to saving humanity, but in all his attempts, he hasn’t found the right group yet. Maybe tonight’s group – two high school teachers, a birthday entertainer, a boy scout leader, an uber driver, a grieving mother, and a lady just trying to relax and have a slice of pie – will get the job done.
Don’t Die wraps pointed topical satire in an exciting, character-driven sci-fi adventure. Through an anthology-like approach to world-building, director Gore Verbinski and writer Matthew Robinson create a world that initially closely resembles our own, morphing into something uncanny over time.
The result is hilarious and unsettling in equal measure, a world where tragedy is commonplace but unremarkable, where everything seems personalized but lonely. A world that, more than anything, seems built around the question “is anyone else seeing what’s going on here?”
Don’t Die is anchored by a great performance from Rockwell as the Man from the Future. Rockwell is decked out in what looks like a garbage bag covered in wires and lights, with his finger constantly hovering atop a small trigger. His natural charisma is accompanied by a sense of narcissism as he juggles Very Important Instructions with flippant threats to blow himself up.
As a performer, Rockwell’s greatest strength is his ability to elevate every other performance around him. In his opening monologue, Rockwell draws special attention at least once to almost everyone in the diner, turning even one-scene extras into memorable characters.
Once he’s assembled his group, the supporting cast also turn in great performances. Asim Chaudhary, playing a tough guy Uber driver named Scott, is the clear highlight, matching Rockwell’s energy while also serving as the butt of every one of his jokes. “Scott’s not gonna make it” could be the Man from the Future’s catchphrase.
Director Gore Verbinski takes the classic villain archetype of a rogue AI a la Skynet and updates it. Rather than fearing an anthrophobic entity launching nukes, Don’t Die presents an all-encompassing superintelligence whose goal is to give everybody everything they want. The world of Don’t Die is its own character, not simply in the way of being a well-designed setpiece, but through the way the town reacts to the characters within.
As the core group progresses toward its goal, the town becomes increasingly eerie. Out-of-place references to memes and video games start appearing in prominent places, while the few people the group encounters become increasingly two-dimensional. When the group arrives at the farthest point the Man has ever gone, the street is revealed as “Rubicon Road,” as if teasing him.
As much as Don’t Die pulls from time-loop comedies like Palm Springs and Groundhog Day, it draws in equal measure from cosmic horror. The film most strongly evokes “Rocco’s Basilisk,” a popular internet thought experiment which claims that an artificial superintelligence is not only inevitable, but would transcend time and space to ensure its own creation. Simultaneously, the “Basilisk” would punish those who would seek to prevent it from existing.
Long before the villain of Don’t Die is physically seen, its presence is already felt through character backstories. Before they arrive in the diner, Mark and Janet (Michael Peña and Zazie Beetz) are driven out of their high school by a horde of teenagers, literally zombified by their phones. Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson) has her relationship eroded by the mysterious arrival of a VR headset that takes over her boyfriend’s life. After losing her son, Susan’s (Juno Temple) backstory culminates in a stranger giving her a hard drive with a program that simulates him nearly perfectly but also tells her to “go with the man at the restaurant.”
Just as the world feels personalized to the Man from the Future, his ragtag group of misfits feels more deliberate than it initially appears.
Decades after Verbinski reinvigorated the adventure film genre with Pirates of the Caribbean, Don’t Die sees him back at the top of his game. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die starts with a bang, and by the end becomes something unexpected. It’s a timely commentary on storytelling and creativity at a time where both feel under threat.
