Director Gore Verbinski makes his highly anticipated return with the chaotic, star-studded film Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die. It is an adventure that pits an unlikely crew against a rogue AI.
Nearly a decade since his last feature, A Cure for Wellness (2016), Oscar-winning director Gore Verbinski (The Ring, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl) is back with a vengeance.
The film premiered to strong buzz at Fantastic Fest in September. It boasts an impressive ensemble cast led by Sam Rockwell, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz, and Juno Temple.
The teaser trailer kicks off with a bang as a strangely dressed man claiming to be from the future (Sam Rockwell) bursts into a busy Los Angeles diner. He announces his urgent mission: he has traveled back in time to prevent a looming post-apocalyptic future. It is a world “completely f–ked” by a rogue artificial intelligence.
His mission is a desperate one-night, six-block quest to stop the terminal AI threat. To do it, he must recruit the precise combination of disgruntled patrons—an improbable team of strangers—who hold the key to saving the world.
Clips from the trailer grow increasingly chaotic and surreal. We see a teacher (Michael Peña) witnessing students seemingly being possessed by an AI app on their phones. And Rockwell’s character rallies his recruits with the cry, “The revolution begins tonight!”
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die taps directly into pervasive modern anxieties about the rapid rise of generative AI. The film has great timing, arriving when there’s a huge debate over AI.
Verbinski, known for his masterful integration of dark comedy in the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, serves up a healthy helping of humor and chaos. Making Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die look like an entertaining flick. You can judge for yourself, though, it its theaters on February 13, 2026.
