Rating: R | Runtime: 134 minutes
Release Date: February 13th, 2026 (USA)
Studio: Briarcliff Entertainment
Director(s): Gore Verbinski
Writer(s): Matthew Robinson

Nobody sees anything they don’t want to see.

You know you’re in for a good time travel movie when it spares you from having to experience the umpteen times the protagonist has repeated the moment he is currently repeating again. Why dull us with a hyper-edited collage of the false starts, information gathering, and colossal failures when you can hire an actor like Sam Rockwell to manically vomit them all through dialogue in the most absurd variation on a diner hold-up since Pulp Fiction?

Our entry point into director Gore Verbinski and writer Matthew Robinson’s Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is therefore as likely to be revealed as the somber truth Rockwell’s “Man from the Future” implores his audience to believe as it is that he’s an unhoused, schizophrenic devoid of even the weakest grasp on reality. Since he’s talking a mile-a-minute about needing eight of them to join a crusade that hasn’t worked in a hundred-plus tries, everyone leans towards looney bin.

It doesn’t matter that he knows their names and details about their lives gleaned from reliving this pep talk and doomed adventure so many times. It doesn’t matter that he knows some of them have the courage and willingness to attack the challenge of saving the world from the docile fantasy of an AI-fueled server promising to provide humanity a life without pain. He’s lost the plot on bedside manner and his unhinged enthusiasm is now sabotaging his goal.

So, it takes him aback when Susan (Juno Temple) raises her hand. He knows her name, but not much else (presumably, since the script often takes liberties en route to facilitating manufactured reveals that would be better off taken at face value rather than attempting to preserve twists that prove anything but). Why is she volunteering first this time? Does it matter? He needs to get this show on the road and one willing participant is better than none.

Once Mark (Michael Peña), Janet (Zazie Beetz), Scott (Asim Chaudhry), Marie (Georgia Goodman), and Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson) round out the party, the real journey is ready to commence. Because Rockwell isn’t recruiting them to whisk away with his dirty poncho time machine to his apocalyptic battle. No, they must leave the diner, elude the cops the waitress always calls, and survive a fantastical gauntlet to reach their destination.

Robinson takes his time getting us outside with a few flashbacks providing context to his characters and the world at-large. Just because Rockwell is from the future, doesn’t mean the on-screen present is our reality. No, certain dangers that those of us paying attention know exist where it concerns technological and AI advancements have already crested their tipping points. The zombification of society is here (think The Framework from “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”).

Those morsels of history prepare us for future obstacles on a macro (hordes of teenagers on a silent warpath) and micro (some members of Rockwell’s group might be, wittingly or not, spies sent to stop him) scale. That’s where Verbinski is able to have fun bringing each hilariously illogical detail to life whether an allergy to electronics and WIFI or a twenty-first century meme-ification of Ray Stantz giving the cosmos a “prompt” when thinking of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is everything you would want out of that title as far as insane set pieces and surreal consequences for seemingly innocuous acts while also possessing an ample dose of heart. Some of the latter is a result of latent empathy (Rockwell seeing that Ingrid should be on suicide watch) and some a product of lemmings like Scott, Mark, and Janet remembering what it means to be selflessly brave in the face of insurmountable odds.

The science fiction elements are perfectly satirized progressions of the chaos our own AI-bubble has sown, touching on the addictiveness of social media, the dissolution of manners and personality, and even the potential of cloning as a means of removing the cost of school shootings in lieu of ever doing anything to actually prevent them. The subject matter is therefore intentionally dark. How could it not when abject terror is being weaponized for profit?

Richardson is the standout insofar as her character is the most three-dimensional of the bunch due to Ingrid’s unique inability to embrace technology even if she wanted to, but the ensemble excels at filling their plot-specific roles in ways that entertain enough to forgive their convenience. And Rockwell is at his frenzied best to distract us from seeing the tracks while also ensuring we stay firmly planted to them. There’s no better conductor for a runaway train.

I’ll always be disappointed when filmmakers intentionally pretzel a plot point to force a twist instead of just letting it be (especially since the trend feels like a symptom of catering to the low-attention spans created by what the film is railing against), but that’s sadly our current state of affairs. It neither harms the overall message nor ruins a brilliantly bittersweet ending. It’s merely one flaw to an otherwise exhilarating romp as Verbinski reaffirms his mastery of spectacle.

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Sam Rockwell in GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE; courtesy of Briarcliff Entertainment.