September 24, 2025 (Fantastic Fest)
February 13, 2026 (United States)
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die is a 2025 science fiction comedy film directed by Gore Verbinski and written by Matthew Robinson. The film stars Sam Rockwell, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz, Asim Chaudhry, Tom Taylor, and Juno Temple. It follows a man from the future who travels to the past to recruit patrons of a Los Angeles diner to help combat a rogue artificial intelligence.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die premiered at the 2025 Fantastic Fest and was released in the United States on February 13, 2026, by Briarcliff Entertainment. The film received positive reviews from critics and has grossed $5 million worldwide against a budget of $20 million.
Storyline
A man from the future arrives in a Los Angeles diner at 10:10 pm, announcing that he is there to save the world and needs volunteers to join him. He believes a specific combination of diner patrons will help him succeed but, as he doesn't know which combination is correct, this is his 117th attempt: the others failed. His knowledge of patrons convinces some that he's telling the truth. The man coerces Scott, Bob, Marie, and couple Mark and Janet, to join. Susan and Ingrid volunteer, and the man initially rejects Ingrid but changes his mind. Police surround the diner and Bob is killed, while the rest of the group escape when Susan directs them to a tunnel.
In flashback, some of the group's backstories are expanded on. Mark and Janet are teachers whose students are obsessed with their phones. When Mark touches one of his student's phones, all the students react by following him threateningly. Mark and Janet take a pair of homemade electronic guns, made by their colleague to temporarily disable cellphones, to escape. Susan is a single mother whose son, Darren, is killed in a school shooting. Susan learns of a company that can "bring back" dead children by cloning, but she is distressed by the unnatural behavior of the cloned Darren. Susan is secretly given an alternate AI that can revive the dead virtually, and this AI Darren tells her to "follow the man". Ingrid has an allergy to electronic devices and wifi, and lost her partner Tim when he became obsessed with a virtual reality he claimed was better than the real world.
The man from the future tells the group that they have to find a nine-year-old boy who is about to create an AI that will take over the world. The man does not want to stop the process, but merely introduce a security protocol that will secure the AI. The man tells them that in the bad future, people will become so obsessed with the virtual reality that real world resources will run out, leading to mass deaths. The man was raised in a bunker by his mother in a sunless post-apocalyptic world, and he blames himself for her death, as it was because of him that a drone killed her.
The group are chased by a pair of masked men who try to kill them, and both Marie and one of the masked men are killed. The group eventually reach the house next to their target, and the man warns them that they will be attacked, but it's never the same thing each time. The house is surrounded by teenagers on their phones who break into the house. Mark and Janet, using their cellphone-disabling guns, sacrifice themselves to lure some of the teenagers away, allowing the rest of the group to make it to the target house. The group enter and are attacked by the couple posing as the child's parents, and Scott is killed.
The man, Susan and Ingrid find the boy. Susan recognizes the boy as a clone, who is being directed by his programming to create the AI singularity. They attempt to plug in the protocol but are attacked by the AI, and the man is stabbed. Ingrid is about to plug in the protocol when she receives a vision from the AI about the future it's trying to make a reality. It tells Ingrid that the man is her son, and that he will have a better life if she embraces this new future. Ingrid rejects the AI and plugs in the protocol, forcing the AI to reboot. The survivors, including Mark and Janet, celebrate their success in the morning light. Ingrid comforts the man, but the man realizes something is off and goes back in time. Ingrid realizes that the AI gave them a fake happy ending to keep them compliant.
The man returns to the beginning of the night, in the diner. He sits down with Ingrid and tells her they went about it the wrong way, and the solution is to give everyone in the world the same allergy that Ingrid has.
Movie Trailer
- Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die (2025) (Trailers)