‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’ Is A Rejected ‘Black Mirror’ Episode

At the point of no return, a select fraction of human beings have played the game of life safely enough to make it this far. The Y2K craze had been a mess for many who crossed over from the twentieth century into the twenty-first, and so was the 2012 hoax. The COVID pandemic has clearly done increasing damage as a result of similar minds that contain fewer brain cells, and now we must endure the endless deluge of artificial intelligence. Year after year, we have received warnings after warnings about the detrimental effects that this digital creation can have on the world’s population as a whole.

Gregor Justin “Gore” Verbinski returns to filmmaking after nearly a decade—his 2013 film with Justin Haythe, Ted Elliott, and Terry Rossio, The Lone Ranger, aged like unpasteurized milk; and his 2016 film with Haythe, A Cure for Wellness, is a tad more promising yet just could not meet its target. In collaboration with screenwriter and executive producer Matthew Robinson, Verbinski’s newest project, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, is but another troublesome product of his efforts to step back into the limelight after delivering a few good Pirates of the Caribbean films, as well as The Ring, his adaptation of Koji Suzuki’s novel, Ring.

Verbinski’s Prolonged Relevance in Cinema History

The film follows a man from the future (Sam Rockwell) who enters Norms, a Los Angeles diner, and recruits a group of patrons to assist in rewriting history and thus saving the planet from a post-apocalypse.

At best, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is above average. It goes without saying that Robinson’s screenplay feels the need to spell out deeply relatable issues in reflection of its overarching conflicts; some casting decisions don’t hold up; and the visual effects are almost heart-wrenching to look at, most especially in its final act. Imagine Jack Finney’s The Body Snatchers—or really, any of the novel’s better, palatable adaptations, such as Philip Kaufman and W.D. Richter’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, or Robert Rodriguez, Kevin Williamson, David Wechter, and Bruce Kimmel’s The Faculty—and James Cameron’s The Terminator franchise set in the backdrop of a Black Mirror television special.

Verbinski anthologizes character perspectives by genre: romantic partners and high school teachers Mark (Michael Peña) and Janet (Zazie Beetz) take on a horror scenario in opposition to brainwashed teenage students; grieving mother, Susan (Juno Temple), is urged into a dramatic chapter of her life; and young woman, Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson), faces the realities of desiring a romantic fantasy with her boyfriend, Tim (Tom Taylor). However, there has got to be some manner in which the narrative approaches our digital technological epoché. It’s no wonder that textbook anarchists might be looking to bring down the mega-corporations like FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google) and all that they stand for.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die‘s Screenplay

Of course, there are pros and cons to Robinson’s script. The biggest flaw is the shocking and arguably insensitive lens on school shootings. A child can never be replaced, and to make matters worse, some parents want to change their memory or perception of their offspring—we wish them to be taller, we wish them to be funnier, we wish them to choose this belief system or that ideology, this hobby, that personality, etc.

Dark comedy is fine so long as everyone comprehends how to reach the punchline and whether an impact, if any, is felt. Still, it gets to a ridiculous point for Robinson to include some awful or awkward lines; sabbaticals are for tenured university professors, I’m quite sure! On the other hand, I appreciate the reminder that our society is full of smartphone zombies, or as German scholar of literature and media studies, Roberto Simanowski, calls in his critical text, The Death Algorithm and Other Digital Dilemmas, “smombies”. In Chapter 2, “Smartphone Zombies”, Simanowski writes:

“Our problem is that we tend to follow suggestions made by an app rather than go down a street that looks interesting. Our problem is that we’ve handed over the power to determine how we encounter space—from the routes we take to the locales (stores, restaurants) we frequent—to technology and the people behind it” (26-27).

Mark and Janet’s subplot speaks to this in regard to social satire via parody of the zombie subgenre. It’s surreal to see “smombies” in film be depicted like that. Then again, I am more intrigued by the execution of weaponized media consumers through Samuel L. Jackson and Sofia Boutella’s antagonist characters in Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman’s 2014 film adaptation, Kingsman: The Secret Service.

Rhetorical APP-eal

The rhetoric is in Verbinski and Robinson’s pudding, from the pathos of so desperately wanting to change the future of our world to the logic of reputed world-building to the ethos of heroic archetypes being subverted. That’s not to mention that the thesis statement is crucial for everybody’s sake, and jumping from one subplot to the next in both the order and the structure that Robinson designs is smart work.

Unfortunately, the narrative also comes at the cost of poor timing in calling forth artificial intelligence, “slop”, and “brain rot” from a post-modern lexicon. I hate these concepts as much as the next person, but fingers are pointed at the wrong people. The director and the screenwriter should be blaming the wealthy and big businesses instead of telling the younger demographic that we are at fault for mass consumption, literal and metaphorical.

To add, most of Robinson’s word choices are essentially made in poor style. Other than Rockwell’s decent monologue in the opening scene, the dialogue had me grunt “ugh” more often than not. By the time Ingrid’s subplot concludes, I felt an inclination to rewatch Lilly and Lana Wachowski’s The Matrix films instead. Stronger, constructive commentaries on our current predicaments can easily be found elsewhere.

Performances and Character Developments

Temple is not that much older than I am. Yet, to witness her in the role of a parent showcases a new chapter in her career. The actor is no stranger to portraying the tormented woman. The tragic Merrin Williams from Alexandre Aja and Keith Bunin’s film adaptation of Joe Hill’s Horns; or Sally the sex worker’s brush with death in Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller’s film adaptation of Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. As Susan, Temple does something different. The introduced breathing as she attempts to calm her nerves and her protectiveness over her teenage son, Darren (Riccardo Drayton), are vital to her impressing as an empathetic mother.

Rockwell’s “the man from the future” is just as uncanny. Like Temple, the actor takes on a role similar to some prior acting credits but elevated. He’s usually the weird guy on screen, from a talking guinea pig on an espionage mission to an Elon Musk-type in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to a dog-napping struggling actor to a prejudiced officer of the law in Ebbing, Missouri, to whatever Nazi he believes he plays in Jojo Rabbit. Perhaps it’s the physical appearance with the scruffy beard, transparent plastic poncho, and the mysterious vest wrapped around his chest, but I like Rockwell as the protagonist.

The Underdog

Moreover, I love Richardson as Ingrid, a princess whose career has flourished in the decade since Kelly Fremon Craig’s The Edge of Seventeen and M. Night Shyamalan’s Split. Unlike the other two leads, she offers something refreshing in her performances. Verbinski doesn’t quite direct her well, and everything about her in the final act can be predicted earlier on. Ingrid is a special woman because of what she contributes, serving as the antithesis of the final girl archetype in despairing situations. It isn’t solely in her looks, but also in her heart and mind, that Richardson delivers what is often asked of in good characters: someone to remember.

Final Thoughts on Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die

For what it’s worth, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is fortunate to be full of entertainment and some vitality. It isn’t perfect, although it’s illustrated as a product of human choices, probability, and possibility.

Knowledge and wisdom are two separate qualities, and it isn’t made explicit what Verbinski and Robinson are aiming at precisely. A lot of insightful concepts that are sadly a few years too late to tackle. Beetz and Peña are both brilliant actors, but I don’t believe I agree with the pairing. On the other hand, their scene in the last several minutes is a bit horrific. Suffice it to say that the film isn’t a complete waste of time; it’s no huge game-changer, either. Maybe this is the end for us all.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars