Director Gore Verbinski and cast members Sam Rockwell, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Pena and Zazie Beetz, screenwriter Asim Chaudhry pose during a photocall to promote the movie ‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’ at the 76th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany February 13, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
REUTERS/Axel Schmidt
Gore Verbinski hopes his film “Good
Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” will be therapeutic, while also
cautioning against the deteriorating effect of technology and
artificial intelligence on society, the Oscar-winning director
said at the Berlin Film Festival on Friday.
The film, screened as part of the festival’s non-competition
Special section, stars Sam Rockwell as a raggedy, unnamed time
traveller from the future who bursts into a diner one night with
a costume of tubes and wires and one goal: choosing who among
the confused patrons will join him on a mission to stop a future
AI apocalypse.
The result is an action-packed sci-fi comedy-drama, which
aims to entertain while also making people reflect on the risks
of an over-digitalized society.
“Comedy is really, in many ways, the harshest critic,”
Verbinski said. “And I think if you are getting the laugh,
there’s a little medicine in the cake, right?”
While some people are picking up on the social commentary in
the film in a dramatic way, others “are just eating cake,” he
added.
Verbinski, famous for directing films including Pirates of
the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl and 2002’s horror The
Ring, said he also sees humour as a way of illustrating how
society has “normalized some of this insanity.”
The film alternates action and comedy with some of the
characters’ more dramatic back-stories, which dab at other
current themes in a manner reminiscent of dystopian sci-fi
series “Black Mirror”.
“As far as the political aspects to the film, obviously one
school shooting is too many,” 57-year-old Rockwell said, nodding
to the story of Juno Temple’s character Susan.
However, “the first priority of the film is to entertain,”
said Academy Award winner Rockwell. “And then if you come away
with a message, that’s great.”
Published on February 14, 2026
