If you’re nervous about AI, the list of movies you should avoid seems to grow with every passing year, as all the filmmakers and creative executives seemingly want to comment on the growth of AI and the collective fear surrounding it. However, the AI genre today is filled with generic attempts at capitalizing on the public’s fear of the technology.
Yet, the scariest AI creations in movie history are mostly unique and creative, exploring a specific fear about the unchecked development of artificial intelligence. These movies are characterized by a deeper understanding of why AI technology is considered necessary and important by inventors, instead of simply rejecting the technology and using it as a premise to spread fear amongst viewers.
AI-centric sci-fi was its own genre, but the recent boost in AI in the real world has prompted films to include mentions of it as plot devices, even in genres that aren’t related to AI. It is, for instance, a part of the reason Scream 7 has so many negative reviews, but a 2026 adventure movie takes a fresh approach.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die Tackles The Subject Of AI
Gore Verbinski’s latest movie is a sci-fi adventure that is based on our growing dependence on AI as a species. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die stars Sam Rockwell as an unnamed man from the future who returns to the past to install some safety protocols into the AI model that will eventually cause the world’s collapse in the future.
Rockwell is joined by Haley Lu Richardson as a woman who is allergic to Wi-Fi and mobile phones, Zazie Beetz and Michael Peña as school teachers whose careers are gradually becoming redundant due to social media, and Juno Temple as a mother who has recently lost her son to a school shooting, but has an AI-powered clone of him now.
The ragtag group of characters who are tasked with saving the world are all personally affected by the development of AI, including the man from the future, whose mother was killed by an AI drone in the future. As reviews of Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die observe, the movie explores the human dependence on AI through multiple compelling perspectives.
Michael Peña’s character arc is particularly linked to social media’s growth as a universal pastime across generations. His character is bothered by his students’ constant use of phones, but he loses his grasp on reality when he stares at the phone of a student scrolling through social media, getting hypnotized by the screen and unwittingly touching it at the end.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die set a Rotten Tomatoes record for Verbinski, likely because his approach to the story is relatable. We’ve all experienced the appeal of a good social media algorithm. Scrolling through feeds has become the hobby of an entire generation of people, and the movie also meaningfully explores people’s urge to live in a virtual world.
It Is A Creative And Lighthearted Adventure Movie
Despite tackling such a heavy topic, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die lives up to its title by taking viewers on a wild ride through entertaining setpieces that require fortune to survive and often cause gruesome deaths. From a giant man-eating cross between a horse and a kitten to a machete-wielding man on a roof, Verbinski hasn’t held back creatively.
Gore Verbinski ended his directing hiatus for Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, and fans of the filmmaker will recognize his classic whimsy in this wild adventure that takes place all in the span of a single night during the group’s walk through a few blocks in the neighborhood. The character quirks help maintain the tone across the different scenes.
The Movie Feels Like Watching Multiple Black Mirror Episodes
Without the hilarious character interactions, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die would have been a much darker movie. Its dry wit also helps the movie take on a satirical tone instead of becoming self-serious. Right until the ending, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is able to justify its wacky moments because it maintains a humorous tone throughout its runtime.
However, each expository segment in the movie, which establishes the backstories of the characters, feels like watching a different Black Mirror episode. Each sequence takes a possible use of AI to its extreme, exploring its role in causing a social apocalypse. However, the absurdist nature of these scenes makes the movie darkly funny instead of gloomy.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die Is Somehow Not Cynical
At no point in the movie does Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die let you feel like AI could have a positive impact on humanity. The film is decidedly negative in its opinion of this technology, and yet, the premise isn’t one of destruction. The man from the future simply wants to restrain it with protocols instead of ending it.
Sam Rockwell’s interview on Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die‘s sequel chances addresses the climactic twist of the movie, which is still somehow hopeful despite conveying the director’s disdain for AI as we know it today and for our current social media culture. The film has faith in humanity’s ability to rectify itself and not succumb to such doomed technology.