Sure, it’s a weird title, but I didn’t know the name of the movie, what it was about, or who the actors were. Chances are I wouldn’t have bought a ticket to see it in the theater if I knew any of this beforehand. Yes, it was time for another Mystery Movie Monday! I MAY have paid to see this in the theater knowing Sam Rockwell was in this.
Last night’s movie was Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, directed by Sam Raimi and starring Sam Rockwell, a visitor from the future, and Haley Lu Richardson, Juno Tenple and Michael Peňa among others, as the characters Rockwell’s Man from the Future picks to save the world from AI. That is the character’s actual name – Man from the Future. You don’t know when he came from, or where, just that AI has completely taken over, and his job is to save humanity.
You meet the characters in a diner, with everyone scrolling on their phones, predictably, even when they are seated with another person. In walks Rockwell, looking rather … raggedy. He reveals a bomb strapped to his chest, and demands six of the people in the diner need to come with him.
I didn’t even recognize Sam Rockwell because his grungy man from the future look was so well done. Haley Lu Richardson was easier to recognize, though I never expected to see her in a Disney princess costume. Michael Peña was the easiest to recognize for me.
The movie is a satire at times of the societal issues that plague us – technology and AI, gun control, knowing who to trust. As you meet rhe characters, you see how technology has taken over various aspects of their lives. Teachers can’t control or teach in classrooms, relationships break down, and that’s just in present day.
Technology even becomes a way to combat gun violence. Your child is killed in a school shooting? This robot can replace your kid. Of course, capitalism rears its ugly head, because unless you pay an extra fee, your child becomes a conduit for advertising and product placement plugs.
The focus on how technology and AI are consuming society and how we consume it is especially timely this year. A court case will determine if social media platforms are responsible for leading to the deaths of children because of their addictive tendencies and how the platforms prey on impressionable youth. Communities are rallying against data centers being built around them as they consume resources in vast capacities. Employers are gauging how employees can best use AI in their jobs, and which employees can be replaced with AI technology. Dozens of Fortune 500 companies announced layoffs due to automation in the 4th quarter of 2205 and the first quarter of 2026..
So can we rein in technology before they take us over, or will we need Sam Rockwell to rescue us?
Sravanthi Meka 