PLEASE watch ‘Good Luck Have Fun Don’t Die’
You know that feeling when you finish a really good book, or you walk out of a movie theatre and you feel like you see life slightly differently? I've had 2 films make me feel that way in the last year, Superman and Good Luck Have Fun Don't Die - for almost polar opposite but complementary reasons. Superman is inherently hopeful, GLHFDD is a cautionary tale, so it's much more pessimistic. They both left me with the evangelical feeling that other people HAVE to watch these movies, they're that important.
I'll only talk about the opening scene in GLHFDD because you likely haven't seen it due to the limited independent release. Whenever I've mentioned it to people, they've never heard of it.
Less than a month after the theatrical release, it's available for rent/purchase now and well worth the price of admission ($20 on YouTube or Amazon).
GLHFDD starts in a generic American diner, a man walks in wearing a plastic raincoat, various electronic components, leaking tubes, and holding what he claims is the detonator for a bomb. He says he's from a not too distant future, he's come back in time to try and save humanity from its AI overlords and he needs a team to help him, made up of the diner patrons. That's as much plot as I'm going to spill here, but it GOES PLACES.
In a stroke of genius, ‘The Man from the Future’s opening monologue is the core message of the movie. I believe this was done to get the message across before people's attention spans wandered to their phones. Which is what the movie is alllll about. The message could be seen as pretentious, boomer anti-technology ramblings; but it's delivered with such earnestness and desperation that it's coming from a place of genuine fear for the future rather than “good ol’ days” pining or admonishment.
I’ve edited parts of the beginning of the monologue here but it’s so much better hearing it performed by Sam Rockwell and his insane energy in this movie:
“This isn't a robbery! I am from the future! And all of this… goes horribly wrong. Horribly wrong”
“I'm from the future, a future which is totally, completely fucked.”
“It all started with Morning Phone Time”
“At first people would wake up, check their emails in bed, look at Facebook, scroll Twitter, X, Y, Z, whatever. Just a few minutes, no big deal. But morning phone time just got longer, and longer. Eventually people stopped getting out of bed entirely. Society fell apart.”
“No one even noticed that the fucking world had ended.”
….
“Are any of you even listening to me?”
Doesn't that sound and feel relevant for the time we're living through RIGHT NOW?? The phrase “Morning Phone Time” has rewired my brain. I can't bring myself to scroll social media any more because I can feel my agency over my emotions being stolen from me. Starting my morning with an overwhelming barrage of fear was immobilizing, demoralizing, and demotivating. I told myself I was looking for hope in these dark places. In reality I was looking for hay in a needlestack.
That's the impact that Good Luck Have Fun Don't Die has had on me. It's made me crave human connection, and now I'm disgusted by the simulated and monetized version of it. I do believe that social networking had its merits and actually stimulated connection - until greed became more important. I made some lasting friendships on Twitter, people who I met up with in person and truly got to know. I feel like the only connection you'd find on X is your local Klan chapter. Pinterest is unusable due to AI slop. Facebook wants you to be angry and scared. Reddit wants you to doubt reality. Tiktok wants to erode your attention span so only it can satisfy you. (As an aside, the social media app that they use in the movie is so similar to TikTok that I immediately uninstalled it as the credits rolled. I don't want to scroll like a zombie, my time is more valuable than that, and so is yours.)
Despite the depressingly relevant messages, GLHFDD is a really fun and funny movie. It's shocking in the topics it decides to deal with and how it portrays the inhumanity of our responses to those topics. It's a feature length Black Mirror episode without being as bleak and draining to experience. I recommend watching it with a few people if possible. We saw it with a very reactive audience in the theater and going from laughing to shocked gasps with other people really elevated the experience.
If you haven't seen Superman (2025), please rectify that even if you feel burnt out on Superhero movies. It's so delightfully hopeful and human, I finally understand why people are fans of Superman as a character. There are a few quotes that hit so hard that I bought a cheap poster, wrote the quotes on it, and stuck it up in our bedroom so we see it each morning.
I'm only bringing Superman up due to the similar impact it had on me and how it made me feel, I don't think it would make for a good double feature with GLHFDD. No I think a better 2nd movie would be Everything, Everywhere All at Once due to a similar maximalist presentation and creativity. My wish is that GLHFDD gets as much of a fan following as EEAAO, it certainly deserves to be seen as much. I doubt it will win Best Picture but right now it's my top movie of the year.
If/once you've seen any of the 3 films, please comment below or even email me your thoughts - I'm desperate to talk to more people about them. If you liked this article and want to hear more media thoughts, please let me know - movies/TV are a special interest and I love talking about the emotional impact they have on us. Let me know movies that had a similar impact on you, or any fun double features you like to watch.
Good luck, Have Fun, Don't Die
“It's a greeting like “Hello” or “Goodbye”. Like “Aloha”, I guess”
-Hazel Bloom
When I’m not rambling about emotionally impactful movies, I’m available as a Queer Life Coach!
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