Gore Verbinski Reveals the Surprising Inspirations Behind His Bonkers 'Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die' in New Alamo Drafthouse Guest Selects [Exclusive]

1 week ago 10

Sam Rockwell featured on the poster art of Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die.

Published Jan 27, 2026, 9:00 AM EST

Ryan O'Rourke is a Senior News Writer at Collider with a specific interest in all things adult animation, video game adaptations, and the work of Mike Flanagan. He is also an experienced baseball writer with over six years of articles between multiple outlets, most notably FanSided's CubbiesCrib. Whether it's taking in a baseball game, a new season of Futurama or Castlevania: Nocturne, or playing the latest From Software title, he is always finding ways to show his fandom. When it comes to gaming and anything that takes inspiration from it, he is deeply opinionated on what's going on. Outside of entertainment, he's a graduate of Eureka College with a Bachelor's in Communication where he honed his craft as a writer. Between The IV Leader at Illinois Valley Community College and The Pegasus at Eureka, he spent the majority of his college career publishing articles on everything from politics to campus happenings and, of course, entertainment for the student body. Those principles he learned covering the 2020 election, Palestine, and so much more are brought here to Collider, where he has gleefully written on everything from the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes to Nathan Lane baby-birding sewer boys.

Gore Verbinski is officially back. After nearly ten years away, the visionary director behind the original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy and the visually stunning and satirical animated western Rango returns to theaters next month with another creative film with a lot to say — Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die. It marks Verbinski's first foray into sci-fi, starring Sam Rockwell as a scruffy man claiming to be from a future where a rogue AI has turned the world into a dystopian hellscape and attempting to assemble a team of Los Angeles diner patrons for a one-night mission to save everything. Before it debuts on February 13, Collider has once again partnered with Alamo Drafthouse to reveal a new Guest Selects episode highlighting the varied films that inspired the director's bonkers adventure.

Illustrating how crazy Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die gets throughout its runtime, Verbinski thought of two wildly different movies when crafting the beginning of the film and its climax. First on his list was Dog Day Afternoon, Sidney Lumet's 1975 biographical drama about first-time bank robber Sonny Wortzik and his friends. The two features are about as different as it gets, save for Good Luck's opening scene, where Rockwell's scuzzy time traveler walks into the diner and awkwardly holds up everyone inside. His attempts to get the attention of customers who do not believe his seemingly mad ramblings mimic the oddly charming fumblings of Al Pacino's inexperienced Sonny, depicting both characters as being in over their heads, yet surprisingly easy to root for.

In contrast, Verbinski cites the anime masterpiece Akira for the later acts. Without spoiling where Good Luck goes, he says the fight to save the world escalates to levels that mimic the enigmatic nature of Katsuhiro Otomo's cyberpunk action classic. As seen in the trailer, that grounded, if a bit strange beginning, with the man from the future twists into a downright bizarre fight with teen zombies, robots, and terrifying, baffling masses of machinery that seem insurmountable next to his ragtag team of diner patrons and evoke the climax of Akira. Verbinski rounds out his Guest Selects with Alex Cox's 1984 directorial debut, Repo Man, which Alamo will screen at select locations starting in February. While both previous picks were tied to different parts of Good Luck, the Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez sci-fi comedy is more a kindred spirit in the director's eyes. He described Repo Man as "the guiding light" that showed Verbinski how to finally make his wild vision a reality by embracing limitations, leaning into the surreal, and not compromising on the story he wanted to tell.

Verbinski Worked With a Star-Studded Team in 'Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die'

Verbinski's much-anticipated return to filmmaking was penned by Matthew Robinson, best known for co-writing and co-directing the Ricky Gervais comedy The Invention of Lying and working on Love and Monsters and Dora and the Lost City of Gold. In addition to the Oscar-winning Rockwell, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die also counts Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz, Asim Chaudhry, Tom Taylor, and Juno Temple among its star-studded world-saving team. Together, they managed to craft an exciting comeback for the director in the eyes of critics. Since its premiere at Fantastic Fest last year, it has a stellar 94% score on Rotten Tomatoes, including an 8/10 review from Collider's Aidan Kelley, who called it "a raucous sc-fi comedy with extremely ambitious goals and insightful commentary on the current state of the world and how it can evolve (or devolve) into something unrecognizable."

Tickets are on sale now to see Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die in Alamo Drafthouse theaters nationwide on February 13. Check out the exclusive Guest Selects episode with Verbinski in the player above.