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