Accepting Unconditionally: Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die

[DISCLAIMER]

*Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (2025) spoilers contained herein

Photo credit, property of Constantin Film, Blind Wink Productions, 3 Arts Entertainment, and Briarcliff Entertainment, fair use

Both personally and professionally, I practice Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) on a daily basis. Additionally, this helpful rehearsal sometimes continues into my sleeping hours. That’s when preparation regarding fantastical events can get pretty interesting!

With this in mind, I recently watched the science fiction comedy film Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (2025). Summarizing the imaginative plot, one source states:

A “Man From the Future” arrives at a diner in Los Angeles where he must recruit the precise combination of disgruntled patrons to join him on a one-night quest to save the world from the terminal threat of a rogue artificial intelligence [AI].

Personally, concerning creative interest, the film was of similar quality to the absurdist comedy-drama film Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). While some people may reject the comparison, I kindly invite them to “put everything on a bagel” that could possibly be said.

In any event, there are many topics which could be addressed regarding Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die. Still, in the interest of time, I’ll narrow my focus to only one. In the film, character Susan’s son, Darren, is murdered during what is portrayed as a common school shooting event.

For now, I’ll forgo personal and professional commentary pertaining to school shooting casualties versus shower-related fatalities, motor vehicle accident deaths, and so forth and so on, as sensational narratives which villainize firearms are irrationally more appealing to people.

Rather, I’ll address Susan’s refusal to accept, without unhelpful conditions, that Darren died. For context, Susan has a clone made of her dead son. This is done as a means of experiencing welcomed joy and pleasure instead of unwelcomed grief, bereavement, or mourning.

This is the stuff of my fantastical dreams! All the same, while the science fiction element of the film may seem preposterous, I suggest that it’s a matter of art imitating life. For instance, one 2009 source reported:

The Singularity — the prophesied moment when artificial intelligence leaps ahead of human intelligence, rendering man both obsolete and immortal — has been jokingly called “the rapture of the geeks.” But to Ray Kurzweil, the most famous of the Singularitarians, it’s no joke. In a profile in the current issue of Rolling Stone (not available online), Kurzweil describes how, in the wake of the Singularity, it will become possible not only to preserve living people for eternity (by uploading their minds into computers) but to resurrect the dead.

Kurzweil looks forward in particular to his reunion with his beloved father, Fredric, who died in 1970. “Kurzweil’s most ambitious plan for after the Singularity,” writes Rolling Stone’s David Kushner, “is also his most personal.” […] There’s a real poignancy to Kurzweil’s dream of bringing his dad back to life by weaving together strands of DNA and strands of memory. I could imagine a novel — by Ray Bradbury, maybe — constructed around his otherworldly yearning. Death makes strange even the most rational of minds. […]”

With the advancement of AI since that article was released, one 2026 source has stated, “Depending on who you believe, the singularity is either about to happen, or already should have happened.” For example, a separate 2024 source reports:

“I loved my dad, I was losing my dad,” says James, who is based in Oakland, California.

He was determined to make the most of the remaining time he had with his father. “I did an oral history project with him, where I just spent hours, and hours, and hours just audio recording his life story.”

This coincided with a time when James was starting to explore a career in AI, so his project soon evolved.

“I thought, gosh, what if I could make something interactive out of this?” he says. “For a way to more richly keep his memories, and some sense of his personality, which was so wonderful, to keep that around.”

James’ father John passed away in 2017, but not before James had turned what he’d recorded into an AI-powered chatbot that could answer questions about his dad’s life – in his father’s voice.

Such use of AI to artificially bring people back to life has long been explored in science fiction, but developments in AI technology have now made it possible in real life. In 2019, James turned his chatbot into an app and business called HereAfter AI, which allows users to do the same for their loved ones.

I don’t begrudge anyone like James or others who created HereAfter AI, refusing to accept the loss of loved ones, or Susan in Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die who behaved in a similar manner. Still, I find it useful to contemplate this matter through the proverbial lens of REBT.

To better understand this matter, I offer that a conditional belief syllogism is a form of deductive reasoning that uses if-then or either-or conditional premises where the validity of the conclusion is judged based on whether it aligns with preexisting knowledge rather than its logical structure.

As an example, “If I’m not ready for my loved one to die, then I won’t accept my loved one’s death.” Similarly, “Either the people I love won’t die before me, or I won’t accept the death of my loved ones.” These sorts of rigid conditions are what cause unpleasant self-disturbance.

For more background, REBT uses unconditional acceptance (UA) to relieve self-induced suffering. This is accomplished through use of unconditional self-acceptance (USA), unconditional other-acceptance (UOA), and unconditional life-acceptance (ULA).

With my approach to REBT, I incorporate author Stephen Covey’s concepts regarding the circles of control, influence, and concern, as well as an area of no concern. UA maps onto the circle of control (USA), circle of influence (UOA), and circle of concern and area of no concern (ULA).

The circle of control encompasses only oneself, the circle of influence encapsulates elements which may be subject to one’s sway, the circle of concern engrosses most matters one can imagine, and the area of no concern relates to all content which isn’t yet imagined.

Accepting unconditionally an inevitable death is a matter of ULA. Without use of inflexible if-then or either-or conditional beliefs, it isn’t necessary to disturb yourself into having a clone made or chatbot developed for your deceased loved one. Instead, you can simply accept death.

Perhaps you’ll take into consideration an REBT approach to the inescapability of death, perhaps not. If the latter represents your unhealthy worldview, then good luck (or farewell, as I don’t believe in luck), have fun, you’re going to die—as no clone or AI construct will remedy this end.

If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life—helping you to sharpen your critical thinking skills, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.

As a psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues ranging from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.

At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!

Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW

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