In the opening moments of the trailer for director Gore Verbinski’s latest film, “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,” Bay Area-born Sam Rockwell seems to be dripping all over the place. A cluttered mix of hoses, duct tape and clear plastic sheeting covers much of his body, squeaking and swinging as he implores a roomful of stunned onlookers to help him save the future — a future that he himself has just returned from.
Most folks, it seems from the trailer’s initial wide shot, are more eager to return to their late-night pancakes than they are to listen to Rockwell’s gravelly warnings. And with good reason: Norms is one of the most beloved names in the endless galaxy of California diners, and hotcakes are its signature menu item. Norms is the kind of place where Scout troops, date-night couples, families and solo diners (all present in the shot) go to get away from the clatter of the outside world. From the future or not, Rockwell is just getting in the way.
Moments later, a phalanx of police cars arrives out front, setting up in the street beneath the pointed Googie sign that reveals the Norms name in all its historic orange-and-white glory. Things quickly go awry from there, with the Daly City-born Rockwell (credited only as the Man From the Future in the film) trying to assure the uncomfortable while simultaneously saving his own hide from an apocalyptic end. Artificial intelligence is coming for us all, and it won’t be pretty, laments Verbinski’s (he of “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “The Ring” fame) latest film…