What do you do when you’ve won literal billions of dollars through the lottery, changing your life forever? Well, if you’re Awkwafina in “Jackpot!,” you immediately go on the run to save said life.
Why? Well, in Paul Feig’s new film, set in the not-too-distant future Los Angeles of 2030, the lottery works a bit differently. In this case, whoever wins the jackpot has to make it to sundown to claim their prize. The catch is, anyone who didn’t have a winning ticket is legally allowed to kill the winner and take their winnings.
Poor Katie (Awkwafina) is just an actress hoping to make it in Hollywood, and unwittingly enters the drawing during an audition. When she’s revealed to be the winner, everyone around her –ranging from other actresses to an actual karate dojo full of students — immediately begins trying to kill her. Well, except for John Cena’s character, Noel.
He wants to protect her and help her get to sundown, but obviously, Katie is skeptical of a stranger who wants to protect her, when he could just kill her and take her winnings.
Then there’s Simu Liu’s character, who runs a protection agency specifically for jackpot winners. It even offers a machine that will create a prosthetic for Katie’s face, disguising her as an old man.
Written by Rob Yescombe and directed by Feig, the movie also features MGK as part of the cast alongside Cena, Liu and Awkwafina. You can watch the full trailer for “Jackpot!” in the video above.
“Jackpot!” begins streaming on Prime Video on August 15.