Film Title: Jackpot
Cast: Awkwafina, John Cena, Ayden Mayeri, Donald Elise Watkins, Machine Gun Kelly, Simu Liu
Director: Paul Feig (The Office TV Series, A Simple Favor)
Writer: Rob Yescombe
Distribution: Amazon Prime Video
Production: Amazon MGM Studios
Release Date: August 15, 2024
Review by: Mother of Movies
This review keeps the major twists under wraps, but discusses specific scenes and character dynamics. If you’re the type who covers their eyes during trailers, maybe bookmark this for after viewing. We’ve included a major spoiler at the end in a clickable hidden section
Jackpot Review: When The Purge Meets Powerball in Peak Absurdist Glory
In a world where billionaires multiply while stock markets crash, Jackpot arrives like a fever dream born from scrolling too much dystopian Twitter. Paul Feig’s latest offering takes the “eat the rich” narrative and flips it into “kill the newly rich,” creating a blood-soaked lottery system that makes The Hunger Games look like a church raffle.
The Setup: Death by Democracy
The film opens with Sean William Scott (described only as “Rugged Man”) sprinting through crowds like he’s late for the world’s deadliest Black Friday sale. What follows is a spectacular opening scene. Scott, beloved goofball of American Pie fame, races through an opening sequence that deserves a standing ovation. The juxtaposition of Scott’s panicked flight through a grandmother’s nursery, complete with a cooing baby, foreshadows what every Jackpot winner could go through when there is $22 million on the line. Survive until sundown. It sets the tone perfectly: this is a world where murder has a jingle.
Enter Our Reluctant Millionaire
Awkwafina’s Katie stumbles into this carnage with the kind of obliviousness that would make a horror movie final girl jealous. She’s an actress between gigs, riding buses through a city where crime sprees mark lottery day like Christmas morning. The film’s epicenter is that Katie somehow missed the memo on a government-sanctioned murder lottery that’s been running since 2026. It’s the kind of plot hole that should sink a film, but instead becomes part of its absurdist charm.
Her excuse? Dead mother, no news consumption. In a world where everyone carries smartphones and death games trend on social media, Katie’s ignorance feels less like character development and more like narrative convenience. But here’s the thing: in a film where John Cena can snap handcuffs like rubber bands and Machine Gun Kelly plays himself (like he does in most of the films he is in), logic takes a backseat to spectacle. And we are here for it.
Cena: The Protector We Didn’t Know We Needed
John Cena’s Noel crashes through the roof in a suit, offering his services for a modest 10% when Katie’s $3.2 billion prize is accidentally awarded to her via a wardrobe mishap. His entrance alone, dropping from above like a buff guardian angel, justifies the price of admission. Cena’s physicality transforms every fight sequence into choreographed chaos. Whether he’s weaponizing yoga studio equipment or demonstrating the proper recovery position for unconscious assailants. Cena’s performance in Jackpot had me watch Heads of State immediately after, and possibly fuelling the desire to watch many more of his previous films.
The film’s running gag of placing defeated enemies in recovery position (“so they don’t choke on their tongues”) is the kind of darkly considerate violence that elevates Jackpot above standard action fare. It’s brutality with a conscience, murder with manners. And with the newly defined underpinning relationship formed between Noel and Katie, the film paces its beats like it’s in a race for making records. They work, they are heartwarming, and their narrative arc hits you right in the feel-good movie heart.
The Absurdist Thread
Jackpot operates in that sweet spot between social commentary and Saturday morning cartoon logic. When Katie punches Cena and breaks his nose, he simply pushes it back into place like a Ken doll. These moments of physical impossibility aren’t bugs; they’re features, signaling that we’re in a world where normal rules don’t apply. The title has an R rating, so this wasn’t done to appeal to a wider audience; it’s just another example of humour that treads deep within the laugh-out-loud moments offered up.
The film’s production design deserves special mention. Machine Gun Kelly’s panic room, kitted out like a rock star’s fever dream, provides the perfect hideout for our protagonists. Kelly himself, playing an exaggerated version of his public persona, delivers dialogue with all the natural charm of a GPS navigation system. It’s almost impressive how he manages to be wooden while playing himself. I love him, but he should stick to music. I watched Good Mourning a while back, and let’s just say no one should have to go through that. Let that be a warning.
Systemic Satire Meets Spectacular Violence
The Lottery Protection Agency (LPA) introduces another layer of capitalist melodrama. Run by what appears to be hundreds of employees, they charge 30% to keep winners alive, a protection racket with government backing (say less). Given the massive payouts involved, I questioned why more people aren’t in the winner-protection business. The answer, implied rather than stated, is that the system is designed to fail.
Simu Liu’s, Louis Lewis, the LPA leader with history in Cena’s mercenary past, represents the film’s most interesting moral complexity. The revelation that no one they have protected has won since 2029 (in a lottery that began in 2026) isn’t subtle, but subtlety was never the point.
Final Act Frenzy
The climactic theatre showdown delivers the goods. Katie’s fake face gambit, choosing an elderly Asian man’s appearance, provides both comedy and commentary on identity in surveillance culture. That she immediately removes the disguise upon reaching safety is classic horror movie logic: the smart choice abandoned for plot necessity.
The film’s final minutes ramp up tension effectively, with Lewis and Katie’s confrontation providing genuine stakes. We won’t spoil the ending here, but have included more details about what happens in the final moments in a clickable hidden section at the end of the Jackpot! review.
The Verdict: Controlled Chaos
Jackpot succeeds because it commits fully to its ridiculous premise. Like The Purge crossed with Running Man, filtered through Paul Feig’s comedy sensibilities, it creates a world where extreme violence serves both laughs and social commentary. The film’s 90s-influenced soundtrack (which deserves verification but sounds period-perfect) adds another layer of nostalgic energy to the proceedings.
The six-month epilogue, showing Katie and Cena’s “Free For All” protection service, provides satisfying closure. At the same time, the outtakes remind us that everyone involved knew exactly what kind of film they were making. In a year of franchise fatigue and formulaic blockbusters, Jackpot feels refreshingly unhinged.
Filmmaker Spotlight: Paul Feig continues his streak of subverting genre expectations, following A Simple Favor and the Ghostbusters reboot with another film that uses familiar frameworks to explore contemporary anxieties. Rob Yescombe, making his feature writing debut, brings video game narrative sensibilities (he worked on Crysis 2) to create a world with clear rules and escalating stakes.
Dystopian comedy films streaming that you can watch next: Fingernails / Mad Heidi Production Companies: Big Indie Pictures (in association with), Amazon Studios, Feigco Entertainment, Roth/Kirschenbaum Films. Similar Films: The Hunt (2020), The Purge series, Ready or Not (2019), Mayhem (2017), Guns Up 2025.
Jackpot! 2025 is rated:
4.5 Lottery balls covered in blood and good intentions out of 5.
Absurdist Chaos & Social Commentary
Jackpot is what happens when The Purge meets Powerball in the hands of someone who understands that absurdity and social commentary make perfect bedfellows. Cena and Awkwafina’s chemistry elevates every ridiculous moment.
⚠️ Spoiler Alert: Jackpot
ackpot’s most darkly comic turn fires in rapid succession at the opening. Because Mother of Movies would hate to spoil one of the greatest moments in the film, let’s talk about it in this spoiler section. Our lead meets an unexpectedly brutal end, courtesy of a sweet old lady who’s far deadlier than she looks. What starts as a harmless encounter ends with The Rugged Man getting his head ventilated by what seems like a toy gun, but it hits with the precision of a metal dart.
It’s a “no one is safe” moment that channels The Hunt’s ruthless energy, as misplaced trust earns a bullet to the forehead. The irony is capped off by a gleefully twisted celebration, a full-on lottery winner fanfare announcing his $22 million death. In this world, even murder comes with a jingle. And we love that they used a cult classic favorite actor like Seann William Scott to have us instantly off guard.
