It’s the year 2030 in Los Angeles, and a new, vicious game is afoot. The California Grand Lottery, started in response to the Great Depression of 2026, tantalises cash-strapped citizens with hope via a mega-billions jackpot. The catch? If you win, you have to survive until sundown; anyone who kills you – and they have your location – gets your money. Also, no one can use guns.
There are some other stipulations hastily explained in Jackpot!, an Amazon MGM Studios production that, from the jump, struggles to infuse incredibly bleak conditions with lighthearted action humour. LA is beset by worse, though thinly sketched, economic inequality – people use flip phones now, TV anchors cheer a dozen new billionaires, an unhoused couple cooks hotdogs at a camp by a fancy cafe (gasp!). Everyone is perfectly comfortable with murderous zeal for money and ready to kill the moment the winner is announced. “Some people call it dystopian,” a title card reads, “but those people are no fun.”
