In the near future, a 'Grand Lottery' has been newly established in California - the catch: kill the winner before sundown to legally claim their multi-billion dollar jackpot.
In the very near future, the Grand Lottery has been established in economically challenged California. The only catch? Kill the winner before sundown and you can legally claim their prize. New LA transplant Katie (Awkwafina) accidentally finds herself with the winning ticket and must join forces with amateur jackpot protector Noel (John Cena) to make it to sundown in order to claim her multi-billion dollar prize, all while dealing with Noel's protection rival Louis Lewis (Simu Liu), who also wants to get her to sundown in order to claim his rich protection commission.
By 2030, the financially desperate government of California creates the deadly Grand Lottery: each Lottery Day, the randomly selected winner must survive until sundown; anyone with a losing ticket can kill the winner to claim the multi-million-dollar prize instead, but no one may use guns or bullets.A rugged man (Seann William Scott) runs across the streets of the city as he is attacked by everybody in sight. The rugged manages to survive due to his fighting and survival skills. He runs and hides insides a house where a maid Grandma Tala (Dolly De Leon) is babysitting an infant. Grandma Tala kills the rugged man while pretending to be harmless and claims the lottery before anybody else gets there. Johnny Grand (Murray Hill) runs the lottery show for TV. Johnny hands Tala a check for $22 million.
Former child actor Katie Kim (Awkwafina) arrives in Los Angeles with hopes of reentering show business, unaware of the Lottery and its record $3.6 billion jackpot due to multiple win-less rollovers. The next drawing is in 18 hours' time. Katie is travelling on the bus when she meets an old woman Sweet Irene (Becky Ann Baker). She also disciplines an asshole dad (Adam Ray) who was giving a hard time to his daughter (Rylea Hendreschke) for not landing a part in a movie. Turns out Sweet Irene stole Katie's watch.
Katie rents a room from money-hungry Shadi (Ayden Mayeri) and her boyfriend DJ (Donald Elise Watkins). Katie realizes that the apartment upstairs is leaking sewage, and this ruins all of her clothes. As a result, she has to pay Shadi $40 to rent her clothes as she has an audition. Shadi's clothes are really gaudy. The Uber driver tells Katie that she was in construction earlier and installed the panic room in MGK's house.Katie attends a disappointing audition (which itself costs $400), and inadvertently enters and wins the Lottery.Katie is attacked on sight by everyone around her (including people from her audition, a karate class and a yoga class in the same building). Katie realizes that she has just won $3.6 Billion in the lottery.Katie is soon found by Noel Cassidy (John Cena), a freelance Lottery protection agent who offers his services in exchange for ten percent of her winnings. Fighting off dozens of Katie's murderous "fans" using non-lethal means, Noel and Katie escape in his car, and he explains that a drone tracking Katie will post her location every 14 minutes, but she can officially quit the Lottery by reaching the Grapevine on the outskirts of the city.
Unwilling to trust Noel (as she knows that Noel gets nothing if she quits and believes that Noel is not going to let her get to the Grapevine), Katie realizes that even the police want to kill her and flees on foot. A sympathetic security guard lets her hide inside a wax museum, but a phone call from Shadi leads her and DJ to Katie's location. Shadi and DJ attack Katie inside the museum, but she manages to escape and is rescued by Noel. The duo is pursued by Shadi, DJ, and a sightseeing bus full of tourists.
They drive to MGK's (Machine Gun Kelly) (Colson Baker) mansion and commandeer his panic room, shooting him with tranquilizer darts, and Noel assures Katie of his commitment to helping her. Noel says that he is a nice person at heart.Shadi coerces MGK to give up the panic room's pass-code, forcing Noel to call in a favor with the Lewis Protection Agency. Before the mob can break in, the LPA short-circuits their phones (The phones start exploding and put the mob members on fire forcing them to run away. Shadi gets a burn on her face and DJ's hand is injured) and Agent Hyot (Monique Ganderton) drives Katie and Noel to safety.
At LPA's high-tech facility, Katie meets Louis Lewis (Simu Liu), the head of the agency, who agrees to protect her in exchange for the LPA receiving thirty percent of the prize money. Katie argues that Noel was protecting her way before the LPA and forces Louis to assign a 30% commission to Noel out of his cut.Noel reveals that he and Louis are the sole survivors of a team of mercenaries. But then Noel bailed on a mission knowing that they were killing innocent people and not enemies of the state. After Noel bails, Louis leads the raid and only he survives. Noel uses his protection earnings to support the families of their fallen comrades.Katie reveals that she was a child actor, and her father was her manager. When she turned 18, she told her father that she would take care of her own money and the next morning he vanished with all her money. Then her mother got sick, and Katie had to quit acting to take care of her.Katie is given an elaborate prosthetic disguise and prepares to be driven to safety, but Noel suspects that the LPA has been murdering their clients, keeping the winners anonymous and claiming their winnings. Noel argues that the 30% free that Louis charges is not big enough to support an operation as large as his.The suspicions are confirmed when Louis wants Katie to be separated from Noel when she is being driven away from the facility to a safe-house.Noel allows the crowd of "fans" into the facility, allowing Katie to drive away alone, and is captured by Louis.
Before Katie can reach the Grapevine, Louis calls, threatening to kill Noel unless she surrenders. Louis brings Noel to an abandoned theater, admitting that he killed their fellow mercenaries to keep a stash of gold for himself. Louis says that the family they killed was guarding the gold for mobsters and there was no danger in the raid. Once the gold was secure Louis killed his comrades to avoid splitting the earnings. Louis used the money to build his business.
Katie arrives and forces Louis to spare Noel by threatening to kill herself and forfeit the jackpot, live-streaming on her phone as proof. The live-stream summons Katie's "fans", and she and Noel fight off the mob and the LPA. Cornered by Louis high above the stage, Katie manages to kill him with his own grenades, but falls from the scaffolding. However, she is caught by a crowd of genuine fans who have arrived to help, just as the Lottery deadline runs out. She and Noel celebrate her victory.
Six months later, Katie and Noel have used her prize money to open a variety of businesses and non-profits, including their own protection agency that guards Lottery winners for free.Mid-credits scenes reveal that they have bought a super-yacht, acknowledging that money has changed them, while MGK orders an improved panic room and more darts, and the Grand Lottery prepares to expand across the country.
