The Big Picture

The film Your Lucky Day centers around a tense gas station standoff over a lottery ticket jackpot, with patrons and employees fighting for survival and a cut of the money. Jessica Garza’s character finds herself fending off a police officer alone, armed with the dead cop’s weapons, as she tries to escape the deadly circumstances. The film marks a significant role for Garza, known for her TV work, and also pays tribute to the late Angus Cloud, who plays the robber Sterling responsible for the standoff.

The fight for $156 million is about to begin. Your Lucky Day is set to hit theaters later this week, and Collider can exclusively share a clip from the Angus Cloud-led thriller that sees Jessica Garza fighting for her life in a Sip ‘n Go gas station. She finds herself in that position following an altercation between two patrons over a lottery ticket jackpot which leaves both the original winner and a cop dead while the rest of the customers and employees are just trying to survive. With some life-changing money on the table, however, everyone’s also willing to go to extra lengths to ensure that they walk away with a cut of the cash. For Garza’s character, that means even fending off an officer of the law.

The clip opens not on Garza’s character, but a police officer in an unmarked vehicle who dons a protective mask as he prepares to head inside the gas station. We know from the trailer he’s one of multiple officers attempting to retrieve the ticket from the surviving patrons. One of those officers has already died, though not before wounding Garza. His radio pierces the near silence as his colleague outside checks to see if he’s got eyes on the winning ticket. When there’s no response or confirmation of his whereabouts, the officer exits his vehicle and, despite her desperate attempts to signal for help, Garza is forced to deal with him alone. The tension ratchets up as the officer closes in and Garza struggles to her feet, grabbing the dead cop’s handgun and shotgun to blast the intruder to kingdom come as soon as a flash of him appears in the doorway.

Your Lucky Day looks to be a big jump for Garza who has mostly stuck to television to this point in her career. She’s best known for her roles in The Purge series as well as The History Channel’s Seal Team Six drama Six and Penny Dreadful: City of Angels. Her last feature appearance also came on the small screen with the made-for-TV movie Urban Cowboy featuring Nathalie Kelley and Edward James Olmos. Under writer/director Dan Brown, Garza is set up as one of the characters to root for as she tries to escape the deadly circumstances with a payout that her family desperately needs with a child on the way.

‘Your Lucky Day’ Is a Swan Song for Angus Cloud

Of course, it’s hard to talk about Your Lucky Day without discussing the late Cloud who plays the robber Sterling responsible for getting everyone into this standoff in the first place. The film is one of the last roles for the Euphoria star before his untimely death earlier this year and Brown felt it needed to be dedicated to Cloud’s memory. “It’s not really even mine anymore,” he told Variety at the time. “It’s really for him.” At this year’s Fantastic Fest where the film premiered, Garza and Brown were both effusive in their praise of Cloud’s performance which they described to Collider’s Perri Nemiroff as magnetic, emotional, and unpredictable. This won’t be the last time viewers see him on screen as he finished filming for the star-studded Freaky Tales and an untitled Universal monster movie from Radio Silence which premieres on April 19, 2024.

In addition to Cloud and Garza, Your Lucky Day features the talents of Elliot Knight, Sterling Beaumon, Mousa Hussein Kraish, Spencer Garrett, and Jason O’Mara. The film premieres in theaters on November 10 and will be available through VOD starting on November 14, just in time for a Thanksgiving viewing of this Christmas Eve-set morality tale. Check out the exclusive clip below.