Daniel's Gotta Die

Daniel's Gotta Die

Year: 2025

Runtime: 1 h 31 m

Language: english

Director: Jeremy Lalonde

Comedy

Daniel Powell’s attempt to reunite with his estranged siblings takes a dark turn when he learns they all intend to kill him for his inheritance. Trapped together for a weekend at the family’s beach house on the Cayman Islands, the siblings are forced to confront old grudges. Amid the tension and deadly scheming, Daniel is compelled to discover the true meaning of family—whether it saves him or seals his fate.

Dark
Sad ending
Emotionally heavy
High intensity
Fast pacing
Simple story

Warning: spoilers below!

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Timeline & Setting – Daniel's Gotta Die (2025)

Explore the full timeline and setting of Daniel's Gotta Die (2025). Follow every major event in chronological order and see how the environment shapes the story, characters, and dramatic tension.

Time period

Present day

The events take place in contemporary times, with modern dynamics such as social media fame and real-world wealth fueling tensions. The weekend becomes a crucible where ambition, loyalty, and danger collide. The sequence unfolds in real-time on a single estate, turning a family reunion into a deadly confrontation.

Location

Cayman Islands, Beach house

The story unfolds at a secluded luxury beach house on the Cayman Islands, where a fortune is the centerpiece of a tense family gathering. The mansion by the sea embodies old-money prestige and becomes a pressure cooker for secrets, lies, and escalating greed. The setting amplifies the conflict as inheritance and family bonds collide in a remote, opulent backdrop.

🏖️ Beach setting 🏠 Luxury estate 💎 Wealth and power

Last Updated: December 04, 2025 at 15:29

Main Characters – Daniel's Gotta Die (2025)

Meet the key characters of Daniel's Gotta Die (2025), with detailed profiles, motivations, and roles in the plot. Understand their emotional journeys and what they reveal about the film’s deeper themes.

Daniel Powell (Joel David Moore)

Daniel is a principled chef who values family and integrity. He arrives with his fiancée, Emily, hoping to mend rifts after his father’s death and to keep the weekend peaceful. As greed and danger close in, he acts to protect his loved ones, steering the family away from mutual destruction.

🧭 Duty 🍽️ Chef 💖 Loyal

Emily Montgomery (Chantel Riley)

Emily is Daniel's practical and loyal fiancée who remains cool under pressure. She navigates the volatile weekend, supporting Daniel while confronting threats head-on. Her resolve helps them endure and, ultimately, exit the estate together.

🧭 Loyalty 💪 Courage 🧠 Strategist

Jessica Powell (Carly Chaikin)

Jessica is a ruthless social media content creator who wields information like a weapon. She records Lawrence and uses leverage to advance her own interests. Her cold pragmatism marks her as one of the most calculating siblings.

🧠 Schemer 📱 Media 💎 Ambition

Victor Powell (Jason Jones)

Victor is Daniel’s impulsive brother and a cocaine addict whose volatility intensifies the family’s crisis. He collaborates with Mia to poison Daniel, then acts violently in the chaos that follows. His actions cascade into fatal consequences for everyone around him.

🧠 Impulsiveness 💊 Addiction 🗡️ Recklessness

Mia Powell (Mary Lynn Rajskub)

Mia is a domineering sister who wields power with cool certainty. She pushes the poison plot and uses Victor to further her own agenda. Her cruelty accelerates the weekend’s unraveling and contributes to its deadly outcome.

💼 Domination 💬 Manipulation 💎 Ambition

Pierce, the Mailman (Dax Ravina)

Pierce is a mailman who becomes entangled in the siblings’ schemes. He participates in the murder plot against Daniel but ends up bound and knocked out during the confrontation. He dies in the ensuing chaos.

🧰 Covert 🧩 Involvement ⚰️ Tragic

Carter (Varun Saranga)

Carter is Mia’s assistant who accompanies the family to the beach house. He becomes swept up in the inheritance drama and is among those who receive a share of the cash before the house goes up in flames. He represents the collateral impact of the siblings’ greed.

💼 Assistant 🧭 Complicity 💵 Cash

Edward Powell (Iggy Pop)

Edward is the wealthy patriarch whose death sets the plot in motion. On his deathbed, he urges Daniel to spend a weekend with the family to get to know them. His will and instructions catalyze the entire sequence of events.

🧭 Patriarch 🏛️ Wealth 🕯️ Legacy

Lawrence

Lawrence is the family lawyer who reads the will and enforces its conditions. He becomes entangled in the siblings’ schemes when money changes hands and secrets come to light. He is eventually freed after the tension escalates.

🗝️ Legal 🧩 Negotiation 💬 Mediation

Last Updated: December 04, 2025 at 15:29

Major Themes – Daniel's Gotta Die (2025)

Explore the central themes of Daniel's Gotta Die (2025), from psychological, social, and emotional dimensions to philosophical messages. Understand what the film is really saying beneath the surface.

💰 Inheritance

Money is the central motive, turning a family weekend into a high-stakes contest for wealth. The will conditions everyone to remain for the weekend, or forfeit their share. A smashed grandfather clock reveals cash spilled inside, becoming a literal symbol of greed. Siblings scheme and manipulate to secure their place in the fortune, revealing how far they are willing to go.

🕵️‍♂️ Deception

Deceit and hidden motives drive most of the actions, as each sibling conceals their true intentions. Poison plots, blackmail, and recorded leverage show how trust erodes when money is on the line. The attempt to bind Daniel and the subsequent chaos escalate into violent uncertainty. The weekend becomes a web of lies that no one can untangle.

🔥 Destruction

The culmination is a catastrophic fire that destroys the mansion, symbolizing the ruin greed brings upon the family. Daniel and Emily escape the immediate danger while the others are consumed by their own schemes. The fire ends not just wealth, but the siblings’ lives, underscoring the lethal costs of avarice. The physical and moral collapse marks the end of the family saga.

🔒 Power

Power and control over wealth reveal who leads and who follows within the family. Daniel embodies restraint and responsibility, while Mia and Jessica wield ruthlessness as tools to dominate outcomes. The setting amplifies these dynamics, exposing loyalties and the fragility of family bonds under pressure. Ultimately, wealth cannot repair broken trust, only magnify it.

Last Updated: December 04, 2025 at 15:29

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Explore Movie Threads

Discover curated groups of movies connected by mood, themes, and story style. Browse collections built around emotion, atmosphere, and narrative focus to easily find films that match what you feel like watching right now.

Dysfunctional Family Thrillers like Daniel's Gotta Die

Stories where family secrets and greed lead to deadly consequences.If you enjoyed the twisted family dynamics and high-stakes suspense of Daniel's Gotta Die, explore more movies like it. This collection features similar thrillers and dark comedies where greed and betrayal turn family gatherings into deadly games of survival.

suspensefuldysfunctional familygreed-fueledclaustrophobicparanoidtensebetrayalviolent

Narrative Summary

The narrative pattern centers on a family forced together, often by an event like a reading of a will. Long-held resentments and greed quickly surface, escalating from verbal confrontations to plots of violence and murder. The story unfolds in an isolated location, trapping characters and amplifying paranoia until a violent, often tragic, climax.

Why These Movies?

Movies in this thread are grouped by their core premise of familial dysfunction taken to a lethal extreme. They share a dark tone, high intensity from life-or-death stakes, and a focus on the corrosive power of greed and old wounds within a family unit.

Darkly Comedic Crime Stories like Daniel's Gotta Die

Crime stories where the humor is as dark as the deeds.For viewers who liked the blend of crime and dark humor in Daniel's Gotta Die, this section finds similar movies. These films feature bungled criminal schemes, morally ambiguous characters, and a tone that finds comedy in tragedy, leading to sad or bittersweet endings.

darkly comedicgreedcrime gone wrongcynicaltensesuspensefulmoral ambiguityviolent

Narrative Summary

The narratives follow characters—often amateur criminals or desperate people—as they embark on a poorly conceived plan, usually driven by greed. The humor stems from the escalating failures and the ironic consequences of their actions. The journey is fast-paced and chaotic, typically culminating in a downfall that is both deserved and darkly funny.

Why These Movies?

These movies are united by their unique tonal blend: the pacing and stakes of a crime thriller mixed with a dark, cynical sense of humor. They share a high-tension, high-intensity vibe where the comedy undercuts rather than relieves the seriousness of the situation.

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Daniel's Gotta Die Summary

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