THE LOVEBIRDS

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

The film starts with Jibran (Kumail Nanjiani) and Leilani (Issa Rae) preparing to part ways after a night together. However, they end up getting breakfast, spark a connection, and eventually form a relationship. However, jump to four years later and the two are at each other’s throats, constantly bickering over petty things like how Leilani wants to get the two of them on “The Amazing Race” and Jibran’s stubbornness.

The two are on their way to a dinner party for their friends Bobby (Jaren Mitchell) and Reya (Betsy Borrego). After another argument, they come to the conclusion that things aren’t working out between them, and they decide to break up. Almost immediately after, a man (Nicholas X. Parsons) hits their windshield. The former couple is spooked and tries to help, but he rides away on his bicycle. Leilani grabs his phone after he fails to retrieve it. Another man (Paul Sparks) tells the two that he’s a cop and takes control of their car to catch the guy. After a long chase, they catch the cyclist in an alley where the other man runs him over repeatedly before leaving their car. They realize the man is not who he seems, and they sit in shocked silence at the dead man in the alley. A hipster couple walks by and is stunned (but also takes pictures for social media) and they report the scene to the police, forcing Jibran and Leilani to run.

They go to a diner to calm down and figure out their next move. As they try to come up with an alibi, Leilani gets a call from Detective Martin (Andrene Ward-Hammond), as her team has found her car at the scene of the crime. Leilani tries to pretend that she is at home until the ruse is blown by Martin hearing the waitress. Jibran puts her phone in a milkshake, and the two realize they are now screwed. Leilani then decides their best option is to go out and solve the murder themselves in order to vindicate themselves. Their first lead is a message from a woman named Edie planning to meet at a club called Dragon’s Den.

Jibran and Leilani arrive at the club and are told to meet Edie on the balcony. They find her (Anna Camp), but she thinks that they were sent by the man on the bicycle (who is just referred to as “Bicycle”). Edie has them knocked out and brought back to her home’s stable, tied up to chairs. She thinks the two are working for Bicycle and his employer and that they are in possession of pictures of her husband Brett (Kyle Bornheimer). Despite Jibran and Leilani insisting they have nothing to do with these people. Edie threatens the two with either scalding hot bacon grease to the face, or whatever is behind the barn door. Not wanting to get burn scars, Jibran picks the door. He gets a horse who kicks him square in the chest. Leilani opts for the bacon grease, but as Jibran is seeing himself, Leilani kicks the grease onto Brett, while Jibran attacks Edie. He grabs a piece of paper off the floor and fights off the other couple before retreating with Leilani.

The two go to a store to change their clothes since Jibran had Bicycle’s blood on him. As they await a Lyft ride, they talk playfully and reminisce about a couple on a bad date that they saw while on their own first date. Using the clue from the paper Jibran grabbed, they go to the home of a bunch of frat boys who are stuffing pictures in envelopes like the ones that Edie was talking about. They try to grab the envelope, but they are caught by one of the frat boys, Steve (Moses Storm). Jibran fights him but Leilani manages to get Steve down. They force him to reveal what the pictures are for, and he says that Bicycle (real name Tom) is who they work for. In the background, the killer (known as “Mustache”) starts killing the other frat boys. Steve goes out and gets himself killed. Jibran and Leilani hide in the closet and Mustache comes in and starts talking to his employer. When he leaves, the two grab an envelope with pictures and flee through the fire escape.

Jibran and Leilani know that Tom had to be somewhere, so they go to Bobby and Reya’s dinner party to meet Leilani’s IT coworker Keith (Mahdi Cocci), whom Jibran is jealous of since he thinks Leilani had eyes for him before they even broke up. They arrive at the party pretending to have come from a boxing class (to excuse their disheveled appearances), and they get Keith to open up the phone. Jibran talks to Keith, who says Leilani talks about him a lot, while Leilani tells Reya that she and Jibran broke up and thinks that she and Bobby are the better couple, but Reya admits that they do not have it that easy and are having their own problems. Keith unlocks the phone, and Jibran sees an invitation to an exclusive event with an address attached. They borrow clothes from Bobby and Reya before leaving.

The two arrive at the party, which is for a cult called Sanctarium. Edie and Brett are there, but Jibran and Leilani stay out of sight because it’s a masked event. They are seated and witness several members get called to the middle of the room to engage in an orgy. It is interrupted when the heads of the cult announce that they have been tipped off to cops arriving and that they have imposters among them. Jibran and Leilani are exposed, but before the cult can capture them, the police raid the place and bring the two into custody.

Jibran and Leilani are in interrogation, where they admit things to each other like how Leilani saw Jibran’s unfinished documentary and thought it was good, despite him being too nervous to show it to her. Detective Martin comes in and tells them that they are not the suspects in the murders because traffic cameras captured the scene of the incident, which totally vindicates the two from their involvement. They explain what they saw to Martin, who reveals that they have been trying to take Sanctarium down for a while, and the couple has helped in it, but Martin says they can go home and give their statements in the morning.

The two are being escorted home, but unfortunately, their driver is Mustache. He says he really is a cop, but he was paid off by Sanctarium to keep their activities under the radar of the police. He plans to take Jibran and Leilani somewhere to execute them. He takes them to the docks and ties them up in a boat, but Leilani manages to free herself and wrestle the gun away from Mustache. He holds Jibran in a headlock and dares Leilani to shoot him. They start arguing, and Mustache says they’re annoying, but they manage to pull off a good shot and hit Mustache into the water. He tries to jump back for another attack, but he’s knocked back down.

Jibran and Leilani are treated by paramedics while Mustache is arrested. They decide to reconcile and have sex in the back of the ambulance.

A year later, Jibran and Leilani have officially entered to compete in “The Amazing Race”. They are horrified to see that one of their challenges involves a horse.

Jibran and Leilani have been together for four years, but their constant bickering and disagreeing has led them to realize they should break up. Suddenly, they are involved in a murder when a man takes their car and kills another man. The former couple is forced to go on the run and clear their names.

The two learn from one couple that there are pictures being used as blackmail against them, leading them to a group of frat boys who are sending the pictures who get killed by the same killer from before. Jibran and Leilani get closer to the end as they find a lead to their next location.

The cops raid the location where they end up, which is a front for a sex cult. The couple is vindicated since camera footage shows they are innocent, but the killer cop catches them and tries to execute them, but Jibran and Leilani fight and take him down.

The couple reconciles and competes in The Amazing Race.