Long-time big actor Bruce Diamond, former child star of the Disney TV series The Comet Brothers, finds himself mulling what he believes is his midlife crisis for his acting career. Branded as one of the most popular actors working in modern science fiction cinema, Bruce Diamond has to still deal with his latest box office bomb, Space Ranger, a big Disney produced spectacle, that Bruce knows is a death knell for his legacy. Desperate for breaking himself out of the roles he has been typecasted for, Bruce figures he can usurp the status quo in Hollywood by taking on roles for television shows and movies against the advice of his agent Lorenzo Caruso, who tries to reign in Bruce from getting himself into any more trouble.
The heads of studios in Hollywood are not happy with Bruce deciding to flip his nose at them. The leader of their hegemony, Bill Nightingale, figures that it’s time to hire Bob Roe, a star whacker who has a noted reputation for killing famous celebrities for helping studios profit off their deaths when some actors are worth more dead than alive. Bob is hired to keep Bruce in line by threatening him to do the roles that the studios want him to perform or otherwise be found dead by making it look like Bruce died from drug overdose. Bob is no stranger to Bruce when he has been Bruce’s “handler” throughout his early adolescence in doping up Bruce while he was a television star in providing Bruce his fixes to make him an easier actor to control.
Bruce is utterly oblivious to the thought that he has a target on his head when he already has enough to think about in his life. Bruce bears his struggles at trying to appease his wife Sherry, who he has an open marriage with out of the hopes it would improve their relationship. As Bruce sleeps around with his mistress Sandra Lopez, meanwhile Sherry is dating Ethan Cole, a male model turned actor who costars with Bruce in Space Ranger. Sandra nor Ethan are aware that Bruce and Sherry are having an open marriage, and both of them believe they have Bruce and Sherry exclusively for themselves.
Bruce eventually fears his impending end for his career in that he has nothing to look forward to in taking on new roles, nor does he see much of a horizon for his marital life from tending to Sherry and their adopted son Tyler, that is until he meets a mysterious producer named Daryl Holliday. Daryl offers Bruce a role on a western called Appalachia that would allow Bruce to fake his death on a stage that was built by an apprentice of the great Harry Houdini to become an entirely new actor with all the wealth and fame to his name. Bruce gladly takes on the offer, abandoning his whole career, along with his love life, to fake his death on the mysterious stage in what is made to look like a freak accident on the set to become a new actor named Damian Bruno.
Puzzled by the untimely death of Bruce Diamond, everyone who was affiliated with Bruce is dramatically affected by the loss. Bob grows skeptical that Bruce died the way it was reported, and tries to find out the truth of what happened to Bruce in hopes he can complete the job of putting a hit on Bruce. Sherry, who originally cut out a deal with Bob to fake Bruce’s death in paying him off for it, partners up with Bob to investigate into Bruce’s mysterious demise on Appalachia.
Meanwhile, Bruce lives out his new life as Damian Bruno by starring in a new film called The Chaperone with his costars Sandra and Ethan, who begin to develop a relationship with one another after Bruce and Sherry are no longer in their lives. Everything goes well until Sandra undergoes a special technique to get into her role on The Chaperone, then all hell breaks loose.
Going from Hollywood glory to pure insanity, The Golden Hour is an epic comedy that follows the rise and downfall of movie stars who never realized how good they had it until it hits them.
