A special Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) unit of four officers plays football and parties together during off hours. Sergeant Frank Daly, a middle-aged veteran, is the mentor for Wayne Gross, Ricky Rodriguez, and Howard “Hojo” Johnson. Their LAPD supervisor is Captain Joe Torres, a longtime friend of Daly’s, but Torres wants to keep a tight rein on their activities. Thanks to tips from a snitch named “Fast Eddie,” the unit’s surveillance of a drug operation led by Anthony Reece leads them to a meat packing plant, where trucks bring money and leave with cocaine. Poised to raid the place, Frank Daly contacts Capt. Torres for backup from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and LAPD, but Torres tells Frank not to proceed without a warrant and “probable cause.” Regardless, the officers raid the operation and a gunfight ensues. Men are killed, a couple of trucks escape, and Reece sets fire to a bin of drug money, creating an evidence-destroying explosion. Later, when Reece drives to a mountaintop lair owned by arms dealer R. J. Norringer and reports that money for their upcoming “exchange” was destroyed, Norringer demands that Reece replace it. At a police party, Capt. Torres informs Frank Daly that his unit is being suspended. The four officers volunteer to repair a septic tank at a police-supported youth park. As they dig, Fast Eddie stops by to tell Frank he has lined up a prostitute named Haley to spend a weekend with Anthony Reece. When the detectives spy on Reece as he waits for the hooker, a man gives Reece a manila envelope. During a football game between LAPD officers and DEA agents, Hojo Johnson recognizes the opposing quarterback as the man who gave Reece the envelope. Daly learns from a DEA player that the quarterback’s name is Travers, an agent from Washington, D.C. Later, Fast Eddie telephones Frank to report that Reece beat up Haley during their weekend together, but she learned a few names if Frank is willing to pay for them. Alerting his unit, Frank rushes to the motel where Fast Eddie and Haley are staying, but before they arrive, Reece’s right-hand man, Stant, stabs the couple to death. The killer speeds out of the motel parking lot as the unit arrives in three cars, and Hojo Johnson follows in hot pursuit. Stant pulls into a deserted area, lures Hojo out of his car, and impales him with a steel rod. The following morning, Frank informs Hojo’s pregnant girl friend, Anita, of his death. Frank also alerts Torres that a federal agent is involved with Reece. Frank, Wayne, and Ricky are called before a police hearing because their unauthorized operation led to the death of a detective, but Frank resigns rather than be suspended. Though Wayne and Ricky are reassigned to other units, they quit the force to join Frank’s private investigation of Hojo’s death. Meanwhile, Washington, D.C., political aide Lauren Calvert demands that R. J. Norringer have millions in drug money ready in forty-eight hours. Needing funds to pay for their secret operation against Reece’s drug ring, Frank, Wayne, and Ricky use a city trash truck to smash into a fortified “crack house” and rob the dealer of $29,000. They use the money to purchase military arms from an underworld broker. Frank’s wife, Linda, challenges his decision to be a vigilante, because they have small children, but he tells her he cannot stop until Hojo’s killer is found. Resuming their surveillance, the team follows Reece to a meeting hall where a “Central American Relief Fund” dinner is held. The keynote speaker is R. J. Norringer, who regales the audience about the need to financially supply Central American anti-communist “freedom fighters” with weapons. Leaving the dais, Norringer joins Reece, and the two climb to the roof, where Norringer’s helicopter awaits. Wayne videotapes the men talking before Norringer flies away. Since the videotape has no sound, the vigilantes visit a police retirement home and enlist Frank’s old friend, Tommy Grogan, who can read lips. Tommy deciphers Reece’s message that the ship docks at San Pedro, California, tomorrow night, and Norringer’s response that the money must leave with the shipment. Frank soon learns that Norringer is a former U.S. Navy rear admiral who went into the private sector three years earlier. Spying on Norringer’s shipyard, the vigilantes see military trucks driving into a warehouse. Meanwhile, Tommy Grogan contacts Capt. Torres and tells him about Norringer and the San Pedro shipment. Torres thanks him, nods to Stant in the hallway, and leaves the retirement home. That night, Frank, Wayne, and Ricky sneak into Norringer’s warehouse, where tanks, rockets, and bags of cocaine are arrayed. Stacks of money are loaded into a truck. When guards spot and challenge the vigilantes, a gunfight ensues, and the three steal a tractor-trailer and crash through the gates in a hail of bullets. Returning to their car on a deserted street, they pass under a railroad trestle that knocks the trailer off its chassis. Money spills out. The three men pile the money in Frank Daly’s van and escape. Returning to the youth park, they count the money and discover that they have $22 million in used $100 bills. Stashing and sealing the cash into trash bags, they sink it into the septic tank. Returning to the camp clubhouse, Frank finds Tommy Grogan’s body in his locker and realizes the bad guys know who robbed them. Frank rushes home to his family, where Linda Daly is being pursued by Stant. The assassin has broken into the house, but Linda locks the bedroom door. She drops her son out the window, hands him his infant sister, and tells the boy to run for help. Stant disappears as Frank, Wayne, and Ricky arrive. They round up their wives, girl friends, and children and take refuge in an empty house that was seized and locked up by the city’s district attorney. Since the money is untraceable, they discuss whether to turn it in or flee to another country and live like millionaires. Frank, Wayne, and Ricky return to the retirement home and learn that Torres was there shortly before Tommy Grogan left with another man. A newscast on a nearby television displays bloodied civilians lying in a street in a Nicaraguan town, victims of freedom fighters from Guatemala. Finding Torres at a restaurant, Frank confronts him with what he knows. Torres admits he was involved in Tommy’s death, but claims the old cop was a casualty of a war the U.S. is losing to communists. Torres recounts how Fidel Castro’s soldiers killed members of his family in Cuba during the revolution, and swears he will not let it happen elsewhere in Latin America. Frank tells Torres that if Norringer wants his money back, he must retrieve it in person at the youth camp at midnight. Otherwise, it will be burned. When Torres meets with Norringer and Reece at the mountain lodge, Reece suspects Frank is setting a trap, but Norringer cannot afford to lose the money. Meanwhile, the three vigilantes bury explosives and guns on the camp baseball field and don bulletproof body armor. Near midnight, Frank turns on the field lights and stands in the middle of the baseball diamond, while Ricky and Wayne lie in wait with automatic weapons. Six automobiles arrive, and as soon as Reece and Torres frisk Frank, they radio Norringer to land his helicopter. Upon arrival, Norringer insults Frank and his family, and Frank hits him. Stant puts a knife to Frank’s throat. Frank tells Norringer the money is in the nearby septic tank. As Norringer gives Stant the order to kill Frank, Torres grabs the killer’s hand and is stabbed to death instead, giving Frank a chance to break away. Wayne and Ricky open fire on the gunmen, and Stant and other henchmen are killed. Several booby traps explode, including one in the septic tank. As Reece pulls up bags of money from the cesspool muck, an explosion kills him and sends liquid excrement flying everywhere, blotting the windshield of Norringer’s helicopter. Police cars arrive, and as Norringer flees, a policeman shoots the helicopter’s rotor, causing the aircraft to crash in a fiery explosion. Later, at the christening of the Det. Sgt. Howard “Hojo” Johnson Park, a full LAPD honor guard is present as Anita, now the mother of Hojo’s infant, cuts the ribbon. Frank, Wayne, and Ricky have been reinstated as LAPD detectives. A portable television airs White House aide Lauren Calvert delivering a national speech denying the administration’s involvement in the Norringer scandal. However, she adds that the White House will continue to support freedom fighters.