As bounty hunter Jack Walsh pursues a bail jumper down a squalid Los Angeles alleyway, Marvin Dorfler, a second bounty hunter, arrives in his car and knocks the suspect down. Dorfler claims the bail jumper and points a pistol at Jack, who distracts Dorfler and knocks him down with a sucker punch. Jack escorts the fugitive to the local police station. When Jack goes to Moscone Bail Bonds to collect his $1200 payment, fast-talking Eddie Moscone is reluctant to come across with the cash, but proposes a bigger deal. He wants Jack to retrieve Jonathan “the Duke" Mardukas, an accountant who embezzled $15 million dollars from Chicago crime boss Jimmy Serrano and gave the stolen funds to charity. Moscone tells Walsh that he put up a $450,000 bail bond on the accountant’s behalf and Mardukas has now skipped town. Moscone needs the fugitive Mardukas back in L.A. by Friday at midnight or he forfeits the bond. Jack agrees to get Mardukas for $100,000, guaranteed in writing. Researching police records, Jack discovers that Mardukas made his first phone call to a New York City number. As Jack leaves the police records department, a cadre of FBI agents decked out in sunglasses and headed by special agent Alonzo Mosely, grabs him. They ask Jack what he knows about the Mardukas case. Jack claims to know nothing and pulls out his own sunglasses. While answering questions Jack pickpockets Mosely’s FBI badge and ID card. When Jack arrives in New York, Tony and Joey, two mobsters working for Serrano who are also looking for Mardukas, intercept him at the airport and urge Jack to turn Mardukas over to the mob. By tapping the phone line of the New York number Mardukas called, Jack locates him and using the pilfered FBI badge, grabs him at gunpoint. Mardukas asks Jack if he works for Serrano and Jack admits he is a bounty hunter. Jack calls Moscone from the New York airport to tell him he will have Mardukas back in Los Angeles in a few hours. The Feds have Moscone’s phone tapped and listen in. Moscone celebrates but his assistant, Jerry, surreptitiously passes word to Serrano. Jack and Mardukas board a jumbo jet. Mardukas suffers a seeming panic attack, due to a fear of flying. Hyperventilating, he alarms the other passengers. Despite falsely identifying himself as special agent Mosely escorting a prisoner, the pilot orders Jack and his captive off the plane. They board an Amtrak train headed west. Mardukas offers Jack $200,000 to let him go, but Jack won’t take a payoff. He just wants his $100,000 to fulfill the dream of opening a coffee shop. The Duke discourages the coffee shop idea as a “tricky investment.” Back in L.A., Mosely smolders when Mardukas is a no-show on the flight. Jimmy Serrano is equally angry and threatens to stab Tony and Joey in the heart with a pencil if their work ethic does not improve. Moscone decides to bring bounty hunter Dorfler into the action, hiring him for $25,000 as a backup plan. On the train, Mardukas continually initiates conversation and offers advice to Jack, telling him to avoid eating meat, quit smoking, and work on anger issues. Jack confides that his daughter and former wife still live in Chicago, though he has not seen them for nine years. Mardukas suggests a family visit would be a good thing for Jack since they are headed in that direction. Mid-trip, Dorfler boards the Amtrak train and ambushes Jack for control of Mardukas. Jack again beats Dorfler to the ground and, in the guise of special agent Mosely, commands a porter to have Dorfler arrested at the next station. The real Mosely boards the train a few stops later with an ever-larger contingent of agents following behind. The porter tells him that Mardukas and Agent Mosely got off a few stops earlier. “I’m Mosely!” he snaps. Switching to a bus, Jack and the Duke continue their cross-country trek, heading for Chicago. Jack tells Mardukas that he is not a popular man with the Chicago police department because he refused to accept payoffs from a major heroin dealer. In retaliation the corrupt cops planted heroin on him and forced Jack to leave the city. As the bus pulls into the Chicago station, mob sharpshooters are poised to kill Mardukas, but an overwhelming force of FBI cars screech to the scene, sirens howling. Mob bullets splatter the bus and the FBI returns fire. In the chaos Jack and Mardukas take off in an FBI vehicle. Ditching the car, they take a cab to the Chicago suburbs to visit to Jack’s ex-wife, Gail. She knows about their escapade from the news. The visit starts awkwardly and Jack cannot help making insulting remarks about Gail’s current husband, a bribe-taking Chicago police captain. Gail offers $40 to Jack and loans him the family station wagon. Jack melts at the sight of his daughter, Denise, now an eighth grader. She offers $180 of her babysitting money to her father, but he tells her he cannot take her money. Heading west with Mardukas in the borrowed station wagon, Jack calls Moscone with a request to wire $500 to a Western Union in Amarillo, Texas. Tipped off again, Tony and Joey, subdue Jack and Mardukas in Amarillo. Alerted by Moscone of the duo’s destination, Dorfler also shows up and manages to knock the mobsters out cold with the butt of his shotgun. As Dorfler drives down the highway with Jack and Mardukas, his car comes under assault from a mob-hired helicopter. The assassins pulverize Dorfler’s vehicle. Using Dorfler’s pistol, Jack shoots out the rotor blade and brings the helicopter down in a fiery crash. While admiring Jack’s marksmanship, Dorfler is yet again leveled by a punch from Jack. Mardukas jumps off a cliff into river rapids, and Jack follows. Mardukas reaches dry land but Jack is stuck. When Jack asks for his help, Mardukas extends a tree branch on condition that Jack let him go. Jack says yes, but re-cuffs Mardukas immediately and they hop a ride in the back of a passing pickup truck carrying Native American workers. At the Indian reservation, Mardukas attempts to steal a crop duster airplane, proof that his fear of flying was a charade. When Jack again subdues Mardukas, they steal the workers' pickup truck and continue west. Later, they hop a freight train. Jack explains he holds on to his broken wristwatch because it was his first gift from Gail. Mardukas counsels him to move on with his life. Mardukas realizes they have a common enemy—his former employer, mobster Jimmy Serrano, was also the heroin dealer who wrecked Jack’s life in Chicago. Mardukas mentions that he had intended to transfer Serrano’s computer files to backup disks, but he never did. Jack and Mardukas leap from the freight train outside Sedona, Arizona to avoid Mosely and a battalion of Federal agents. Jack hotwires another vehicle and they head toward Los Angeles, but they are intercepted and chased by the Sedona police. Informed that the fugitives have been spotted, Mosely and his agents set out in pursuit of Jack and Mardukas. Dorfler, who has also arrived in Sedona, also joins the hunt. In a cross-desert chase, a number of police and Federal cruisers crash in heaps of flying metal, but Jack and Mardukas manage to keep going. Dorfler’s tenacity is rewarded when he happens upon Jack and Mardukas on a remote road. Dorfler takes off with Mardukas, and Jack finds himself in FBI hands. He asks Mosely for a phone call and reaches Moscone. Jack screams at Moscone for hiring Dorfler; however, Moscone says Dorfler called five minutes earlier claiming he was not holding Mardukas. Jack figures Dorfler is now working for the mob, and a call to Tony and Joey confirms this. Dorfler soon bungles the situation, and the mob grabs Mardukas free of charge. Jack needs the FBI on board, and knowing that Serrano can be busted for obstruction of justice for taking the computer disks--even though they don’t really exist, Jack convinces Mosely he has a plan to get Serrano. Mosely responds, “Get a wire on the man.” By phone, Jack tells Serrano he has Mardukas’s computer disks with evidence of Serrano's business dealings, and arranges a meeting at Las Vegas’s McCarran Airport. Jack says he wants Mardukas in return for the disks so he can continue on to Los Angeles and earn his $100,000 payment. Serrano agrees. The airport meeting begins in confusion, and Mosely thinks he will suffer a heart attack when Dorfler, having coincidentally purchased his ticket back to L.A., barges into the scene and causes Jack’s wire to disconnect. Serrano grabs the disks from Jack and tries to escape. Jack shouts, “He’s got the disks, Serrano has the disks,” which brings FBI agents pouring from every direction. Serrano is capture. Jack gains permission to leave with Mardukas for L.A., and they arrive on time. However, Jack calls Moscone from the airport and announces he is letting Mardukas go free because Moscone was a double dealer. The Duke gets misty eyed, but Jack advises him to shut-up. “Knowing you, you'll make me want to put those cuffs back on you." Jack hands the malfunctioning watch to Mardukas, as a symbol that he’s ready to move on with his life. Mardukas pulls out a money belt and gives Jack $300,000 in $1,000 bills that he has carried throughout the journey. Because Jack has already set him free, Mardukas assures him that the money cannot be considered a payoff. Jack accepts the money and starts to leave. When he stops to look back, Mardukas is nowhere to be seen. Outside, Jack asks a cabbie if he has change for a $1000 bill. The cabbie says, “Are you kiddin?” and drives off, as Jack continues on foot.s bounty hunter Jack Walsh pursues a bail jumper down a squalid Los Angeles alleyway, Marvin Dorfler, a second bounty hunter, arrives in his car and knocks the suspect down. Dorfler claims the bail jumper and points a pistol at Jack, who distracts Dorfler and knocks him down with a sucker punch. Jack escorts the fugitive to the local police station. When Jack goes to Moscone Bail Bonds to collect his $1200 payment, fast-talking Eddie Moscone is reluctant to come across with the cash, but proposes a bigger deal. He wants Jack to retrieve Jonathan “the Duke" Mardukas, an accountant who embezzled $15 million dollars from Chicago crime boss Jimmy Serrano and gave the stolen funds to charity. Moscone tells Walsh that he put up a $450,000 bail bond on the accountant’s behalf and Mardukas has now skipped town. Moscone needs the fugitive Mardukas back in L.A. by Friday at midnight or he forfeits the bond. Jack agrees to get Mardukas for $100,000, guaranteed in writing. Researching police records, Jack discovers that Mardukas made his first phone call to a New York City number. As Jack leaves the police records department, a cadre of FBI agents decked out in sunglasses and headed by special agent Alonzo Mosely, grabs him. They ask Jack what he knows about the Mardukas case. Jack claims to know nothing and pulls out his own sunglasses. While answering questions Jack pickpockets Mosely’s FBI badge and ID card. When Jack arrives in New York, Tony and Joey, two mobsters working for Serrano who are also looking for Mardukas, intercept him at the airport and urge Jack to turn Mardukas over to the mob. By tapping the phone line of the New York number Mardukas called, Jack locates him and using the pilfered FBI badge, grabs him at gunpoint. Mardukas asks Jack if he works for Serrano and Jack admits he is a bounty hunter. Jack calls Moscone from the New York airport to tell him he will have Mardukas back in Los Angeles in a few hours. The Feds have Moscone’s phone tapped and listen in. Moscone celebrates but his assistant, Jerry, surreptitiously passes word to Serrano. Jack and Mardukas board a jumbo jet. Mardukas suffers a seeming panic attack, due to a fear of flying. Hyperventilating, he alarms the other passengers. Despite identifying himself as special agent Mosely escorting a prisoner, the pilot orders Jack and his captive off the plane. They board an Amtrak train headed west. Mardukas offers the bounty hunter $200,000 to let him go, but Jack won’t take a payoff. He just wants his $100,000 to fulfill the dream of opening a coffee shop. The Duke discourages the coffee shop idea as a “tricky investment.” Back in L.A., Mosely smolders when Mardukas is a no-show on the flight. Jimmy Serrano is equally angry and threatens to stab Tony and Joey in the heart with a pencil if their work ethic does not improve. Moscone decides to bring bounty hunter Dorfler into the action, hiring him for $25,000 as a backup plan. On the train, Mardukas continually initiates conversation and offers advice to Jack, such as avoid eating meat, quit smoking, and work on anger issues. Jack confides that his daughter and former wife still live in Chicago, though he has not seen them for nine years. Mardukas suggests a family visit would be a good thing for Jack since they are headed in that direction. Mid-trip, Dorfler boards the Amtrak train and ambushes Jack for control of Mardukas. Jack again beats Dorfler to the ground and, in the guise of special agent Mosely, commands a porter to have Dorfler arrested at the next station. The real Mosely boards the train a few stops later with an ever-larger contingent of agents following behind. The porter tells him that Mardukas and Agent Mosely got off a few stops earlier. “I’m Mosely!” he snaps. Switching to a bus, Jack and the Duke continue their cross-country trek, heading for Chicago. Jack tells Mardukas that he is not a popular man with the Chicago police department because he refused to accept payoffs from a major heroin dealer. In retaliation the corrupt cops planted heroin on him and forced Jack to leave the city. As the bus pulls into the Chicago station, mob sharpshooters are poised to kill Mardukas, but an overwhelming force of FBI cars screech to the scene, sirens howling. Mob bullets splatter the bus and the FBI returns fire. In the chaos Jack and Mardukas take off in an FBI vehicle. Ditching the car, they take a cab to the Chicago suburbs to visit to Jack’s ex-wife, Gail. She knows about their escapade from the news. The visit starts awkwardly and Jack cannot help making insulting remarks about Gail’s current husband, a bribe-taking Chicago police captain. Gail offers $40 to Jack and loans him the family station wagon. Jack melts at the sight of his daughter, Denise, now an eighth grader. She offers $180 of her babysitting money to her father, but he tells her he cannot take her money. Heading west with Mardukas in the borrowed station wagon, Jack calls Moscone with a request to wire $500 to Western Union in Amarillo, Texas. Tipped off again, Tony and Joey, subdue Jack and Mardukas in Amarillo. Alerted by Moscone of the duo’s destination, Dorfler also shows up and manages to knock the mobsters out cold with the butt of his shotgun. As Dorfler drives down the highway with Jack and Mardukas their car comes under assault from a mob-hired helicopter. The assassins pulverize Dorfler’s vehicle. Using Dorfler’s pistol, Jack shoots out the rotor blade and brings the helicopter down in a fiery crash. While admiring Jack’s marksmanship, Dorfler is yet again leveled by a punch from Jack. Mardukas jumps off a cliff into river rapids, and Jack follows. Mardukas reaches dry land but Jack is stuck. When Jack asks for his help, Mardukas extends a tree branch on condition that Jack let him go. Jack says yes, but re-cuffs Mardukas immediately and they hop a ride in the back of a passing pickup truck carrying Native American workers. At the Indian Reservation, Mardukas attempts to steal a crop duster airplane, proof that his fear of flying was a charade. When Jack again subdues Mardukas, they steal the pickup truck and continue west. Later, they hop a freight train. Jack explains he holds on to his broken wristwatch because it was his first gift from Gail. Mardukas counsels him to move on with his life. Mardukas realizes they have a common enemy—his former employer, mobster Jimmy Serrano, was also the heroin dealer who wrecked Jack’s life in Chicago. Mardukas mentions that he had intended to transfer Serrano’s computer files to backup disks, but he never did. Jack and Mardukas leap from the freight train outside Sedona, Arizona, to avoid Mosely and a battalion of Federal agents. Jack hotwires another vehicle truck and they head toward Los Angeles, but are intercepted and chased by the Sedona police. Informed that the fugitives have been spotted, Mosely and his agents set out in pursuit. Dorfler, who has also arrived in Sedona, also joins the hunt. In a cross-desert chase a number of police and Federal cruisers crash in heaps of flying metal but Jack and Mardukas manage to keep going. Dorfler’s tenacity is rewarded when he happens upon Jack and Mardukas on a remote road. Dorfler takes off with Mardukas, and Jack finds himself in FBI hands. He asks Mosely for a phone call and reaches Moscone. Jack screams at Moscone for hiring Dorfler; however, Moscone says Dorfler called five minutes earlier claiming he was not holding Mardukas. Jack figures Dorfler is now working for the mob, and a call to Tony and Joey confirms this. Dorfler soon bungles the situation, and the mob grabs Mardukas free of charge. Jack needs the FBI on board, and knowing that Serrano can be busted for obstruction of justice for taking the computer disks--even though they don’t really exist, Jack convinces Mosely he has a plan to get Serrano. Mosely responds, “Get a wire on the man.” By phone, Jack tells Serrano he has Mardukas’s computer disks with evidence of Serrano's business dealings, and arranges a meeting at Las Vegas’s McCarran Airport. Jack says he wants Mardukas in return for the disks so he can continue on to Los Angeles and earn his $100,000 payment. Serrano agrees. The airport meeting begins in confusion, and Mosely thinks he will suffer a heart attack when Dorfler, having coincidentally purchased his ticket back to L.A., barges into the scene and causes Jack’s wire to disconnect. Serrano grabs the disks from Jack and tries to escape. Jack shouts, “He’s got the disks, Serrano has the disks,” which brings FBI agents pouring from every direction. Serrano is capture. Jack gains permission to leave with Mardukas for L.A., and they arrive on time. However, Jack calls Moscone from the airport and announces he is letting Mardukas go free because Moscone was a double dealer. The Duke gets misty eyed, but Jack advises him to shut-up. “Knowing you, you'll make me want to put those cuffs back on you." Jack hands the malfunctioning watch to Mardukas, as a symbol that he’s ready to move on with his life. Mardukas pulls out a money belt and gives Jack $300,000 in $1,000 bills that he has carried throughout the journey. Because Jack has already set him free, Mardukas assures him that the money cannot be considered a payoff. Jack accepts the money and starts to leave. When he stops to look back, Mardukas is nowhere to be seen. Outside, Jack asks a cabbie if he has change for a $1000 bill. The cabbie says, “Are you kiddin?” and drives off, as Jack continues on foot.