Trama

Two hip detectives protect a witness to a murder while investigating a case of stolen heroin from the evidence storage room from their police precinct.

Marcus Burnett is a hen-pecked family man. Mike Lowry is a foot-loose and fancy free ladies' man. Both are Miami policemen, and both have 72 hours to reclaim a consignment of drugs stolen from under their station's nose. To complicate matters, in order to get the assistance of the sole witness to a murder, they have to pretend to be each other.—James Hastie <jdh1000@cus.cam.ac.uk>

Marcus Burnett is a hen-pecked family man. Mike Lowrey is more of a loose cannon. They are partners on the Miami Police Department, and they are about to take on a highly dangerous case. 100 million dollars in heroin, from the biggest drug bust of their careers, is stolen from police headquarters. Now, they have 72 hours to reclaim the heroin before the Internal Affairs Division gets involved. This puts Mike and Marcus hot on the trail of a French drug kingpin named Fouchet. Mike asks Maxine Logan, a hooker he knows, to keep an eye open for high rollers. Later, she gets a call from a guy who's high on drugs and wants to spend $2000. Maxine asks her best friend Julie Mott to tag along with her to the home of former cop Eddie Dominguez. Julie is not a hooker but the guy's so out of it that they'll be out of there with the money in just minutes. But at Dominguez's house, Fouchet kills Maxine. Julie witnessed the murder, so she contacts the police. But Julie, who doesn't know what Mike looks like, is willing to talk only to Mike. Mike is not around, so Marcus is forced to pretend to be Mike, and when Mike returns, he's forced to pretend to be Marcus. Marcus is a family man who has a wife named Theresa and three kids named James, Megan, and Quincy, while Mike is not, so this is not a very close fit. Mike and Marcus's pursuit of Fouchet kicks into overdrive when Fouchet's henchmen kidnap Julie right out from under their noses.—Todd Baldridge

Detectives Mike Lowery and Marcus Brunette have 72 hours to find $100 million worth of heroin before Internal Affairs shuts them down. Lowery becomes more involved after a friend is murdered by the drug dealers. Matters become complicated when Lowery and Brunette have to switch places to convince a witness to the murder to cooperate.—Nate Dogg <holtslander@hotmail.com>

Detective Sergeant Marcus Miles Burnett (Martin Lawrence) and Detective Sergeant Michael "Mike" Lowrey (Will Smith) are best friends and detectives in the narcotics division of the Miami-Dade Police Department. Mike drives a Porsche 911 Turbo which he calls the fastest production car on the planet, but Marcus says that the car does not even have a cup holder. Marcus is also frustrated that he is married to Theresa (Theresa Randle), but is not getting any sex from her. Marcus believes that Mike is just a rich kid who likes to play cop. Mike resents this and says that he has worked hard to be the best cop in the department.

One night, $100 million of seized heroin is stolen from a secure police vault. This is a major blow to Burnett and Lowrey, because it was the biggest drug bust of their careers. Internal Affairs led by Captain Alison Sinclair (Marg Helgenberger) suspects that it was an inside job and threatens to shut down the entire department unless they recover the drugs within 72 hours.

Mike asks one of his informants and ex-girlfriend Maxine "Max" Logan (Karen Alexander) to look for people who are newly rich and therefore suspects. She gets herself and her best friend Julie Mott hired as escorts by Eddie Dominguez, a crooked former cop. Julie is not a working girl, but Max's madam convinces her to take Julie along for a quick $2000. Mike and Marcus visit the home of the contractor who installed the ventilation system at the police department, which was used to steal the drugs from the vault. They find him dead with his neck slashed.

The party is soon interrupted by Dominguez's French drug kingpin boss Fouchet and his henchmen Casper (Frank John Hughes), Ferguson (Vic Manni), and Noah. Fouchet had explicitly told Eddie to lie low and was angry that he attracted attention to himself. To further cover his tracks because of this slip up, one of Fouchet's henchmen kill Dominguez and Fouchet kills Max, while Julie manages to escape.

Eddie Dominguez (Emmanuel Xuereb), is found dead at a hotel suite, shot to death by his boss, French drug kingpin Fouchet (Tcheky Karyo). Max is also found dead in the same suite. The madam who hired Julie and Max is disposed of by Noah, who then knocks out Mike as he investigates Max's death. The only witness to the crime is Max's best friend Julie Mott (Téa Leoni), who watched the crime from the upper balcony of the suite before she escaped.

Frantically calling the police, Julie insists on talking only to Mike, who is following up on a lead with the Madam. Although she has not met Mike, because of Max's relationship with him Julie will only trust and deal with Lowrey. However, he is away at the crime scene when Julie contacts the police about the murders, threatening to run if she does not speak to Mike. Captain Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano) forces Burnett to impersonate Lowrey to get Julie to cooperate. At her apartment, Marcus and Julie are attacked by some of Fouchet's henchmen, one of whom Marcus kills.

In order to continue the deception, Burnett and Lowrey switch lives. Burnett tells his family he is going to Cleveland for a case, leaving Mike to stay with them. Burnett then moves into Lowrey's apartment with Julie and her dogs. In Julie's presence, Burnett poses as Lowrey while Mike poses as Burnett.

The investigation proceeds with Lowrey and Burnett calling in on their old informants, including Jojo (Michael Imperioli), a former chemist who now works at a tire store. Later, Julie identifies one of Max's killers, Noah Trafficante (Marc Macaulay), while looking through mug shots. The two cops then head off to Club Hell, one of his known hangouts. Unknown to them, Julie had followed them, eager to dish out revenge on Max's killers. After being spotted, Marcus knocks Casper unconscious during a bathroom fight. Julie tries to kill Fouchet, but Marcus stops her. Her presence alerts the criminals, resulting in Noah fleeing. After a brief fight and car chase, Noah is killed. The incident is caught on camera by a news helicopter. The subsequent report is later seen by Burnett's family, who were told that he was temporarily reassigned to Cleveland.

Lowrey and Burnett decide to visit Jojo again. After an aggressive and convincing good cop-bad cop act from Lowrey and Burnett, Jojo tells them the location of the chemist who is cutting the stolen drugs. After staking out his house, they follow him to where Fouchet is hiding the drugs. They return to Mike's apartment with Julie, where they are confronted by Marcus' wife who blows their cover, causing Julie to try to run. Fouchet and his gang arrive at Lowrey's apartment and kidnap Julie. Because of this, Internal Affairs reassigns all members of the narcotics division, effectively shutting them down, but Captain Howard delays the order to give Lowrey and Burnett a chance to get Julie and the drugs back.

They access Dominguez's private police database profile and learn that the police secretary Francine is his former girlfriend. She was being blackmailed by Fouchet and Dominguez after they took nude photos of her, threatening to post them at her kids' school.

Burnett, Lowrey and two other members of the Miami P.D. (Sanchez (Nestor Serrano) and Ruiz (Julio Oscar Mechoso)) organize a plan to stop the criminals from killing Julie and selling the drugs. A final shoot-out erupts between the group of cops and the drug dealers at the Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport. During a fierce shootout, they kill Fouchet's remaining henchmen, including Casper and Ferguson, and rescue Julie.

Burnett is shot in the leg after saving Julie from Fouchet. Fouchet also shoots Lowrey while escaping the building, which is now on fire, but he is rescued by Burnett and Julie who left to get Lowrey's car.

The cops and Julie chase Fouchet's Shelby Cobra AC 427 in Mike's Porsche 911 Turbo. After Burnett bumps him off the road, Fouchet crashes but manages to escape the wreckage. Attempting to run, Fouchet is shot in the leg by Lowrey. Fouchet, knowing he is beaten, tries to goad Lowrey into killing him, which he almost does as revenge for Max's murder, until Burnett prevents it. While on the ground Fouchet then pulls out a concealed weapon and aims at Burnett, but seeing the reflection on his partner's forehead, Lowrey spins and shoots Fouchet numerous times, killing him.

Later, after Marcus and Mike profess their mutual platonic love for one another and their relief in surviving the gun fight, Marcus handcuffs Julie and Mike's hands together and hobbles away hoping for some much needed "quality time" with his wife. Julie and Mike wonder if he has the keys to the handcuffs.