A string of murders have taken place in Washington, D.C., but the officers assigned to the case, Mac (Gene Hackman) and Ellis (Dan Aykroyd), have to deal with their own conflicts first. The grizzled Mac is perpetually annoyed by the undeniably brilliant yet troubled Ellis, who, in times of stress, tends to blackout and adopt the personalities of pop culture icons. And the investigation sure gets stressful, as the cops trace the killings to German politician Von Metz (Robert Prosky), an ex-Nazi.