The film stars Gene Hackman as a hard-nosed cop who is teamed up with a detective with multiple personality disorder, played by Dan Aykroyd, to uncover a long-lost Nazi sex tape, featuring Adolf Hitler, which would jeopardize the political future of the German chancellor-elect.

They decide to take a train, but first must evade a team of FBI agents led by Bob Smiley, who must shield von Metz from embarrassment by intercepting the film before it goes public.

They all meet up at Washington's Union Station, where Mac and Ellis trick Smiley and his team into boarding the New York-bound train they originally intended to take, while they jump off and hop onto one on the opposite track bound for Cleveland instead.

En route, Ellis confides in Mac his fear that if another episode occurs it could prove irrevocable, which would make him a dangerous liability, and wishes to return to the Benedictine Monks who originally looked after him during his recovery.

Mac, however, reiterates his belief in Ellis and shows him that he is strong enough to persevere, move forward and recover; that the past is irrelevant and that the present and the future are what matter.

[3] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B−" on scale of A to F.[4] Vincent Canby, in his review for The New York Times, stated: "Mr. Hackman and Mr. Aykroyd deserve much better.

"[6] Hal Hinson commented that "Hackman mostly just stands around watching Aykroyd run through his exertions with the look of a man who has something unspeakable on the sole of his shoe" in his review for The Washington Post.

[7] Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave the film a "Two Thumbs Down" vote on At the Movies, and called it "the cop-buddy comedy that hits new lows in an undistinguished field.