The plot follows French police detective Alain Moreau (Van Damme) as he becomes entangled in an international conspiracy encompassing Russian gangsters and corrupt American officials, with various parties after his life because of his uncanny resemblance to a dead mob informant.

Matches found in his pocket point towards a hotel, where the proprietor mistakes Alain for "Mikhail Suverov" and gives him the phone message "Call Alex Bohemia."

The two corrupt FBI agents find Alex and use her to force Alain, whom they bail out of jail, to access the deposit box.

Bank policy dictates that only Mikhail can access the safe deposit box, forcing the agents to wait outside while Alain passes for him.

This one has thousands in cash, a gun and a tape recording from Mikhail explaining how he decided to escape the Mafia and reunite with his family.

He instructs a banker to turn over the evidence to the US Embassy, and sets off the sprinkler system to make his escape.

[5] Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, better known for Scary Movie and their other parodies, performed an uncredited rewrite on the film.

[9] Leonard Klady of Variety wrote, "It's a visceral delight that refuses to be deterred by niceties of plot or character consistency and prefers sweat to emotion.

[11] Lawrence Van Gelder of The New York Times wrote, "From start to finish, 'Maximum Risk' presents spectacular stunts choreographed and coordinated by Charles Picerni and some hair-raising, stomach-churning automotive chases attributed to Remy Julienne, the French master of the art.

"[12] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it "a solid, fast-moving action-adventure" in which Van Damme "does some of his best acting yet".

[13] Conversely, Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle criticized Van Damme's acting, which is "hobbled by a weak script that even veteran Hong Kong action director Ringo Lam can't salvage".