He sets up a daring hostage situation tying fake dynamite all over his waist and successfully steals $1 million along with his accomplices: girlfriend Phyllis and best friend Loomis.

To begin with, the trio is seeking the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to get to the airport, but the signs were removed during construction work, resulting in the three robbers becoming lost in an unfamiliar neighborhood in Brooklyn.

An anal-retentive bus driver, a run-in with mobsters, and Phyllis's increasing desperation to tell Grimm the news that she is pregnant with his child add further complications.

A meeting on board an airliner at the airport occurs between the robbers and the chief, who gets the added prize of having a major crime boss dropped in his lap with their assistance.

In her 2022 memoir Dying of Politeness, Davis claimed that Murray sexually harassed her during their first meeting for the film by insisting on using an electric massage device on her despite her repeatedly telling him to stop.

The website's critics consensus reads: "Quick Change makes the most of its clever premise with a smartly skewed heist comedy that leaves plenty of room for its talented cast to shine.

Also praised were the strong performances by the supporting cast, particularly Robards as the police chief Rotzinger, who, while almost as burned out as Murray, is still determined to capture the robbers as a swan song to his long career.