Ben “Benny” Avalon (Bubba Smith) is a tough but good-natured cop who is well-known around his inner city neighborhood and an active mentor to youth while off-duty.
One night while Avalon plays basketball at a neighborhood gym, a team of commandos murder two teens and set an adjacent building on fire with explosives.
The commandos then proceed to shoot at people evacuating the burning building while the team's commander, "Colonel" Hester (Lloyd Bridges), watches from a darkened Cadillac.
Avalon is personally acquainted with several victims, including a local girl as well as a low level drug dealer.
A man later revealed to be FBI Special Agent Joe Jennings (Beau Bridges) is seated at a topless bar, looking for “big action.” A dancer sits down at his table, and begins to refer Jennings to an established drug dealer named Ivory Jones (Raymond St. Jacques) but Avalon enters the bar and the dancer leaves.
The commandos are revealed to be part of The Sentinel, a revolutionary, white supremacist militia under the leadership of Hester, a retired military officer who himself lost a son in combat and who is dedicated to “finishing the fight" against what he believes to be nefarious non-white influencers funded by Jewish backers.
He wants to reshape the country for his son based on his racist principles, and plans to use guerrilla combatants training at the Sentinel compound, with funding from illegal narcotics sales.
Avalon raids an illegal casino/massage parlor in an old firehouse, where he chases and confronts criminal-turned-informant Tucker (Danny De La Paz), cornering him in a dumbwaiter.
Following a preliminary meeting in an abandoned building, Jennings brings a briefcase to the deal location, but surprises Jones and his men and steals the drugs.
Avalon introduces Jennings to his friend Fern Willis (Ellen Geer) at a restaurant where they are joined by Debby, but the group's meal is interrupted by gunfire from masked men with automatic weapons outside.
As Jones is about to collect 40 kg of heroin from Hester, a heavily armed Avalon breaks into the Sentinel camp, detonates explosives, and frees Jennings.