Los Angelesdetective Billie York (Whoopi Goldberg, uncredited) is murdered by Mr. Jigsaw (Tim Curry dressed as a wilderness girl) because she possesses a microfilm with the recipe to turn cocaine into wilderness girls cookies and she won't hand it over to the ones that seek it. Detective Wes Luger (Samuel L. Jackson) takes the case in an attempt to avenge the death of his former partner. As part of the terms for letting Luger taking the case, psychotic burned-out narcotic agent Jack Colt (Emilio Estevez) is assigned to the case with Luger. They pursue the villains Lethal Weapon style. Before the villains are apprehended however, Luger must journey into his past to realize the right thing to do. In the end, the Cookie Factory is destroyed in an explosion due to a cigarette and a gasoline spill.
Erik Estrada and Larry Wilcox appear in their CHiPs roles during a shootout scene. Yet in the entire six-year run of CHiPs, they never once drew their weapons.
Paul Gleason played FBI Agent Dwayne T. Robinson in this film, while in Die Hard he plays Deputy Chief Dwayne T. Robinson and has a line "We're gonna need some more FBI guys I guess."
There was every intention to make a sequel to this movie. A deal had been set in place before this movie had gone into production and a poster had even been printed with the caption "Oh come ON, you knew it was coming!" However when the movie underperformed the deal was severed.
A closer look at the wall of torture and instruments of pain will show a mounted VHS case of the George Lucas-produced film Howard the Duck.
During the war of words between General Mortars and McCracken, McCracken tries to win the argument with the line "Life is very short and there is no time for fussin' and fightin', my friend!" a line from The Beatles song "We Can Work It Out".