Enredo

Framed by their ruthless arch-nemesis, a pair of mismatched LAPD officers must put their differences aside to get even with the brutal crime baron who sent them to rot in a maximum-security prison.

Intense professional rivalry prolongs the instinctive antipathy between the impeccably dressed BHPD Lieutenant Ray Tango and his impulsive polar opposite, LAPD Lieutenant Gabe Cash. And as they get in each other's way, Yves Perret, a ruthless international drug lord, plans his next move. But instead of bringing down their arch-nemesis, falsified evidence condemns the crime fighters to rot in a maximum-security prison. As their former enemies, hardened criminals incarcerated by them, ache to get their sweet revenge on their captors, Tango and Cash must put their differences aside to survive imprisonment and clear their names. But good plans are hard to come by. Can the mismatched partners learn how to work together and get even with the brutal crime baron?—Nick Riganas

Ray Tango and Gabriel Cash are narcotics detectives who, while both being extremely successful, can't stand each other. Crime Lord Yves Perret, furious at the loss of income that Tango and Cash have caused him, frames the two for murder. Caught with the murder weapon at the scene of the crime, the two have no alibi. Thrown into prison with most of the criminals they helped convict, it appears that they are going to have to trust each other if they are to clear their names and catch the evil Perret.—Murray Chapman <muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au>

In Los Angeles, Lieutenant Raymond "Ray" Tango the best cop in West Los Angeles and Lieutenant Gabriel "Gabe" Cash the best cop in East Los Angeles are considered the best detectives in the Los Angeles Police Department, where they are both assigned to the Narcotics Division and lauded for numerous successful and daring drug busts across Greater Los Angeles. However, they are opposites in almost every way and are intense rivals, each considering himself to be better, despite having never met.

Tango (Sylvester Stallone) drives a late-model Cadillac convertible in pursuit of a tanker truck. Tango is a slick, refined detective who trades stocks on the side, Tango wears three-piece Armani suits, drives a Cadillac Allanté, carries a Smith & Wesson Model 36 as his sidearm, and lives in a middle-class house with his sister. He cleverly stops the truck, and when the LA County authorities find only gasoline in the tank, he shoots the tank, and cocaine pours out of the bullet hole.

Meanwhile, Cash (Kurt Russell) arrives at his apartment driving an old Corvette. Cash is a stereotypical "cowboy cop" with an interest in weaponry, Cash wears tattered clothes and cowboy boots with built-in shotguns, drives a Chevrolet Corvette, carries a Ruger GP100 with an experimental laser sight as his sidearm, and lives in a bachelor pad apartment in a run-down neighborhood. He is shot by an intruder, but is protected by a bullet-proof vest, and captures the shooter in a parking garage after a car chase. At the police station, Cash forces the shooter to tell him about a deal scheduled to take place that night. Owen (Michael J. Pollard) is Cash's weapon engineer friend who provides him with his firearms, shotgun boots and other equipment.

Unknown to them however, their intercepted drug shipments belong to a criminal organization headed by Yves Perret. Frustrated, Perret and his associates plan their revenge against the detectives but refrain from killing them as to not turn them into martyrs. Instead, Perret devises an elaborate scheme to ruin their lives by framing them for murder.

Tango and Cash are separately informed of a drug deal, where they meet each other for the first time. The "deal" is really a plan by Perret (Jack Palance) to frame Tango and Cash for murder. Tango and Cash separately go to an empty building, preceded by a man who is revealed to be Requin (Brion James), Perret's lead henchman. After surprising each other, the two detectives find a dead man with audio equipment hidden under his clothing, and a team of FBI agents swarms in. Wyler (Lewis Arquette), the agent in charge, finds Cash's backup pistol on the floor and arrests both Cash and Tango.

At their murder trial, the detectives are incriminated by an audio tape, secretly given to Wyler by Requin and verified in court by an audio expert Skinner (Michael Jeter), which appears to reveal them shooting the FBI agent after discussing a drug purchase. With the evidence stacked against them, they plead "no contest" to a lesser charge in exchange for reduced sentences in a minimum-security prison but are transported to a maximum-security prison to be housed with many of the criminals they arrested in the past.

Once in prison, Tango's cellmate is a mental patient named Slinky (Clint Howard). "Face" (Robert Z'Dar) is a psychotic convict who has a particular grudge against Tango for breaking "his ribs, his leg, and his jaw".

Tango and Cash are rousted from their bunks and tortured by Perret, Requin, and a gang of prisoners until Matt Sokowski (Phil Rubenstein), the assistant warden and Cash's former commanding officer, rescues them.

Sokowski recommends they escape and provides them with a plan, but Tango opts out. When Cash tries to escape, he finds Sokowski murdered and is pursued by the guards before being rescued by Tango. Reaching the roof, Cash zip-lines outside the prison walls, but Tango is attacked by an inmate before he can follow and defeats him by knocking him into a transformer. To clear their names, they separate. Tango tells Cash that if he needs to contact him, he can go to the Cleopatra Club and ask for "Katherine" (Teri Hatcher).

The detectives then visit the witnesses who framed them in court. Wyler admits to Tango that Requin was in charge of the setup and is killed shortly after by a car bomb. Cash discovers that the audio expert made the incriminating tape himself. At the Cleopatra Club, Cash finds Katherine, Tango's sister who goes by the name of Kiki-and when police arrive at the club, she helps Cash escape by dressing him as a woman.

Later that night, Tango and Cash are met at Katherine's house by Tango's commanding officer Captain Schroeder (Geoffrey Lewis), who gives them Requin's address and tells them they have 24 hours to find out who Requin works for. Tango and Cash apprehend Requin and interrogate him and trick him into giving up Perret's name using a dummy grenade.

Cash's friend, weapons expert Owen, lends the pair an armed RV. Armed with a high-tech assault vehicle, they drive to Perret's headquarters, crash through the outer fence, destroy a fleet of armed trucks, hijack two heavy vehicles, crash into the main building, and kill several guards.

At this point, Perret, who has kidnapped Katherine, starts a timer that will trigger the building's automatic self-destruct procedure. After killing Perret's core security personnel, Tango and Cash are confronted by Requin, who is holding Katherine at knife point but throws her aside to fight the detectives hand-to-hand with the help of another henchman. Requin is killed when Cash uses a real grenade.

Perret appears in a hall of mirrors holding Kiki at gunpoint and both detectives pick out the correct Perret and shoot him in the head. The duo leaves with Katherine just before the building explodes.

Now able to get along, Tango and Cash joke half-seriously about Cash's desire to date Kiki as a newspaper headline announces they have been cleared of all charges and returned to LAPD duty as heroes.