Lifelong friends Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) and Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) are Miami detectives investigating $100 million of seized Mafia heroin, which was stolen from a secure police vault. Internal Affairs suspects that it was an inside job and threatens to shut down the entire department unless they recover the drugs within five days.
Lowrey asks one of his informants and ex-girlfriend Maxine "Max" Logan (Karen Alexander) to look for people who are newly rich and therefore suspects. She gets herself and her best friend Julie Mott (Téa Leoni) hired as escorts by Eddie Dominguez (Emmanuel Xuereb), a former crooked cop. The party is interrupted by Dominguez's French drug kingpin boss Fouchet (Tchéky Karyo) and his henchmen Casper, Ferguson and Noah. Dominguez and Max are killed, while Julie manages to escape.