(There are Spoilers) Christmas Eve sets off a number of incidents in L.A that goes through the states of Arizona and Oklahoma and finally leads to the mountains outside of Boulder Colorado, at the Shelby Ranch. It's there where we have a confrontation between the local police the FBI and L.A homicide policeman Jerry Beck, Don Johnson, on a Neo-Nazi concentration camp-like, minus inmates, headquarters.
Guning down a black convenience store manager, who survived, and an L.A cop Gary Kimbel, who didn't, has LAPD officer track down the killer by checking all the parolees in and around L.A. Looking for a Bobby Burns who fit the description of the killer LA detective Jerry Beck checks out this biker place only to find Bobby Burns younger brother John who's not very helpful in the murder investigation. With Jerry trying to get John to talk about his brothers whereabouts out of nowhere this guy jumps out of the window, Jerry runs him down it what seemed like the length of the Boston Marathon. Jerry after running down tackling and cuffing the fugitive seems to uncontrollably, like it wasn't in the script but a sudden bodily function on his part, vomits not once but twice all over the poor mans shirt. It also turned out to Jerry's embarrassment that the person Jimmy Ellis wasn't the guy, Bobby Burns, that he was after.
Jerry's on pins and needles with his marriage on the rocks and his estranged wife Karen not letting him see his two kids as well as him being told to have a psychiatric examination by an LAPD assigned shrink to see if he's fit for duty. Christmas night Jerry attends a policeman single's party and meets and spends the night at his pad with Linda who he later finds out to his surprise and shock was the wife, estranged but still married to, of Officer Gary Kimble who was shot just the day before! how much can one man take without going off his rocker!
It seemed that the person involved with the shootings in LA went west to Cottonwood Arizona and, together with his friends,shot up a bar robbing and killing everyone in it. That incident has Jerry put back on the case and sent to Arizona to help, the Cottonwood police, in finding the killers. With the help of the local Cottonwood sheriff Jerry tracks down the killers to this farm and after a violent shootout the trio get away. Checking the farm house Jerry finds that the three fugitives left behind a map and letters about a big Neo-Nazi meeting to be held at a place called the Shelby Ranch in Colorado where the three are headed for.
As you would expect nobody takes Jerry seriously since he's such a flake even though he has the evidence, the map and the letters, right in his hands. Even the local FBI man Arthur Kressler assigned to the murder case,since the murders crossed state lines,treats Jerry like he was a conspiracy nut, in him saying that the Neo-Nazis were planing to overthrow the US government,gone out of control.
It takes a kidnapping, by Bobby Burns, and almost murder of Jerry Beck to finally convinces the FBI that Jerry may be on to something. Together with Boulder Sheriff Dixon's men Jerry and FBI agent Kressler storm the Shelby Ranch. Jerry & Co. not only find out the truth about what the persons there lead by the "Right Reverend" Ghbhardt, the Neo-Nazi religious Fuhuer, were planing for the future of America! Even more important it's found out who was behind the LA and Cottonwood Arizona murders, in which Officer Kimble was a victim, and what were the real and sick reasons behind them.
Interesting but a bit complicated police thriller that mixes Neo-Nazis street thugs and a lot of emotional and mental instability, on both sides of the law, together in making a fairly good story. It was interesting to see a young William Forsythe as the FBI man Arthur Kressler being so goody two shoes, like a combination boy scout and altar boy, who became so upset with LAPD's Jerry Beck for as much as using off-color language to the point of almost coming to blows with him! In almost all of his movies after "Dead Bang" Forsythe, in films like "Stone Cold" and "Out for Justice", was anything but the stuck-up and self-righteous FBI agent Kressler that he played in the movie.
Guning down a black convenience store manager, who survived, and an L.A cop Gary Kimbel, who didn't, has LAPD officer track down the killer by checking all the parolees in and around L.A. Looking for a Bobby Burns who fit the description of the killer LA detective Jerry Beck checks out this biker place only to find Bobby Burns younger brother John who's not very helpful in the murder investigation. With Jerry trying to get John to talk about his brothers whereabouts out of nowhere this guy jumps out of the window, Jerry runs him down it what seemed like the length of the Boston Marathon. Jerry after running down tackling and cuffing the fugitive seems to uncontrollably, like it wasn't in the script but a sudden bodily function on his part, vomits not once but twice all over the poor mans shirt. It also turned out to Jerry's embarrassment that the person Jimmy Ellis wasn't the guy, Bobby Burns, that he was after.
Jerry's on pins and needles with his marriage on the rocks and his estranged wife Karen not letting him see his two kids as well as him being told to have a psychiatric examination by an LAPD assigned shrink to see if he's fit for duty. Christmas night Jerry attends a policeman single's party and meets and spends the night at his pad with Linda who he later finds out to his surprise and shock was the wife, estranged but still married to, of Officer Gary Kimble who was shot just the day before! how much can one man take without going off his rocker!
It seemed that the person involved with the shootings in LA went west to Cottonwood Arizona and, together with his friends,shot up a bar robbing and killing everyone in it. That incident has Jerry put back on the case and sent to Arizona to help, the Cottonwood police, in finding the killers. With the help of the local Cottonwood sheriff Jerry tracks down the killers to this farm and after a violent shootout the trio get away. Checking the farm house Jerry finds that the three fugitives left behind a map and letters about a big Neo-Nazi meeting to be held at a place called the Shelby Ranch in Colorado where the three are headed for.
As you would expect nobody takes Jerry seriously since he's such a flake even though he has the evidence, the map and the letters, right in his hands. Even the local FBI man Arthur Kressler assigned to the murder case,since the murders crossed state lines,treats Jerry like he was a conspiracy nut, in him saying that the Neo-Nazis were planing to overthrow the US government,gone out of control.
It takes a kidnapping, by Bobby Burns, and almost murder of Jerry Beck to finally convinces the FBI that Jerry may be on to something. Together with Boulder Sheriff Dixon's men Jerry and FBI agent Kressler storm the Shelby Ranch. Jerry & Co. not only find out the truth about what the persons there lead by the "Right Reverend" Ghbhardt, the Neo-Nazi religious Fuhuer, were planing for the future of America! Even more important it's found out who was behind the LA and Cottonwood Arizona murders, in which Officer Kimble was a victim, and what were the real and sick reasons behind them.
Interesting but a bit complicated police thriller that mixes Neo-Nazis street thugs and a lot of emotional and mental instability, on both sides of the law, together in making a fairly good story. It was interesting to see a young William Forsythe as the FBI man Arthur Kressler being so goody two shoes, like a combination boy scout and altar boy, who became so upset with LAPD's Jerry Beck for as much as using off-color language to the point of almost coming to blows with him! In almost all of his movies after "Dead Bang" Forsythe, in films like "Stone Cold" and "Out for Justice", was anything but the stuck-up and self-righteous FBI agent Kressler that he played in the movie.