When efforts to prosecute mob boss Luigi Patrovita (Sam Wanamaker) are repeatedly derailed thanks to a mole in the FBI, the only choice is to bring in an outsider — specifically, Mark Kaminsky (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a disgraced agent who leaps at a chance for reinstatement. After FBI chief Shannon (Darren McGavin) gives him his orders, Kaminsky fakes his death and reemerges as an ex-con named Brenner. Undercover and accountable to no one, the former Fed tears up the mob from the inside.