Ray Tango is a Los Angeles narcotics cop who dresses in fancy suits, wears wire-rim glasses, and talks to his stockbroker more than he talks to his mother. Gabriel Cash is a Los Angeles narcotics cop who has long, disheveled hair, and dresses in worn-out sweatshirts. Even though they are rivals, Tango and Cash are the two best narcs in LA, which infuriates drug kingpin Yves Perret. Perret wants Tango and Cash out of the way, so Perret frames them for the murder of an undercover FBI agent. Perret's plan is to have Tango and Cash killed in prison in order to avoid risking all-out war with the LAPD. But Tango and Cash accept a plea bargain that will give them 18 months in a minimum-security prison, then Perret arranges for their destination to be diverted to a maximum-security prison where Perret's minions proceed to torture Tango and Cash. Tango and Cash are forced to work together in a spectacular escape from the prison. After the escape, Tango and Cash set out to prove their innocence, and Cash has a romance with Tango's sister Catherine "kiki" Tango.

The scene where Tango (Sylvester Stallone) faces an oncoming truck with nothing but a gun was borrowed from Ging chaat goo si (1985), where Jackie Chan (a good friend of Stallone's) performed the stunt.

Gabriel Cash:
Lucky for me this place is soundproof. That way nobody gets to hear me beating the truth out of you.

Continuity: Tango smashes the screen door when he jumps through it, but when it is on top of Cash it is in one piece.

Performed by Bad English
Courtesy of CBS Records, Music Licensing Department
Produced by Richie Zito
Written by John Waite, Jonathan Cain and Neal Schon