Two garbage men uncover a conspiracy involving illegal toxic waste dumping and decide to bring the whole operation down.
Carl and James are two pleasant but unambitious garbage men. Carl has a telescope with which he observes his neighbors. One evening he sees a man giving a female neighbor a hard time. As she leaves he shoots the man with a pellet gun. Hiding, he and James miss two men strangling the man and leaving with the body. When he appears in a can on their route they are afraid and hide the body, fearing that they may be implicated in the death. Trying to crack the case, they spy on the woman, join up with a slightly to majorly crazed Vietnam vet, kidnap a pizza man and help to protect the ecology.—John Vogel <[email protected]>
Barrels of toxic waste are being dumped into a lake in Las Playas. But the barrel dumped earlier have corroded due to the water and are leaking their toxic contents into the lake water.Meanwhile Jack Berger (Darrell Larson) is a city councilman working for a corrupt businessman Maxwell Potterdam III (John Getz). Maxwell is bribing Jack to look the other way, while he dumps toxic chemicals in the lake (he produces paint thinners). Jack thinks he was double crossed since the barrels were supposed to be leak proof for 150 years, but they are not and are polluting the lake.Max says that Jack need not worry as in 2 days he is shifting his entire waste disposal operation to a different lake up North. Jack threatens to expose the entire operation and refuses any more bribes from Max. Jack gets a tape recording of his conversation with Maxwell
Carl Taylor (Charlie Sheen) and James St. James (Emilio Estevez), a pair of garbage collectors who dream of owning a surf shop, are known for being troublemakers during work by tossing garbage cans in the street and making noise that disturbs residents.A local bike cop Officer Mike (John Putch), Mike, hassles them frequently, but Carl and James are used to his bullying and shrug it off.Carl and James have ambition to open up a surf shop on the coast.After completing their shift, they are put on probation for their disruptive antics and told they are to be accompanied by an observer on their next shift: their supervisor's Walt Richardson (Sy Richardson) brother-in-law, Louis (Keith David).
Carl and James spend time in the evening spying on their neighborhood with their telescope and hitting random targets with Carl's pellet gun. Carl hates politicians, specifically councilman Jack, whose posters are all over the neighborhood.
At his office, Jack can see 2 men waiting for him outside and can sense that they are Max's men. Jack takes the recording of Max's confession to the police Captain Dalton (Troy Evans).Unfortunately, Jack's campaign manager Susan (Leslie Hope) had picked the tape by mistake and so Jack couldn't deliver it to Dalton. Dalton was working for Maxwell and informs him that Jack has some evidence against him.
After work, James & Carl use a telescope to spy on Susan Wilkins, a woman living across the street, and watch as she is mistreated by a man. Susan leaves the room, as the man continues to search for something. Once she leaves the room, Carl, in a form of payback for bullying a woman, shoots the man in the rear with a pellet gun. As James and Carl hide and laugh, two men enter Susan's apartment, strangle the man and drag him away. After stuffing his body into a barrel, they put the barrel in their car, but it falls out.
The next day, Louis joins Carl and James. Louis means business and rejects any peace offerings from Carl and James. When James mumbles in frustration, Louis starts a fight and ends up punching Carl in the nose.The barrel is found Carl, James and Louis on their garbage route.
Carl and James panic when they realize that not only is the dead man the same person Carl shot in Susan's apartment, but that he is also Jack Berger (Darrell Larson), a city councilman who was running for mayor. Louis, a semi-crazed no-nonsense Vietnam War vet, calms the two down by explaining that Jack died of strangulation, not being shot. The trio see Officer Mike coming around for his morning round of the neighborhood.
Meanwhile, the 2 men deliver the tape to Max, but it turns out to be wrong tape again. Max orders the men to go after Susan and to retrieve the tape.
Louis, demanding that the cops not get involved, takes control of the situation by having them stash the body at Carl's place. Louis makes Carl order a pizza for dinner. When Carl sees Susan come home, he decides to meet her and goes over to her apartment building. Carl is shocked and falls to the ground when Susan suddenly emerges from her apartment, when he was just outside. He fakes an ankle injury to get into her apartment by asking her for an ice pack. Carl then asks Susan to bandage him and then serve his some drinks. They hit it off and spontaneously go for a night drive.
Meanwhile, Louis makes their problems worse when he kidnaps a pizza delivery man (Dean Cameron) who sees James with the body. James tries to call the police, but Louis unplugs the phone and drags James, the pizza guy, and the body into a car to follow Carl and Susan.
While in pursuit of Carl and Susan, they are pulled over by Mike and his partner Jeff (Tommy Hinkley). Louis, using the pellet gun and the pizza guy as a hostage, forces Mike and Jeff to drop their guns before handcuffing them together in a compromising position at a playground.Meanwhile, Carl and Susan are discovered and kidnapped by Biff (Hawk Wolinski) and Mario (John Lavachielli), the hit-men who had killed Jack. Max had asked them to go after Susan as he felt she might have the tape.
The two are brought before Maxwell Potterdam III, a corrupt businessperson who has been dumping toxic waste illegally. Jack had been covering for him but, when he tried to back out, Maxwell had him killed. Max recovers the tape from Susan. Carl and Susan are then stuffed into waste disposal cans and set to be disposed of in a lake Potterdam is using as an illegal dump site. Carl's barrel falls off the truck and he is freed; he and James manage to grab onto the truck carrying Susan while Louis, the pizza guy, and Jack's body follow in a rent-a-cop car.
Carl frees Susan and the group neutralizes Potterdam's squad of goons, terrorize him with their pranks -and Jack's body- and then throw him in the toxic water.
