Summaries

Synopsis

In New York City, Dave Lyons (Gene Wilder), a deaf man, steps off the curb, then stops when he sees the signal light blink "Don't Walk." A van drives up behind him and beeps its horn. It is not until Dave turns and sees the van that he jumps back. He reads the lips of the driver calling him a "dumb idiot." He screams that the driver is the dumb idiot. Wallace "Wally" Karue (Richard Pryor), a blind man, thinks Dave is yelling at him and tries to pick a fight. Unable to hear, Dave walks away; unable to see, Wally swings wildly into the air until his sister, Adele (Kirsten Childs), pulls him into a subway station. Wally sits on the train pretending to read a newspaper while Adele berates him for trying to pass as a seeing person.

After losing his money at the racetrack, Wally has his sister drive him to a job interview. He refuses to let Adele escort him and gets out of the car. Another blind man steps up to him, and asks Wally to escort him across the street. Wally walks them into a moving van. He enters Dave Lyons' store to asks for a job. Dave is distracted and he misses reading Wally's lips. Wally becomes infuriated and demands to know if Dave is deaf. Dave screams, "Yes. Are you blind?" steps on a big man's coat, and does not respond to the man's request to move. The man pushes Dave over, and Wally throws a punch. He misses and gets hit in the face. Dave yells out the man's location using clock directions and Wally beats the man silly.

Later, the two disabled men sit in a park eating ice cream and exchanging life stories. Wally was blinded by a drunk driver, but refuses to let blindness define his life. Dave caught scarlet fever as a teenager, but his hearing loss was gradual. He was an actor until he became deaf. His biggest fear is doing something foolish and having everyone stare at him. Wally claims he can cure Dave of his fear and sticks his ice cream cone onto Dave's head. No one seems to notice.

A few days later, Wally is outside the shop retrieving newspapers when his bookie, Scotto (John Capodice), arrives. Scotto realizes Eve (Joan Severance), a beautiful mafia "hit" woman is standing outside with her assistant, Kirgo (Kevin Spacey). He asks Dave to read a medicine label for him. When Dave turns his back, he tosses a gold coin into the tip box. Eve comes in, and orders Scotto to come see her boss, Mr. Sutherland. When Scotto refuses, Eve shoots him. Knowing Dave is deaf and did not hear her, Eve grabs Scotto's briefcase, drops her gun, and passes the blind Wally on her way out. Wally comments on her perfume before tripping over Scotto's body. Dave turns in time to see Eve's shapely legs go out the door. He comes around the counter to find Wally lying on Scotto and picks up the gun. Police rush in. Unable to hear the commands to drop the gun, Dave is almost shot, but Wally screams that Dave is deaf. As Dave is arrested, he yells for Wally to empty the tip box and close up. Wally puts the money, including the gold coin in his pocket.

At the police station, the two men are told they are suspected of murdering Scotto because Wally owed him $28,000.

Across town, Eve and Kirgo discover the briefcase is empty. Realizing Scotto tossed the gold coin into the tip box, Eve proposes she and Kirgo pretend to be the boys' lawyers and arrange bail for them. Wally recognizes Eve's perfume, and Dave recognizes her legs. They tell Police Captain Braddock (Alan North) that their lawyers are the murderers, but Braddock thinks they are crazy. After Wally walks into a wall, Braddock removes his handcuffs. Dave insists they escape and the two disabled men drink from a water fountain. In the elevator, they spit the water into Braddock's and another detective's eyes and rush out. They run into a crowd of political protesters and leave the building with them, walking past Eve, who is arguing with Kirgo. The killers nab the pair, and Eve searches Wally's pocket to find the gold coin. Dave reads Eve's lips when she calls Sutherland and arranges to meet him at "Grace George" the next day.

When Eve tells Dave he is going to die, he asks her to scratch his nose as his last request. Instead, she gives him a passionate kiss. She drives off, leaving Dave and Wally with Kirgo. Dave calls out to Wally, helping him knock out Kirgo. Dave and Wally then find a police cruiser with its engine running. The blind Wally leaps behind the wheel, as Dave shouts directions. Soon they are chased by Eve. Kirgo appears in a stolen taxicab followed by Capt. Braddock. The pursuers shoot at the police cruiser, but Wally loses them, only to drive off a pier onto a garbage scow. The scow dumps them in New Jersey. After Wally cuts off Dave's handcuffs, they push the cruiser into a marsh and argue which of them is more maladjusted regarding their handicaps. They telephone Wally's sister, Adele, who drives to the hotel, unaware she is being followed by police.

Braddock leads thirty squad cars into the hotel parking lot. He charges into the room to find it empty. When he leaves, however, Adele, Wally and Dave climb out a ventilation shaft. Dave informs Adele the crooks are at Grace George, Adele corrects him, noting that he means "Great Gorge," a large resort. The resort is hosting a medical convention, so Wally and Dave pretend to be Swedish doctors to gain entrance. After locating Kirgo's room, Adele drives into Kirgo's car. While the man rushes out to deal with her, Dave sneaks into the room leaving Wally in the hall as lookout.

The hotel manager finds Wally, and thinking he is one of the Swedish doctors, takes him to deliver a lecture at a gynecology symposium. Not hearing the shower running, Dave enters the bathroom and sees Kirgo's suitcase. As he grabs it, Eve steps out of the shower with soap in her eyes. She grabs a face cloth and returns to the shower, allowing Dave to sneak into the other room to search the case. He finds the coin as Eve steps into the room wrapped only a towel. Pretending he has a gun in his pocket, Dave orders Eve to raise her hands, causing the towel to drop. Dave kisses her before running out the door. Eve sprints to the parking lot, recognizes Adele, and orders Kirgo to grab her.

At the symposium, Wally has trouble fielding questions, and pretends he has a blinding headache. Dave bursts into the conference, claims Wally has "Blindness Anginas," and drags him out of the room. In the parking lot, they are given a note ordering them to go to Sutherland's estate, if they wish to see Adele again. Dave drives to Sutherland's mansion and sees Adele being held in a greenhouse. Wally whistles to distract the guard dogs as Dave scales the wall and smashes a window to get inside, not hearing that he has set off an alarm.

Eve and a henchman named Herman come into the greenhouse. Eve searches Dave for the coin, but Adele smashes a pot over Herman's head. Dave cannot bring himself to hit Eve, so Adele punches the assassin unconscious. Adele climbs over the wall, but Eve revives and captures Dave. Inside, Kirgo presents Wally and the gold coin to Sutherland, who explains the coin is really a room temperature superconductor. Kirgo points his gun at Sutherland and demands more money, but Sutherland turns off the lights, pulls a pistol from his desk and shoots Kirgo dead. Wally asks what happened and learns that Sutherland is blind. Wally grabs Kirgo's gun and the two sightless men have a gunfight using only their hearing to guide their aim. Wally drops his gun as Eve and Dave appear. Eve points her revolver at Sutherland and demands to know what happened to Kirgo. Sutherland tells her, and again kills the lights, but Eve fires first. The force of the blow sends Sutherland through a wall. Wally hears sirens and suggests Eve give up just as a helicopter appears. She locks Dave and Wally in, but they crawl out the broken wall, toss their coats over a power line and zip-line down the hill, crashing into Eve and the helicopter pilot as police arrive.

A few days later, the two are eating ice cream when Dave says he wants to give Wally something. Before Dave can smash his ice cream cone onto Wally's head, Wally does it to him.