| Director | Tom Mankiewicz |
|---|---|
| Budget | $20 million |
| Box office | $66.7 million |
LAPD Sergeant Joe Friday's nephew and namesake, whose anachronistic views reflect those of his deceased uncle, is involuntarily assigned a cocky, streetwise new partner, Pep Streebek, as Friday's previous longtime partner in the Robbery-Homicide Division, Frank Smith, recently quit the department without notice after their 12 years together to buy a goat farm in Ukiah. Their contrasting styles clash at first, with Friday criticizing Streebek's attitude, hairstyle and wardrobe. However, they start to bond while investigating a series of bizarre thefts. Among the stolen items is the entire print run of the 25th anniversary edition of Bait, a pornographic magazine published by Jerry Caesar that the Reverend Jonathan Whirley, the founder of MAMA (Moral Advance Movement of America), has been leading a moral crusade against.
Friday and Streebek follow the trail to a cult calling itself P.A.G.A.N., an acronym for "People Against Goodness and Normalcy." They interrogate member Emil Muzz, working as Caesar's limousine driver, who reveals the time and place of a secret ceremony. The duo infiltrates the ceremony, disguised as members, and witness a masked leader using several stolen items in a ritual leading up to a virgin sacrifice. The leader throws the victim, Connie Swail (referred to as "the virgin Connie Swail"), into a pit of water with an anaconda. Friday and Streebek disrupt the ritual, saving Connie and subduing the snake, and report the incident to their boss Captain Bill Gannon. However, when Gannon and potential mayoral candidate Police Commissioner Jane Kirkpatrick visit the site with them the next day, no evidence of the ritual can be found. Kirkpatrick removes Friday and Streebek from the case.
Streebek receives information from the undercover narcotics unit where he formerly worked about the location of a load of trichlornitromethane and the pseudo-halogenic compound cyanogen, previously stolen by the cult, that can mass-produce a highly poisonous gas when mixed properly in the exact ratio. He and Friday commandeer a tank with a battering ram to raid the location, which proves to be an ordinary milk pasteurizing plant. The chemicals and gas-making equipment are actually hidden next door. With no further leads to pursue, the duo attend a birthday dinner for Friday's maternal grandmother Grace Mundy at her favorite restaurant the Brown Derby. Connie soon joins them at Friday's invitation.
During dinner, Connie notices Whirley, Gannon and Kirkpatrick at another table. She identifies Whirley as the cult leader, having encountered and unmasked him while fleeing the ritual. Friday attempts to arrest Whirley, but the corrupt Kirkpatrick, whose mayoral campaign is being secretly bankrolled by Whirley and Caesar, overrules him and relieves him of duty (all of the cult's crimes had been part of Kirkpatrick's campaign, as an elevated crime rate would discredit the current mayor Peter Parvin). Gannon reluctantly suspends Friday from duty and orders Streebek to stay away from Whirley.
While Friday is taking Connie home, Muzz captures them and takes them to the Griffith Observatory, where Whirley reveals to them his plan to kill Caesar at a reunion party for the models of Bait. He orders his men to take Connie to his private jet and prepares to kill Friday but Streebek serendipitously arrives, having forced Muzz to reveal Friday's whereabouts at gunpoint. Streebek infiltrates Caesar's mansion and disrupts the cult's plans to release the gas made from the stolen chemicals, just before Whirley sets the stolen magazines ablaze to cover his escape. Gannon arrives with SWAT teams and Friday crashes the estate gates with an armored vehicle. Streebek personally arrests Muzz while Caesar gratefully thanks Friday for defusing the gas attack. Gannon reinstates Friday and returns his badge so he can pursue Whirley.
At the airport, Whirley meets Kirkpatrick and then abandons her before absconding with Connie as his hostage. The following morning, he is cornered by Friday via a police jet and forced to land; soon afterwards, he is convicted on multiple charges and receives "43 consecutive 99-year sentences" (despite being eligible for parole in seven years) in the Men's Correctional Institute in Chino. Kirkpatrick's fate is never revealed, though the exposure of her criminal activity ends her career. Friday continues his partnership with Streebek and begins dating Connie, whom he no longer refers to as "the virgin".