Tough-talking Detroit cop Axel Foley heads to the rarified world of Beverly Hills in his beat-up Chevy Nova to investigate a friend’s murder. But soon, he realizes he’s stumbled onto something much more complicated. Bungling rookie detective Billy Rosewood joins the fish-out-of-water Axel and shows him the West Los Angeles ropes.

An astronaut exposed to cosmic rays outside of Saturn’s rings returns to Earth and begins to melt away. Escaping from the hospital, he wanders around the backwoods looking for human flesh to eat.