Loanshark Chili Palmer has done his time as a gangster, so when "business" takes him to Los Angeles to collect a debt from down and out filmmaker Harry Zimm, he talks tough and then pitches Harry a script idea. Everything would be smooth for this cool new producer, if it were't for the drug smugglers and gangsters who won't leave him alone.

The story of Miles Daly who works as muscle for a murderous crime ring in Nevada and attempts to change professions and become a movie producer, laundering money through a Hollywood film.