- When his attempt to free his ex-girlfriend from a cell fails, Tony has a confrontation with her ex-mobster father.
- Tony is able to escape from Paul Gunther's compound, but without any information about Gunther's operation and not with his old girlfriend, Janet Keegan, who Gunther kidnapped in an effort to keep her father, Charles Keegan, from going to the police about he planning a new grand heist, although Charles doesn't know the specifics about the plan either. It entails the printing of money using stolen authentic plates and paper. Gunther and his men are able to move onto the next phase of their plan with Janet in tow. Tony's actions, which also includes calling in the police to locate Janet, don't sit well with Charles, who goes through his street network to locate Janet while keeping Tony, who he doesn't want interfering, under guard. Tony, however, believes that newer methods, an illusionist's smoke and mirrors, may be a more effective method of discovering Gunther's plan to report to the police and to find a still alive Janet.—Huggo
- Tony's lock pick breaks in the lock. He quickly slips out before Lomas arrives, forced to leave Janet behind. Tony slams a gate, drawing Lomas' attention, and the crook goes to investigate, drawing his gun. He enters the next cell block and finds no one, and Tony slams the gate shut, locking it. Lomas shoots at him and misses, and Tony runs off as Lomas shoots out the lock on the gate and frees himself.
Gunther, Johnson, and their men hear the shots, draw their guns, and go to investigate. Lomas yells down to them that it's Tony. They cover their exits, go inside, and they hear the freight elevator coming down. Tony looks out the access window and ducks aside, and the crooks open fire on the door. Johnson opens the elevator doors, and an open hatch in the roof reveals that Tony escaped upward.
Tony triggers the elevator from above and the doors. Gunther and his men go to cover the stairs, and he drops down into the elevator as it goes up. The elevator returns to the floor where Janet is imprisoned, and Johnson arrives on the floor and shoots at Tony. Tony jumps out a window into a dumpster below, then climbs out, climbs over a fence, and drops onto a railroad track below. Gunther and Kroll open fire, hitting Tony in the leg and grazing his forehead, and he hobbles off. Johnson and his men come to the window above with Janet, and Gunther yells that they have no time to go after Tony. He yells to Gunther to have a contract put out with Simmons and then meet him and his men at the rendezvous. Johnson drives into town, while his men take Janet to the helicopter where Gunther is waiting.
Tony gets into town and calls the police, and Gottschalk and his men check the abandoned jail for evidence. They find nothing, and Gottschalk asks Tony if he has any idea where Gunther might have been gone. He doesn't, and the captain assures Tony that one way or another, they'll find Janet.
Johnson meets with Simmons and puts out a contract on Tony, He warns Simmons not to underestimate Tony. Once Johnson leaves, Simmons calls his hitter and gives J.J. the job.
Tony arrives at the Castle and Dominick tells him that Charles is upstairs with his thugs, and Jerry went with them. When Tony goes up, he tells Jerry that Janet was okay when he last saw her. Charles asks why Tony didn't get Janet out, and complains that he might have cost Janet her life. Simmons calls and says that he can he should go to the Mission Gardens Motel if he wants to know where Janet is, and J.J. Walters will tell him everything he wants to know.
Once Simmons hangs up, Tony tells Charles that Gunther isn't going to let Janet live whether Gunther succeeds at his plan or not to keep Charles on the hook. Undeterred, Charles points out that Tony didn't keep his nose out of the entire affair or keep the cops out, and tells Tony to stay there and Burke will make sure that he does. Charles and his thugs leave, and Burke trains his gun on Tony and Jerry.
Burke is a chain smoker, and Tony asks Jerry for his "mail". Getting the hidden message, Jerry gives Tony his mail and a piece of flash paper in an envelope. Tony does a bit of sleight of hand with the balled up paper for Burke, grabs a book of his matches, and puts the paper in an ashtray on the bar. He offers Burke a light and puts out the match, and tosses it in the ashtray. The paper burst into flames, distracting Burke so that Jerry can disarm him. Tony has Jerry rig up the "Louisville Switch" illusion at the motel then meet Tony at another address.
Tony goes to the motel room Simmons specified and knocks at the door. No one answers, and the door is unlocked. Tony goes in and finds J.J.--a woman--waiting for him in a bathtub. She asks him to close the door and Tony obliges, then comes back. She's seen Tony' act on TV, and tells him that information on Janet will cost him. Tony produces a bill and refuses to double the payment unless he gets the information on Janet. J.J. tells Tony to make himself a drink in the main room and she'll be out, and Tony goes. J.J. gets out of the tub and takes out a pistol, and calls to Tony that a guy she hangs out with has Janet.
J.J. dresses and shoots into the back of the chair that Tony is apparently sitting in, his arm visible. Tony grabs her as she comes through the door, and calls to Jerry. Jerry comes in and removes the dummy arm that he put in the chair. Tony tells J.J. to make a phone call.
Johnson is waiting in his car, and gets a call from a nearby payphone from J.J. saying that Tony is dead, and the proof is at the San Dimas Icehouse. Johnson drives there and goes inside, gun drawn, and finds Tony's "body" laid out on a table. Jerry triggers sending Tony's owl Merlin flying toward Johnson. The owl perches nearby, and a panicked John shoots Tony several times and then runs out. Jerry comes over, using the remote to flip the table, revealing Tony strapped to the underside where Jerry flipped him while the owl distracted Johnson when Jerry made the switch.
Tony runs outside, beats Johnson back to his car, and hides in the trunk. Johnson comes out, gets in the car, and drives off.
Gunther, Janet, and Gunther's crew are waiting at an auto junkyard. Two fake guards drive up in the stolen armored car from the mint, haul out the gassed-unconscious guards, and Gunther tells Janet that he and the government will both want the operation kept secret so he kept the guards alive out of self-interest. The government won't want to have to cover up the deaths of the guard since Gunther kept them alive.
Johnson arrives and tells Gunther that Tony is dead. Tony slips out of the trunk and watches from the shadows, much to Janet's shock. Meanwhile, the crew runs a gas line for the knockout gas out the armored car's exhaust pipe. A crook, Joe Kemp puts on one of the guards' uniforms and drive off in the armored car along with Gunther and the rest of his crew.
The armored car arrives at the storage facility across the street from the mint and Kroll goes up to the door guard inside, posing as the car driver. The guard lets the car in and the guards inside pass out as the car drive past them, spewing out the knockout gas. Kemp pulls the armored car to a stop and puts on a gas mask. The remaining guards come over and pass out, and the rest of the uniformed crew emerge from the car to take the place of the unconscious guards. Once the gas dissipates, the crew removes their masks. The rest of the crew drive up in a truck, and the fake guards let them in. Tony is hanging onto the bottom of the truck,
Once Gunther's crew take the tunnel to the mint, still holding Janet, Tony emerges from beneath the truck and runs along the tunnel after them. The crew reach the other end and take an elevator up, and Kemp stands guard while the others go into a press room. Johnson and a safecracker drill into a vault door behind which the plate is stored, and they use a laser to cut the door open. Once they get the door open, Johnson takes the plate.
In the press room, Gunther watches as the rest of the crew prepare a print run with authentic paper. Johnson brings them the plate, while meanwhile the elevator activates behind Kroll. Tony brings the elevator down to the basement, gets in, and comes up. He comes out and Kroll puts his gun in his back, then leads him into the press room. Johnson is surprised to see Tony alive, Janet relieved. Tony demands to speak to Gunther, and Johnson takes Tony to his boss.
Gunther comes over to tell Kroll to kill Tony. Tony says that Charles wants to hear that Janet is okay, and if Tony doesn't deliver the message personally then Charles will send his men in. Gunther calls Charles and puts Janet on the line, and she tells her father that she's okay. She puts Tony on the line, and Tony gives Charles a coded message from his mentalist routine, and tells Charles to pass it on to Jerry. Realizing that something is going on, Gunther cuts the line and tells Kroll to kill Tony. Tony tells Gunther that Charles can come down on Gunther anytime, and Tony is the only he'll believe to confirm that Janet is safe. Gunther reconsiders and tells Kroll to keep Tony alive but locked up somewhere that he can't bother them.
Kroll ties Tony up and leaves him in the vault with Kemp to watch over him. Kemp lights a cigarette, and Tony easily escapes the rope tie and uses the rope to tie Kemp's hands and punches him unconscious.
In the press room, Johnson oversees the printing of the money, then signals to Gunther that everything is going smoothly.
Tony leaves the vault room.
Charles has recorded Tony's message, and plays it back for Jerry. Jerry translates the code and tells Charlie where Tony is, needs help, and that he'll signal when safe.
Tony sneaks into the press room and Janet sees him. He motions to her to join him between the piles of paper, and she does so. He then grabs canisters of the knockout gas and gas masks, and the two of them sneak out. They get to a phone and Johnson sees the outside line button light up. He listens in as Tony calls Charles and tells him that he has Janet, and to call the police in. Charles hesitates to call the police and risk Janet, and Johnson tells Gunther and the others that Tony is gone.
The crooks search the mint and spot Tony and Janet just as they take the elevator down to the basement tunnel. While the crooks take the stairs down, Tony and Janet put on the gas masks, get to the basement, run into the tunnel, and the crooks avoid using their guns because of the flammable fumes in the area. They chase the escaping couple, and Tony sprays the knockout gas behind them. The pursuing crooks collapse, and the police arrive outside and move in.
Johnson manages to remain conscious and catches up to Tony and Janet. He threatens them with his gun, and he comes over and grabs Janet. He prepares to shoot Tony but then finally passes out from the gas. The police come in, and Tony tells them that Gunther and his men are in the mint's press room.
Later at the Castle, Mark Wilson and his son Greg are performing together on stage. Dominick brings in Janet and they join Tony at a table. Tony proposes a toast to old friends and Janet joins in, and thanks Tony for saving her. He shows her a newspaper with a headline about Gunther going to prison, and in the article the police thank Charles for his help.
Janet worries that her father will never forgive her after what happened. Jerry brings Charles in, and Tony tells Janet that Charles has already forgiven her. Father and daughter are reunited,
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content