Eight years after the events of the first film, Miami police detectives Marcus Barnett (Martin Lawrence) and Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) are investigating the flow of highly-potent ecstasy into the city. The drugs are shipped from Cuba on freight ships and dropped in the ocean near Miami in coffins. The coffins are picked up by speedboats. The whole operation is supervised by Johnny Tapia, who is bringing $150 million worth of ecstasy into the US.
The smugglers are able to escape the Coast Guard and bring the drugs to shore.The Miami PD surveillance of boats coming in from Cuba leads them to a Ku Klux Klan meeting and a drug drop in a swamp. The subsequent raid on the Klan members proves to be a disaster. Mike and Marcus were disguised as Klan members themselves, and they reveal themselves when the drugs have been dropped.
Malfunctioning radios leads to a delayed arrival of the Miami Police's Tactical Narcotics Team (TNT), causing a firefight where Mike accidentally shoots Marcus in the buttocks, while the Klan members are revealed to be mere small-time buyers and not the distributors of the ecstasy.The incident leaves Marcus to further question if he still wants to partner with Mike, while Mike frets that Marcus may discover his relationship with Marcus' sister, Syd (Gabrielle Union). Marcus is waiting for the right time to tell Mike he is transferring out of the TNT Unit.Unknown to Mike and Marcus, Syd is an undercover operative with the DEA, as a money laundering agent for Russian gangsters. The Russian gangsters are in fact the distributors of the ecstasy on behalf of neurotic Cuban drug lord Johnny Tapia (Jordi Mollà).During her first assignment in Miami, a violent Haitian Zoe Pound gang attempts to hijack the money transport between the Russians and Tapia, putting Syd in danger. Mike and Marcus, working on a tip from an informant, had been following the Haitians. Mike and Marcus inadvertently stumble into the action, and an intense fire fight and car chase ensues between the gang members and the Miami Police/DEA, devastating the local area and enraging Police Captain Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano). Mike and Marcus are reprimanded by Captain Howard, who is further miffed to find out the DEA is running an investigation in the city without consulting him first.Marcus and Mike learn of Syd's actual work, which makes Marcus unhappy, while Capt. Howard demands they find the supplier of ecstasy.Marcus and Mike go to confront the Haitian gang leader, which results in a firefight and the leader revealing that his information about the transport came from his friend's camcorder. After viewing the footage, Marcus and Mike find out that a local business, the Spanish Palms Mortuary, is possibly being used as a front by Tapia. Disguised as pest terminators, the detectives penetrate Tapia's mansion and discover that Tapia has eliminated his Russian distributors. Meanwhile, Tapia begins a mixed business-personal relationship with Syd, wherein he intends for her to launder all the money for his operation. Syd is still undercover with the DEA and has refocused the investigation towards Tapia.
The detectives also recover evidence linking Tapia to one of the boats involved in the Klan raid.After pressuring one of the arrested Klansman into making Tapia's boat, the detectives find themselves involved in another firefight, this time while pursuing a morgue van from the docks carrying emptied cadavers. Mike and Marcus decide to infiltrate Tapia's mortuary, where they learn that the drug lord is using dead bodies to smuggle his drugs and money.The mission is nearly sabotaged when the pair are almost discovered, resulting in Marcus accidentally ingesting some of the ecstasy and Mike ordering the disguised officers outside the building to crash an ambulance into it, creating an diversion. The evidence is sufficient for Captain Howard to authorize a raid on both Tapia's residence and the mortuary, in collaboration with the DEA and the U.S. Coast Guard.
After Mike and an intoxicated Marcus obtain a search warrant from Capt. Howard, the mortuary and Tapia's mansion are raided, with the drugs and money being intercepted by the Coast Guard.However, the mansion raid is botched when a vengeful Russian gangster, Alexei (Peter Stormare), violently storms the mansion on his own. Alexei is killed by the police, while Syd is discovered by Tapia and kidnapped to Cuba.
Nearly all of Tapia's drug supply and money are confiscated in the raid, though Tapia flees to Cuba with Syd as a hostage, having found out about her being a DEA agent during the raid on Tapia's home before he could be apprehended.
With Syd held prisoner in Tapia's compound and guarded by the Cuban military, the drug lord demands the return of his money in two days in exchange for Syd's life.Tapia uses Syd as a bargaining chip, demanding the return of his money in 48 hours. Mike and Marcus form a black-ops team with agents from the DEA, TNT, and Captain Howard's contacts from the CIA to rescue Syd. The team is inserted by the Coast Guard a few miles off the coast of Cuba, where they rendezvous with fellow officer Vargas's brother, Tito, who is head of the local Alpha 66 underground resistance there. He assists the teams with weapons, a tunnel network, and an accurate mapping of Tapia's new mansion.The team raids Tapia's mansion, rescues Syd, and leaves a large explosive device that demolishes the mansion upon the team's ex-filtration. Marcus, Mike, Syd, and Tito steal a yellow Hummer H2 as they escape from Cuban military forces controlled by Tapia. Tapia survives and pursues the group, ultimately ending up outside of Guantanamo Bay. Not recognized as U.S. citizens, the Navy personnel on the base shoot at both Mike and Marcus as well as Tapia's vehicles, prompting them to stop just as they enter a live minefield. Marcus kills Tapia while the latter holds Mike at gunpoint. Tapia's body falls backward onto a mine, which obliterates his corpse.Mike, Marcus, and Syd celebrate at a barbecue in Marcus' backyard with his family; Marcus has decided to remain partners with Mike.
Storyline
Miami is being flooded with ecstasy that's coming from Cuba through drug lord Johnny Tapia. Detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett are on the case, and are determined to bring the man to justice. Additional drama is provided by friction with the DEA, which counts Marcus' younger sister Sydney among its agents, and from Marcus possibly transferring out of the department, leaving Mike without his longtime partner. Narcotics cops Mike Lowrey ( Will Smith ) and Marcus Burnett ( Martin Lawrence ) head up a task force investigating the flow of ecstasy into Miami. Their search leads to a dangerous kingpin Johnny Tapia ( Jordi Mollà ), whose plan to control the city's drug traffic has touched off an underground war. Meanwhile, things get sexy between Mike and Syd ( Gabrielle Union ), Marcus's sister. — Anonymous Mike Lowrey ( Will Smith ) and Marcus Burnett ( Martin Lawrence ), who are part of the Miami PD's Tactical Narcotics Team (TNT), still don't always get along, and now they're keeping secrets from each other. Mike's secret is that he's been seeing Marcus' sister, Sydney "Syd" Burnett ( Gabrielle Union ) who is a reported paper pusher for the DEA's New York office. Marcus's secret is that he has asked for a transfer, because he wants to spend more time with his family, and less time with Mike. That's all set aside when their boss, Captain Howard ( Joe Pantoliano ) assigns them to stop the flow of record amounts of ecstasy into the city. This puts Mike and Marcus on the trail of the most dangerous enemy that they have ever faced...Cuban drug kingpin Hector Juan Carlos "Johnny" Tapia, who wants to take control of the entire ecstasy trade in the USA, and is working with local dealers and club owners such as Russian mafia boss Alexei. Every time the Miami PD has ever arrested Tapia, Tapia has sued the Miami PD for false arrest, and won millions of dollars. This has caused the department to back off and not go after Tapia. Well, everyone has backed off except for Mike and Marcus, who have never faced Tapia before. Now, it seems that Tapia is using a mortuary as a cover for his operations, smuggling ecstasy hidden inside dead bodies, while sending his money to Cuba in hidden compartments in the coffins. While Mike and Marcus try to bring Tapia down, they also deal with the discovery that Syd is actually working undercover for the DEA to bring down a money laundering operation run by Alexei, and as part of her undercover job, Syd is in deep with Tapia. When Haitian gangsters try to steal Tapia's money and kill Syd, the two investigations cross paths. Syd's cover is later blown, and she is kidnapped by Tapia, who takes her to his compound in Cuba. With the unofficial help of people from the CIA, the Miami PD, and anti-Castro forces in Cuba, Mike and Marcus head out to rescue Syd, and bring Tapia down. How far will Tapia go to keep his drug empire? And how far will Marcus and Mike go to rescue Syd? — Todd Baldridge