Acid Rock

FBI agent William Blake is assigned to protect Vickie Stoner, the nineteen-year-old daughter of commodities dealer Paul Stoner, who plans to testify about a Russian grain deal. Vickie’s flight from her father and a bombed plane convince Blake that the open contract on her life is real. In Denver, attackers kill Blake and several agents; Vickie escapes. Wreaths sent to the attackers’ funerals contain money and a note confirming payment for the failed hit. Harold Smith sends Remo Williams to find and protect her. Remo experiences Chiun’s predicted “night of the salt,” then takes a detour through an Atlanta Eagles football tryout. Meanwhile, Willie Bombella and attorney Morris Edelstein set out to pursue the contract.

A phone contact directs them toward Vickie and pays for a separate killing; Bombella kills Edelstein and later tries to attack Vickie at the North Adams Experience. Remo finds her at the concert, kills an armed would-be attacker, and gets her away from a tower collapse caused by Bombella’s sabotage. Bombella’s car explodes after Remo confronts him. Smith learns the open contract has increased to $1.5 million and discovers that the Nilsson family, a Swedish lineage of professional assassins, is involved. Lhasa Nilsson accepts the assignment to finance his brother Gunner’s poorly supplied African hospital. Gunner initially refuses to resume the family’s work, but Lhasa persuades him while still alive; after Lhasa dies, Gunner assumes the contract himself.

Vickie repeatedly slips away from Remo and becomes attached to acid-rock star Maggot, stage identity of investor Calvin Cadwallader. Lhasa reaches the Waldorf Astoria with would-be contract killers Abdul Hareem Barenga, Philander Jones and Piggy; he kills Piggy, Jones and a hotel waiter, then enters Remo and Chiun’s room. Chiun kills Lhasa; Remo incapacitates Barenga at the elevator and sends the elevator car down the shaft. Barenga survives critically injured until Gunner kills him later at the hospital. Gunner then follows Vickie to performances in Pittsburgh and Darlington. At the Pittsburgh show he kills another hired gun and shoots disc jockey Big Bang Benton, who had advertised information about Vickie.

Remo and Chiun arrive, but Vickie leaves with Maggot and the band. At Darlington’s enormous festival, Gunner infiltrates the stage and confronts Remo before charging toward Vickie. Chiun kills him. The crowd surges; Remo, Chiun, Vickie, Maggot and the Dead Meat Lice escape by helicopter. Vickie tells Remo that she calls her father every day with her location. Remo understands that Paul Stoner arranged the contract and knew where she was. Remo kills Stoner, stages his death as a suicide and leaves a confession implicating the other financiers in the grain swindle; Smith says Vickie will no longer need to testify.