Plot summary

Los Angeles Times reporter Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher is writing an article exposing drug trafficking on the beach, where he suspects food vendor Fat Sam (George Wendt) of distributing heroin from his shack. Posing as a homeless addict during his investigation, he is approached by Alan Stanwyk, who mistakenly assumes Fletch is a junkie. Offering Fletch $1,000 just to hear out his proposal, Stanwyk takes him to his luxury mansion in Beverly Hills, where he formally introduces himself and says that he works for Boyd Aviation as the executive vice president. Stanwyk claims to have bone cancer, with only months left to live, and wishes to avoid the pain and suffering. Stanwyk offers $50,000 for Fletch to come to his mansion in a few days time, kill him, and then escape to Rio de Janeiro, staging the murder to appear as the result of a burglary. Fletch is suspicious, but ostensibly agrees to the plan. Along with his colleague Louisa Larry, Fletch begins investigating Stanwyk instead of completing his drug trafficking exposé, much to the dismay of his impatient boss/chief editor Frank Walker.The next day, Fletch endures a rectal exam from Stanwyk's doctor, Dr. Dolan, in a failed attempt to talk Dolan into divulging medical information about Stanwyk. Later that same day, disguised as a doctor, Fletch accesses Stanwyk's file in the hospital's records room and learns Stanwyk lied to him about having cancer. Fletch visits Stanwyk's wife Gail at her tennis club and, pretending to be a friend of her husband's, flirts with her during an impromptu tennis lesson, but does not uncover very much from her and leaves. Next, Fletch poses as an FCC agent while he visits Gail's father, Stanton Boyd, the head of Boyd Aviation to inquire about Stanwyk's finances. Fletch finds that Gail recently converted $3 million of her personal stock in Boyd Aviation into cash for her husband to buy a ranch in Provo, Utah. Fletch returns to his apartment for the day and finds that his ex-wife's lawyer, now-husband Marvin Gillet is waiting for him to collect unpaid alimony. Fletch gives Gillet the $1,000 cash bribe money that Stanwyk gave him earlier to make him leave. After having a cold beer, Fletch goes to sleep and has a dream of being a major league basketball player playing for the Lakers and scoring a hoop. The next day, while undercover at the beach, he discovers one of Fat Sam's customers, Gummy, running away from a patrolling squad car. Fletch tries to intervene when the cops catch Gummy and beat him up, but Fletch gets kicked in the groin by one of the cops and they haul Gummy away in the car. Fletch retaliates by throwing a rock through the car's back windshield, but the car keeps going.A few days later, Fletch travels to Provo, where he breaks into a realtor's office and discovers the deed lists the sale price as only $3,000. He barely escapes from the office while being chased around by a guard dog. Meanwhile, LAPD Chief Jerry Karlin gets wind of Fletch's soon-to-be-published drug article. He sends two thuggish detectives to Fletch's apartment and arrest him after they plant heroin on him. The two take Fletch to meet with Karlin, who tells Fletch he is jeopardizing the lives of undercover cops he's planted on the beach to bust the drug trade. When Fletch insults Karlin, he takes Fletch to an empty jail cell and threatens to shoot Fletch and place a switchblade in his dead hand to claim self-defense. Fletch tells Karlin he is going to work on another story about off-track betting in the Himalayas instead. An amused Karlin then lets Fletch go. Fletch finds out that Karlin had him arrested because of Fletch's boss, who wants Fletch to stop investigating what he considers a ludicrous story about drug-dealing cops. When Fletch confronts his boss about the incident, Frank refuses to believe Fletch's story about Karlin's plan to kill him. Fletch storms off, angry but more determined than ever to break the story.Disguised as a redneck airplane mechanic, Fletch shows up at Stanwyk's plane hangar and learns from two mechanics that Stanwyk has been using the plane each weekend to go to Utah, but uses as much fuel as if he traveled to South America. Back at the tennis club, Fletch meets Gail at her cabana. He treats her to an expensive lunch which he charges to the credit account of a snooty and obnoxious club member, Ted Underhill. Fletch gives her a little information about the investigation but has to flee when Mr. Underhill shows up at Gail's door, demanding the several hundred dollars the lunch had cost. Fletch spies on Stanwyk making a suspicious briefcase exchange with Chief Karlin, but is unable to determine the nature of their relationship. He returns home to find two squad cars in his building's parking garage and flees, managing to avoid capture after a harrowing car chase when Fletch steals an Alfa Romeo from a young car thief. He manages to stay ahead of them and is only able to shake them when he distracts them all at a lodge club dinner.Fletch returns to Provo and, under the guise of an insurance investigator, interviews Stanwyk's parents. Fletch discovers Stanwyk has been secretly married to another woman for eight years, having used Gail for her money. He returns to Beverly Hills and shares what he has found with her, who is very upset about her husband's bigamy. Fletch arrives at Stanwyk's mansion on the night of the plotted murder only to find Stanwyk armed and ready to kill Fletch instead. He reveals he is aware of Stanwyk's real plan to fake his own death by killing Fletch, burning his body, and dressing like Fletch himself. Stanwyk would then escape to Brazil with his other wife, as well as Gail's $3 million. Stanwyk was also using his private jet to smuggle cocaine from South America to supply Karlin, who unexpectedly shows up and, upon learning of Stanwyk's intentions to flee with $800,000 of Karlin's drug money, kills Stanwyk. Karlin then turns the gun on Fletch but is knocked unconscious by Gail with a tennis racket. Some time later, Karlin is indicted for Stanwyk's murder, due to Fletch's investigation. He begins dating Gail and, in the final scene, takes her on a vacation to Rio. Fletch jokes that he had placed the expenses for the vacation on Underhill's credit account and offers the audience the number.