In 1968, drug-addled journalist Hunter S. Thompson (Bill Murray) covers the drug possession trial of a group of young people defended by Thompson's old friend Carl Lazlo (Peter Boyle). After Lazlo loses the case, the idealistic lawyer and the cynical writer go their separate ways, but meet again five years later while Thompson is covering the Super Bowl. Now a revolutionary who has abandoned the legal system, Lazlo attempts to get Thompson to join his cause.