Plot

An F.B.I. Agent goes undercover to catch a gang of surfers who may be bank robbers.

In Los Angeles, California, a gang of bank robbers call themselves The Ex-Presidents. commit their crimes while wearing masks of ex-Presidents Reagan, Carter, Nixon, and Johnson. The F.B.I. believes that the members of the gang could be surfers, and send young Agent Johnny Utah undercover at the beach to mix with the surfers and gather information. Utah meets surfer Bodhi, and gets drawn into the lifestyle of his new friend.—Sami Al-Taher <staher2000@yahoo.com>

Johnny Utah is a Special Agent for the F.B.I. Utah gets partnered with Angelo Pappas, an experienced Agent, who is more than committed to his work. The two are asked to investigate the number of robberies committed by a group called The Ex-Presidents, who wear masks of former Presidents Reagan, Nixon, Carter, and Johnson for their robberies. Pappas has a theory that The Ex-Presidents are a group of surfers, and asks for Utah to go undercover as a surfer. The problem is, Utah couldn't surf to save his life. That, plus the two continuously being hassled by unpleasant and rough Agent Harp. With the help of Tyler a competent female surfer, Utah begins to gain the respect of local surfer Bodhi and his group. Utah forms a close bond with Bodhi, but the relationship between Utah and Bodhi becomes limited when Utah suspects that Bodhi and his group are The Ex-Presidents.—Jeremy Thomson

Right under the nose of the police, The Ex-Presidents, rubber-masked criminals terrorising sunny Southern California, rob banks and escape without leaving a trace. After 27 robberies in three years, inexperienced FBI agent Johnny Utah infiltrates the local surfing community to gather information. As Johnny befriends Bodhi, the group's enigmatic leader, he soon discovers a new meaning in life by learning how to catch the perfect wave. But Johnny walks a thin line. How far can the uninitiated intruder go without blowing his cover?—Nick Riganas

Bank robbers who are surfers? The F.B.I. force can hardly believe that Agent Angelo Pappas is actually considering such a thing. But what do they care? He's probably gone loopy, he's old and washed up, unable to adapt to the new system of the F.B.I. So they ignore his theory, letting the notorious bank robbers "The Ex Presidents" rob as many banks as they like. But Pappas can't believe it when a rookie Agent Johnny Utah is assigned to him! After all the kids a damn ex football player! How the hell is he suppose to solve this bank robbery case with this college punk by his side? But Pappas soon learns that Utah is a crack shot and he's also clever, and supportive of Pappas's mocked theory. Together they set out to get the elusive robbers, realising that sex wax was found at a previous crime scene and that the robberies only take place every summer. The robbers move with the waves.

Utah goes deep undercover to find the surfers, meeting Tyler, a tough tomboy chick who can surf like a devil and is a very reluctant mentor as well. He says he's a lawyer and that his parents died, after learning from the F.B.I. system that Tyler's folks are dead too, he uses this to soften her and get her to be his teacher. But is Utah ready for the world of surfers? An elusive sort of tribe that rides on the waves and lives for the eternal thrill of almost meeting their end? He gets tumbled by massive waves and the spiritual and manipulative surfer, Bodhi, Tyler's ex boyfriend, and the leader of a pack of thrill seeking hot head surfers. Utah gets accepted into their group, but as he becomes closer to Bohdi and his pals, he loses sight of their guilt and grows to care for Bohdi as a friend. He botches up an operation with a possible group of surfer suspects who are in fact crystal meth dealers. Through a mass of shooting, blood and naked brawling with two angry females involved with the punks, they learn that these guys aren't their culprits. And that an undercover DEA agent was infact trying to bust them on drug dealing after months of undercover work. As if this isn't enough to make Utah want to take a ticket out of there, he almost catches Bohdi on a mad chase scene on foot, after he stakes out to catch the robbers, but is unable to shoot him because he cares for Bohdi. He also injures his already surgery plagued knee from falling off a slope onto concrete. Pappas doesn't buy Utah's story of him missing Bohdi as he knows Utah is an incredible marksman.

Later Bohdi and Utah go sky diving, but the surfer has something up his sleeve. His psycho friend Rosie is holding Tyler hostage after she finds out that Utah isn't a lawyer but a cop and runs off after holding Johnny at gun point. Rosie threatens to kill Tyler and the only way Johnny can save her is by helping The Ex Presidents in one last hiest. But Bohdi makes a fatal error, he gets greedy and goes for the vault, over extending their time and losing a crew member, as well as killing an off duty cop who tries to be a hero. Johnny is knocked out by a maddened Bohdi and left to be arrested by his own force! Mocked by the ass licking agents who are always on his & Pappas's back. They arrest Johnny and are disgusted with him killing a fellow cop, but Utah is totally oblivious to this, hating Bohdi inwardly like a disease. Pappas knows Utah acted like a jock strap and made a bad move by falling into Bohdi's trap. But he defends his young partner anyway against the arrogant pompous ass that is Agent Ben Harp, telling the smart ass that he was on the force when he was still popping his zits and jerking off to the lingerie section of the Sears catalogue. He then punches Harp and knocks him out, saying that he's also always respected his elders and that Harp should learn to too! Now the heat is on, as Utah knows that the only reason he got involved in the robbery was because of Tyler, but now it's become too personal, and Bohdi has gone way too far. But then again, how far is too far for someone as radical as Bohdi?

Utah and Pappas go alone to where he and Bohdi first went skydiving, and this results in a massive shoot off and Pappas being blown away by the cowardly Roach, who also gets shot and bleeds out on the plane. They get Utah on the plane and claim that there's no more parachutes, and Roach leaps off saying he'll see Johnny in Hell. Johnny jumps after Bohdi though and in an adrenaline pumping scene he tells Bohdi to pull the chute or he'll blow Bohdi's head off. Being fearless Bohdi says either way they die, and Johnny pulls the chute in a furious gesture of loathing for the other man. They land in the desert planes of an unknown area, Roach's corpse lies on the dusty ground and the money flits into the air with a green haze again the blue sky. Tyler is released by Rosie, and him and Bohdi ride off down the dusty track to where ever they plan to go.

Years later, in Australia, Bohdi's prediction of the hundred year storm that would cause the Pacific to swell and produce huge ways, comes true. But Utah has been tracking his ex friend, and in the tumultous storm that the heavens spill upon the Australian coast, the sea swells and floods caused by colossal amounts of rain fall, we see Johnny again walking to the beach. Surfers retreat in droves from the beach, claiming that only a mad man would stay on the ocean in such a tremendous outbreak of fury over the sea. But Johnny knows one man who would, Bohdi, and he's come to collect him to be locked up at last. Bohdi is staring out to see, the figure of peace and in his eyes we see the hunger to ride those waves. Johnny breaks his trance and tells him that he's been tracking him and Rosie for some time now. And that he finally got a break when he found Rosie's marred corpse in a bar after a bad fight. He says he feared that Bohdi would just vanish after that though, but he knew that he would never miss the hundred year storm. Bohdi says that its typical that Utah's here, and that he guesses that the agent has finally got his man. He tries to escape though, almost drowning Johnny in the waves as they pummel each other, falling about in the greyish foam water of the sea. Utah handcuffs Bohdi however and tells him that he told the cops that Bohdi would go quietly. Bohdi begs him not do this, saying he'd die in a cage! Utah doesn't care anymore, it's time that his compadre went down. In the end however, he lets Bohdi go and ride the ferocious waves that rise in terrifying heights like walls of water. Utah watches as Bohdi paddles out to his death as the water crashes into him. Utah stands in the pouring rain, his now long hair sopping and his eyes full of a strange sort of peace. The Australian policemen are livid that he let Bohdi go and say "We'll get him when he comes back in!" Johnny walks away and chucks his F.B.I. badge into the ocean, and replies, it seems, to the raging waves, "He's not coming back."