The Man is a 2005 American buddy cop comedy film starring Eugene Levy, Samuel L. Jackson, and Miguel Ferrer.
The Man was directed by Les Mayfield and produced by Rob Fried, from a screenplay by Jim Piddock, Margaret Oberman and Stephen Carpenter, and based on a story by Piddock and Oberman. Filming took place in Toronto, Hamilton and Oakville, Ontario, Canada. New Line Cinema released The Man in Canada (through Alliance Atlantis) and the United States on September 9, 2005.
Plot
Andy Fiddler is preparing a speech for a dental convention in Detroit. Fiddler works for a dental supply company, and lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Meanwhile, in Detroit, a federal armory of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has been robbed of assault rifles, handguns and ammunition. An ATF agent was killed and Internal Affairs Agent Peters suspects the dead agent and his partner Agent Derrick Vann were in on the robbery.
Vann, attempting to clear his name by setting up a buy, pays a visit to his informant Booty. Booty tells Vann to go to a diner, sit at counter seat, and have a copy of the newspaper USA Today so that the gun traffickers can recognize him as their next buyer. Unfortunately before Vann can start on the plan, Andy is already in the diner, sitting at the counter and he has a copy of USA Today. He is thus mistaken as a gun buyer by a menacing Englishman named Joey, who sits next to Andy and hands him a paper bag with "his taste" in it then leaves. The bag contains a cell phone and a Walther P99 pistol, which Andy accidentally pulls out. The waitress of the diner thinks that Andy is there to rob the place and panics. An arriving Vann arrests Andy, before realizing the gun trafficker's error.
As Vann and Andy are driving through the city, the bag's cell phone rings and Joey demands Andy to meet him at a particular intersection and have $20,000 with him. Due to the interference of a bystander, the money exchange is compromised and Joey calls again to tell Andy to meet him at a different intersection. While heading to the new location, Andy tries to escape and Vann shoots after him, grazing him with a gunshot to the rear. Andy uses the cell phone to call the local police for help, resulting in the capture of both of them by arriving squad cars. The police releases Vann after learning that he is an ATF agent, but they discover there is an outstanding warrant for Andy. Andy once traveled with his family to Istanbul, Turkey and purchased a rug as a souvenir to take back home. But unaware to Andy, the rug was previously reported stolen, and he has had a warrant out for his arrest ever since for purchasing the stolen item. Due to the warrant, the ATF (specifically Vann's boss Lt. Rita Carbone) is suspicious of Andy and thinks he is an undercover Internal Affairs agent instead of an ordinary guy that was accidentally roped into the situation.
Vann arranges the release of Andy and then tries to contact gun dealer Manny Cortez for help with the case. They travel to Manny's apartment and Vann goes inside alone to find Manny was murdered in his residence. Manny was recently killed by Joey for telling Joey that after hearing that the crew had killed a cop (Vann's ex-partner), he did not want to be part of the transaction anymore. Vann and Andy then visit Booty for more information on who Joey and his crew truly are. Booty tells them that the main crew boss is a gentleman named Kane and right after, Andy receives another phone call from Joey, who now asks for $500,000 for the whole batch of weapons.
Vann has Andy pose as a powerful trafficker for a meeting with Joey in a restaurant. Vann warns Andy that the $500,000 is strictly flash cash and to not give Joey any of the money. Andy almost screws up the meeting by accidentally calling Joey by name, but then demands that he wants to have a meeting with Kane. Joey tells Andy that Kane already has a deal in place to get money for the guns and that Kane won't cancel his current deal for a guy he's never met. Andy improvises the plan by giving Joey the entire $500,000 and returns the cell phone to Joey, telling him that their next meeting will be on his terms. Vann is enraged that Andy gave them the money but Andy explains that he felt Joey would walk away from the deal and that giving them the $500,000 would be a guarantee that Joey would continue to work with them.