Long before Californians elected him as the Governator, former elite bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger took Hollywood by storm as The Terminator. An overpowering figure with amazing charisma on and off the screen, Schwarzenegger did his best to secure roles outside of the typecast blood and destruction movies for which he seemed destined. Instead, Arnold showcased his diversity by branching out into differing genres with such flicks as Twins, Junior, and Kindergarten Cop... Arnold's success is apparent in this light-hearted romantic comedy which utilizes his likeability as well as his macho man image. A delightful bit of entertainment, Kindergarten Cop is classic Arnold, spawning another of his usual famous one-liners, "It's not a tumor"!

When Detective John Kimble (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and his partner, Phoebe O'Hara (Pamela Reed), get a hot tip that a drug dealer, Cullen Crisp (Richard Tyson), who they've long pursued is searching for his ex-wife because of some money she embezzled from his operation, the two detectives go undercover to find the woman before he does. With Crisp's wife, Rachel, being the only one alive capable of testifying against Crisp and putting him jail, Kimble is intent on hunting her down. But all he and O'Hara know is the name of the Oregon school the woman's son attends. A former teacher herself, O'Hara agrees to go undercover as a kindergarten teacher in order to weed out the identity of the boy and his mother.

The plan goes awry however, when O'Hara becomes horribly ill, forcing Kimble to become the undercover kindergarten cop. The principal is reluctant, but agrees to give Kimble a try. A horrible disciplinarian with no idea of how to control a group of five-year-olds, Kimble's kindergarten class runs rings around him. A nearby first grade teacher, Joyce Palmieri (Penelope Ann Miller), provides him with advice and pointers - leading to a budding romance between the two. With her son Dominic in the class, Kimble suspects that she may be Crisp's ex-wife, but discounts the possibility once she tells him that her ex-husband is dead.

Rallying the class behind his new teaching methods, Kimble becomes one of the top teachers in the school. But his failure to hunt down Crisp's ex-wife provides the drug-dealer with the necessary time to hunt down his wife. Upon Crisp's arrival in town, Kimble and O'Hara learn that his true intention is not the money his ex-wife supposedly stole, but the snatching of his son. Together, they must take on Crisp and his belligerent mother before they kidnap the young boy