 R.P.M. stands for (political) revolutions per minute. Anthony Quinn plays a liberal college professor at a west coast college during the hedy days of campus activism in the late 1960s. Radical students take over the college, the president resigns, and Quinn s character, who has always been a champion of student activism, is appointed president. As the students continue to push the envelope of revolution, Quinn s character is faced with the challenge of restoring order or abetting the descent into anarchy.