48 Hrs. (1982) on Netflix
San Francisco inspector Jack Cates pulls convict Reggie Hammond out of prison for 48 hours to help catch Albert Ganz. Reggie knows the fugitive's gang, and the pair do not get along.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb6.9/1094,423 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes92%
Trailer
Plot summary
Albert Ganz breaks out of a road gang with help from Billy Bear, and the pair head to San Francisco for the money from their last robbery. They go after two former members of the gang, and take Rosalie, the girlfriend of one of them, as collateral. A stolen credit card brings Inspector Jack Cates and two other officers to the hotel where the men are staying, and Ganz and Billy get away with Jack's revolver. Jack forges a 48-hour release that puts Reggie Hammond, Ganz's former partner, in his custody to help find them, though the two men clash from the start.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about 48 Hrs. (1982)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- 48 Hrs. is often credited as the first "buddy cop" movie, even though it was predated by 1974's Freebie and the Bean, and it kicked off a genre later carried on by Lethal Weapon, Bad Boys, and Rush Hour.
- Director Walter Hill wanted Richard Pryor, then Gregory Hines, for the convict role; when Hines was unavailable, his own girlfriend recommended her client Eddie Murphy, then known only for Saturday Night Live.
- Years earlier, Paramount had Walter Hill rewrite the script with Clint Eastwood as the criminal, but Hill argued the roles should flip, with Richard Pryor as the crook and an Eastwood type as the cop, an idea the studio rejected at the time.
- Paramount executives hated what they saw of Eddie Murphy's early dailies and wanted him fired from the film; Nick Nolte and Walter Hill fought to keep him on.
- Paramount executives found the film's hotel gunfight too violent and feared it would kill the comedy, warning director Walter Hill he would never work for the studio again because of it.
- James Horner's score for the film had no official release for nearly 30 years, until Intrada issued a limited run of just 5,000 copies in 2011; earlier pressings that circulated in Europe were unofficial bootlegs.
