48 Hrs.

A big box-office hit, this action film casts Nolte as Jack Cates, a hard-as-granite cop, and Murphy as Reggie Hammond, a glib convict who is released from prison in Cates's custody for 48 hours. Hammond's job is to help Cates track down a pair of maniacal cop killers (Landham and Remar) who happen to be his former associates. Together Cates and Hammond take a thrill-a-minute trip through the San Francisco underworld and along the way develop one of the 1980s' more interesting cinematic buddy pairings.

In this, his first film, comedian Murphy turned in a marvelous performance, setting the stage for his enormously popular Axel Foley character in the BEVERLY HILLS ...