48 Hrs.

Nick Nolte is the grizzled cop saddled with Eddie Murphy's wise-cracking crook in Walter Hill's much-loved, much-quoted action thriller. When a pair of escaped convicts gun down two of his colleagues, tough, white San Francisco cop Jack Cates (Nolte) is forced to spring smooth-talking black criminal Reggie Hammond (Murphy) from jail on a two-day release to help him track down the killers. A surefire hit that paved the way for every buddy caper from Midnight Run to Rush Hour.