48 Hrs.

48 Hrs. is a 1982 American action comedy film directed by Walter Hill, starring Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy (in his film debut and Golden Globe Award-nominated role) as a cop and convict, respectively, who team up to catch a cop-killer. The title refers to the amount of time they have to solve the crime. It is Joel Silver's first film as a film producer. The screenplay was written by Hill, Roger Spottiswoode, Larry Gross, Steven E. de Souza, and Jeb Stuart.

It is often credited as being the first film in the "buddy cop" genre, which included the subsequent films Beverly Hills Cop, Lethal Weapon, and Rush Hour.

A sequel, Another 48 Hrs., was released on June 8, 1990.

Plot

Convicted thief Albert Ganz is working as part of a road gang in California, when a big Native American man named Billy Bear drives up in a pickup truck and asks for water to cool off his truck’s overheating radiator. Ganz and Billy exchange insults and proceed to stage a fight with each other, wrestling in a river, and when the guards try to break up the fight, Billy slips a gun to Ganz, and Billy and Ganz kill two of the three guards and flee the scene. Two days later, Ganz and Billy kill Henry Wong (John Hauk), who was one of their partners.