--- title: "48 Hrs." year: 1982 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/48-hrs" fi1m_id: "48-hrs" imdb_id: "tt0083511" tmdb_id: 150 wikidata_id: "Q844887" fi1m_score: 78 critics_score: 75 critics_reviews: 4 published: "2026-10-04T17:47:01.232168+00:00" updated: "2026-10-04T17:47:07.593638+00:00" region: "PH" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # 48 Hrs. (1982) Directed by Walter Hill · 1h 36m · Crime, Action, Comedy ## Identity 48 Hrs. - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/48-hrs - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** 48-hrs - **IMDb ID:** tt0083511 - **TMDB ID:** 150 - **Wikidata ID:** Q844887 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083511/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/150, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q844887 **Fi1m score: 78** · Critics 75 (early) from 4 reviews *In a sentence:* Forty-eight hours, one stolen gun, and Eddie Murphy talking his way into every room in San Francisco > Walter Hill’s cop-and-convict thriller is lean, loud and built around an Eddie Murphy who had never made a film and behaves as if he owns it. The plot is thin and the racial abuse has dated badly, but the pairing still works. ## Synopsis San Francisco. Albert Ganz (James Remar), serving time on a road gang, is sprung by an accomplice, Billy Bear (Sonny Landham), and goes looking for money hidden before he went inside. In a cheap hotel he shoots two policemen dead and leaves with the gun of a third, detective Jack Cates (Nick Nolte). Cates, hungover and furious, has one lead: Ganz’s old partner Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy), serving a prison sentence and singing in his cell. Cates signs Reggie out on a 48-hour release, with no badge, no gun and no patience, and the two of them set off through the city’s bars and flophouses to find Ganz before the clock runs out. Reggie has his own reasons for wanting Ganz found first. ## Review Walter Hill made his name with lean genre films, *The Driver* and *The Warriors*, in which nobody said more than the job required. *48 Hrs.* is that director handing half his film to a man who does not stop talking. A San Francisco detective, Jack Cates, loses his gun to an escaped convict and borrows a second convict to get it back, with two days to do it. Four writers are credited, Hill, Larry Gross, Roger Spottiswoode and Steven E. de Souza, and between them produced a plot you could fit on a beer mat. The film is about two men in a car, and 96 minutes is the right length for it. It is good, and worth your evening if the genre is yours. Most cop-and-partner pictures of the following decade borrowed its shape: the mismatched pair, the deadline, the dislike that turns into something like respect. The original is harder than its imitators. Nobody in it is lovable. Cates drinks, shouts and calls Reggie things we would not print. Reggie is a thief who is lying to him from their first conversation. Hill softens neither of them. Eddie Murphy had never made a film before this one and walks in as if he had made twenty. The scene everyone remembers puts Reggie in a country bar full of men who do not want him there, with Cates’s badge in his pocket and no gun. He turns the place inside out in four minutes by voice alone. We laughed as hard as we have at anything in a thriller, and then felt a small chill, because what he is doing in that bar is frightening as well as funny, and Murphy plainly knows it. He plays Reggie’s confidence as something built over years of being the cleverest man present and never allowed to say so. Nick Nolte has the less showy job and does it well. Cates looks hungover in every scene, his voice coming from somewhere under the floorboards, and Nolte lets him be unpleasant without asking us to forgive him. Annette O’Toole, as his girlfriend Elaine, gets a few phone calls and a bedroom scene; the writers did not care about her. James Remar plays Ganz as a man who kills without changing his expression, and Sonny Landham’s Billy Bear barely speaks; they are nastier than the plot needs. David Patrick Kelly’s Luther, a twitchy little man keeping a girl (Kerry Sherman) hostage in a flat, is the one villain allowed to be funny. Ric Waite shoots San Francisco as a city of grey morning streets, hotel corridors the colour of nicotine and bars lit red. John Vallone’s sets are cheap on purpose: the hotel where Ganz shoots his way out is peeling paint and thin walls. Marilyn Vance puts Reggie in the pale suit he went inside wearing, and he spends the film insisting it is still in fashion. James Horner’s score is odd for a cop film, steel drums and saxophone over a nervous bass line, and it keeps the chases from turning grim. The three editors, Billy Weber, Mark Warner and Freeman A. Davies, keep the gunfights legible and the talk quick. The plot is a list of addresses: go to a place, nobody is there, go to the next. The abuse Cates throws at Reggie is constant and racial, and the script treats it as the way men talk to each other rather than as something that needs answering. Reggie answers it himself, in the bar and in a fistfight in an alley, and the film’s view seems to be that two men who have hit each other are square. We found that harder to sit through than we expected to. It is of its time, which explains it without excusing it, and the 18 certificate is honest about the language as well as the violence. Hill’s best films are about professionals who dislike each other getting a job done, and this is one of them. It is not as pure as *The Driver* or as strange as *The Warriors*, but it is funnier than either. Watch it knowing the hero is not a nice man, and that the film agrees with you. *Fi1m score 78, published 4 October 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is 48 Hrs. worth watching?** *48 Hrs.* is worth watching for anyone who likes a hard, quick cop thriller, and we scored it 78. Eddie Murphy, in his first film, carries half of it by talk alone, and Nick Nolte lets Jack Cates be unpleasant without asking to be forgiven. The plot is a list of addresses and the racial abuse has dated badly, but the pairing still works. **How long is 48 Hrs., and what is it rated?** *48 Hrs.* runs 1h 36m. It is a crime and action film. **Where can I watch 48 Hrs. in the Philippines?** *48 Hrs.* is not on any streaming or rental service in the Philippines at the moment. It is available in 27 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is 48 Hrs., and is it suitable for children?** *48 Hrs.* carries an 18 certificate and earns it. Two policemen are shot dead in the first act, the villains kill without changing expression, and the abuse Cates throws at Reggie is constant, racial and treated as ordinary talk. It is not for children, and some adults will find the language harder to sit through than the gunfire. **How does 48 Hrs. compare to Midnight Run?** *48 Hrs.* is the harder, meaner version of the shape [*Midnight Run*](https://film.one/film/midnight-run) later made warm. Both put a lawman and his prisoner on the road to bicker their way to respect, but Hill softens neither man, while Brest gives De Niro and Grodin room to grow fond of each other. Choose *48 Hrs.* for speed and Murphy's nerve; choose *Midnight Run* for the funnier, kinder conversation. **What should I watch after 48 Hrs.?** After *48 Hrs.*, try [*Midnight Run*](https://film.one/film/midnight-run) (1988, Fi1m 88): A bounty hunter and his prisoner cross America bickering; the warmest version of this shape. Then [*Beverly Hills Cop*](https://film.one/film/beverly-hills-cop) (1984, Fi1m 55): Murphy’s next step, talking his way through a richer city with less at stake; and [*The Guard*](https://film.one/film/the-guard) (2011, Fi1m 78): An Irish small-town copper and a visiting FBI agent; the mismatch played for dry laughs. ### Reviews we read (4) - **The AV Club**, Noel Murray (B+): Murray praises the film as a relentlessly paced, solid actioner made memorable by Eddie Murphy’s performance. He singles out Murphy’s confident, nuanced character and natural humor as the film’s defining strength. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/48-hrs-1798167578) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (70/100, inferred): The review calls the film efficient and professionally made, though predictable. It singles out Eddie Murphy’s energetic, amusing performance as a particular strength. [Read](https://variety.com/1981/film/reviews/48hrs-1200425281/) - **Time Out** (65/100, inferred): The available page metadata does not reveal the critic’s verdict. It highlights the pairing of Eddie Murphy’s quick-witted criminal with Nick Nolte’s gruff cop. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/newyork/film/48-hrs) - **Collider**, Andre Dellamorte (85/100, inferred): The review finds the film still essential, despite a somewhat forced partnership and formulaic script. It especially praises Eddie Murphy’s star-making performance and the memorable barroom sequence. [Read](https://collider.com/48-hrs-blu-ray-review/) ## Details - **Director:** Walter Hill - **Director:** Walter Hill - **Writer:** Larry Gross, Walter Hill, Steven E. de Souza, Roger Spottiswoode - **Cinematography:** Ric Waite - **Editor:** Mark Warner, Billy Weber, Freeman A. Davies - **Music:** James Horner - **Production design:** John Vallone - **Costume design:** Marilyn Vance - **Producer:** Lawrence Gordon, Joel Silver - **Cast:** Nick Nolte as Jack Cates; Eddie Murphy as Reggie Hammond; Annette O'Toole as Elaine; Frank McRae as Haden; James Remar as Albert Ganz; David Patrick Kelly as Luther; Sonny Landham as Billy Bear; Brion James as Ben Kehoe - **Runtime:** 1h 36m - **First release (Germany):** 7 December 1982 - **Genres:** Crime, Action, Comedy - **Budget:** $12 million - **Box office:** $79 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24XiqMIC6q8 ## Where to watch in the Philippines Not streaming, renting or buying in the Philippines at the last check. Also available in: AT, BE, BR, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, HU, IE, IT, LT, MX, NL, NO, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Midnight Run* (1988), Fi1m 88: A bounty hunter and his prisoner cross America bickering; the warmest version of this shape. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/midnight-run.md) - *Beverly Hills Cop* (1984), Fi1m 55: Murphy’s next step, talking his way through a richer city with less at stake. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/beverly-hills-cop.md) - *The Warriors* (1979): Hill’s night-long gang odyssey through New York; stripped down even further than this. - *Bullitt* (1968): San Francisco, a tired detective and a car chase nobody has bettered since. - *The Guard* (2011), Fi1m 78: An Irish small-town copper and a visiting FBI agent; the mismatch played for dry laughs. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-guard.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/48-hrs