48 Hrs. is a 1982 American action-comedy film directed by Walter Hill.
Plot[]
Convicted career criminal Albert Ganz escapes from custody with the help of his accomplice Billy Bear. They travel to San Francisco and kill Henry Wong, a former associate. SFPD Inspector Jack Cates, accompanied by Inspectors Algren and Van Zant, trace Ganz and Billy to a hotel, where they have checked in under aliases. Ganz and Billy ambush the officers. In the ensuing shootout, Ganz kills Algren and Van Zant, and escapes with Billy, taking Jack's service revolver.
Armed with a replacement pistol, Jack tracks down Ganz's former partner-in-crime Reggie Hammond, who is in prison with six months to go on a three-year sentence for armed robbery. After a memorable first meeting in prison, Jack manages to get Reggie a 48-hour release into his custody so that Reggie can help Jack find Ganz and Billy. Reggie leads Jack to an apartment where Ganz's last remaining associate Luther Kelly lives. When Jack looks around, Luther fires at him, and refuses to be interrogated, so Jack arrests Luther.
That night, Reggie leads Jack to Torchy's, a redneck hangout where Billy used to be a bartender. Reggie, on a challenge from Jack, shakes the bar down, using Jack's badge, single-handedly bringing the crowd under his control. They get a lead on Billy's girlfriend Casey, but they get nothing out of her, as Casey says that she threw Billy out. After tensions between Reggie and Jack finally erupt into a fistfight that's stopped by a pair of patrol officers, Reggie finally confesses that he, Ganz, Billy, Luther, and Henry had robbed a drug dealer of $500,000 some years earlier, and that the money was (and remains) stashed in the trunk of Reggie's car in a downtown parking garage. Instead of splitting the cash, Ganz sold Reggie out, resulting in his incarceration. It was also the reason why Ganz and Billy have taken Luther's girlfriend Rosalie: they want Luther to get Reggie's money in exchange for her safe return.
Luther goes and gets the car, and Jack and Reggie tail him to a Muni station where Ganz comes to get the money. Luther, however, recognizes Jack, and Ganz and Billy escape after Billy kills a cop, while Reggie chases after Luther. Left with nothing, Jack ends up going back to the police station, and he waits for Reggie to call. After the call, Jack goes to Vroman's, a nightclub in the Fillmore District, to find Reggie, who has tracked Luther to a hotel across the street from Vroman's. Jack, humbled, apologizes for continuously berating and insulting Reggie. He lends Reggie some money to pay for a hotel room to have sex with Candy, a woman he's met, but as Reggie leaves the club with her, he sees Luther leave the hotel, and he alerts Jack. Luther gets onto a stolen bus driven by Billy, and hands over the money to Ganz, who fatally shoots Luther and presumably Rosalie. Ganz spots Jack and Reggie following them, and a car chase/gunfight ensues, which ends when Billy forces Jack's Cadillac through the window of a Cadillac dealership's showroom. At this point, following a heated verbal thrashing from Jack's superior, Captain Haden, Jack and Reggie are ready to resign themselves to the fact that they failed to catch Ganz.
At a local bar, Jack wonders if Billy might go back to see Casey, and use her place as a hideout. Jack and Reggie go back to Casey's place and force their way inside, and after a brief confrontation, Reggie fatally shoots Billy. Ganz escapes into a maze of alleyways, capturing Reggie. Jack approaches and shoots Ganz in the shoulder, throwing Reggie off him. A furious Ganz then charges at Jack, but Jack kills Ganz by shooting him six more times. Finally, Jack takes Reggie to see Candy. Jack leaves the money in Reggie's car, but asks for a loan to buy a convertible when Reggie is released, to which Reggie agrees. Jack gives Reggie a stern warning about changing his ways once he's released, and Reggie agrees to do so, while half attempting to steal Jack's lighter. The two men share a laugh before Jack drives Reggie back to the prison.