History Film / FortyEightHrs

* SaltAndPepper: One of the classics.

The film is also notable for being Creator/EddieMurphy's film debut, helping jumpstart his successful career in film as well.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: When [[spoiler: Cherry Ganz]] falls to his death at the end, he lands in the back of delivery truck loaded with 10-gallon spring water bottles that shatter on impact. Comments lefts on Website/{{IMDb}} and other movie sites suggest modern viewers are often shocked to learn there was a time when spring water jugs were actually made out of glass.

* DistractingFakeFight: Near the beginning of the film, a man walks up to a group of prison laborers doing highway cleanup and starts a fight with one of them. He is actually a confederate of the inmate he is fighting and is hiding two guns under his shirt. After the pair pretend to grapple for a little bit and the guards come to try to break up the fight they each shoot a guard and escape.

* FakeAFight: Near the beginning of the film, Billy stops his car close to a crew of prison inmates doing roadside cleanup and Ganz hurls racial slurs at him. The two soon start fighting and are soon rolling on the ground wrestling with each other. Then they both produce guns that Billy had hidden under his shirt and shoot the two guards who had been guarding the work crew. The entire fight had been a trick to help Ganz escape.

* WeNeedADistraction: One of the chain gang prisoners provokes a fight with a Native American who turns up asking for water for his truck. As the guards go to break them up, the two men pull out pistols and open fire.

* FormulaWithATwist: The film marketed itself on the novel gimmick of pairing a StraightManAndWiseGuy OddCouple from different ethnicities (Creator/NickNolte and Creator/EddieMurphy, specifically) in a action/crime film. This led to the explosion of the {{Buddy Cop|s}} and WunzaPlot sub-genres, especially ones partnering people of different cultures/ethnicities like ''Film/LethalWeapon'' and ''Film/BeverlyHillsCop''.

** Reggie turns this on its head with a near verbatim CallBack later in the film.

** Jack Cates' boss Capt.Haden, in the course of chewing out Cates for losing Ganz and Billy again, not only calls Jack a "whisky Mick", he also calls Reggie Hammond a nigger for good measure.

* ASinisterClue: Albert Ganz is left-handed. [[spoiler:He’s also the BigBad.]]

* ReCut: The original cut was 145 minutes long. It was cut by either Creator/WalterHill or the Paramount studio down to 120 minutes, and a week before its summer theatrical release an additional 25 minutes were cut out by Paramount, making a final theatrical version 95 minutes long. Frank [=McRae=]'s reprisal of his role from the original 48 Hrs. was entirely cut except for a brief, uncredited shot of him in the background of one scene in the police station. Creator/BrionJames, also returning from the original, saw his role severely cut down as well, to create a faster-paced action-comedy. Also removed was a scene which was partially shown in the theatrical trailer in which Jack explains to Reggie that he has a deadline to track down the Iceman; as such, there is no mention of '48 hours' anywhere in the final film.

* FormulaWithATwist: The film marketed itself on the novel gimmick of pairing a StraightManAndWiseGuy OddCouple from different ethnicities (Creator/NickNolte and Creator/EddieMurphy, specifically) in a action/crime film. This led to the explosion of the {{Buddy Cop|s}} and TheyFightCrime sub-genres, especially ones partnering people of different cultures/ethnicities like ''Film/LethalWeapon'' and ''Film/BeverlyHillsCop''.

* TheyFightCrime: To quote the [[http://youtu.be/XoAIC2tFfPk?t=29s trailer voice-over]]: "Creator/NickNolte is a cop, Creator/EddieMurphy is a con." [[RaceAgainstTheClock They have 48 hours]] to Fight Crime!

* HandCannon: Jack has a preference for .44 Magnum revolvers. Cherry in the sequel carries a Desert Eagle as his WeaponOfChoice.

* * AmbiguouslyBi: Sally and Casey sleep with Billy and Ganz, and are also implied to be sleeping with each other.

* BookEnds: Reggie walking into an all-white bar is matched by a later scene where Jack walks into an all-black bar.

* TreacherousAdvisor: A {{retcon}} makes [[spoiler:Jack Cates' fellow officer and longtime friend, Ben, the BigBad, whom Reggie Hammond had robbed in the BackStory to the first film, making him the first film's GreaterScopeVillain]], and the one who has been feeding Jack misinformation all along.

* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunfight: Billy advances on Reggie with a knife, while the latter is pointing a gun at him. It goes about as well as you'd expect...

* * AmbiguouslyBi: Lisa and Casey sleep with Billy and Ganz, and are also implied to be sleeping with each other.

** Cate's boss Haden calls Hammond a nigger in the course of chewing out Cates for losing Ganz and Billy again.

* RecruitingTheCriminal: Jack recruits Reggie because of Reggie's connection to the case.

* HumanShield: A variation of this trope occurs. Ganz gets Jack to drop his gun by threatening a wounded cop. Since Ganz kills the cop anyway, when he uses Reggie as a true human shield at the end of the movie, Jack just kills him.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/JonathanBanks, the future Mike Ehrmantraut from ''Series/BreakingBad'' and ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' as ill-fated Detective Algren.

* SexyShirtSwitch: Happens in the beginning with Elane wearing Jack's blue shirt.

* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: [[spoiler:Ben, who appeared in the first film as one of Jack's work buddies yet had been a DirtyCop all his life since the time Reggie robbed him that landed him in prison, gets his JustDesserts that he did not in the first film.]]

* ActorAllusion: While Reggie is riding on the bus after leaving prison he sings Music/JamesBrown songs. When Creator/EddieMurphy was a cast member of ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' he characterized in some skits as James Brown.

* NobleBigotWithABadge: Jack often refers to Reggie by racial surnames, at some points even using the "N" word. He softens up tough later, becoming more friendly and apologizes to Reggie, saying he "didn't really mean any of that stuff". Jack (towards the end of the film) even defends Reggie to his enraged boss (who himself is African-American and calls Reggie a nigger), citing his brains and courage.

* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Jack throws racial slurs at Reggie (watermelon, spear-chucker, nigger and "charcoal colored-loser"), though he does apologize later on. Reggie tosses around homophobic slurs (faggot and dykes).

* NobleBigotWithABadge: Jack often refers to Reggie by racial surnames, at some points even using the "N" word. He softens up tough later, becoming more friendly and apologizes to Reggie, saying he "didn't really mean any of that stuff". Jack (towards the end of the film) even defends Reggie to his boss (who himself calls Reggie a nigger), citing his brains and courage.

* NobleBigotWithABadge: Jack often refers to Reggie by racial surnames, at some points even using the "N" word. He softens up tough later, becoming more friendly and apologizes to Reggie, saying he "didn't really mean any of that stuff".

* NobleBigotWithABadge: Jack often refers to Reggie by racial surnames, at some points even using the "N" word. He softens up tough later and becomes more friendly, and apologizes, saying he didn't really mean "any of that stuff".

* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunfight: Billy advances on Reggie with a knife, while the latter is pointing a gun at him. It goes about as well as you'd expect.
* NobleBigotWithABadge: Jack calls often Reggie by racial surnames, at some points even using the "N" word. He softens up tough later and becomes more friendly.

* DefeatMeansFriendship: Jack and Reggie start off on opposite sides of the law, but are forced to work together. Reggie starts off leading Jack to criminal places but it's only after the fistfight, Reggie levels with Jack and they are really on the same side.

* ThisCannotBe: Mass-murdering psychopath has a '''really''' hard time grasping the fact that [[spoiler: Jack Cates shoots him]].