Script to Screen: “48 Hrs.”

The Black Russian scene, a break-out moment for Eddie Murphy.

Die Hard is perhaps the most paradigmatic example of an action movie, but for awhile when buddy movies were all the rage, everybody in Hollywood was looking to do a ‘similar but different’ version of this 1982 movie: 48 Hrs. [written by Roger Spottiswoode by and Walter Hill & Larry Gross and Steven E. de Souza].

Setup: Reggie Hammond [Eddie Murphy] is a convict pulled out of prison for 48 hours by cop Jack Cates [Nick Nolte] to locate some bad guys and a missing briefcase full of cash. In this scene, Hammond and Cates enter a hillbilly bar with Hammond impersonating a cop.

HAMMOND

Takes a deep breath, moves toward the bar. Smiles at the good
ol’ boys. They don’t smile back. He sits down at the bar.

BARTENDER
Yeah.

HAMMOND
Vodka.

BARTENDER
Maybe you better have a Black
Russian.

HAMMOND
No, man, I think I’ll have a vodka.

Hamnond looks around the room.

THE BARTENDER

places a glass in front of him, picks up the dollar as
Harmond flashes Cates’ shield.

HAMMOND
You know a big Indian named Billy
Bear? He used to work here.

The Bartender shakes his head, gives him a scowl.

BARTENDER
Never heard of him.

Hammond lifts the shot glass and throws it through the mirror
behind the bar. Sudden silence throughout the room.

HAMMOND
Now how’s your memory doin’?

BARTENDER
Fuck off. I don’t know what the
hell you’re talkin’ about.

HAMMOND
Maybe I better ask around, see
what your pals think.

BARTENDER
I don’t give a shit who you ask.

The Bartender walks down toward Cates.

HAMMOND

Moves away from the bar. He stops at a booth occupied by

FOUR COWBOY PUNKS,

one a very big man. Hammond grabs him by the arm and pulls
him up.

HAMMOND
Up against the wall, cowboy.

The Punk breaks free, aims a massive haymaker at Hammond.
Gets a right to the stomach for his trouble.

HAMMOND
(continuing)
Now, I said get over there by that
wall … You hear me,
motherfucker…

Looks at the others.

HAMMOND
(continuing)
Move it, rednecks. On your feet…

He grabs the next by the arm, yanks him up.

HAMMOND
(continuing)
Over there…move your ass. Some
of you rednecks seem a little hard
of hearing, so I’ll repeat it for
everybody… I need word on the
whereabouts of an Indian that goes
by the name of Billy Bear. It’s a
police matter and you all look
like you’d just love to
cooperate…

CATES Quietly sips his beer. The other occupants of the bar
watch Hammond herd the four Punks to the end wall.

A BIG COWBOY

when Hammond isn’t looking, he dashes toward the exit, Cates
puts out a leg. Sends the Cowboy crashing into a crowdedtable.

HAMMOND

Turns around at the noise.

HAMMOND
(continuing)
That wasn’t necessary, buddy. I
got this under control.

CATES
Some of us citizens are with you
all the way, Officer.

Here is the movie version of the scene:

Trivia: The bar scene in K-9 was an homage to this scene.

Some nice improvisation by Eddie Murphy. What other differences do you notice between script and screen?

One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a weekly series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.