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Jack Cates is one of the protagonists in the 1982 buddy cop action comedy, 48 Hrs. and the 1990 sequel Another 48 Hrs.
He is portrayed by Nick Nolte, who also portrayed Alex Jurel in the 1984 film Teachers, Sam Bowden in the 1991 remake of Cape Fear.
48 Hrs.[]
Jack is a detective at the San Francisco police department who was assigned to a case to search for career criminal Albert Ganz, who recently escaped from jail with the help of his partner, Billy Bear. Jack joins two of his friends and co-workers Detective Algren and Detective Van Zant at the Walden Hotel to check out a man named G.P. Polson, who is in room 27. Jack waits downstairs while Algren and Van Zant head to room 27, where it turns out that G.P. Polson is Ganz. In the ensuing shootout, Ganz steals Jack's service revolver and kills Algren and Van Zant, and escapes with Billy.
Jack acquires a new M1911 pistol and fellow cop Ben Kehoe tells Jack about Ganz's former partner Reggie Hammond, who is in prison with six months to go on a three-year sentence for armed robbery. Jack manages to work alone in the search for Ganz and then visits Reggie at the prison. Jack gets Reggie a 48-hour leave from the prison so Reggie can help Jack find Ganz and Billy. Reggie leads Jack to an apartment where Ganz's last remaining associate Luther lives. When Jack looks around, Luther shoots at him and refuses to be interrogated, so Jack puts him in jail. 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, single-handedly bringing the crowd under his control. They get a lead on Billy's old girlfriend, but this also leads nowhere, as the girlfriend says she threw Billy out. Reggie confesses that he, Ganz, Billy Bear, Luther and Wong 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 took Luther's girlfriend Rosalie: they wanted Luther to get Reggie's money in exchange for her safe return.
However, 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, while Reggie chases after Luther. Left with nothing, Jack ends up going back to the police station and waits for Reggie to call. Jack goes to Vroman's, in the Fillmore district, to find Reggie, who has tracked Luther to a hotel across the street. Jack, humbled, apologizes for continuously berating and insulting Reggie.
Luther embarks on a stolen bus that Ganz and Billy acquired to make the trade off with the money, only to be shot dead. 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 showroom. At this point following a heated verbal thrashing from Jack's superior 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 his girl and use her place as a hideout. Jack and Reggie force their way inside and after a brief confrontation Reggie shoots Billy. Ganz escapes into a maze of alleyways, capturing Reggie. Jack confronts Granz and shoots him in the arm, freeing Reggie. An enraged Ganz charges at Jack only to be shot dead by the detective.
Jack takes Reggie back to prison where they fully establish a friendship after Jack insists that Reggie goes clean when he is released.
Another 48 Hrs.[]
In this film Jack is investigating a drug dealer he has been after for four years called the Iceman. After a brief shootout at the race track Jack finds himself at odds with Internal Affairs, when they claim the shooter was unarmed. Jack then realizes the Iceman has put a price on the head of Reggie Hammond, who is scheduled to be released from prison the next day.
Reggie reluctantly agrees to help Jack solve the case and they eventually realize that the Iceman is one of Jack's superiors, Officer Ben Kehoe, who has teamed up with Richard "Cherry" Ganz, (Albert Granz's Brother) to set up Jack out of revenge for killing Albert. Jack confronts Kehoe, and after a brief stand off, shoots Kehoe dead, and Jack is cleared from any wrong doing.
Weapons[]
Being an officer of the SFPD, Jack carries a small arsenal of sidearms.
- Smith & Wesson Model 29 : a four inch barrel .44 Magnum revolver Jack carries for the first half of the first film, only to be disarmed after Granz steals it from him and uses it in his murder spree.
- M1911 pistol: After losing his revolver, Jack switches to a .45 Automatic for the rest of the film.
- Smith & Wesson Model 629: In the sequel Jack carries the stainless steel counterpart of the Model 29. This becomes his sidearm for the entirety of the film.
Trivia[]
- Jeff Bridges, Mickey Rourke, Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson, and Sylvestor Stallone were considered, but turn it down.
