Midnight Run is a 1988 American action comedy film directed by Martin Brest, written by George Gallo, and starring Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin.

Yaphet Kotto, John Ashton, Dennis Farina, Joe Pantoliano, and Philip Baker Hall play supporting roles.

At the 46th Golden Globe Awards, the film was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Best Actor for De Niro.

Bounty hunter Jack Walsh is enlisted by bail bondsman Eddie Moscone to find accountant Jonathan Mardukas and bring him to Los Angeles.

Mardukas had embezzled $15 million from Chicago mob boss Jimmy Serrano before skipping on the $450,000 bail Moscone had posted for him.

When they fail to show up in Los Angeles on time, Moscone sends bounty hunter Marvin Dorfler, a rival of Walsh, to find them.

Without funds, Walsh is forced to rely on other means to get across the country, including stealing cars, taking a bus in Fremont, Ohio, and hitchhiking from Amarillo, Texas.

While alone with Mardukas, Walsh reveals that ten years ago, he worked as an undercover officer in Chicago, trying to get close to a drug dealer who had almost the entire department on his payroll.

His wife divorced him and married a corrupt lieutenant; however, Walsh still clings to the faint hope that his ex-wife will reunite with him.

He then makes a deal with Mosely to deliver Serrano to the FBI in exchange for being allowed to take Mardukas back to Los Angeles.

Martin Brest, who directed Beverly Hills Cop, had developed a script with George Gallo that blended elements of comedy and action.

"[3] Paramount Pictures was originally interested in backing Midnight Run, but they wanted a big name star opposite De Niro in order to improve the film's chances at the box office.

[2] Their production executives suggested that the Mardukas character be changed to a woman and wanted Cher for the role in the hope she would provide some "sexual overtones.

When I met Marty at the Universal studio with De Niro, he looked healthy and strong, but as filming went on, he began to turn into someone you'd see in Dachau.

The site's critics consensus reads, "Enlivened by the antagonistic chemistry between Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin, Midnight Run is an uncommonly entertaining odd couple comedy.

"[13] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 78 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

"[16] In his review for The Globe and Mail, Jay Scott praised the performances: "De Niro has the time of his acting life lightening up and sending up all those raging bulls that won him all those Oscars ... Charles Grodin, master of the double-take and maestro of the slow burn, the best light character comic since Jack Benny stopped playing himself".

[17] Vincent Canby, in his review for The New York Times, wrote, "Mr. De Niro and Mr. Grodin are lunatic delights, which is somewhat more than can be said for the movie, whose mechanics keep getting in the way of the performances".

[18] In his review for The Washington Post, Hal Hinson says of the director that, "carrying the dead weight of George Gallo's script, Brest isn't up to the strenuous task of transforming his uninspired genre material in [sic] something deeper, and so the attempts to mix pathos with comedy strike us merely as wild and disorienting vacillations in tone".

[19] David Ansen, in his review for Newsweek, wrote, "The outline of George Gallo's script — odd couple antagonists become buddies under perilous circumstances — was stale five years ago, and the outcome offers no surprises.

For the film's 30th anniversary, Alan Sepinwall, who has repeatedly professed that Midnight Run is his favorite movie, wrote about it for Rolling Stone: [21] Yet all that ultimately matters---and makes the movie a classic worth revisiting on the 30th anniversary of its release---are two other words: Walsh and Duke.

"[22] On November 8, 2021, it was announced that Universal Pictures was developing a sequel to star Regina Hall with De Niro attached as a producer.