The film centers on a timid night-shift morgue employee whose life is turned upside down by a new co-worker who fancies himself a free-spirited entrepreneur.

There are brief scenes with a young Kevin Costner[3] as "frat boy #1", Shannen Doherty as a Bluebird scout,[4] Vincent Schiavelli as a man who delivers a sandwich,[5] and Charles Fleischer[6] as one of the jail prisoners.

[8] Charles "Chuck" Lumley, formerly a successful stockbroker, has found a refuge from the ulcer-inducing Wall Street rat race in his job as an attendant at a New York City morgue.

His displeasure at being "promoted" to night-shift supervisor to make room for his boss' nephew, Leonard, is exacerbated by the irrational exuberance of Bill "Blaze" Blazejowski, his new co-worker.

[9] The closing theme song, "That's What Friends Are For" was written by Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager and performed by Rod Stewart.

[9] It gained popularity a few years later when covered by Dionne Warwick, Elton John, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder.

The site's critics consensus reads, "Night Shift bristles with pitch-perfect laughs thanks to Ron Howard's snappy direction and a side-splitting turn from Michael Keaton.

"[15] Janet Maslin of The New York Times, however, deemed Night Shift "a halfway funny movie, one that's got loads of good gags in its first half and nothing but trouble in its second.