Ride Along is a 2014 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Tim Story and starring Ice Cube and Kevin Hart.

The film follows Ben Barber (Kevin Hart), a security guard who must prove to his girlfriend's police officer brother, James Payton (Ice Cube), that he is worthy of marrying her.

During their 24-hour patrol of Atlanta, Ben accidentally gets wrapped up in James' hunt for an arms dealer, Omar (Laurence Fishburne).

Ben Barber, a jumpy, short high school security guard who plays video games in his spare time, applies to the Atlanta City Police Academy.

Questioning the informant Runflat, James uncovers the connection between Serbia and "Omar" and hears a shipment will come in that evening.

Leaving the park, James takes Ben to the local shooting range and finds out that Zastava M92's have been given to the store.

Seeing Cody laughing with James, Santiago and Miggs at the police station, the upset Ben refuses to go home.

At the hospital, being treated for a gunshot wound in the leg, Ben receives a call from a gamer, who tells James something's going on at the apartment.

Additional cast includes Gary Owen as Crazy Cody,[9] Jay Pharoah as Runflat,[5] David Banner as Pawnshop Jay, Dragoș Bucur as Marko, Gary Weeks as Dr. Cowan, Jacob Latimore as Ramone and Benjamin Flores, Jr. as Morris, Runflat's brother.

[3] The film was originally offered to Warner Bros., but according to Cube, the Warner executives reportedly passed down the offer because they told him that an action movie with two Black stars wouldn't sell well overseas; a studio executive claimed that the concerns about the stars were false and that the true reason for passing on Ride Along was because of script disagreements.

[10] On July 11, 2012, Universal Pictures acquired the distribution rights to the film from New Line, with production starting in October, Tim Story was set to direct the film, rewritten by Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay, and produced by Will Packer and Larry Brezner.

[11] Ice Cube joined the cast on November 29, 2009, to play the lead role, Detective James; the story was then about a rogue cop who tries to break off his sister's engagement to an upper-crust white psychiatrist by inviting his future brother-in-law on a ride-along.

[3] Kevin Hart joined the cast on July 11, 2012, to play Ben, a high school security guard, with his character changed from white to black.

[30] This release included an alternate ending, a gag reel, deleted scenes, a behind-the-scenes documentary and a feature commentary of the film by Story.

The site's consensus states: "Kevin Hart's livewire presence gives Ride Along a shot of necessary energy, but it isn't enough to rescue this would-be comedy from the buddy-cop doldrums.

[35] British critic Mark Kermode gave the film one out of five stars, describing it as "an action-comedy short on both action and comedy.

"[36] Scott Foundas of Variety called the film "a lazy and listless buddy-cop action-comedy that fades from memory as quickly as its generic title.

[41] On April 13, 2014, after the best-screen-duo award went to Vin Diesel and Paul Walker for Fast & Furious 6, Ice Cube joked to USA Today that they were robbed.

[48] On February 18, 2014, it was announced that after the success of the first Ride Along film, Universal was moving forward with the sequel, which Tim Story would return to direct.

[49] Ice Cube and Kevin Hart reprised their roles, with Will Packer producing, and Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi on board again as screenwriters.