The Most Memorable Movie Duos of the 80s

I had to put the 1980s The Blues Brothers on this list as this is my dad’s favorite movie and it is a movie that I had to have seen at least 10 times over the years I was growing up. The pairing of Dan Akroyd and John Belushi is what you call comedy gold!

The story of Jake and Elwood Blues trying to do the right thing and save the orphanage where they grew up is great and admirable stuff. They need to get their band back together to make the five grand required to save the orphanage, but there are a whole lot of crazy people in their way. With some epic musical numbers, perfect comedy, and so many memorable and quotable scenes, The Blues Brothers is one of those movies that I have just grown to love more and more as I have gotten older. The less said about Blues Brothers 2000 though the better!

Turner & Hooch was one of those movies that I would rent multiple times as a kid. Look, Tom Hanks is an amazing actor, but remember when he used to make fun stuff like this, The Bachelor Party, and my personal favorite, The Burbs?

Turner & Hooch is a buddy cop-style movie where we have Hanks as Detective Turner who is forced to look after Hooch, the pet dog of a man called Amos who was his friend who ended up murdered. Hooch is the only “witness” to the murder and Turner has to drag him along everywhere as he tries to crack the case. This is wacky and silly stuff and while it may be looked down upon by stuffy film critics, Turner & Hooch is a classic that even to this day, is a great movie for a family movie night.

Pairing together Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor was a genius move and these two are without a doubt one of the most memorable movie duos of the 80s! This is one of the best comedies of the decade! It is about a blind man called Wally and a deaf man called Dave who become good friends and are involved in a murder case where they are the prime suspects!

These two have to work together with Wally being able to hear things and Dave being able to see. This movie is so much fun and the creative ways that Dave and Wally get out of the trouble they are in all the while trying to stay alive, clear their names, and catch the real killer is awesome stuff. A huge part of what makes See No Evil, Hear No Evil so much fun is the amazing comedic timing and chemistry that Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor have.

Tango & Cash is about as 80s as you can get when it comes to an action comedy movie. Sly Stallone is Tango and Kurt Russell is Cash. These are the two best cops in LA with Tango working the West side and Cash on the East. Tango is a more chilled and think-first kind of cop. Cash on the other hand is a real renegade wild guy kind of cop.

Both think they are the best! However, a drug kingpin is sick of them getting in the way of his business so he sets them up! This forces the two very different cops to have to work together to clear their names. Stallone and Russell make for a very fun pairing and I honestly think that Tango & Cash is one of the more underrated action movies of the 80s. It is way more fun and action packed than you probably remember it being!

While this is a list of the most memorable movie duos of the 80s, no 80s movie list is complete without an appearance by Arnold Schwarzenegger! In Twins, he gets to flex his comedic muscles as well as his actual huge muscles. This is a fun action comedy about two brothers, Julius and Vincent, who were separated at birth. Julius is smart, handsome, and strong, and Vincent is little, conniving, and fast-talking.

Danny DeVito is fantastic as Vincent and he and Arnie work so well together with Vincent being street smart and ready for a scam or two and Julius despite being booksmart, being rather naïve to the way things are on the streets and in the real world. When people think of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s action comedies, most of the time, Kindergarten Cop is what is brought up, but I would put Twins right up there with it!

Maverick & Goose had to be on this list! Top Gun is an 80s classic and while it has many memorable characters such as Val Kilmer’s Ice Man, it’s the bromance of Tom Cruise’s Maverick and Anthony Edward’s Goose that gets on this list.

This is such a great movie about an elite group of pilots who all want to be the very best, the best of the best if you will! Top Gun is one of those movies that I still quite love to this day, it has so many great lines and so many great moments that it is an absolute icon of the 80s. It is 80s cheese all the way, but I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. I do also have to give a ton of credit to Top Gun: Maverick, a movie I felt was like 25 years too late and was sure would be bad, but it is also great!

I decided to bundle both Lethal Weapon 1 and 2 together here. Truth be told, I actually prefer Lethal Weapon 2. Just like Homer Simpson, I never sit on a toilet without checking it for a bomb first. What can I say about the team of Riggs and Murtaugh that has not been said a million times before?

Mel Gibson is awesome as the crazy but troubled Martin Riggs and his partner, the classic family man, Roger Murtaugh, who is played by Danny Glover. The pair are put together and at first, do not get along as they are so different. However, in typical movie magic fashion, it is their differences that make them a great pairing. To be fair, Lethal Weapon is actually a pretty solid series all around with the other two movies (especially 4) and even the TV show being a great deal of fun.

Is there a person alive who does not love Back to the Future? If there is, I do not want to hang out with them. Marty and Doc are awesome! They are so different, but they work so well together. You have Michael J. Fox as the teenager Marty McFly, who is too cool for school, and the wild and crazy Doc Brown, played by Christopher Lloyd, who is so eccentric, you cannot help but love him.

You don’t need me to tell you the plot of Back to the Future, but I had to have these two on my list. The funny thing about this is that while Back to the Future and Back to the Future Part II are both from the 80s, I would say that it is actually Back to the Future Part III where Marty and Doc interact the most with each other. Anyway, these two are about as iconic as you can get when it comes to the most memorable movie duos of the 80s.

Terminator 2 is my favorite movie of all time, but I also love the original James Cameron classic, 1984’s The Terminator as well. Michael Biehn is a great actor and a real 80s icon in my opinion. He plays Kyle Reese, a man sent from the future to protect Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor from the T-800 Terminator who wants to kill her before she can give birth to John Connor, the man who will lead the resistance against the machines in the future.

This is some of the best sci-fi action ever, it also has some slasher/horror elements too. Kyle and Sarah are a great duo as Kyle is badass and willing to do whatever it takes to protect Sarah. Sarah Connor is about as average as you can get, but you really get to see her grow and become brave and strong as she comes around to being the mother of the savior of mankind! Not only are these a great action duo, but Kyle and Sarah are also a pretty tragic love story too!

While Rocky and Apollo would square off against each other in Rocky and Rocky II, it is Rocky III that cements these two at the number one spot on my most memorable movie duos of the 80s list. I love -and I mean love – the Rocky franchise!

Rocky III sees our two rivals come together and become friends. Apollo trains Rocky to fight Clubber Lang (Mr. T being in this movie gets it extra cool points) and the two form a really loving friendship. Also, the training montages here are so much fun, not quite as epic or as “80s” as the ones in Rocky IV, but they are still awesome. What makes Rocky and Apollo such a great duo is that they started as rivals and through respect, they grew to be close friends. Also, the fact that both Sylvester Stallone and Carl Weathers are two of the most badass guys from the 80s helps as well.