The 30 best movie duos of all time, ranked from lovable to lethal

Declan GallagherTue, September 29, 2026 at 10:00 PM UTC

2

Marcus and Mike / Ginger and Fred / Sam and FrodoCredit: Everett (3)

Friends: Who needs ’em? In real life, they never text back unless they need help moving or a ride to the airport, and they always want you to come to their birthday parties.

Friends in movies, that is to say buddy duos, seem to have it much easier. They have a purpose that real-life friendships often do not. (A good script certainly helps.) Sometimes, we find ourselves escaping the dismal dirge of our real-world social obligations to spend time with our favorite fictional pals.

Entertainment Weekly has ranked the 30 most memorable duos in cinema, mostly do-good heroes but with a few antiheroes and outright villains sprinkled in. Read on to find out who made the cut.

01 of 30

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, The Cornetto Trilogy

Just a couple of small-town cops about to give themselves ice-cream headachesCredit: Everett Collection

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost feel inseparable, but Edgar Wright’s Cornetto Trilogy made them immortal. In Shaun of the Dead, they’re pub-dwelling slackers fighting off hungry zombies intent on eating their family and friends. In Hot Fuzz, big-city supercop Nicholas Angel (Pegg) gets relocated to a small town and finds an unlikely ally in dim, good-natured Danny Butterman (Frost), the department’s official nepo baby.

In The World’s End, the two are reunited high-school pals with years of baggage and bitterness between them. The trilogy offers three different approaches to pairing the two actors up; it’s their seamless chemistry that makes it work every time.

02 of 30

Blanche and Baby Jane, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

TFW you are the absolute best of friends with your costarCredit: Everett Collection

These are the sisters you’d never want to have but would secretly love to observe at a family gathering. Faded child performer Baby Jane (Bette Davis) lives with her sister Blanche (Joan Crawford), a former Hollywood star left paralyzed after an accident for which Jane may or may not have been responsible.

The siblings’ relationship is toxic, to say the least, with ice cream cones served as often as roasted rats. Their harrowing back-and-forth makes for a twisted, lurid, diabolically uncomfortable experience. It’s one of the few movies that may make you feel grateful for your own troublesome siblings.

03 of 30

Tenoch and Julio, Y tu mamá también

Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal in ‘Y tu mama tambien,’ just before the scene gets a bit NSFWCredit: Everett

Perhaps the most heartbreaking duo here is the teenage pals Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Tenoch (​​Diego Luna) in Alfonso Cuarón’s gut-punch coming-of-age road movie. The two embark on a road trip in search of a beach they made up to impress an older woman, Luisa (Maribel Verdú), who has personal reasons for needing a getaway.

The trip takes its own path — through playful bickering, spilled secrets, and sex — while creating a tension that threatens to alter the boys’ friendship. The novelistic style gives broader perspective to the characters’ lives and the roads they travel, infusing the film with a melancholy that feels true to real-life friendships.

04 of 30

Lee and Carter, Rush Hour trilogy

Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan in ‘Rush Hour 3,’ silently wishing they were in ‘Rush Hour 1’Credit: Everett Collection

This is one of the most brilliant buddy comedy team-ups the ’90s brought us. Hong Kong’s Inspector Lee heads to the States to team up with a self-aggrandizing LAPD cop to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a Chinese diplomat. Whoever decided to pair fast-acting Chan with faster-talking Tucker deserves a lifetime Oscar.

Tucker and Chan do wonderful work in the trilogy, bouncing off one another as if they were born to make these films. It’s regrettable we’ve had to wait so long for a late-era installment, especially as both actors have aged into nuanced work. With Rush Hour 4 now in development, perhaps someone out there was listening.

05 of 30

Cher and Dionne, Clueless

Stacey Dash and Alicia Silverstone establishing themselves as fashion iconsCredit: Paramount/Courtesy Everett

Best friends and casual fashion icons Cher (Alicia Silverstone, obvs) and Dionne (Stacey Dash, totally) forever made us question our choices in wardrobe and boyfriends.

There are many reasons we wanted to be, or just know, Cher and Dionne, but chief among them is their warm and supportive friendship, which never descends into rivalry or cattiness. It’s a rare positive depiction of high school relationships, and in its way a radical dissection of sexual politics with the ultimate message that friendship is the greatest love of all.

06 of 30

Abbott and Costello

Frankenstein asking Abbott and Costello if he can join their posseCredit: Everett Collection

Throughout their 36 films together, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello cultivated a varied onscreen presence and an incomparable chemistry. They joined the armed forces (in Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion); ventured to space (in Abbott and Costello Go to Mars); and met innumerable movie monsters, as well as the Keystone Kops.

Never content to repeat the same shtick, the two delightfully molded their act to each individual project. It kept them consistently fresh throughout their career, and keeps their work relevant and exciting today.

07 of 30

Batman and Robin

Adam West and Burt Ward, relieved that they’re not nearly as lame as George Clooney and Chris O’DonnellCredit: Everett Collection

The ultimate crimefighting duo, Batman and Robin have been the butt of more than a few jokes over the years. But we don’t find anything peculiar about a man in a costume taking an impressionable orphan under his wing and encouraging him to engage in violent antisocial behavior.

A nifty aspect of the franchise’s near-constant reinvention is the varied iterations of the Caped Crusader and his sidekick, most memorably realized via Adam West and Burt Ward in the 1960s. Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises (2012) offered another interesting twist by revealing in the film’s final moments that John Blake’s legal first name is Robin.

08 of 30

Wallace and Gromit

Gromit (L), Wallace (R), creepy gnome (C)Credit: Netflix

Wallace and Gromit are such a charming pair, we might be tempted to move to the Cotswolds and subsist on a strict diet of cheese and tea. Brilliant but haphazard inventor Wallace is often pulled back from the brink of disaster by his silent but ever-vigilant dog Gromit, who over the years has saved his master from an evil penguin, a nefarious were-rabbit, and, most recently, some very aggressive robot garden gnomes.

09 of 30

Celie and Nettie, The Color Purple

Desreta Jackson and Akosua Busia as young Celie and Nettie in ‘The Color Purple’Credit: Everett

Sisters Nettie and Celie are fiercely different but undeniably close. Celie (Desreta Jackson, and later Whoopi Goldberg) is put down and often afraid to speak her mind; Nettie (Akosua Busia) is opinionated and independent. After Celie is given in marriage, the sisters are separated, with Nettie continuing to write to Celie as forces tear them apart.

The backbone of both Alice Walker’s novel and Steven Spielberg’s adaptation is the bond between these two sisters. Though often separated, the two are always connected in heart and spirit. Their relationship is a profoundly moving testament to sisterhood and friendship.

10 of 30

Laurie Strode and Michael Myers, Halloween franchise

The Shape and Laurie Strode have their final reunion in ‘Halloween Ends’Credit: Ryan Green/Universal Pictures

You’d be hard-pressed to name many more recognizable movie duos than estranged siblings* Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her mass-murdering brother Michael Myers. One might call this a codependent relationship, at least in cinematic terms. Can’t have one without the other.

*At least in some versions of this frequently retconned franchise.

Their violent fixation on each other provides the thrills, but also, when you think about it, it’s what gives their very lives meaning. Can’t have the hunter without the hunted. In this case, seeing those two roles flip, from time to time, has been enough to keep the Halloween mythology going for generations.

11 of 30

Craig and Smokey, Friday

Chris Tucker and Ice Cube, on the lookout for DeeboCredit: Everett Collection

Friday may be firmly rooted in a specific time and place, but Craig (Ice Cube) and Smokey (Chris Tucker) make it feel universal. Everyone, whether you grew up in South Central or South Wales, knows those guys. Hell, we’ve been those guys. They love to gossip, they just want to chill on their stoop, and they’d go to bat for you in a fight. They’re classical audience surrogates, taking in the absurdities of their neighborhood from a comic distance. Only difference is, while we can ignore every call from our debt collectors, theirs — Big Worm (Faizon Love) — might come looking for them at any second.

12 of 30

Vincent and Jules, Pulp Fiction

Vincent and Jules, either just before or just after some divine intervention takes placeCredit: Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection

The Jerry-and-George of hitmen, Vincent (John Travolta) and Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) seem more interested in discussing their last (or next) meal than taking care of the criminals they’re sent to confront. That they can expound as thoughtfully on the implications of a foot massage as on the possibility of divine intervention places them among Quentin Tarantino’s most memorable creations.

As far as chemistry goes, watching the intuitive way they work — calmly taking care of the situation at the diner like the old pros they are — is as enjoyable as watching them gossip about the boss’s wife.

13 of 30

Dorothy and Toto, The Wizard of Oz

Dorothy and Toto try to work out their geographical location, vis a vis KansasCredit: Everett

How grateful Dorothy (Judy Garland) must have been to have her emotional service animal on her unexpected trip to Oz. Somehow, in a movie featuring a scarecrow, a lion, a tin man, and a glowing-green witch, it’s the dog who steals the show. Dorothy’s beloved pooch is smarter and more intuitive than your average pup —from biting the rude neighbor at the beginning to saving the day at the end by pulling back the curtain to reveal the fearsome “wizard” is a fraud. A courageous singing heroine and a valiant canine sidekick is a formula that can’t lose.

14 of 30

Cheech & Chong

A couple of sober, level-headed chaps in ‘Cheech & Chong’s Next Movie’Credit: Everett

The classic stoner duo with whom everyone wants to roast one, Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong made the absolute most of their blissed-out hippie shtick. Their comedy is good-hearted, uplifting, and the very definition of silly. Throughout six original live-action feature films and countless specials, albums, and live shows — even an animated film in 2013 — the comedians established a repartee that’s both warm and barbed, utterly goofy yet thoughtful in its dissection of racial and class politics. If you’re looking for an entry point, Up in Smoke (1978) is a great place to start.

15 of 30

Jake and Elwood Blues, The Blues Brothers

Just a couple of guys who need to save an orphanage, and take out a bunch of Nazis to do itCredit: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty

When they discover their childhood orphanage is set to close because of unpaid property taxes, agents of chaos (and damn catchy tunes) Jake (John Belushi) and Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) recruit their old music friends for a benefit concert to save the day. It goes without saying that Belushi and Aykroyd are a brilliant duo, each channeling their distinct comic personas into a cohesive fraternal unit.

Advertisement

Whether they’re performing on stage or driving through a shopping mall, they feel like two halves of a whole. The Blues Brothers is a bonkers movie, tied together by two actors who know each other like the back of their hands.

16 of 30

Shrek and Donkey, Shrek franchise

Shrek explains the many layers of his personality to DonkeyCredit: DreamWorks/courtesy Everett

The animated odd couple to end all animated odd couples, odorous ogre Shrek (Mike Myers) initially dismisses the fast-talking Donkey (Eddie Murphy) before realizing what he might need most is a friend. Even a friend who’s a relentless chatterbox. Over the course of four films (and soon a fifth), Donkey has proved a perfect foil to Shrek while simultaneously helping him save the day more than a few times — not to mention woo Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz).

17 of 30

Morticia and Gomez Addams

Couple goalsCredit: Everett Collection

The married couple that made us pine for our parents to buy us black clothes and stop clearing cobwebs, Gomez and Morticia have been portrayed a number of times in cartoons, live-action sitcoms, films, and most recently Netflix’s Wednesday. Anjelica Huston and Raul Julia essayed perhaps the most iconic portrayal of the ghoulish couple in Barry Sonnenfeld’s two ’90s features, fully embracing the couple’s ghastly passion for mayhem and their insatiable appetite for one another — especially if risk of death is involved.

18 of 30

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall

Also couple goalsCredit: Donaldson Collection/Getty Images

All Lauren Bacall did was teach Humphrey Bogart how to whistle, and next thing you know, movies were never the same again. Their sizzling sexuality in that iconic scene from Howard Hawks’ To Have and Have Not (1944) defined an era — and a legendary Hollywood romance.

Generating the steamiest heat you’re likely to see between two actors (even when, especially when, they’re just talking, sizing each other up), the two costarred in four movies together, including The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), and Key Largo (1948). All bangers. Bogart and Bacall were married for 12 years until his death in 1957. They also had two children.

19 of 30

Marty McFly and Doc Brown, Back to the Future franchise

Doc Brown and Marty McFly invent time travelCredit: Ralph Nelson/Universal

Most great screen duos are friends, frenemies, or lovers, but how about a classic surrogate father situation? Indeed, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) — his own dad such a pushover that he needs his own son to travel back in time just to nudge him toward Lea Thompson — finds his role model in Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd). He gravitates toward the eccentric scientist the way one might toward a beloved teacher, or a favorite uncle. The relationship is so pure it gives VeggieTales a run for its money.

20 of 30

Nick and Nora Charles, The Thin Man franchise

Everyone in this photo is extremely drunk (it’s canon)Credit: Courtesy Everett

The couple that taught us how much fun day drinking can be, Nick (William Powell) and Nora (Myrna Loy) are the quippy, hard-drinking, crime-solving couple created by quippy, hard-drinking writer Dashiell Hammett. He was known for his hard-boiled crime stories, but The Thin Man is a much jauntier, hang-out sort of mystery.

Powell and Loy were the perfect actors to portray the jolly couple through six increasingly daft capers. All are worth watching, but the original remains the best of the lot, both for its production and as a showcase for the stars’ camaraderie.

21 of 30

Bob and Phil, White Christmas

Private Davis and Captain Wallace, at your serviceCredit: Everett

After World War II, army pals Bob (Bing Crosby) and Phil (Danny Kaye) form a popular song-and-dance duo that tours the country. They cross paths with another musical pair, the Haynes Sisters, Betty (Rosemary Clooney) and Judy (Vera-Ellen).

The screwball-lite romantic machinations — misunderstandings, subterfuge, trickery, and good old-fashioned flirty gamesmanship — keep things light, but Bob and Phil share a weightier connection. The wartime backdrop offers their relationship a delicate poignance, while the actors’ sharply contrasting personas — Crosby’s old-fashioned class, Kaye’s theater-kid comic energy — sell the double act that turns this into a true crowd-pleaser.

22 of 30

Mike and Marcus, Bad Boys franchise

TFW s***’s about to get realCredit: Robert Zuckerman/ Columbia

Excessively destructive Miami police officers Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) are so much fun to watch, they almost make us want to become reckless cops. Across four increasingly over-the-top installments, Mike and Marcus have gone against ruthless drug dealers (twice), a literal witch, and their own force after being framed and forced on the run.

Lawrence and Smith are a whip-smart double act, both adept enough actors and comedians that they can swap between straight man and goofball — often within a scene. These action-comedies function equally well as both genres, and that’s largely due to the actors’ chemistry.

23 of 30

Frodo and Samwise, Lord of the Rings franchise

“Ru-dy! Ru-dy! Ru-dy!” Is that this one?Credit: New Line/courtesy Everett Collection

In many ways, Samwise (Sean Astin) is The Lord of the Rings’ most important character. How lucky would we be to have a friend who pulls us back from our worst instincts, not to mention certain death, as often as Sam does for Frodo (Elijah Wood)? Sure, some might hold our hair after a long night, but they don’t pull us back from the evil grip of a gorgeous ring we simply must have.

The trilogy depicts a fascinating evolution of Frodo and Sam’s relationship as the latter, always loyal and rarely questioning, begins to fear the evil threatening to consume his companion. Sam’s trepidation never turns to anger, but rather leads to him becoming a more proactive character.

24 of 30

Laurel and Hardy

Laurel, Hardy, and a guy who’s really ahead of his time re: shoe fashionCredit: Everett

The ultimate double act, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy hit a delightful comedic sweet spot that few others have replicated. They were opposites and great pals; at odds but also on the same page, often at once; partners in crime and reluctant accomplices.

The two gamely lampooned their divergent figures (the joke was that they resembled the number 10 when standing side by side), but their work was often more thoughtful and character-driven. If you want to see some of their best work, check out the shorts Big Business (1929) and Night Owls (1930), or the features The Devil’s Brother (1933) and Our Relations (1936).

25 of 30

Joe, Jerry, and Sugar Kane, Some Like It Hot

Okay it’s technically a throuple but we’re counting itCredit: Everett Collection

Maybe this is cheating, but there’s no Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis without Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot. The boys play jazz musicians who witness a murder and go on the lam, hiding from the mob in plain sight, disguised as women. They board a train to Miami with an all-female band, where they meet Sugar Kane, with whom each of the “gals” falls hopelessly in love (or lust).

One of Billy Wilder’s best, the film sings (pun intended) due to the triple threat of Lemmon, Curtis, and Monroe. They have such an easy rapport, it’s a shame they never reteamed for another musical comedy.

26 of 30

Bonnie and Clyde, Bonnie and Clyde

The key to being a successful criminal is, apparently, to be extremely hotCredit: Everett Collection

We don’t have to condone the exploits of the eponymous real-life bank robbers, played by Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, to enjoy watching them. They also happen to be two of the most well-rounded characters on this list. They’re hardened, violent crooks — murderers — but the performances turn the pair into something bordering on mythic. It’s star power at its most tangible, transforming a crime spree into a vicarious fantasy of freedom and romance.

Bonnie and Clyde become not just unlikely folk heroes, but a Romeo and Juliet-type pair whose ultimate demise plays as grand operatic tragedy rather than the well-deserved justice it is.

27 of 30

Han Solo and Chewbacca, Star Wars franchise

Han Solo (man), Chewbacca (man’s best friend)Credit: Everett Collection

It may be the greatest bromance ever told and the greatest intergalactic buddy duo over filmed. Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca don’t have to speak the same language to be able to finish each other’s sentences, both always knowing what the other is thinking.

More than any other Star Wars characters, the interplay between Chewy and Han most captured hearts and imaginations. One always feels incomplete without the other. A brilliant touch of George Lucas’ original trilogy is that we feel a genuine history between the two characters; as the saga progresses, that history becomes properly moving.

28 of 30

Thelma and Louise, Thelma & Louise

Hopefully Thelma and Louise took a selfie at the very end of the movie tooCredit: Everett Collection

The ne plus ultra of female friendship flicks, Ridley Scott’s uncommonly thoughtful, low-key road movie follows housewife Thelma (Geena Davis) and her friend Louise (Susan Sarandon) as they embark on a weekend getaway. After an assault turns deadly and Louise kills a man, the two go on the run.

The ending is iconic, but we won’t spoil it here. Suffice to say, Thelma & Louise is an over-the-top but deeply affecting portrayal of the connection between women who have suffered at the hands of cruel men. Through it all, even the darkest bits, the two women find joy in their lives and one another.

29 of 30

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

Fred Astaire (dancing) and Ginger Rogers (dancing backwards, in heels) in ‘Swing Time’Credit: Everett

Two of the most talented entertainers of their day graced us with their shared presence in 10 features; the best are Top Hat (1935) and Swing Time (1936). In both, Astaire plays a dancer whose travels bring him into Rogers’ orbit before he falls for her.

The simple plots are but a vessel for the stars’ enviable charisma, which oozes from the screen. They’re as appealing a screwball pair as Hepburn and Tracy or Grant and Russell, but Astaire and Rogers have the added benefit of being able to cut the holy hell out of a rug.

Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.

30 of 30

Butch and Sundance, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

A film festival pioneer and a salad dressing salesman in ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’Credit: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty

Don’t we all want a friend who would go down with us in a hail of bullets? Okay, maybe not literally… but still. In their first of two cinematic team-ups, Robert Redford and Paul Newman created a pair of iconic characters. Sure, they’re loosely based on historical counterparts, but their magnetism, both individually and as a duo, is pure star power: Butch, the charming, mischievous scoundrel; Sundance, quiet and deadly.

Through it all — every heist, scuffle, shootout, chase, or cliff jump — they share a cool, lived-in camaraderie that speaks to a rich history without them having to say much at all.

on Entertainment Weekly

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”