Lethal Weapon
Encyclopedia
Lethal Weapon is a 1987 American buddy cop
action film and the first in a series of films
, all directed by Richard Donner
and starring Mel Gibson
and Danny Glover
as a mismatched pair of LAPD
detectives, and Gary Busey
as their primary adversary. After the first film, the series fell into the action thriller genres, and is generally considered to typify the "buddy cop" plot device.
(Danny Glover
) is worried about getting old, having recently celebrated his 50th birthday. He receives a message from Michael Hunsaker (Tom Atkins
), an old Vietnam War
friend who Murtaugh realizes he has not seen in over 12 years. Before he can meet him, he is called to investigate a suicide and learns that the victim is Hunsaker's daughter, Amanda. Elsewhere, L.A.P.D. Narcotics Detective Sergeant Martin Riggs
(Mel Gibson
), who is suicidal
following the recent death of his wife in a traffic accident, nearly kills a disarmed suspect after flying into a psychotic
rage during a drug bust. Wary of his behavior, Riggs' superiors transfer him to Homicide, making him and Murtaugh reluctant partners.
Amanda's autopsy results show that she had taken drugs laced with drain cleaner
. Even though she jumped to her death, she would have died within minutes anyway – making her death a homicide. After informing her father, who claims he was trying to contact Murtaugh to help Amanda get out of the underworld of drugs, prostitution
and hardcore pornography
, Riggs and Murtaugh question a pimp Amanda was connected to. Finding a drug lab on the premises, they engage in a brief gunfight, killing the pimp. Murtaugh assumes the case is now closed, but Riggs finds it suspicious that the only witness to Amanda's suicide was a prostitute named Dixie (Lycia Naff
), who was working away from her usual "stroll". They deduce that Dixie poisoned Amanda and then posed as a witness to cover her crime.
Riggs and Murtaugh head to Dixie's home to question her, but her house explodes just as they arrive. Riggs—who served in the US Army Special Forces during the Vietnam War—finds part of the bomb, a mercury switch which only a professional would use. A neighborhood child remembers seeing a man with blond hair at Dixie's earlier who had a Special Forces tattoo similar to Riggs's own. Seeing a connection, they deduce that Hunsaker knows more than he has admitted and Murtaugh confronts him. Hunsaker admits that for more than two years he has been involved in a heroin-smuggling operation run by ex-special operations troops from the Vietnam War, known as "Shadow Company". The scheme is masterminded by a retired general, Peter McAllister (Mitchell Ryan
)—the former commander of Shadow Company—and his chief enforcer, Mr. Joshua (Gary Busey
). Hunsaker was laundering
the profits through his bank. McAllister had ordered Amanda's murder when Michael unsuccessfully tried to alert Murtaugh to the scheme in an attempt to get out of the business. As Murtaugh attempts to make Hunsaker reveal the entirety of his operation, Joshua makes a surprise appearance in a helicopter and shoots Hunsaker, killing him.
As Riggs and Murtaugh attempt to investigate Dixie's connection, Shadow Company forces attempt to kill Riggs and kidnap Murtaugh's daughter, Rianne (Traci Wolfe). Murtaugh meets Shadow Company in the desert to exchange himself for Rianne, knowing Shadow Company's plan is to kill them all anyway. As Riggs provides sniper cover from a distance, Murtaugh attempts to make Rianne flee, but all three are captured. McAllister tortures Murtaugh and Riggs for information. Riggs frees himself and then rescues both Murtaugh and Rianne. The pair then fight their way free of their prison, finding themselves in a downtown L.A. nightclub. Riggs chases Joshua on to the street and attempts to cut him off on the freeway, though Joshua ultimately escapes. Murtaugh finds McAllister trying to flee in his car. Taking out McAllister's driver, Murtaugh watches as the car crashes on Hollywood Boulevard
and is destroyed (along with the heroin shipment) by a live hand grenade. Riggs and Murtaugh then go to Murtaugh's home, knowing Joshua will go there to attack Murtaugh's family, who are absent. While Joshua is arrested and led away without incident, Riggs, wanting revenge, proposes "A Shot At The Title", which Joshua eagerly accepts. Sanctioned by Murtaugh, Riggs beats Joshua in hand-to-hand combat on the front lawn. As he's being arrested, Joshua overpowers the two officers and attempts to shoot Riggs. Riggs and Murtaugh both draw and fire, killing Joshua.
After a visit to his wife's grave, Riggs spends Christmas Day at the Murtaugh home with his new partner's family; Riggs brings his dog Sam to be a friend to the Murtaugh family cat, Burbank. Riggs also gives Murtaugh a symbolic gift: the unfired hollow-point bullet which he had been saving to commit suicide, as he does not need it anymore.
graduate Shane Black
wrote the screenplay in mid-1985. His agent sent it to producer Joel Silver
, who loved the story and worked with Black to further develop the script. After they took it to Warner Bros.
in early 1986, studio production executives offered it to director Richard Donner, who also loved it. Leonard Nimoy
was one of the choices considered for directing, but he did not feel comfortable doing action movies, and he was working on Three Men and a Baby
at the time. With those key elements in place, the search began for the right combination of actors to play Riggs and Murtaugh.
Casting director Marion Dougherty first suggested teaming Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. She arranged for Gibson to fly in from his home in Australia
, while Glover was flown in from Chicago
, where he was appearing in a play, to read through the script. According to a June 2007 Vanity Fair
article, Bruce Willis
was considered for the Riggs role. This is gag referenced in the spoof of the Lethal Weapon films, National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1. Bruce (as John McClane
) appears after the villains attack the wrong beach residence, looking for the protagonist.
According to Donner, "It took about two hours and by the time we were done, I was in seventh heaven. They found innuendoes; they found laughter where I never saw it; they found tears where they didn't exist before; and, most importantly, they found a relationship — all in just one reading. So if you ask about casting... it was magical, just total dynamite."
Explains Gibson, "This particular story was a cut above others I had passed on, because the action is really a sideline which heightens the story of these two great characters. I picture Riggs as an almost Chaplinesque
figure, a guy who doesn't expect anything from life and even toys with the idea of taking his own. He's not like these stalwarts who come down from Mt. Olympus
and wreak havoc and go away. He's somebody who doesn't look like he's set to go off until he actually does."
The draw for Glover was equally strong. Fresh from his success as Mister in The Color Purple
, he felt the role of Roger Murtaugh offered a whole new range of character expression and experience. "Aside from the chance to work with Mel, which turned out to be pure pleasure, one of the reasons I jumped at this project was the family aspect. The chance to play intricate relationships and subtle humor that exist in every close family group was an intriguing challenge, as was playing a guy turning 50. Murtaugh's a little cranky about his age until everything he loves is threatened. His reawakening parallels Riggs'."
Both actors were signed by early spring 1986. Gibson and Glover then flew home to pack, and, returning to Los Angeles, began an intensive two months of physical training and preparation. Meanwhile, the crucial role of Joshua was settled when Gary Busey asked for a chance to read for the part. An established star since his Academy Award-nominated performance in The Buddy Holly Story
, Busey had not auditioned for longer than he could remember. "I had butterflies," he realized. "I'd never played a bad guy. And no one had seen me since I'd lost 60 pounds and got back into shape. But I decided to take the initiative in order to have the opportunity to work with Dick, Joel, Mel and Danny. I'm constantly looking for someone to pull the best performance out of me and any of those guys could. They even talked me into dyeing my hair!" In his E! True Hollywood Story
biography, Busey says he was hired to play Joshua because they were looking for someone big and menacing enough to be a believable foe for Mel Gibson. Busey also credits the film for reviving his failing movie career.
Stunt coordinator Bobby Bass
planned and supervised all phases of Gibson's and Glover's intense pre-production
training; physical conditioning, weight workouts, and weapons handling and safety. Bass administered the latter category according to the strict guidelines of the National Rifle Association
. Bass also used his own military experiences to bring a greater depth of understanding to the Riggs character. To familiarize the actors with the specialized skills and sensibilities acquired by undercover cops, arrangements were made for Gibson and Glover to spend time in the field accompanying working L.A.P.D. police officers. Throughout filming, technical advisors from the L.A.P.D. as well as the Sheriff's Department worked closely with Donner and the actors to ensure authenticity.
, with helicopter camera work that would set the tone for the opening title sequence and the first spectacular stunt of the movie. The company then moved to Palos Verdes
, Santa Monica
, Studio City, West Hollywood, and Inglewood
with one week out-of-town in El Mirage
, an enormous dry lake bed outside Victorville, California
.
From the early pre-production stages of Lethal Weapon, Richard Donner wanted Mel Gibson's final fight sequence to be unique, yet also to make a strong statement about the characters involved. Coincidentally, assistant director Willie Simmons had an avid interest in unusual forms of martial arts, and he invited several practitioners to the set to demonstrate for Donner. The result was the hiring of three technical advisors, each a master of a particular martial arts style.
Cedric Adams was the first expert brought in. "Adams thought the best possible way to show just how lethal Riggs really is — is to show his mastery of a form of martial arts never before seen onscreen," said Donner. Adams taught the actors the movements of Capoeira
. A second technical advisor, Dennis Newsome, brought jailhouse rock to the fight sequence. The third technical advisor was Rorion Gracie
, who specialized in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
.
The filming was spread over four complete nights, shooting from dusk to dawn, resulting in an edited sequence that would last minutes on screen. Principal photography was completed in mid-November 1986. Hollywood city officials hung Christmas decorations on Hollywood Blvd. a few months early so that the scenes shot for this film, particularly the action scenes near the end of the picture, looked like they happened at the end of the year.
Legendary stunt man Dar Robinson
was killed in a motorcycle accident shortly after principal photography was finished. Director Richard Donner dedicated the film to him. Jackie Swanson
performed the high fall on her own. She was trained by Dar Robinson. Richard Donner's directing credit appears after Amanda Hunsaker leaps to her death. This is a reference to a joke that Richard Donner films often have sequences of people falling in his films (Lee Remick
in The Omen
and Margot Kidder
in Superman).
One sequence shows a theatre marquee advertising The Lost Boys
, a film Donner was producing at the time. A short segment of the 1951 film A Christmas Carol
is shown on a television towards the end of the movie.
, who just completed work on Highlander
, composed the score for Lethal Weapon. The guitar part of Riggs' theme was performed by Eric Clapton
. Kamen and Clapton had worked together on the music for the 1985 BBC
TV series Edge of Darkness
(the feature adaptation of which would later, by coincidence, star Mel Gibson). The saxophone part of Murtaugh's theme was performed by David Sanborn
. The Christmas song "Jingle Bell Rock
", is played during the film's opening credits. Honeymoon Suite's song, "Lethal Weapon," is played during the film's end credits without being credited.
120.2 million worldwide and was nominated for Academy Award for Best Sound (Les Fresholtz
, Dick Alexander
, Vern Poore
and Bill Nelson
) and for Sound Effects Editing (the former was won by The Last Emperor
, the latter won by RoboCop
). It is widely considered to be one of the best buddy cop films of all time, influencing numerous "buddy cop" films such as Tango & Cash
, Bad Boys
and the Rush Hour series.
critic Roger Ebert
in particular enjoyed the film, giving it four-out-of-four stars, saying Donner "tops himself." Franco Zeffirelli
reportedly decided to offer Mel Gibson the role of Hamlet
after seeing his suicide contemplation scene in this film. In 2007, Entertainment Weekly
named Lethal Weapon #24 on their list of the greatest action movies of all time.
American Film Institute
Lists
and DVD
numerous times, along with a single Blu-ray release. The first DVD was released in 1997 and featured the theatrical version of the film. The Director's Cut was released in 2000. Since then, numerous sets have been released that contain all four films in the series (featuring the same DVDs). The theatrical version was also released on Blu-ray in 2006.
DVD. The alternate opening featured Martin Riggs drinking alone in a bar where he is accosted by a couple of punks who want his money. Riggs claims all of his is in the bank and tells the thugs "not to fuck with him." The thugs attack him, but Riggs easily subdues them. He is then allowed to take a free bottle of booze from the bar in exchange for never returning. Director Richard Donner felt the movie should open with a brighter look at Riggs and filmed the scene with Riggs awakening in his trailer to replace it. The alternate ending featured Riggs and Murtaugh saying good-bye to one another. Murtaugh tells Riggs he's thinking of retiring, but Riggs tells him not to. Without even thinking about the possibility of sequels, Donner decided that Riggs and Murtaugh's partnership should continue and the two end as friends, and filmed the ending that appears in the completed film.
In addition to the theatrical release of the film, an extended "Directors Cut" version was released later on DVD. The Director's Cut version is longer (117 minutes) than the original theatrical release version (110 minutes), and features additional scenes. One notable extended scene includes Riggs dispatching a sniper who had been firing at children in a playground. Another noteworthy scene added to the Director's Cut is one in which Riggs picks up a street-walking prostitute, but instead of having sex with her, he takes her home to watch "The Three Stooges" on TV. This scene demonstrates his terrible loneliness after his wife was killed.
announced plans to reboot the Lethal Weapon franchise without Gibson and Glover. The new franchise would feature the same characters but a brand new cast. Will Beall has been drafted in to pen the script.
Buddy cop film
The "buddy cop" is a subgenre of buddy films and crime films with plots involving two men of very different and conflicting personalities who are forced to work together to solve a crime and/or defeat criminals, sometimes learning from each other in the process...
action film and the first in a series of films
Lethal Weapon (film series)
Lethal Weapon is a series of films starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as a pair of LAPD detectives. All four films in the series were directed by Richard Donner, and also share many of the same core cast members.-Lethal Weapon :...
, all directed by Richard Donner
Richard Donner
Richard Donner is an American film director, film producer, and comic book writer.The production company The Donners' Company is owned by Donner and his wife, producer Lauren Shuler Donner. After directing the horror film The Omen, Donner became famous for the hailed creation of the first modern...
and starring Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson
Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...
and Danny Glover
Danny Glover
Danny Lebern Glover is an American actor, film director, and political activist. Glover is perhaps best known for his role as Detective Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film franchise.-Early life:...
as a mismatched pair of LAPD
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
detectives, and Gary Busey
Gary Busey
William Gary Busey , best known as Gary Busey, is an American film and stage actor and artist. He has appeared in a large variety of films, as well as making regular appearances on Gunsmoke, Walker, Texas Ranger, Law & Order, and Entourage...
as their primary adversary. After the first film, the series fell into the action thriller genres, and is generally considered to typify the "buddy cop" plot device.
Plot
L.A.P.D. Homicide Detective Sergeant Roger MurtaughRoger Murtaugh
Roger Murtaugh is a fictional character and protagonist in the Lethal Weapon films, played in all four by Danny Glover.-Lethal Weapon:...
(Danny Glover
Danny Glover
Danny Lebern Glover is an American actor, film director, and political activist. Glover is perhaps best known for his role as Detective Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film franchise.-Early life:...
) is worried about getting old, having recently celebrated his 50th birthday. He receives a message from Michael Hunsaker (Tom Atkins
Tom Atkins (actor)
Tom Atkins is an American television and film actor. He is primarily known for his work in the horror film genre, having worked with writers and directors such as John Carpenter, Stephen King, and George A. Romero...
), an old Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
friend who Murtaugh realizes he has not seen in over 12 years. Before he can meet him, he is called to investigate a suicide and learns that the victim is Hunsaker's daughter, Amanda. Elsewhere, L.A.P.D. Narcotics Detective Sergeant Martin Riggs
Martin Riggs
Martin Riggs is a fictional police officer and protagonist from the Lethal Weapon franchise. He is played in all four films by Mel Gibson.- Military career :...
(Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson
Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...
), who is suicidal
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
following the recent death of his wife in a traffic accident, nearly kills a disarmed suspect after flying into a psychotic
Psychosis
Psychosis means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality"...
rage during a drug bust. Wary of his behavior, Riggs' superiors transfer him to Homicide, making him and Murtaugh reluctant partners.
Amanda's autopsy results show that she had taken drugs laced with drain cleaner
Drain cleaner
A drain cleaner is a consumer product or device that unblocks sewer pipes or helps to prevent the occurrence of clogged drains; the term may also refer to the individual who performs the activity...
. Even though she jumped to her death, she would have died within minutes anyway – making her death a homicide. After informing her father, who claims he was trying to contact Murtaugh to help Amanda get out of the underworld of drugs, prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
and hardcore pornography
Hardcore pornography
Hardcore pornography is a form of pornography that features explicit sexual acts. The term was coined in the second half of the 20th century to distinguish it from softcore pornography. It usually takes the form of photographs, often displayed in magazines or on the Internet, or films. It can also...
, Riggs and Murtaugh question a pimp Amanda was connected to. Finding a drug lab on the premises, they engage in a brief gunfight, killing the pimp. Murtaugh assumes the case is now closed, but Riggs finds it suspicious that the only witness to Amanda's suicide was a prostitute named Dixie (Lycia Naff
Lycia Naff
Lycia Naff is an American dancer, actress, journalist and motorcycle enthusiast. She is best known as an actress for a 2 episode-role as Ensign Sonya Gomez on Star Trek: The Next Generation and for her brief appearance as an alien who opens her blouse to reveal three breasts in the hit science...
), who was working away from her usual "stroll". They deduce that Dixie poisoned Amanda and then posed as a witness to cover her crime.
Riggs and Murtaugh head to Dixie's home to question her, but her house explodes just as they arrive. Riggs—who served in the US Army Special Forces during the Vietnam War—finds part of the bomb, a mercury switch which only a professional would use. A neighborhood child remembers seeing a man with blond hair at Dixie's earlier who had a Special Forces tattoo similar to Riggs's own. Seeing a connection, they deduce that Hunsaker knows more than he has admitted and Murtaugh confronts him. Hunsaker admits that for more than two years he has been involved in a heroin-smuggling operation run by ex-special operations troops from the Vietnam War, known as "Shadow Company". The scheme is masterminded by a retired general, Peter McAllister (Mitchell Ryan
Mitchell Ryan
Mitchell Ryan is an American actor most recently known for playing Edward Montgomery on the sitcom Dharma & Greg. He also worked with his on-screen wife from Dharma & Greg, Susan Sullivan, in the short-lived series Julie Farr, M.D..Ryan was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised in Louisville,...
)—the former commander of Shadow Company—and his chief enforcer, Mr. Joshua (Gary Busey
Gary Busey
William Gary Busey , best known as Gary Busey, is an American film and stage actor and artist. He has appeared in a large variety of films, as well as making regular appearances on Gunsmoke, Walker, Texas Ranger, Law & Order, and Entourage...
). Hunsaker was laundering
Money laundering
Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
the profits through his bank. McAllister had ordered Amanda's murder when Michael unsuccessfully tried to alert Murtaugh to the scheme in an attempt to get out of the business. As Murtaugh attempts to make Hunsaker reveal the entirety of his operation, Joshua makes a surprise appearance in a helicopter and shoots Hunsaker, killing him.
As Riggs and Murtaugh attempt to investigate Dixie's connection, Shadow Company forces attempt to kill Riggs and kidnap Murtaugh's daughter, Rianne (Traci Wolfe). Murtaugh meets Shadow Company in the desert to exchange himself for Rianne, knowing Shadow Company's plan is to kill them all anyway. As Riggs provides sniper cover from a distance, Murtaugh attempts to make Rianne flee, but all three are captured. McAllister tortures Murtaugh and Riggs for information. Riggs frees himself and then rescues both Murtaugh and Rianne. The pair then fight their way free of their prison, finding themselves in a downtown L.A. nightclub. Riggs chases Joshua on to the street and attempts to cut him off on the freeway, though Joshua ultimately escapes. Murtaugh finds McAllister trying to flee in his car. Taking out McAllister's driver, Murtaugh watches as the car crashes on Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood Boulevard
-Revitalization:In recent years successful efforts have been made at cleaning up Hollywood Blvd., as the street had gained a reputation for crime and seediness. Central to these efforts was the construction of the Hollywood and Highland shopping center and adjacent Kodak Theatre in 2001...
and is destroyed (along with the heroin shipment) by a live hand grenade. Riggs and Murtaugh then go to Murtaugh's home, knowing Joshua will go there to attack Murtaugh's family, who are absent. While Joshua is arrested and led away without incident, Riggs, wanting revenge, proposes "A Shot At The Title", which Joshua eagerly accepts. Sanctioned by Murtaugh, Riggs beats Joshua in hand-to-hand combat on the front lawn. As he's being arrested, Joshua overpowers the two officers and attempts to shoot Riggs. Riggs and Murtaugh both draw and fire, killing Joshua.
After a visit to his wife's grave, Riggs spends Christmas Day at the Murtaugh home with his new partner's family; Riggs brings his dog Sam to be a friend to the Murtaugh family cat, Burbank. Riggs also gives Murtaugh a symbolic gift: the unfired hollow-point bullet which he had been saving to commit suicide, as he does not need it anymore.
Cast
- Mel GibsonMel GibsonMel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...
- Detective Martin RiggsMartin RiggsMartin Riggs is a fictional police officer and protagonist from the Lethal Weapon franchise. He is played in all four films by Mel Gibson.- Military career :... - Danny GloverDanny GloverDanny Lebern Glover is an American actor, film director, and political activist. Glover is perhaps best known for his role as Detective Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film franchise.-Early life:...
- Detective Roger MurtaughRoger MurtaughRoger Murtaugh is a fictional character and protagonist in the Lethal Weapon films, played in all four by Danny Glover.-Lethal Weapon:... - Gary BuseyGary BuseyWilliam Gary Busey , best known as Gary Busey, is an American film and stage actor and artist. He has appeared in a large variety of films, as well as making regular appearances on Gunsmoke, Walker, Texas Ranger, Law & Order, and Entourage...
- Mr. Joshua - Mitchell RyanMitchell RyanMitchell Ryan is an American actor most recently known for playing Edward Montgomery on the sitcom Dharma & Greg. He also worked with his on-screen wife from Dharma & Greg, Susan Sullivan, in the short-lived series Julie Farr, M.D..Ryan was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised in Louisville,...
- The General - Tom Atkins - Michael Hunsaker
- Darlene LoveDarlene LoveDarlene Love is an American popular music singer and actress. She gained prominence in the 1960s for the song "He's a Rebel," a #1 American single in 1962, and was part of the Phil Spector stable that produced a celebrated Christmas album in 1963....
- Trish Murtaugh - Jackie SwansonJackie SwansonJackie Swanson is an American actress. She is best known for her role on the American sitcom Cheers as Kelly Gaines, the rich and simple love interest of Woody Boyd.-Early life:...
- Amanda Hunsaker - Traci Wolfe - Rianne Murtaugh
- Damon Hines - Nick Murtaugh
- Ebonie Smith - Carrie Murtaugh
- Steve KahanSteve KahanSteve Kahan is an American character actor who has appeared many films, his best known film role is in the Lethal Weapon film franchise as Capt. Ed Murphy. Kahan's cousin is director Richard Donner, who has cast Kahan in many of his films...
- Capt. Ed Murphy - Mary Ellen TrainorMary Ellen TrainorMary Ellen Trainor is an American actress best remembered as either Dr. Stephanie Woods in Lethal Weapon or as Harriet Walsh in The Goonies.Trainor was born in Chicago, Illinois...
- Dr. Stephanie Woods (Police Psychiatrist) - Ed O'RossEd O'RossEd O'Ross is an American actor perhaps best known for playing the giggling spectacled gangster Itchy in Dick Tracy, ruthless Georgian mobster Viktor Rostavili in Red Heat, and tough-then-alien-possessed police detective Cliff Willis in The Hidden.-Early life:O'Ross was born Edward Oross in...
- Mendez - Blackie DammettBlackie DammettBlackie Dammett or "Spider" is an American actor and father of Anthony Kiedis, lead singer of Red Hot Chili Peppers.-Name:He legally changed his name to Blackie Dammett as a tribute to his favorite writer Dashiell Hammett...
- Drug Dealer #3
Development
Recent UCLAUniversity of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
graduate Shane Black
Shane Black
Shane Black is an American actor, screenwriter and film director. He contributed to some of the biggest blockbuster action films of the late 1980s and early 1990s, including work on Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout...
wrote the screenplay in mid-1985. His agent sent it to producer Joel Silver
Joel Silver
Joel Silver is an American Hollywood film producer, co-creator of the sport of Ultimate, co-founder of Dark Castle Entertainment and owner of Silver Pictures.-Life and career:...
, who loved the story and worked with Black to further develop the script. After they took it to Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
in early 1986, studio production executives offered it to director Richard Donner, who also loved it. Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in the original Star Trek series , multiple films, television and video game sequels....
was one of the choices considered for directing, but he did not feel comfortable doing action movies, and he was working on Three Men and a Baby
Three Men and a Baby
Three Men and a Baby is a 1987 comedy film starring Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, Nancy Travis , and Ted Danson, and directed by Leonard Nimoy, in his first non-Star Trek movie directorial role. It follows the mishaps and adventures of three bachelors as they attempt to adapt their lives to...
at the time. With those key elements in place, the search began for the right combination of actors to play Riggs and Murtaugh.
Casting director Marion Dougherty first suggested teaming Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. She arranged for Gibson to fly in from his home in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, while Glover was flown in from Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, where he was appearing in a play, to read through the script. According to a June 2007 Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
article, Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
was considered for the Riggs role. This is gag referenced in the spoof of the Lethal Weapon films, National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1. Bruce (as John McClane
John McClane
John McClane is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Die Hard film series, portrayed by Bruce Willis.-Development and description:...
) appears after the villains attack the wrong beach residence, looking for the protagonist.
According to Donner, "It took about two hours and by the time we were done, I was in seventh heaven. They found innuendoes; they found laughter where I never saw it; they found tears where they didn't exist before; and, most importantly, they found a relationship — all in just one reading. So if you ask about casting... it was magical, just total dynamite."
Explains Gibson, "This particular story was a cut above others I had passed on, because the action is really a sideline which heightens the story of these two great characters. I picture Riggs as an almost Chaplinesque
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
figure, a guy who doesn't expect anything from life and even toys with the idea of taking his own. He's not like these stalwarts who come down from Mt. Olympus
Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece, located on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, about 100 kilometres away from Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city. Mount Olympus has 52 peaks. The highest peak Mytikas, meaning "nose", rises to 2,917 metres...
and wreak havoc and go away. He's somebody who doesn't look like he's set to go off until he actually does."
The draw for Glover was equally strong. Fresh from his success as Mister in The Color Purple
The Color Purple (film)
The Color Purple is a 1985 American period drama film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Alice Walker. It was Spielberg's eighth film as a director , and was a change from the summer blockbusters for which he had become famous...
, he felt the role of Roger Murtaugh offered a whole new range of character expression and experience. "Aside from the chance to work with Mel, which turned out to be pure pleasure, one of the reasons I jumped at this project was the family aspect. The chance to play intricate relationships and subtle humor that exist in every close family group was an intriguing challenge, as was playing a guy turning 50. Murtaugh's a little cranky about his age until everything he loves is threatened. His reawakening parallels Riggs'."
Both actors were signed by early spring 1986. Gibson and Glover then flew home to pack, and, returning to Los Angeles, began an intensive two months of physical training and preparation. Meanwhile, the crucial role of Joshua was settled when Gary Busey asked for a chance to read for the part. An established star since his Academy Award-nominated performance in The Buddy Holly Story
The Buddy Holly Story
The film was adapted by Robert Gittler from Buddy Holly: His Life and Music, the biography of Holly by John Goldrosen. It was directed by Steve Rash.-Plot:...
, Busey had not auditioned for longer than he could remember. "I had butterflies," he realized. "I'd never played a bad guy. And no one had seen me since I'd lost 60 pounds and got back into shape. But I decided to take the initiative in order to have the opportunity to work with Dick, Joel, Mel and Danny. I'm constantly looking for someone to pull the best performance out of me and any of those guys could. They even talked me into dyeing my hair!" In his E! True Hollywood Story
E! True Hollywood Story
E! True Hollywood Story is an American documentary series on E! that deals with famous Hollywood celebrities, movies, TV shows and well-known public figures...
biography, Busey says he was hired to play Joshua because they were looking for someone big and menacing enough to be a believable foe for Mel Gibson. Busey also credits the film for reviving his failing movie career.
Stunt coordinator Bobby Bass
Bobby Bass
Bobby Bass was an American actor, stunt performer, and stunt coordinator/second unit director.-Early life:...
planned and supervised all phases of Gibson's and Glover's intense pre-production
Pre-production
Pre-production or In Production is the process of preparing all the elements involved in a film, play, or other performance.- In film :...
training; physical conditioning, weight workouts, and weapons handling and safety. Bass administered the latter category according to the strict guidelines of the National Rifle Association
National Rifle Association
The National Rifle Association of America is an American non-profit 501 civil rights organization which advocates for the protection of the Second Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights and the promotion of firearm ownership rights as well as marksmanship, firearm safety, and the protection...
. Bass also used his own military experiences to bring a greater depth of understanding to the Riggs character. To familiarize the actors with the specialized skills and sensibilities acquired by undercover cops, arrangements were made for Gibson and Glover to spend time in the field accompanying working L.A.P.D. police officers. Throughout filming, technical advisors from the L.A.P.D. as well as the Sheriff's Department worked closely with Donner and the actors to ensure authenticity.
Filming
Lethal Weapon began principal photography on August 6, 1986, shooting on locations throughout the Los Angeles area, as well as on the backlot facilities of Burbank Studios. Filming began in Long Beach, CaliforniaLong Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
, with helicopter camera work that would set the tone for the opening title sequence and the first spectacular stunt of the movie. The company then moved to Palos Verdes
Palos Verdes
Palos Verdes is a name often used to refer to a group of coastal cities in the Palos Verdes Hills on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, within southwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S...
, Santa Monica
Santa Mônica
Santa Mônica is a town and municipality in the state of Paraná in the Southern Region of Brazil.-References:...
, Studio City, West Hollywood, and Inglewood
Inglewood, California
Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, southwest of downtown Los Angeles. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. Its population stood at 109,673 as of the 2010 Census...
with one week out-of-town in El Mirage
El Mirage Dry Lake
El Mirage Lake is a dry lake bed in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California. The lake is located about west-northwest of the town of Adelanto and north of Highway 18 in San Bernardino County....
, an enormous dry lake bed outside Victorville, California
Victorville, California
Victorville is a city located in the Victor Valley of southwestern San Bernardino County, California. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2010 census, the city had a population of 115,903, up from 64,030 at the 2000 census.-Geography and climate:...
.
From the early pre-production stages of Lethal Weapon, Richard Donner wanted Mel Gibson's final fight sequence to be unique, yet also to make a strong statement about the characters involved. Coincidentally, assistant director Willie Simmons had an avid interest in unusual forms of martial arts, and he invited several practitioners to the set to demonstrate for Donner. The result was the hiring of three technical advisors, each a master of a particular martial arts style.
Cedric Adams was the first expert brought in. "Adams thought the best possible way to show just how lethal Riggs really is — is to show his mastery of a form of martial arts never before seen onscreen," said Donner. Adams taught the actors the movements of Capoeira
Capoeira
Capoeira is a Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, sports, and music. It was created in Brazil mainly by descendants of African slaves with Brazilian native influences, probably beginning in the 16th century...
. A second technical advisor, Dennis Newsome, brought jailhouse rock to the fight sequence. The third technical advisor was Rorion Gracie
Rorion Gracie
Rorion Gracie is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner and instructor, a prominent member of the Gracie family, and a founder of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He is the oldest son of Hélio Gracie and one of the few people in the world to hold a 9th degree red belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu,...
, who specialized in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a martial art, combat sport, and a self defense system that focuses on grappling and especially ground fighting...
.
The filming was spread over four complete nights, shooting from dusk to dawn, resulting in an edited sequence that would last minutes on screen. Principal photography was completed in mid-November 1986. Hollywood city officials hung Christmas decorations on Hollywood Blvd. a few months early so that the scenes shot for this film, particularly the action scenes near the end of the picture, looked like they happened at the end of the year.
Legendary stunt man Dar Robinson
Dar Robinson
Dar Allen Robinson was an American stunt performer and actor. Robinson broke 19 world records and set 21 "world's firsts." He invented the decelerator which allowed a cameraman to film a top-down view of the stuntman as he fell without accidentally...
was killed in a motorcycle accident shortly after principal photography was finished. Director Richard Donner dedicated the film to him. Jackie Swanson
Jackie Swanson
Jackie Swanson is an American actress. She is best known for her role on the American sitcom Cheers as Kelly Gaines, the rich and simple love interest of Woody Boyd.-Early life:...
performed the high fall on her own. She was trained by Dar Robinson. Richard Donner's directing credit appears after Amanda Hunsaker leaps to her death. This is a reference to a joke that Richard Donner films often have sequences of people falling in his films (Lee Remick
Lee Remick
Lee Ann Remick was an American film and television actress. Among her best-known films are Anatomy of a Murder , Days of Wine and Roses , and The Omen .-Early life:...
in The Omen
The Omen
An original score for the film, including the movie's theme song Ave Satani, was composed by Jerry Goldsmith, for which he received the only Oscar of his long career. The score features a strong choral segment, with a foreboding Latin chant...
and Margot Kidder
Margot Kidder
Margaret Ruth "Margot" Kidder is a Canadian-born American actress. She is perhaps best known for playing Lois Lane in the four Superman movies opposite Christopher Reeve, a role that brought her to widespread recognition....
in Superman).
One sequence shows a theatre marquee advertising The Lost Boys
The Lost Boys
The Lost Boys is a 1987 American teen comedy horror film directed by Joel Schumacher and starring Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Kiefer Sutherland, Jami Gertz, Corey Feldman, Dianne Wiest, Edward Herrmann, Alex Winter, Jamison Newlander, and Barnard Hughes....
, a film Donner was producing at the time. A short segment of the 1951 film A Christmas Carol
Scrooge (1951 film)
Scrooge, released as A Christmas Carol in the United States, is a 1951 film adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. It starred Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge and was directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, with a screenplay by Noel Langley.The film also features Kathleen Harrison in an...
is shown on a television towards the end of the movie.
Music
Michael KamenMichael Kamen
Michael Arnold Kamen was an American composer , orchestral arranger, orchestral conductor, song writer, and session musician.-Background:...
, who just completed work on Highlander
Highlander (film)
Highlander is a 1986 fantasy action film directed by Russell Mulcahy and based on a story by Gregory Widen. It stars Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery, Clancy Brown, and Roxanne Hart. The film depicts the climax of an ages-old battle between immortal warriors, depicted through interwoven past and...
, composed the score for Lethal Weapon. The guitar part of Riggs' theme was performed by Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
. Kamen and Clapton had worked together on the music for the 1985 BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
TV series Edge of Darkness
Edge of Darkness
Edge of Darkness is a British television drama serial, produced by BBC Television in association with Lionheart Television International and originally broadcast in six fifty-five minute episodes in late 1985...
(the feature adaptation of which would later, by coincidence, star Mel Gibson). The saxophone part of Murtaugh's theme was performed by David Sanborn
David Sanborn
David Sanborn is an American alto saxophonist. Though Sanborn has worked in many genres, his solo recordings typically blend jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He released his first solo album Taking Off in 1975, but has been playing the saxophone since before he was in high school...
. The Christmas song "Jingle Bell Rock
Jingle Bell Rock
"Jingle Bell Rock" is the name of a popular Christmas song first released by Bobby Helms in 1957. It has received frequent airplay in the United States during every Christmas time since then. "Jingle Bell Rock" was composed by Joseph Carleton Beal , and James Ross Boothe...
", is played during the film's opening credits. Honeymoon Suite's song, "Lethal Weapon," is played during the film's end credits without being credited.
Box office
Released on March 6, 1987, Lethal Weapon was #1 at the box office for three weeks before Blind Date supplanted it. It grossed $United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
120.2 million worldwide and was nominated for Academy Award for Best Sound (Les Fresholtz
Les Fresholtz
Les Fresholtz was an American sound engineer. He won two Academy Awards for Best Sound and was nominated for ten more in the same category. He worked on over 110 films between 1968 and 1996.-Selected filmography:...
, Dick Alexander
Dick Alexander
Dick Alexander is an American sound engineer. He won two Academy Awards for Best Sound and was nominated for six more in the same category. He has worked on over 170 films and television shows since 1975.-Selected filmography:...
, Vern Poore
Vern Poore
Vern Poore is an American sound engineer. He won an Academy Award for Best Sound and has been nominated for four more in the same category. He worked on over 60 films between 1975 and 1996.-Selected filmography:...
and Bill Nelson
Bill Nelson (sound engineer)
Bill Nelson is an American sound engineer. He was nominated for two Academy Awards in the category Best Sound.-External links:...
) and for Sound Effects Editing (the former was won by The Last Emperor
The Last Emperor
The Last Emperor is a 1987 biopic about the life of Puyi, the last Emperor of China, whose autobiography was the basis for the screenplay written by Mark Peploe and Bernardo Bertolucci. Independently produced by Jeremy Thomas, it was directed by Bertolucci and released in 1987 by Columbia Pictures...
, the latter won by RoboCop
RoboCop
RoboCop is a 1987 American science fiction-action film directed by Paul Verhoeven. Set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan in the near future, RoboCop centers on a police officer who is brutally murdered and subsequently re-created as a super-human cyborg known as "RoboCop"...
). It is widely considered to be one of the best buddy cop films of all time, influencing numerous "buddy cop" films such as Tango & Cash
Tango & Cash
Tango & Cash is a 1989 American buddy cop film starring Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, Jack Palance and Teri Hatcher. It was directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, although Albert Magnoli took over in the later stages of filming....
, Bad Boys
Bad Boys (1995 film)
Bad Boys is a 1995 American action comedy film directed by Michael Bay in his directorial debut, and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer...
and the Rush Hour series.
Critical reception
The reviews by critics were mostly positive. Chicago Sun-TimesChicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
critic Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
in particular enjoyed the film, giving it four-out-of-four stars, saying Donner "tops himself." Franco Zeffirelli
Franco Zeffirelli
Franco Zeffirelli KBE is an Italian director and producer of films and television. He is also a director and designer of operas and a former senator for the Italian center-right Forza Italia party....
reportedly decided to offer Mel Gibson the role of Hamlet
Hamlet (1990 film)
Hamlet is a 1990 drama film based on the Shakespearean tragedy Hamlet. It was directed by Franco Zeffirelli, with Mel Gibson as the young Prince Hamlet...
after seeing his suicide contemplation scene in this film. In 2007, Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
named Lethal Weapon #24 on their list of the greatest action movies of all time.
American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
Lists
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:
- Martin Riggs & Roger Murtaugh – Nominated Heroes
Home media
Lethal Weapon has been released on VHSVHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
numerous times, along with a single Blu-ray release. The first DVD was released in 1997 and featured the theatrical version of the film. The Director's Cut was released in 2000. Since then, numerous sets have been released that contain all four films in the series (featuring the same DVDs). The theatrical version was also released on Blu-ray in 2006.
Alternative versions
An alternate opening and ending were both filmed and can be seen on the Lethal Weapon 4Lethal Weapon 4
Lethal Weapon 4 is a 1998 American action film directed by Richard Donner, starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Rene Russo, Chris Rock and Jet Li. It is the third sequel in the Lethal Weapon series of films. -Plot:...
DVD. The alternate opening featured Martin Riggs drinking alone in a bar where he is accosted by a couple of punks who want his money. Riggs claims all of his is in the bank and tells the thugs "not to fuck with him." The thugs attack him, but Riggs easily subdues them. He is then allowed to take a free bottle of booze from the bar in exchange for never returning. Director Richard Donner felt the movie should open with a brighter look at Riggs and filmed the scene with Riggs awakening in his trailer to replace it. The alternate ending featured Riggs and Murtaugh saying good-bye to one another. Murtaugh tells Riggs he's thinking of retiring, but Riggs tells him not to. Without even thinking about the possibility of sequels, Donner decided that Riggs and Murtaugh's partnership should continue and the two end as friends, and filmed the ending that appears in the completed film.
In addition to the theatrical release of the film, an extended "Directors Cut" version was released later on DVD. The Director's Cut version is longer (117 minutes) than the original theatrical release version (110 minutes), and features additional scenes. One notable extended scene includes Riggs dispatching a sniper who had been firing at children in a playground. Another noteworthy scene added to the Director's Cut is one in which Riggs picks up a street-walking prostitute, but instead of having sex with her, he takes her home to watch "The Three Stooges" on TV. This scene demonstrates his terrible loneliness after his wife was killed.
Remake
On January 19, 2011, Warner Bros.Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
announced plans to reboot the Lethal Weapon franchise without Gibson and Glover. The new franchise would feature the same characters but a brand new cast. Will Beall has been drafted in to pen the script.