| | | | Lethal Weapon
(1987) |
He's the only L.A cop registered as a Lethal Weapon".
One of the most slam-bang, knock-down-drag-out action movies of all time, "Lethal Weapon" is a turbo-charged adventure into the seamy side of L.A, as well as a revolution in buddy pictures and a genuinely emotional portrait of a suicidal man.
Martin Riggs (Gibson) is the Lethal Weapon of the title. Suicidal and psychotic over the death of his young wife, a typical day for him involves shooting out his TV, walking into a schoolyard sniper's line of fire, entertaining cocaine dealers with 3 Stooges impressions before a bloody shoot-out, and then a night of suicide contemplation while weeping over a picture of his beloved.
Roger Murtaugh (Glover), on the other hand, has a better grip on reality. A loving family man, he gets his job done with minimal worry, although the day of his 50th birthday, he becomes a little worried about whether his shooting is as good as it used to be.
What they both have in common is war experience, and remanants of the war end up teaming these 2 cops, as different as night and day. Fearful and spiteful of each other, they'll have to learn to live with each other if they want to survive what's going to happen. The situation reads like this: A young woman named Amanda Hunsaker (Swanson) has had problems with falling. When I say that, I mean that first she fell in with the seamier aspects of the California underworld, and then she fell out a window, high on a mix of cocaine and pills. The connection to the cops is that Amanda is the daughter of Murtaugh's Vietnam buddy Michael Hunsaker (Atkins). Michael, angry and distraught, wants his daughter's killers destroyed, saying simply, "You owe me, Roger!".
Information is soon revealed that Amanda didn't commit suicide...she may have been murdered. Apparently the pills she was on were spiked with drain cleaner. As they say, "even if she didn't jump, she would've been dead within 15 minutes".
Alright, we know our heroes, Riggs and Murtaugh and we know our case...now, let's meet our villains: General Peter McAllister (Ryan) is a former Army official who has delved into the sleazy activities of drug dealing... Heroin, to be exact.
You don't mess around McAllister, for he has a Lethal Weapon of his own... A man named Mr. Joshua (Busey). A stark figure, he beats and murders... He's so lunatic that you can put a lighter to his skin and he won't flinch.
Of course, even when working on a big case, duty still calls, and we see an example of Martin's psycho side as he ascends a building to "rescue" a jumper. I put "rescue" in quotation marks, because he actually handcuffs himself to the lunatic and beckons him to jump with the warning that he'd be killing a cop if he jumped. Murtaugh, even within a few hours, has seen enough and says that Riggs can kill himself if he wants. Riggs then delivers a great monologue about how he does want to die and how he even has the right bullet, but he won't give in yet, because of the job. Murtaugh, satisfied, takes Riggs to dinner at his house, where we see that he doesn't exactly wear the pants in his family, but he's pretty well thought of regardless.
Continuing in their pursuit of the Hunsaker case, they witness the explosion of the house one of her friends lived in, and they question a young boy about the case. When the child points out that one of the killers has a Special Forces tattoo like Riggs, they suspect something is up.
Back at Michael's house, a damaging bit of news is delivered: Michael is part of the heroin ring, which is run by ex-Vietnam veterans. Despite his daughter's death, now revealed to be part of a betrayal, he says there's no way out for him. Well, actually there is... Michael is murdered in a by-air gunfire assault by Mr. Joshua, who has further plans in store for Riggs and Murtaugh, starting with...
...The abduction of Murtaugh's daughter Rianne (Wolfe), who is kindapped from the Murtaugh home and taken to the desert flats. Riggs and Murtaugh, armed to the nines and ready to "get bloody", head for the desert. This is all just an elaborate trap to get Murtaugh and Riggs kidnapped themselves. Held hostage in the back of a club, Murtaugh is beaten bloody while Riggs is tied to a leaking water pipe and shocked with an electic prod.
Breaking free from restraint, Murtaugh and Riggs lay out a hail of gunfire for their captors and then, Rianne by their sides, they run into the L.A streets for a pursuit that begins with a gun-toting chase through a busy holiday night in L.A, continues with the destruction of the Murtaugh home, and ends with a battle between Riggs and Joshua that combines guns, shoot fighting and karate. With Mr. Joshua's shooting, the first case for Murtaugh and Riggs as a team ends with a drug ring destroyed and some of the most evil people in L.A bought down to size.
In what will be the first of several visits throughout the series (there would be 3 more sequels), Riggs visits his wife's grave to wish her a Merry Christmas, and then heads over to Murtaugh's house for a Yuletide meal with Murtaugh and his family, who have become a second family to a once-lonely man.
 Don't forget that Lethal Weapon is now available to order on Widescreen DVD using our special 80s Retro Assistant...
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Excellent, excellent, excellent... This movie is totally flawless.
Brilliant dialogue and double-barrel violence, combined with great performances by Glover and Gibson before the sequels would turn their characters into spoofs, make sure this movie is dynamite.
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Donner said of Lethal Weapon: "The thing I loved was the opportunity to do an action film with a total sense of reality. I can't handle gratuitous violence so we focused the story on the relationships, which continually grew richer as Mel and Danny worked together. Violence never seems to have any humor, whereas action can have a lot of it." 
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The original script introduced Riggs walking along the beach and finding the dog being tormented by drunks. Riggs pretends he can communicate with the dog and tells the bullies what the dog is thinking, asking Riggs to beat them up. And he does. The dog follows Riggs home. -Thanks to Travis Milloy
Right before Murtaugh goes to the building that Amanda has jumped from and meets Dixie the hooker for the first time, there's a scene that was cut from the original movie. The scene involves Riggs going to a school where a sniper is taking shots at some kids. Riggs being a nutter and on a death wish, simply walks into the middle of the playground, the sniper fires at him and misses, Riggs eggs him on to have another shot, he does, but as soon as he pops up, Riggs empties his gun at him, then simply walks off. Suprisingly, this scene was shown when UK Channel 5 broadcast Lethal Weapon on TV. -Thanks to Julian
In the final showdown between Riggs and Joshua on Murtaugh's lawn, there is a rather jarring transition between the first few seconds of the fight and the rest, with spotlights and helicopters appearing out of nowhere. Apparently, an extra 4 minutes of footage was shot, but was excised for pacing purposes. Since this footage doesn't appear on the Director's Cut or anywhere else, one can only assume it's lost forever. -Thanks to Ryan Long
In the scene where Gibson is first seen in his trailer contemplating suicide, there is an actual bullet in the chamber which Gibson was pointing at his head, thinking that it would allow for a greater sense of portraying the scene realistically and dramatically--and foolishly. -Thanks to Robert Baum
The house that got firebombed had previously served as the family home in "The Partridge Family" and the Kravitz's home in "Bewitched".
The scene just before Roger and Martin go to the jumper, Riggs is getting a hot dog. In the background is a cinema marquee advertising the movie The Lost Boys, which Richard Donner was also an executive producer of.
Gary Busey said of playing the part of Joshua: "I had butterflies, 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 dying my hair!"
Tom Atkins (Michael Hunsaker) explains the "Air America" CIA operation in Laos during the Vietnam War. Mel Gibson starred in Air America (1990), a pilot for the CIA's private airline operating in Laos during the Vietnam War.
Legendary stuntman Dar Robinson was killed in a motorcycle accident shortly after principal photography was finished on Lethal Weapon. Richard Donner dedicated "Lethal Weapon" to Robinson.
The office worker jumper is none other the Tim Burns who plays Johnny the Boy in Mel's break out movie "Mad Max". -Thanks to James Hickman
In the scene when Mel (Riggs) and Danny (Murtaugh) are escaping from the back of the night club, the guy they shot and killed and fell over hanging upside down is the late Dar Robinson. -Thanks to Joe Rosson
Franco Zeferelli reportedly decided to offer Mel Gibson the role of Hamlet after seeing his suicide contemplation scene in Lethal Weapon.
When questioning the kid, Riggs makes several sarcastic references to "Sesame Street". A little more than half a decade later, Mel Gibson and Danny Glover would be playing Riggs and Murtaugh on "Sesame Street", in a Monsterpiece Theater sketch entitled "Lethal Weapon 3", where they ducked and covered from a gigantic stone number 3 that fell from the sky.
Later Danny Glover & Gary Busey both go on to work together with director Joel Silver on the Predator 2 movie... -Thanks to &Quot;BEL&Quot;
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"Lethal Weapon" was originally scripted to have a different opening scene. In it, Riggs is sitting alone in a bar getting drunk. He finishes off one bottle of Jack Daniels and orders another, but the bartender, both concerned for and wary of Riggs, cuts him off. Riggs stumbles into the back and is accosted by two hoodlums. He tries to warn them off, but they don't listen. He ends crippling up them and the bartender is not surprised. He tells Riggs as a friend to get out. Richard Donner felt it was too dark to open the film with. He felt that with the show of violence, viewers would judge Riggs' character before they got the chance to know him. Hence, he changed Riggs' introduction to the lighter, funnier morning scene in his trailer -Thanks to Ryan Long
"Lethal Weapon" was originally intended to be a one-shot movie (no sequels). The original ending had Riggs and Murtaugh, battle-scarred but alive, saying goodbye to each other outside of police headquarters. They exchange a few kind words and Riggs drives off. But the good old movie execs, smelling big bucks franchise potential, wanted an ending that'd leave open the possibility of a sequel. So the ending with Riggs coming to Murtaugh's house for Christmas dinner was shot. -Thanks to Ryan Long
In the opening scene, when Amanda jumps off the balcony, you can see one movie magic shot if you play it at slow motion. It's an overhead shot showing a stunt person falling directly towards the car. If you look closely you can tell it's an airbag with the outline of the car and street painted onto it. The airbag just begins to break her fall and they cut away.
In the scene where Amanda Hunsucker lands on the car, you can clearly see that her body centers on the windshield and hood. In the next scene, her body is centered directly over the top of the car. -Thanks to Vince Morales
In the scene where Riggs handcuffs himself to the suicidal office worker on top of the building. As they jump, you can clearly see the handcuffs break and in turn, the actors grabbing each others hands to create the illusion that the cuffs are still bound. -Thanks to Simon Lennox
When Riggs tells Murtaugh about the special round he has to commit suicide, he says it's a hollow point designed to blow the back of his head off. When he hands the bullet to Rianne, you can see it's a full metal jacket, not a hollow point. -Thanks to Rob
In the (in)famous firing range scene, Riggs & Murtaugh pretty much put all the pieces of their investigation (so far) together, despite that they shouldn't have been able to hear one another. Both were wearing ear protectors the whole time! -Thanks to C.T. Warren
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|  |  |  | | Lethal Weapon
Locations |
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"Lethal Weapon" began principal photography in early August, 1986, shooting on locations throughout the Los Angeles area, as well as on the backlot facilities of The Burbank Studios.
The Christmas decorations on Hollywood Boulevard were set up a few months earlier than usual. [Thanks to Jonathan Lim]
Danny Glover's house is located on the Warner Bros. Ranch at 4000 Warner Blvd.
Burbank, CA.
The opening title sequence and the first spectacular stunt of the movie were filmed in Long Beach, with helicopter camera work that would set the tone for the movie.
Riggs jumps off the Emser Building at 8431 Santa Monica Boulevard handcuffed to a suicidal office worker.
The space-ship house used in Lethal Weapon (blown up) is one of two houses off Mulholland Drive in the Hollywood Hills area (west of Cahuenga). Those two houses have over 100 stairs leading up the entrance. One was even used in Woody Allen's Sleeper movie. The house causes quite a disturbance -- especially in the Valley because at night, if looks exactly like a Space Ship from outer space. People have called the Burbank Police Department many nights, upset that aliens were landing in Hollywood Hills. Those houses are still in existence today. One being sold in 1998 for a reputed $4.8M. [Thanks to jacq]
The company also filmed at Palos Verdes, Santa Monica, Studio City, West Hollywood, and Inglewood.
The desert scenes were filmed in one week at El Mirage, an enormous dry lake bed in the Mojave desert outside Victorville, CA.
The target practice scene where Riggs makes the happy face, was filmed in Monrovia at the indoor pistol range on Huntington Dr. near Myrtle Ave. (no longer a pistol range) [Thanks to Greg Bermel]
Can you help? Do you know any of the Los Angeles, S. California (or any other) filming locations used for Lethal Weapon, particularly beach location of Riggs' trailer? [Please send them in]
|  | | | | ![[16:9 -Widescreen Enhanced]](16_9.gif) | ![[5.1 CH SURROUND]](dd5.gif) | Trailer, OutTakes |
| Our
Comments: The Director’s Cut of "Lethal Weapon" adds some 7-minutes of footage to the movie’s original theatrical cut. |
| | | | Trailer, OutTakes |
| Our
Comments: The Director’s Cut of "Lethal Weapon" adds some 7-minutes of footage to the movie’s original theatrical cut. |
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The score was written by Michael Kamen and Eric Clapton, and performed by Kamen, Clapton and saxophonist David Sanborn.
Also featured on the soundtrack: The movie's title theme by Honeymoon Suite, and the songs "Jingle Bell Rock" and "I'll Be Home For Christmas".
The soundtrack was recently re-released in a very limited edition run of 3000 hand-numbered copies. Featuring over 65 minutes of music, there are 17 tracks on this CD. Use our search device.
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Soundtrack Available:
Used On CD
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