Part 1: Lethal Weapon (Original recipe)
By way of introduction, let me explain what the hell I’m doing investigating a 36 year-old movie.
Lethal Weapon is in the pantheon of highly syndicated movies like Back to the Future, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Die Hard, and others that are regularly replayed on basic cable to fill two to three (and increasingly with commercial bloat, four) hours in the middle of a channel’s scheduling. Safe, tested viewing options that the average American male will stop at as they loop through the guide and think “Eh, that’ll do.” As a member of the above classification, I’ve conservatively seen Lethal Weapon and its sequels a good thirty to forty times, at various levels of attention.
When one watches these movies, patterns start to emerge. Common catch phrases, tropes, settings, and etcetera that overlap each other to the point of conscious recognition. One specific to the Lethal Weapon series is one proper noun, a single syllable, said with such frequency as to be inescapable.
That word is “Riggs.” Or, as it is most often expressed, “RIIIIIIGGS!!”
Danny Glover’s Roger Murtaugh says, shouts, pleads, mutters, and scolds with each usage of the word, in his continual relationship with Mel Gibson’s Martin Riggs, his loose cannon partner over the course of four films and eleven years (so far).
Naturally (he says, using the term to assure him his curiosity is absolutely normal and not some effect of mild autistic tendencies) one begins to wonder at the question that brings me here today and for three more installments to come: How many times does Murtaugh say Riggs throughout the series?
Both a cursory and a more in-depth search through the internet didn’t surface the answer. And so, with some time on my hands during a period between gigs, I decided to put my shoulder to the wheel and do the work on behalf of those, like me, who just can’t seem to live with not knowing a thing.
Join me over the course of four (probably WAY too long) articles where I take a look back at the Lethal Weapon series through fresh eyes, note some things that come to mind in the viewing, and do a little counting.
Plot: Two mismatched detectives, a 20-year homicide veteran and a wild narcotics officer, are thrust together to investigate a young woman’s suicide that turns into an investigation of murder, organized crime, and the after effects of the CIA’s adventures running heroin out of SE Asia. Coincidentally, just three years later, Gibson will star in Air America, where he plays a pilot unknowingly making heroin runs out of SE Asia on behalf of the CIA (alongside Robert Downey, Jr).
via https://www.cinemablend.com/news/1673490/why-shane-black-was-killed-off-so-soon-in-predator
Written by Shane Black, who first came to wider fame as the initial member of a covert assault team killed by the Predator that same year, Lethal Weapon is the first in Black’s series of two-fisted buddy cop (and cop-adjacent) movies, including Lethal Weapon 2, The Last Boy Scout, Last Action Hero, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and The Nice Guys. For a man with a distinct style, each repetition of the pattern finds a new way to build entertaining plots through fully-formed characters interacting and driving a story forward.
via https://deadline.com/2021/07/mel-gibson-richard-donner-lethal-weapon-director-memorium-1234786394/
Rather than the start of a journey, Lethal Weapon marked a high point in director Richard Donner’s career as well as the beginning of a directorial relationship with Mel Gibson, who would go on to star in three more Lethal Weapon movies directed by Donner, as well as the film adaptation of the TV show Maverick and Conspiracy Theory.
via https://www.wptv.com/entertainment/movies/5-christmas-movies-that-arent-really-about-christmas
Lethal Weapon is among the pantheon of “Is it a Christmas Movie?” movies. It’s clearly set during Christmas, though A) doesn’t outright play with the sort of Christmas tropes that makes one yearn for a warm fire and the (time-limited) comfort of family, and B) takes place in Los Angeles, which has a dearth of the usual markers of Christmas like, well, snow. Unless one counts the massive rail of cocaine the movie’s femme fatal (🥁), Amanda Hunsaker (Jackie Swanson), does in the first minute of the film, before leaping off a balcony to her death and kicking off the plot.
Shane Black himself notes that he likes to set movies around Christmas, as he did with Lethal Weapon, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Iron Man 3, and The Nice Guys.
“It tends to be a touchstone for me,” he admits. “Christmas represents a little stutter in the march of days, a hush in which we have a chance to assess and retrospect our lives. I tend to think also that it just informs as a backdrop. The first time I noticed it was Three Days of the Condor, the Sydney Pollack film, where Christmas in the background adds this really odd, chilling counterpoint to the espionage plot. I also think that Christmas is just a thing of beauty, especially as it applies to places like Los Angeles, where it’s not so obvious, and you have to dig for it, like little nuggets. One night, on Christmas Eve, I walked past a Mexican lunch wagon serving tacos, and I saw this little string, and on it was a little broken plastic figurine, with a light bulb inside it, of the Virgin Mary. And I thought, that’s just a little hidden piece of magic. You know, all around the city are little slices, little icons of Christmas, that are as effective and beautiful in and of themselves as any 40-foot Christmas tree on the lawn of the White House. So that, in a lot of words, is the answer.”
https://ew.com/article/2016/05/25/shane-black-christmas/
Background now shoved to the background, let us begin our attentive and accountative1I have an English degree. One of the perks of this means I get to make up words for things. walkthrough of the movie.
We’re introduced to fist one of our two-fisted team, Detective Sgt. Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) naked in the bathtub, as his entire family stomps in with a lit cake to celebrate his 50th birthday. Over the course of four movies, the bathroom of his home will play an oddly pivotal role in events.
On the opposite side, we first meet fist #2, Detective Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) naked in a trailer on a beach, smoking in bed. His first line is a belch. Whether there is metaphorical relevance to the fact that we first meet both our heroes naked I leave up to the reader.
This early in Mel Gibson’s career, he’s still halfway into his American accent, with bits of the Australian slipping in from line to line. Over the course of the four films, he settles into the accent, but in the first installment, he sounds like a man caught on both sides of the Pacific, especially when hitting diphthongs.
Our first Three Stooges reference comes as Riggs handles a drug bust in the center of a Christmas Tree yard, with a “nyuk nyuk”, a slap, and an eye-poke to the huddled drug dealers.
And then kills three of them.
After concluding the arrest, Riggs settles in at home to weeping over a picture of his dead wife, Bugs Bunny playing at Bob Cratchit on the TV, and the taste of his 9mm Beretta.2If you or someone you love is struggling with suicidal thoughts or ideation, please call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 (para ayuda en español, llame al 988). The Lifeline provides 24-hour, confidential support to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. Call 911 in life-threatening situations. If you are worried about a friend’s social media updates, you can contact safety teams at the social media company . They will reach out to connect the person with the help they need.
After he pulls himself from the edge, we’re introduced to two series regulars, Captain Ed Murphy (Steve Kahan, who made a career of playing police officers, with at least 14 such roles, including all four Lethal Weapon films) and the police psychologist (who remains unnamed until the fourth installment) Stephanie Woods (Mary Ellen Trainor, who had an all-star character acting run in the mid-late 80s as the MacGuffin of Romancing the Stone, Elaine Wilder, Mikey’s mother Mrs. Walsh in The Goonies, newscaster Beth Wallins in Die Hard, and here), filling in some plot regarding Riggs’ tragic backstory. The “is he crazy or crazy like a fox” question will carry the character dynamic between Riggs and Murtaugh throughout the film, and highlight the ways in which the culture of the times struggled to identify and address true mental health crises.
The meeting of Riggs and Murtaugh comes at the 21:18 mark, after Murtaugh mistakes his new partner for an armed arrestee, with our first “I’m too old for this shit.” Murtaugh will only continue to get too older, and there will only be more of this shit to come.
Their relationship starts over talk about sidearms and Vietnam, leading to Roger dropping the title of the movie, noting “I guess we’ll have to register you as a lethal weapon.”
We’re then introduced to Mr. Joshua (Gary Busey), the first of our two antagonists, in what might be a more hinged role considering his oeuvre, being introduced by General MacAllister3I’m guessing on the spelling, he only gets listed in the credits as ‘The General’ (Mitchell Ryan) via his burning arm trick, to set a certain tone at the outset of a heroin deal. Busey, in a fun bit of cross-polination, will in fact reunite with Danny Glover in the sequel to Shane Black’s film debut in Predator 2, set in the streets of Los Angeles amid a drug war.
Riggs and Murtaugh travel to meet with Michael Hunsaker (Tom Atkins, non-Maniac Cop, non-Bruce Campbell star of Maniac Cop), covering some more plot and developing Murtaugh’s backstory before they respond to a jumper at a nearby flooring store.
Riggs crawls his way out onto the ledge alongside the jumper, empathizing a little too well for anyone’s comfort, before handcuffing himself to the jumper and, well, jumping. An air-filled bag, somewhere around 60’x60’x20′ in size, set up without a sound, literally below their feet, arrests their fall. Sure, let’s roll with it.
Murtaugh, pushed to his limit, drags Riggs into the mattress store across the street to fully suss out whether he’s playing at crazy or actually nuts. Murtaugh learns definitively that it’s the latter. He’s definitely too old for this shit.
After a bit of exposition on their drive, with Murtaugh lamenting his birthday gift being a suicidal partner, we arrive at Amanda Hunsaker’s pimp’s (I presume pimp? It isn’t explicitly stated, but it seems like he’s her pimp) residence where the first of the series’ many gunfights takes place. A bit of bonding is done as Riggs takes down the drug dealer, who Murtaugh thought he had pacified with a shot to the leg.
Gratitude at having saved his life leads Murtaugh to invite Riggs home for dinner.4Easter Egg for Lethal Weapon 2: An End Apartheid in South Africa sticker slapped on the side of the fridge. We get some “Riggs!” head fakes with Roger introducing his partner and referring to him as Martin several times. A cute dinner scene with Martin at dinner catching eyes from Roger’s daughter Rianne (played by an “and introducing” credited Traci Wolfe) and being the subject of some rough beatboxing leads to more exposition chewing on the first of Murtaugh’s boats in the driveway.
This leads right up to our first Riggs of the series! On his way to head home, Roger tosses out a quick “Hey, hey Riggs? You really like my wife’s cooking?”
“No,” Martin replies with a subtle grin. “Seeya tomorrow.”
Roger then settles in for a glass of milk before bed, as well as a review of some evidence including Amanda Hunsaker’s porn debut and a flip through a class yearbook, in which we learn we’re leaning heavily into the tropes: Amanda’s got a twin sister!
Roger is awoken to the warm smell of Folgers in his cup being waved under his nose by an unexpectedly appearing Riggs, leading to the pair starting to walk through their very thin theory regarding Dixie, the witness and “hooker,”51987 was not yet a turning point for positivity towards sex work. having poisoned Amanda. The conversation continues at the police firing range, another regular setting in the series, where Martin shows off the skills that let him take a 1000yd shot in the wind in Laos. “8 or 10 guys in the world could make that shot,” he says, and I think every one of them has starred in an action movie. Murtaugh, seeking a challenge, takes a single shot at a fresh target and hits his target square in the forehead, before Riggs, shipping the target even further down range, paints a smiley face around the shot in bullet holes.
Following up on their thin theory, Martin and Murtaugh head down to question Dixie, past the taunting of the local 6 year olds, before being thrown backwards as her house explodes.6Continuity Error! Both actors are wearing some previously unseen thick glasses, one regular, one sun, presumably to protect against the coming blast in the house, which disappear after the house explodes. Their thin theory has thickened considerably.
After the explosion, they find a mercury switch, which indicates a professional was at work. The theory is confirmed when questioning the local six year olds finds little Alfred pointing out that the bomber had the same Special Forces tattoo that Riggs wears on his arm.
They head down to question Michael Hunsaker again (at a location that I would swear is a funeral, but isn’t entirely clearly established) realizing that his daughter’s death is more than a simple drug-related killing. Hunsaker fills in the rest of the plot, pointing to involvement with Air America, the CIA’s operation in Laos moving heroin for funding and pushing the strategy of the Vietnam War in secret.
One thing you can’t say about Lethal Weapon films is that they aim for small themes. CIA illegal drug trades, the anti-Apartheid movement, Chinese human trafficking, and the sorry state of gun control all play thematic roles in the stories of the series.
Hunsaker explains that he and the Shadow Company group under the General7Not that one, though that is an insanely funny mental image. started moving heroin again using old contacts, washing the funds through Hunsaker’s bank.
Cue the appearance of Mr. Joshua via helicopter, with Hunsaker holding a quart box of egg nog incredibly conspicuously and several holes getting punched through it, and him.
Cut to the streets during a rainstorm, with Riggs questioning a local streetwalker, looking for a connection to Dixie. Out flies Mr. Joshua again, throwing Riggs through a window with a shotgun blast.
Riggs realizes it was the same person who shot Hunsaker from the helicopter and decides to play possum. As they talk through their plan, they get a call from police dispatch that the boy Roger’s daughter was dating was murdered and arrive to his house to learn that she’s been kidnapped. Poor dimpled kid doesn’t even get a whiff of screen time.
After a terse moment, discussing what needs to be done, the Murtaugh gets a call to meet at a dry lake bed, where we get our big action setup for the movie. Riggs is dropped off among some scrub brush, where he does a ducking little jog before setting up his sniping position with his rifle. Meanwhile, Roger drives out to be met by a limo, a Suburban, and a low-flying helicopter. Why this particular meet takes fourteen men via three vehicles coming from land and air is beyond me, but I suppose Mr. Joshua appreciates an entrance.
After a ruse with a smoke grenade, Riggs and Murtaugh take out half of the mercenaries before General McAllister finds Riggs in his sniping position and Murtaugh surrenders to overwhelming firepower. Meanwhile somehow a helicoper is able to stop Rianne in a speeding limo, halting her escape. For the record: playing chicken with a 747? No. Playing chicken with a limousine? Sure.
Off we go to a warehouse for a little early-career torture porn for Mel Gibson. We find him strung up in a jerry rigged shower and electrically shocked by 80’s character actor Al Leong, playing Endo, who has “forgotten more about dispensing pain than” either Busey or Gibson will ever know.
Leong has a great run through the 80’s in Big Trouble in Little China, Die Hard and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. He also later re-appears in Lethal Weapon 4 as a member of the Triad. You can’t keep a good character actor down!
Murtaugh meanwhile catches some literal salt in some open wounds. Neither are willing to talk.
Riggs is about to be killed by Endo before a headbut and a remarkable display of “some of that jiu jitsu shit” we were promised in the initial meeting.
A quick half-naked firefight and some unnecessary puns lead to an escape from the warehouse that somehow leads back to the bar from our initial introduction to Mr. Joshua, on Hollywood Blvd. The geography of this sequence is…confused.
Body Count: 23 (4 in the mechanical room and escaping it, including one via a very 80’s movie neck-snap), 5 during the escape through the bar(including one from Mr. Joshua spraying the crowd and killing a bystander. Somehow, with all the wanton shooting, this is the only innocent bystander to be killed.))
After spilling outside chasing Mr. Joshua, Busey steals a car conveniently missing a rearview mirror and drives off down the boulevard, spraying the crowd with an M-16 yet hitting zero further bystanders. Riggs and Murtaugh run after him on foot, chasing and firing with very specific accuracy.
Murtagh sends Riggs after Mr. Joshua while he circles back to find General McAllister.
Firing wildly from the 3rd St Bridge, Riggs peppers Mr. Joshua’s car, sending it aflame into a light post, where he ditches it to escape on foot. Some continuing gunplay in traffic seems not to hit a single bystander before Mr. Joshua commendeers yet another car missing a rearview mirror to escape.
Meanwhile, Riggs finds McAllister in an alley, making his own escape attempt, where he repeats his shooting range performance, putting one through the driver of the escape car’s forehead. This leads to the car careening off in front of a bus, being thrown up into the air and landing inverted in the street, where it ignites and detonates a pile of grenades and heroin. The callbacks just keep calling back.
After reuniting amid a cloud of heroin dust, Riggs and Murtagh realize that Mr. Joshua must be enroute to Roger’s home, commendeering a police car to take them there.
Two apparently uninformed cops standing guard outside are caught by surprise and gunned down before Busey runs into the house in search of the rest of the Murtaugh family.
Somehow managing to beat his substantial head start, they leave a note on the tree for him, then bait him by throwing an empty police cruiser through the Murtaughs’ living room window. The Murtaugh house takes a considerable beating over the course of these films, from bullets, police vehicles, toilet explosions, termite damage, rogue nail guns, and intentionally set fires.
We’re finally treated to three more Riggs!s in quick succession as Martin and Mr. J have a mano a mano duel in the front yard. #4 comes as more of a descriptor than a call, as Murtaugh makes clear that Riggs is the arresting officer in our little hydrant-soaked street fight. #5 is issued while he cheers Riggs on during the fight, followed by #6 as Roger throws him a nightstick to even the odds after Joshua attacks with the house’s decorative lamppost.
Murtaugh begs to help, but Riggs remains determined to fight him alone. Some more wrestling around in the mud and Riggs gets Mr. Joshua in a solid figure-four headlock, choking him nearly to death before letting off and declaring victory.
Exhausted, the pair embrace, only for Mr. Joshua to pull a gun off the arresting offer, before, in an exaggerated bit of slow-motion filmmaking, the partners each draw their weapon and put Mr. Joshua down on the lawn.
Our denouement comes with Riggs visiting the Murtaughs on Christmas, delivering his suicidal ideation MacGuffin to Rianne to hand to Roger. As he turns to leave, Roger comes shuffling outside to deliver our final Riggs of the film, demanding Martin join them for Christmas dinner.
After magnanimously inviting Riggs’ dog Sam (Sam the Dog) to join them for dinner as well, who our Foley artist indicates is not a fan of the Murtaughs’ cat Burbank (Burbank the Cat) we finish with 5/6ths of a catchphrase, as the last line of the film is “I’m too old for this.” before we roll the credits.
And so, to close out our exercise, our totals for Lethal Weapon:
Early on, Murtaugh often refers to his partner as Martin or Kid, which cut our total down substantially. As we’ll see over the course of the series, he settles further into the use of one name over all the others.
Join me next time as we count our Riggs!s, contemplate the legal limits of diplomatic immunity, and see if Little Joey still can sing, with Lethal Weapon 2.
Notes:
- 1I have an English degree. One of the perks of this means I get to make up words for things.
- 2If you or someone you love is struggling with suicidal thoughts or ideation, please call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 (para ayuda en español, llame al 988). The Lifeline provides 24-hour, confidential support to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. Call 911 in life-threatening situations. If you are worried about a friend’s social media updates, you can contact safety teams at the social media company . They will reach out to connect the person with the help they need.
- 3I’m guessing on the spelling, he only gets listed in the credits as ‘The General’
- 4Easter Egg for Lethal Weapon 2: An End Apartheid in South Africa sticker slapped on the side of the fridge.
- 51987 was not yet a turning point for positivity towards sex work.
- 6Continuity Error! Both actors are wearing some previously unseen thick glasses, one regular, one sun, presumably to protect against the coming blast in the house, which disappear after the house explodes.
- 7Not that one, though that is an insanely funny mental image.