INTRO: Warner Bros. and director Richard Donner captured magic on film when they paired Mel Gibson and Danny Glover for the 1987 action movie Lethal Weapon. So of course they had to try to recapture it as quickly as possible with a sequel. A follow-up that features bigger stunts, detestable villains, and a crowd-pleasing new comic relief character. The magic was back in Lethal Weapon 2 – and it’s time for this sequel to be Revisited!
SET-UP: Made on a budget of fifteen million dollars, Lethal Weapon earned one hundred and twenty million at the global box office. So the decision to get a sequel into theatres two years later was a no-brainer. And while the first film had been released in March, Lethal Weapon 2 was going to be a summer event film. It was scheduled to reach theatres right after the Fourth of July holiday, on July 7th, 1989. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover would be reprising the roles of Los Angeles police sergeants Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh. The supporting cast would be returning to play their characters, including Darlene Love as Murtaugh’s wife Trish and Traci Wolfe as their daughter Rianne. Steve Kahan as police captain Ed Murphy. Mary Ellen Trainor as police psychologist Stephanie Woods. And the same creative team came back together to try to replicate the success they had the first time around. Richard Donner would be directing the sequel, with Joel Silver producing… and if you’re a fan of filmmakers like Donner and Silver, you should subscribe to the JoBlo Originals YouTube channel. Where we serve up fresh movie-related content throughout the week.
Writing the screenplay for Lethal Weapon had provided Shane Black with his big break. So of course he was asked to write Lethal Weapon 2 as well… but this assignment ended up putting intense pressure on him at a time when he was already in a negative mental state. The success of the first film had left him feeling insecure and undeserving. He doubted his own writing abilities, and questioned why he had done so well so easily when many other writers struggle in their careers. The fact that his girlfriend, his first great love, had just left him also didn’t improve his mood. But even though he was, as he told the Los Angeles Times, “horrified by the prospect of having to live up to the success” of Lethal Weapon, he dove into working on the sequel. This time he brought in a friend to write the script with him, pulp fiction novelist Warren Murphy. Co-creator of the Remo Williams character. Black said writing this script was very difficult, but after six months they turned in their draft. Rather than call it Lethal Weapon 2, the title they chose was Play Dirty.
Black and Murphy had crafted a dark, serious script that dug into the ideas of courage and heroics. Riggs, Murtaugh, and other police officers discover that the minister of diplomatic affairs at the South African consulate in L.A. is running a drug trafficking scheme. And they can’t seem to do anything about it because he’s able to hide behind diplomatic immunity. This gives foreign government officials legal immunity from the country they’re working in. As the police start to figure out exactly how the drug trafficking works, the South African diplomat and his henchmen strike back. Several police officers are murdered by the villains – and in Black and Murphy’s script, these murders were especially brutal. One female officer was even tortured to death. That didn’t make it into the movie, and neither did a large action sequence that involved the destruction of a plane with a cargo hold full of cocaine. The cocaine from this plane would have fallen over the city of Los Angeles like snow. That’s an image Black had tried to work into the first movie, where his script had a tanker truck full of heroin crashing in the Hollywood hills. The drugs from that truck drifted over the city like snow. In the first movie, a car crash had filled the air of just one city block with heroin. And clearly that hadn’t been enough drug snow imagery to satisfy Black. There isn’t any of that in the final version of Lethal Weapon 2, but you do get money falling through the air like confetti.
An action scene that was in both Black and Murphy’s Play Dirty script and in the finished film is the destruction of the South Africans’ base of operations. A fancy house that’s set up on stilts. Riggs uses his pickup truck to pull the house down, and it cost more than five hundred thousand dollars to bring that stunt to the screen. In the first draft of the script, the collapsing house starts a brush fire on the hill – and the diplomat’s right hand man runs off into the smoke and flames. This character was described as being extremely dangerous, Riggs’ arch-nemesis and worst nightmare. The final showdown between these two was meant to take place on the burning hill… and was written to end with both of them dead. Riggs kills the villain, but slowly bleeds to death from a knife wound he sustains in the fight.
Mourning the death of his wife in a car accident, Riggs had been out of control and suicidal in the first movie. The friendship he formed with Murtaugh, the acceptance and love he received from Murtaugh’s family, had saved his life. So Black felt the logical step for the sequel to take would be to have Riggs sacrifice himself to protect the Murtaugh family. No one else involved with the project thought that was the way to go. How would there ever be a Lethal Weapon 3 if Riggs was killed off in Lethal Weapon 2? The darkness and violence in the script was also an issue – which is no surprise, because Donner had issues with the darkness and violence in Black’s script for the first movie as well. But when Black heard they weren’t going to be moving forward with his Play Dirty script, he took it hard. Speaking with Creative Screenwriting, he said his reaction was to think, “Oh, I’ve failed everybody, I screwed up, I blew it. My writing sucks.” He even told his agent he wanted to give back the money he had been paid to write the script. One hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. His agent talked him out of it, saying, “You don’t give the money back. People write shit and they get paid millions of dollars. This is fine.” Years later, Black would look at the Play Dirty script and realize it was the best thing he had ever written. But at the time, he was so discouraged that he stopped writing for a while. He would later attempt to work out his issues by writing about a very flawed detective character. Which turned out to be the lead character in his script The Last Boy Scout, a script that was purchased by Warner Bros. and Joel Silver for just under two million dollars.
The broad strokes of the story Black and Murphy had provided would work for Lethal Weapon 2. But the script needed to be rewritten. So Donner turned to The Lost Boys writer Jeffrey Boam, who had also done the revisions that lightened up the script for the previous film. Boam wrote a draft of Lethal Weapon 2 that leaned into action, and another draft that played up the comedy. Donner asked him to do a third draft that would be a mixture of the two approaches. Donner’s feeling was that Riggs had been saved by the Murtaughs already. His problems were mostly resolved. Suicide ideation was behind him. So this time the movie could just focus on how entertaining and amusing the interactions between Riggs and Murtaugh are. The sequel could be more fun than its predecessor. And Boam brought more comedy into the script by greatly expanding the role of a character from Black and Murphy’s script. A banker named Leo Getz, who handled the money laundering side of the drug smuggling business. This character only had one scene and a few lines in the Play Dirty script. Boam made him a sidekick to Riggs and Murtaugh. He’s a federal witness they’re ordered to protect. But they take him with them while they investigate the South African criminals, putting him in dangerous situations.
Joe Pantoliano, Danny DeVito, and Gary Burghoff of M*A*S*H* were considered for the role of Leo. Joe Pesci ended up playing him, and delivered such a funny, endearing performance that he was brought back for further sequels. A personal touch Pesci brought to the fast-talking character was his habit of saying the word “Okay” multiple times. He took this from a kid he had asked for directions at Disneyland. As he told Empire magazine, “The first word out of this kid’s mouth was, ‘Okay!’ Then he hit me with about twelve more: ‘No, no! Okay, okay, okay!’ We thought it was really funny.”
Boam continued working on the script throughout production. Adding humor, revising the Riggs and Murtaugh side of the story. Another writer was brought in to work on the material involving the South African villains. That was Robert Mark Kamen, who is best known for creating the Karate Kid film series. He has gone on to write several action movies for Luc Besson, including Taken and The Transporter. Kamen wasn’t credited on Lethal Weapon 2, but this wouldn’t be his last time contributing to the franchise.
Joss Ackland was cast as drug smuggling diplomat Arjen Rudd. And did a great job of making the character come off as slimy and detestable. A guy who can stir up disgust in the viewer just by saying, “Diplomatic immunity!” Derrick O’Connor plays Rudd’s right hand man Pieter Vorstedt. A killer who has a connection to Riggs’ past. Vorstedt reveals that he had been assigned to kill Riggs four years earlier, when he was working narcotics and was close to discovering what Rudd was up to. He ran Riggs’ car off the road… and didn’t realize until after the crash that Riggs wasn’t driving. He had mistakenly killed Riggs’ wife. So that gives Riggs extra reason to want to destroy this guy by the end of the movie. Brigitte Nielsen was up for the role of Rudd’s secretary Rika van den Haas, who becomes a love interest for Riggs as the story plays out. But the role went to actress-slash-pop singer Patsy Kensit, and a song by her band Eighth Wonder is also heard in the film. Mark Rolston has a small but memorable role as an unlucky henchman who makes the mistake of losing Rudd’s shipment of krugerrands. And the even bigger mistake of sticking around after noticing that the floor of his boss’s office has been covered with a sheet of plastic.
The cops who are wiped out by the South African villains are played by the likes of Dean Norris, Juney Smith, Jenette Goldstein, and – in a confusing bit of casting – Grand L. Bush. Bush had one scene as Detective Boyette in the first Lethal Weapon, but in the sequel he plays a different character, Collins. That’s a lucky break for Boyette, because things don’t go well for Collins. Goldstein’s character Shapiro is the one who was tortured to death in Black and Murphy’s script. In the film, she’s blown up on her swimming pool diving board.
REVIEW: Making the villain a South African diplomat – and having his henchmen also be protected by diplomatic immunity – was a very clever idea. It makes for an interesting story, and it really draws the viewer into the situation with Riggs and Murtaugh. Because we share their frustration. We know these people are cold-blooded criminals, but they’re untouchable. There’s never any doubt that Riggs and Murtaugh going to find a way to bring them to justice, though. We’re just waiting to see how they’re going to make it happen. It should be noted that the South Africa of 1989 was quite different from the South Africa of today. Authoritarian politicians had put a system of racial segregation called apartheid in place. The status of citizens was based on their race, with the white minority dominating the country and black Africans being at the bottom of the social ranking. So Rudd and his lackeys are the representatives of an awful government. This is why they’re always using racial slurs when talking about Murtaugh. And why Riggs is always comparing them to Nazis.
Donner prided himself on drawing attention to social issues in the Lethal Weapon movies. For example, in Lethal Weapon 2 the Murtaughs are boycotting tuna because the fishermen kill the dolphins that get caught in tuna nets. Another example of this is a sticker that can be seen on the Murtaugh family’s refrigerator in the first movie. It says “Free South Africa. End Apartheid.” A bit of unexpected foreshadowing for the second film.
The action is bigger in Lethal Weapon 2 than in its predecessor because Donner had twice the budget to work with. He had thirty million dollars to put to use this time. The movie drops the viewer into the action from the start, catching up with Riggs and Murtaugh when they’re in the middle of a car chase through Los Angeles. This extended sequence includes explosions, gunfire, a helicopter, and a Riggs who’s so hyped that he even attempts to pursue a car on foot. It also gives us the first taste of the film’s enhanced sense of humor, as Murtaugh is driving his wife’s station wagon. And desperately but unsuccessfully trying to keep the car from being damaged. The chase isn’t just the first scene in the movie, it was also the first thing shot for the movie, at the end of November 1988. It’s an awesome way to get things started. And immediately gets across the idea that our reunion with Riggs and Murtaugh is meant to be a joyous occasion.
This sequel does have a lighter tone than the previous movie, which caused Shane Black to dismissively refer to it as a feel-good version of a cop movie. There’s a strong comedic element to most of the character interactions. It’s always fun to watch Riggs and Murtaugh bounce dialogue off of each other. And this time they have the very talkative Leo Getz to deal with in a lot of scenes as well. Leo has some hilarious lines, with his most popular moment being a scene where he rants about bad service at fast food drive-thrus. We don’t spend a lot of time with the Murtaugh family in this one, but their main contribution is a comedic scene. Where it’s revealed that Rianne has made her screen acting debut in a condom commercial. The production received ten thousand dollars for making it a commercial for Ramses brand condoms. A good deal for the movie, but not such a good deal for Murtaugh. Who has to deal with the other cops playing pranks on him, and guys like Leo lusting after his daughter.
The comedy is also present in most of the action beats. Like the opening chase, and another vehicular action sequence that ends with a death by surfboard. You know a movie isn’t playing it too seriously when a standout moment involves one of the leads getting stuck on a toilet because there’s a bomb wired to the seat. And this comedic tone is possible because Riggs has lightened up substantially since he met Murtaugh. He has been welcomed into the family. He does his laundry at their house. He cooks chili for them – his special recipe, with crumbled Oreo in it. The fact that he even pursues a relationship with Rika shows that he’s in a much better head space these days. They really only have a few hours together, but he seems to genuinely care for her.
And then the movie gets dark. The comedic angle never affects the scenes with the villains. They are always scumbags, and they are always dangerous. They bust into Murtaugh’s house and threaten him. They put a bomb on his toilet. They assassinate multiple police officers. They do plenty to make sure the audience hates them. But they really push Riggs over the edge when they try to kill him. When Vorstedt tells Riggs he was responsible for the death of his wife. And when they kill Rika simply because she got close to Riggs. To avenge Rika, his wife, and his fellow officers, Riggs shifts into full raging lethal weapon mode for the last twenty minutes of the movie. And we’re right there with him, rooting for him and Murtaugh to take down the bad guys.
The death of Rika is something that was added to the script in the midst of production. Donner wanted to give Riggs more reason to hate the villains, so Rika had to go. The original intention had been for the character to survive the movie. In fact, the last scene would have shown Riggs and Rika having Thanksgiving dinner with the Murtaugh family. Much like Riggs being invited in for Christmas dinner at the end of the first movie. The Thanksgiving scene was even filmed before Donner decided that Rika shouldn’t make it to the end credits.
Another character who almost didn’t make it to the end credits is Riggs himself. Although Black and Murphy received negative feedback when they killed Riggs in the Play Dirty script, Donner did toy with the idea of killing the character after all. Riggs sustains knife and bullet wounds in the climactic sequence, and Donner shot two different versions of the ending. One in which Riggs succumbs to his wounds, and one where he lives. Lethal Weapon composers Michael Kamen, Eric Clapton, and David Sanborn returned to provide more great music for this sequel. And Clapton and Sanborn recorded a cover of the Bob Dylan song “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” with Randy Crawford for the soundtrack. This was meant to play over the moments of Riggs dying. The two different versions of the ending were screened for test audiences – and it’s no shock that the version where Riggs lived scored higher. So that’s what Donner went with. But if you want to see the version where Riggs died… well, it’s still basically in the movie. “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” is on the soundtrack, but in a different place. It plays as Murtaugh goes to check on his badly injured friend. Donner showed the death of Riggs with a helicopter shot that rises up from the image of Murtaugh holding his friend’s body on the villains’ cargo ship. The shot drifts out over the water and looks at the city as the sun rises. That remains the final shot of the movie. If Riggs had died, “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” would be playing over it. Since he lived, the end credits song is the George Harrison and Tom Petty collaboration “Cheer Down”.
Filming on Lethal Weapon 2 wrapped on March 24, 1989. But there was so much uncertainty about how the film should end, the cargo ship and pier set remained on the Warner Bros. backlot until June. A month before the movie was released. Just in case Donner would have to reshoot elements of the climax. Riggs dying may have been fitting for the Play Dirty script, but it never would have worked for Lethal Weapon 2. The tone of the overall movie is too light for that. Even though it gets darker toward the end, Riggs dying would have been such a bummer that it would have brought the whole movie down. Much of the film feels like a victory lap done to celebrate everything that worked about Lethal Weapon. That celebration couldn’t end with a loss.
LEGACY/NOW: Keeping Riggs alive was proven to be the right choice, because there was more to celebrate when Lethal Weapon 2 reached theatres. Just like the first movie, this one went over well with critics and audiences alike. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of A Plus. And it did even better at the box office than its predecessor. Domestically it was the most successful entry in the franchise, with a total haul of just over one hundred and forty-seven million. That’s eighty-two million more than the first movie. International numbers boosted it to two hundred and twenty-seven million. That’s a number that would be bested by the sequels this one’s success opened the door for. But it’s over a hundred million more than the first movie’s total. In the end, Lethal Weapon 2 was the third highest grossing film of 1989, coming in behind Tim Burton’s Batman and Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. And that Indiana Jones sequel had also been written by Jeffrey Boam.
The South African consul-general in Los Angeles, the person who had Arjen Rudd’s diplomatic job in the real world, described Lethal Weapon 2 as an ugly film. But surprisingly, despite how critical the film was of the South African government, it still received a theatrical release in the country. And it was a big hit there as well. The criticism of apartheid did earn the filmmakers some death threats. But apartheid didn’t last much longer. The system was dismantled over the next couple years. And in 1994, Nelson Mandela – an anti-apartheid activist who had served almost thirty years in prison for the actions he took against the government – was elected President of South Africa. To mark the occasion, an unscheduled showing of Lethal Weapon 2 was broadcast on Australian television.
Lethal Weapon 2 was also a success on home video, and Warner Bros. would eventually release what they called a director’s cut of the film, just as they had done for the first movie. These are really extended cuts rather than director’s cuts, Donner didn’t even like the extended cut of part 1. But if you want to see a few more minutes of footage that don’t add anything to the plot, they are available.
Donner and Warner Bros. wanted to recapture the magic they had stumbled upon with the first Lethal Weapon. And they managed to pull it off, delivering an excellent follow-up with plenty of action and an interesting, engaging story. A film that is often ranked as one of the best sequels ever made. A Lethal Weapon movie would never work quite this well again. But they kept making them, because audiences welcomed the chance to watch Gibson and Glover continue playing Riggs and Murtaugh. Why wouldn’t they? Visiting with these guys was always a blast.