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Lethal Weapon 3 is a 1992 buddy cop action comedy film directed by Richard Donner and starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Rene Russo and Stuart Wilson. It is a sequel to Lethal Weapon and Lethal Weapon 2, and it is part of the Lethal Weapon film series.
The movie is set in 1992, six years after Riggs (Gibson) and Murtaugh (Glover) originally met. The pair are joined by their companion of three years ago, Leo Getz (Pesci), as well as beautiful but aggressive Internal Affairs Sergeant Lorna Cole (Russo). This time, the villain is intelligent but ruthless former LAPD Lieutenant Jack Edward Travis (Stuart Wilson).
Plot
The happenstance busting of an armored car robbery leads LAPD Sergeants Martin Riggs (Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Glover) to stumble upon an internal affairs investigation. A rogue AWOL cop, Jack Travis (Stuart Wilson), is stealing weapons from impound and selling them on the black market. Riggs and Murtaugh must work with internal affairs Sergeant Lorna Cole (Russo), to investigate. This is complicated when Murtaugh kills a friend of his son's, Darryl, after being fired at with a semi-automatic gun acquired through Travis. In addition, Travis is distributing armor-piercing bullets, or "cop killers", placing the officers of the force in further peril. Murtaugh must get over the shock of killing his son's friend, and Riggs and Cole must learn to get along in order to put a stop to Travis' operation.
A subplot of the film is Murtaugh's impending retirement. The film begins eight days before he is to retire, and ends on the intended day of his retirement. Leo Getz (Pesci), who has gone straight, is now a real estate salesman and is helping sell Murtaugh's house. He also provides some assistance in the Travis investigation, since Travis' legitimate cover operation is an under-construction exurban housing development. As he helps Murtaugh get over killing Darryl, Riggs airs out his own frustrations over the impending end of their partnership.
Ultimately, Riggs and Cole fall in love, and they and Murtaugh find the link between Darryl's gun and Travis. They get together to bust Travis at his desert housing development. They light the development on fire, and though Cole is wounded, Riggs ultimately kills Travis using Darryl's gun and Travis' own cop killer bullets. In the end, Murtaugh decides not to retire after all.
Reaction
The $35-million movie was a big box-office success, earning $145 million. Although slightly less than the $150 million domestic gross of the first sequel, it was nevertheless the second-most successful summer movie of 1992 (after Batman Returns) and the fifth most profitable film of the year, as well as the highest-grossing in the series worldwide.
Despite box-office success, critical reaction was mixed, especially in comparison with the previous two movies. Although the movie's action sequences and moments of humor are still eye-catching and entertaining, the film was criticized for being a bit repetitive and for almost repeating the formula that was used by its predecessors. Further complaints included that the neurotic Leo Getz, who made his debut in Lethal Weapon 2, is either relatively irrelevant to the film's storyline or the fact that he is not given enough screen time. It currently holds a 59% from Rotten Tomatoes.
However, the movie still had some strengths. The new character of Lorna Cole (played by Rene Russo) - portrayed as a female version of Martin Riggs - finally added a (lasting) love interest for Riggs. Additionally, both the opening sequence and the finale are considered to be some of the best scenes of the Lethal Weapon saga.
The movie featured the songs "It's Probably Me," performed by Sting, and "Runaway Train," performed by Elton John and Eric Clapton.
Demolition scene
In the first scene of the movie, Riggs accidentally sets off a bomb that destroys the ICSI Building. The ICSI Building is actually the former City Hall building of Orlando, Florida. The entire scene was filmed in Downtown Orlando, at the intersection of Orange Avenue and South Street. One of the officers who sarcastically claps at them–in specific, the one that says "Bravo"–is played by Bill Frederick, who was Orlando's mayor at the time. In the various external shots in the scene, Orlando residents will recognize the new City Hall building (which has a Coca-Cola sign mounted onto it), the SunTrust Center (Orlando's tallest building) and the Orlando Utilities Commission building. Warner Bros. decided to use the demolition of the building in the movie, and as a result paid for the demolition.
The building was demolished so that it would collapse slightly forward (toward Orange Avenue), minimizing the chances of it damaging the new City Hall building, built directly behind it. The space was cleared out and became a plaza for the new City Hall, with a fountain and a generic monument.
Trivia
- Screenwriter Jeffrey Boam is credited twice in the 'screenplay by' credits. This is because he did one draft by himself (granting him the first credit) and a second draft collaborating with Robert Mark Kamen (granting him the second credit). If two writers are credited on a film and their names are separated with an ampersand (&), this means they collaborated on the screenplay. If their names are separated with the word 'and,' this means they both contributed enough significant material to receive credit but did not work together (more than likely one was hired to rewrite the previous writer). In this rare scenario, Boam was hired to rewrite his own script with a second writer.
- This movie was filmed from October 1991 to January 1992.
- After the building explosion, when they are busted down to patrolman, Riggs and Murtaugh argue over which wire Riggs cut, having forgotten which wire he cut. During the incident, Riggs swapped which wire he was going to cut, first saying blue, then switching in the middle to red. In the cropped pan-and-scan TV version, it is unclear which wire he eventually cuts. However, in the original wide screen theatrical version, it is clear that Riggs cuts the red wire.
- Marble slabs that were once part of the old city hall destroyed for the film are now used as tabletops at a local outdoor cafe in Orlando, Florida.
- When the building blows up at the start of the film, the roaring sound is the same roar used in "King Kong" (1976) for the giant ape.
- Bill Frederick, the mayor of Orlando, Florida, was the policeman who sarcastically claps and said "Bravo!" to Murtaugh and Riggs after the explosion of the building in the opening scene, which was the old Orlando City Hall.
- The entire scene of Riggs blowing up the ISCI Building was filmed in Downtown Orlando, at the intersection of Orange Avenue and South Street. The City Council of Orlando, Florida, was only too happy to let the production blow up their old ugly City Hall, with producer Joel Silver paying $165,000 for the privilege. The domed building behind it, with the Coca-Cola sign mounted on it (stage dressing; it was removed afterward), is Orlando's NEW City Hall, which had just opened. In the wide screen shot as Riggs and Murtaugh enter the building, on the right side, the SunTrust (then SunBank) Center, to this day Orlando's tallest building, is plainly shown. Another shot shows the distinctive cylindrical Orlando Utilities Commission building.
- From August 1991 to October 1991, the production crew fitted the old Orlando City Hall building featured in the opening scene with carefully placed explosives to create the visual effect of a bomb explosion.
- During the armored-car chase, Delores, the excitable driver of the armored car chasing after Riggs (Mel Gibson), refers to herself as a "Road Warrior." The Road Warrior character (a.k.a. 'Mad' Max from Mad Max (1979) and Mad Max 2 (1981) as well as follow-ups) is the role that made Gibson famous to North American audiences.
- Mel Gibson's character Riggs eats some dog cookies in order to stop smoking. In Mad Max 2 (1981), Mel's character eats a can of dog food in order to survive.
- Director Richard Donner is an animal-rights and pro-choice activist, and placed many posters and stickers for these causes in the film. Of note are the T-shirt worn by one of Murtaugh's daughters (the actress's idea), an 18-wheeler with an anti-fur slogan on the side, and a sticker on a locker in the police station.
- Murtaugh and Riggs drive past a cinema advertising Radio Flyer (1992), a movie also directed by Richard Donner.
- Leo Getz was originally not in the script and all of his scenes were written in afterwards. In the original script Leo had left L.A for New York.
- Carrie Fisher was an uncredited script doctor on the film.
- This is the only Lethal Weapon film that does not feature the villains threatening Murtaugh's family or coming into their home.
- The lines between Riggs and Lorna about "semantics" and "some antics" were originally filmed inside Lorna's car.
- The computer game seen on Lorna Cole's (Rene Russo) computer is called "The Three Stooges" by Activision and Cinemaware. In reality, Martin Riggs is an avid fan of The Three Stooges. Her computer is therefore an Amiga 500 or 2000.
- During the scene where Riggs and Lorna are comparing scars, many of Riggs' were given to him during the events of Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), specifically the gun shots in his lung and the knife wound in the back of his leg. The scene in which Lorna and Riggs compare scars is a reference to "Jaws."
- Murtagh's boat is called "code 7" which is the L.A.P.D code for a lunch break.
- In the scene where Riggs confronts Murtaugh he refers to the MAC-10 as a "machine pistol, with twin carbines and all the trimmings" in reality a carbine is a rifle with a shorter barrel and (sometimes) stock that allow it to be more effective in buildings.
- The housing construction site was not a set built for the film but an actual real estate project near Lancaster, California. The developers went broke before the homes could be completed. The production company could film there only after agreeing to tear the site down completely after the shoot.
- The gunfight at the housing development at the end of the movie was shot in January 1992. The fires were the heat source for the actors on the set, due to temperatures at night in that desert only being as low as 11 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In the brief scene after the closing credits, the building that is demolished was the Hotel Soreno in St. Petersburg, Florida.
- For promotion of the film, theater lobbies featured a 3-D cut out of the movie poster of Riggs and Murtaugh posing with their guns and Leo Getz peeking from the background. On the display, the was a motor which helped Leo's head bob up and down from behind them.
- After receiving the unusual writing credits (Story by Jeffrey Boam, Screenplay by Jeffrey Boam and Jeffrey Boam and Robert Mark Kamen), the advertising department assumed it was a misprint and produced posters with the credits "Story by Jeffrey Boam, Screenplay by Jeffrey Boam and Robert Mark Kamen". After a few of the posters had been sent out, the WGA contacted the department, telling them that the initial credits were the correct ones, and ordering the posters to be recalled and destroyed. A few still remain in circulation, however.
- Following the film's massive box office success, Warner Brothers gave Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Rene Russo, producer Joel Silver, director Richard Donner and writer Jeffrey Boam a brand-new black Range Rover as a thank-you present.
Video games
Several versions of a Lethal Weapon video game were released in conjunction with this sequel's release, appearing on the NES, SNES, Game Boy, Amiga, Atari ST, and Commodore 64 platforms.
Also released was a Lethal Weapon 3 pinball game.
See also
External links
