DIRECTED BY: Richard Donner

WRITTEN BY: Shane Black (characters), Jonathan Lemkin (story)

MEL GIBSON AS: Sergeant Martin Riggs

GENRE: Action, Crime, Thriller, Comedy

TAGLINES:

- The gang’s all here.

- Next summer is lethal.

- The faces you love. The action you expect.

- With 4 you get Kung Fu.

PLOT SUMMARY:

Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh, after escaping death from the previous movies are put on a hit list by The Triads. When blood thirsty mercenaries are on their tail they team up again with Leo Getz and Lorna Cole, a newcomer (Chris Rock) to finally put an end to the Triads for good. –IMDB

RELEASE DATES:

1998 July 10 (Canada; United States)
1998 July 22 (Belgium; France; Switzerland)
1998 July 23 (Israel; Malaysia; Singapore)
1998 July 24 (Brazil)
1998 July 29 (Philippines)
1998 July 31 (South Africa; Sweden)
1998 August 1 (Japan; South Korea)
1998 August 6 (Argentina; Hong Kong; Netherlands)
1998 August 7 (Denmark; Iceland; Mexico; Portugal)
1998 August 8 (Indonesia)
1998 August 13 (Germany; Hungary; Slovakia)
1998 August 14 (Estonia; Norway; Panama; Poland; Turkey)
1998 August 21 (Italy; Spain)
1998 August 22 (Taiwan)
1998 August 27 (Slovenia)
1998 August 31 (Finland)
1998 September 10 (Australia; New Zealand)
1998 September 18 (United Kingdom)
1998 September 30 (Kuwait)
1998 October 8 (Russia)

BOX OFFICE GROSS:

United States: $130,444,603
International: $155,000,000

FILMING LOCATIONS:

Los Angeles and Long Beach, California; and New York, New York, USA.

TRIVIA:

- In one scene, Riggs and Murtaugh congratulate one another on their promotions by rapidly alternating between handshakes and salutes. This is similar to scenes in Forever Young (1992) between Mel Gibson and George Wendt.

- ‘Kim Chan ‘ (Uncle Benny) says, “Bloody marvelous!” a catch-phrase often used by his character “The Ancient” in “Kung Fu: The Legend Continues” (1993).

- ‘Chan, Kim’ plays a crimelord nicknamed Uncle Benny. He also played a crimelord nicknamed Uncle Benny in The Corruptor (1999).

- Murtaugh’s children are played by the same actors and actresses in all four Lethal Weapons.

- There are eight actors who appear in all four Lethal Weapon films as the same characters: Aside from Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as Riggs and Murtaugh, respectively, Darlene Love plays Murtaugh’s wife, Traci Wolfe, Damon Hines and Ebonie Smith are Murtaugh’s kids, Steve Kahan is Captain Murphy and Mary Ellen Trainor plays the police psychiatrist, Dr. Woods. In addition, Riggs’ dog, Sam, appears in Lethal Weapons 1, 2 and 4. A deleted scene featuring him was reinstated for the director’s cut of Lethal Weapon 3 (1992). So, in a way, he’s the ninth regular character.

- ‘Jackie Chan (I)’ was considered for the role of Wah Sing Su, but turned it down, because he chooses never to play the villain in a movie.

- Paul Tuerpe appears in all four Lethal Weapon movies, but always in slightly different roles. He played ‘Mercenary’ in the first, ‘Hitman’ in the second, ‘Henchman #3′ in the third, and ‘Helicoptor Co-pilot’ in the fourth.

- The car chase and fight between Riggs and the Chinese man in the house trailer was actually filmed on the 215 freeway in Las Vegas. Apparently they could not get permission anywhere, but the Las Vegas Mayor was very accommodating. All drivers were either stunt drivers or Bill Young’s Driving Team.

- Started filming in January, seven months before its release date, and was edited over the course of three weeks.

- On the Beretta 92, there is a button on the right side of the frame which must be pushed in to un-block the lever on the left side, which is rotated down 90 degrees, (counter clockwise as seen from the left side of the pistol) in order to release the slide so that the weapon can be ’stripped’ and cleaned. It is possible to grab the gun, push the tab down, and pull the slide off to disarm the weapon, but in the scene where Wah Sing Ku (Jet Li) pulls the slide off of Riggs’ Beretta 92, the button has already been pushed down and the lever partly rotated, to assist Jet Li in performing the audience-shocking feat.

- Riggs’s trailer is in the same place that Jim Rockford’s trailer use to be at during the majority of “The Rockford Files” (1974)’s run.

- The Pontiac Grand Am car used in the film is on display at Warner Brothers Movie World, Oxenford, Gold Coast, Australia.

- Not only was this Jet Li’s first American-produced movie, it was also the first time he’d ever played a villain.

- Richard Donner asked Jet Li to slow down with the action sequences because he was moving faster then the camera shutter speed and it was not registering on film.

- The second locomotive to strike the bad guys car in the second railroad crossing scene is the very same former Alaskan Railroad GP7 type locomotive No.1804 which was at the front of the Grand Continental train in Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) and carries the same livery but with the Grand Continental names removed.

- The ending was still being written while the movie was in production.

- Promotional television ads and the theatrical trailer featured Chris Rock wearing a police uniform doing a comedy act (he is referring to himself as Riggs being cast with a different actor – himself). His character never wore a police uniform in the movie. During the photo album credits, a picture of him wearing the uniform can also be seen.

- WILHELM SCREAM: At the beginning of the film when Riggs (Mel Gibson) shoots the man with the flamethrower, sending him flying into the gas station, a muffled Wilhelm scream can be heard.

- Roger Murtaugh’s (Danny Glover) line of “I’m gettin’ too old for this shit!” has made it’s way into every Lethal Weapon movie. Only this time, Riggs amends it to “We’re not gettin’ too old for this shit!” as a sign of defying their ages.

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