Lethal Weapon - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Lethal Weapon or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Lethal Weapon

[christina]

Roger Murtaugh wasn't written with any ethnicity in mind. Danny Glover was suggested by Marion Dougherty after seeing him in The Color Purple (1985).

[cassandra]

Richard Donner's next film, Scrooged (1988), was also set at Christmas time.

[lena]

Out of the whole Lethal Weapon franchise, this is the only one that wasn't shot in CinemaScope.

[terry]

A clip of this movie is played on television in The Last Boy Scout (1991). Not only are both movies written by Shane Black and produced by Joel Silver, but Damon Wayans from that film, would play Roger Murtaugh on the television series Lethal Weapon (2016).

[kenneth]

Despite popular misconceptions, Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) never actually says "I'm getting too old for this shit" in this movie. He simply says "I'm too old for this shit." He does, however, say he's "getting too old for this shit" in the sequels.

[jessie]

The only Lethal Weapon movie not released in the summer. Also the only one that didn't make $100 million at the box office.

[clayton]

Murtaugh's license plate of his car is E641985.

[gerald]

In one scene, Riggs asks Murtaugh, "Did the stock market crash?" The infamous Black Monday of October 19, 1987, occurred seven months after this film's release, and one year after its filming.

[francisco]

The main part of Shane Black's final script that made Warner Brothers fall in love with the project was apparently a descriptive line during the sequence where Riggs tries to track down Joshua after killing the torturers and rescuing Murtaugh and his daughter, involving a car crash caused by Joshua. The line was "And the cars trade paint."

[ava]

On E! True Hollywood Story (1996), Gary Busey says he was hired to play Joshua because they were looking for someone big and menacing enough to be a believable foe for Mel Gibson. Busey also credits the film for reviving his failing movie career.

[jesus]

The assassination of Michael Hunsaker, featuring a bullet-hit through a carton of eggnog, is most likely inspired by the assassination of Senator Jordan in The Manchurian Candidate (1962): bullet-hit through a carton of milk.

[kristen]

Michael Nouri, who was considered to play Martin Riggs and turned it down, did a different buddy cop movie called The Hidden (1987), which was also set in Los Angeles.

[eli]

The two leads were signed by early spring 1986. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover then flew home to pack, and, returning to Los Angeles, began an intensive two months of physical training and preparation.

[ava]

A running gag in the Lethal Weapon film series is the "One, Two, Three" false starts where Riggs and Murtaugh can't decide whether to go "One, Two, Three... then go!" or "One, Two, THREE!" (go ON "Three") While the gag does not exist in this film, there is a "One, Two, Three" false start in this movie. It happens when the uniformed cops are trying to prepare to sing "Silent Night" in a chorus and one of the cops keeps starting too soon.

[wallace]

Two actors in this film have also appeared in the "Halloween" franchise (coincidentally as doctors). Tom Atkins (who played Michael Hunsacker) played Dr. Dan Challis in "Halloween III: Season Of The Witch," while Mitchel Ryan (who played General McCallister) played Dr. Wynn in "Halloween: The Curse if Michael Myers."

[christina]

Danny Glover and Tom Atkins appeared in Dead Man Out (1989).

[maureen]

Michael Hunsaker reveals that he worked for Air America during the Vietnam War. Mel Gibson starred in a movie titled Air America (1990), that may have been based on this conversation. Hunsacker was referring to the airline known as Air America, which flew both passengers and cargo, and was covertly owned and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency from 1950 to 1976. It supplied and supported covert operations in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, and has, at times, been unfairly accused of shipping heroin out of Laos. Unlike as portrayed in both "Lethal Weapon," and "Air America," however, there has never been any substantiated proof of any Air America personnel knowingly participating in any drug smuggling operations.

[ruby]

The only Lethal Weapon movie not featuring Joe Pesci as Leo Getz.

[brent]

The prop Beretta 92F Mel Gibson uses in this film is the same prop gun that would be used by by Bruce Willis in Die Hard (1988). The gun has since been retired.