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LETHAL WEAPON

Air Date/Released Friday, March 6, 1987
Station/Studio Warner Brothers

Star Mel Gibson (Riggs) is an avowed Three Stooges fan, and brought his love of the team to this film. An early sequence has Riggs taking down some drug dealers with his impersonation of Curly, and well-placed eye-pokes. Later, a scene in Riggs' trailer features him watching the Stooges on TV, while he contemplates suicide.

Looking forward to retirement, Sgt. Roger Murtaugh is assigned a new partner, Sgt. Martin Riggs. Murtaugh is shocked to learn that Riggs' loose-cannon approach to police work hides suicidal tendencies, brought on by the violent death of his wife a couple years earlier. The new partners investigate the jumping death of a young prostitute, and with prompting from her father, discover that it was actually murder. The father is a banker who was laundering drug money for a heroin smuggling operation run by ex-CIA Viet Nam mercenaries and their ruthless commanding officer. When Murtaugh and Riggs get too close, the smugglers murder the father, and kidnap Murtaugh's daughter. Murtaugh needs "lethal weapon" Riggs to bring down the ring, and hopefully give Riggs a reason to go on living.


Cast: Mel Gibson (Sgt. Martin Riggs), Danny Glover (Sgt. Roger Murtaugh), Steve Kahan (Capt. Ed Murphy), Gary Busey (Mr. Joshua), Mitch Ryan (Gen. Peter McAllister), Tom Atkins (Michael Hunsaker), Darlene Love (Trish Murtaugh), Traci Wolfe (Rianna Murtaugh), Jackie Swanson (Amanda Hunsaker), Damon Hines (Nick Murtaugh), Ebonie Smith (Carrie Murtaugh), Bill Kalmenson, Frank Reinhardt (Beat cops), Lycia Natt (Dixie), Patrick Cameron, Don Gordon, Gail Bowman, Robert Fol, Selina Archerd, Richard B. Whitaker, Larry Clardy (Cops), Jimmie F. Skaggs, Jason Renard, Blackie Dammett (Drug dealers), Mary Ellen Trainor (Dr. Woods), Jack Thibeau (Sgt. McCaskey), Grand Bush (Boyette), Ed O'Ross (Mendez), Gustav Vintas (Gustaf), Paul Tuerpe, Chad Hayes, Chris D. Jardins, Sven-Ole Thorsen, Peter Dupont, Gilles Kohler, Cedric Adams, Jim J. Poslof (Mercenaries), Al Leong (Endo), Michael Shaner (Suicide jumper), Natalie Zimmerman, Lenny Juliano (Patrol Cops), Deborah Dismukee (Blonde on bike), Cheryl Baker, Terri Lynn Doss, Sharon K. Brecke (Girls in shower), Donald Gooden (Alfred), Alphonse Phillippe Mouzon, Shaun Hunter (Alfred's friends), Henry Brown (Explosion scene detective), Brian Strohm (Family friend), Teresa Kadolani, Renee Estevez (Hookers), John O'Neil, Tom Noga (Officers in cars), Mic Rodgers (Bus driver), Joan Severance (Girl in black playsuit)

Crew: Richard Donner (Producer, Director), Joel Silver (Producer), Jennie Lew Tugend (Assoc. Producer), Shane Black (Screenplay), Stephen Goldblatt (Dir. of Photography), Stuart Baird (Film Editor)
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