When thinking about the best buddy-cop partnerships in cinema, one stands above all others: Riggs and Murtaugh. Lethal Weapon’s central duo gets to the very essence of action’s most entertaining sub-genre – two mismatched colleagues, each with their own issues, forced to work together, learn each other’s rough edges, and become an unstoppable team come the closing credits. It’s a formula that proved hugely popular through the 1980s and into the ‘90s, but Lethal Weapon – boasting a Shane Black script and Richard Donner as director – did it best. (And now even better than ever, thanks to a brand new 4K remaster.)
Partly that’s because the film’s buddy partnership has genuine frisson. Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) is an outright livewire, always unpredictable and prone to dangerous moves – a gung-ho attitude that, ironically, makes him a top cop, even when breaking all the rules. This is someone who saves a suicidal man by jumping off a building with him (onto an air mat) in handcuffs; who we meet at the beginning of the film entirely nude, living alone in a trailer; a guy with lightning-quick instincts, always ready to throw himself into the line of fire. “Yeah, I’m a psycho,” he quips, “but I’m still a cop.” There’s real pain beneath it all, since he lost his wife – in a daring move for an action hero, he too is suicidal. During a shootout in a Christmas tree market, he challenges a gunman: “Shoot me! Shoot me!” Later, he considers death while Looney Tunes cartoons plays in the background. He’s alone.
Thankfully, not for long. The guy Riggs really needs is Danny Glover’s Roger Murtaugh – who’s just turned 50, has a comfortable family life, and is ready to take the easy road into retirement. He’s steady, dependable, and – by his own admission – “too old for this shit”. But over the course of the film, the two complete each other. Murtaugh, himself a Vietnam war vet, understands and accepts Riggs’ pain; when Murtaugh’s family is dragged into the case they’re working, Riggs will stop at nothing to save his partner’s kidnapped daughter. Dramatically and emotionally, Shane Black’s script is immaculately constructed, delivering a perfect pay-off between the pair as the credits roll.
What you remember, though, is the fun and the thrills. Black’s name became synonymous with laugh-packed action from here on in. Lethal Weapon remains one of his best works, packed with iconic lines (“You wanna see crazy?!”), bubbling with the interplay between its two central cops, and with a pulpy noirish flair to its LA underbelly story. It’s pulse-pounding when it wants to be, too, from the sweaty-palmed desert stand-off, to the final act’s front-yard fistfight. Black carried on that combination of rat-a-tat banter and no-punches-pulled action into the likes of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and The Nice Guys, but he nailed it right away with Lethal Weapon. Marshalling all those shifting tones is the late, great Richard Donner, who had already captured Superman and The Goonies with confidence, and conjured terror in The Omen – here, he displays supreme control in the action sequences and character beats alike.
This being a Shane Black film, Lethal Weapon is, of course, set at Christmas – not that that has anything to do with the plot. But it’s emblematic of everything that makes the film a classic. It’s all about contrast – between the most wonderful time of the year, and a story of murdered sex workers and corruption in LA; between the wild-eyed Riggs and steadfast Murtaugh in their odd-couple pairing; between the lightness of Black’s gag-packed script, and the palpable stakes of the action. The film is an eggnog carton with a bullet hole in it; a shooting range target with a smiley face shot onto its head. “Are you really crazy?” Murtaugh asks Riggs at one point. “Or are you as good as you say you are?” Lethal Weapon simply is that good – nearly 40 years later, it’s still the ultimate buddy-cop movie. Case closed.
Revisit Lethal Weapon – now remastered in 4K. Buy a physical copy on 4K Ultra-HD here, or watch on 4K digital here.