lethal weapon 2

Plot

Murtaugh (Glover) and Riggs (Gibson) have been partners for two years now and are virtually inseparable. Riggs spends much of his time with Murtaugh's family, while Murtaugh is contemplating retirement. There is also a subplot about Murtaugh's daughter, Rianne, beginning her acting career in a condom commercial, much to his chagrin.

As the movie begins, Riggs and Murtaugh are involved in a car chase through the streets of Los Angeles. What was supposed to be a routine drug bust has turned into a huge, sprawling chase and gunfight. When the car finally crashes into a store, the driver has vanished before the police can arrest him, although they find his car was filled with illegal South African Krugerrands.

The next day, the LAPD sends the duo to keep guard on a witness named Leo Getz (Joe Pesci), as a change of pace after the excitement of the night before. Moments after they arrive, though, an assassin tries to kill Getz and almost kills Riggs in the process as well. Getz reveals that he was an accountant that laundered $500,000,000 in drug money for a smuggling ring, but was embezzling money from his employers, and they found him out.

While investigating the attempt on Getz's life, they discover that a major drug smuggling operation is being run out of the South African consulate in Los Angeles. When Riggs vows to bring him down, the consulate's nefarious Minister of Diplomatic Affairs, Arjen Rudd (Joss Ackland), asserts his diplomatic immunity and mockingly states that Riggs can't even issue him a parking ticket.

Unable to directly interfere with the smuggling ring, the cops are forced to rely on quasi-legal investigative measures and Murtaugh must protect Getz from the Afrikaners while exposing them at the same time. Meanwhile, Riggs romances Rika van den Haas (Patsy Kensit), the consular secretary for Rudd's office (who has her own suspicions about her boss).

Rudd and his henchmen declare war on the LAPD, killing a string of officers in one night through bombings, and almost kill Riggs when several of their operatives spray his trailer with submachines and almost destroy it. Leo Getz is kidnapped and tortured. Rika and Riggs are kidnapped, trussed up in heavy chains and straitjackets and tossed into the harbor to drown. Riggs is able to escape his bonds underwater, but Rika has drowned by the time he finds her nearby. He also discovers how his wife died, when Rudd's head of security, Vorstedt (Derrick O'Connor), admits he murdered her several years earlier. When Riggs had been too close to discovering their operation, a contract was put on his head and his wife was killed in an auto "accident" meant to target Riggs.

Riggs and Murtaugh, fed up with not being able to touch Rudd's operation because of diplomatic immunity, decide to go outside the law. Leaving their badges behind, they destroy the stilt house owned by the consulate as part of their mission to rescue Leo, then track down the Alba Varden, a freighter the South Africans are using to transport their money (the half-billion dollars in cash Leo helped them launder) back to Cape Town.

After a bloody shootout, the duo have defeated the South Africans, although Rudd shoots Riggs with a C96 Mauser pistol, severely wounding him. As Murtaugh pulls his gun on Rudd, the diplomat holds up his passport and boasts about his diplomatic immunity, which Murtaugh ignores as he shoots him in the head, stating that his immunity had "just been revoked.".

Murtaugh holds a seriously wounded Riggs as they joke with each other, and in the distance the sirens of the police wail, letting them know everything will be alright.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was compiled, written and performed by Eric Clapton.

The track list is as follows:

1. Cheer Down - George Harrison
2. Still Cruisin' (After All These Years) - The Beach Boys
3. Knockin' On Heaven's Door - Randy Crawford/Eric Clapton/David Sanborn
4. Riggs
5. The Embassy
6. Riggs And Roger
7. Leo
8. Goodnight Rika
9. The Stilt House
10. The Shipyard / Knockin' On Heaven's Door

Reaction and Legacy

The movie was the third most successful movie of 1989 (after Batman and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), earning nearly $150 million domestically and $80.6 million overseas. The movie received mostly positive reviews, although not as many as the original. Nevertheless, it carefully avoided repeating the original story by bringing in new characters and setting up new directions. The film was the debut of Leo Getz (Joe Pesci), a banker who is placed in protective custody by Riggs and Murtaugh, and makes the detectives' lives a living hell due to his neurotic behavior. The Getz character remained a regular throughout the remainder of the series.

Famous quotes

• "Diplomatic immunity!" — Minister of Diplomatic Affairs Arjen Rudd

"Has just been revoked." — replies Murtaugh, shooting him

• "Just a few bumps and brusies eh??" — Arjen Rudd

• "Mind the plastic, I'm getting some painting done." — Arjen Rudd

• "PICK THEM UP WITH YOUR HANDS!" — Arjen Rudd

• "Just checking to make sure I'm not standing on plastic..." — Pieter Vorstedt

• "I'm not a cop tonight Roger, it's personal." — Riggs driving on his way to the stilt house

• "Makes me want to go and buy rubbers right now..." — Mickey McGee, the carpenter in Murtaugh's house, after watching Rianne in her new TV advertisement

• "Who is the dickhead now, eh?" — Arjen Rudd after forcing Riggs, Murtaugh and fellow cops out of his house

• "They f*** you in the drive-thru!" — Leo Getz

• "Well, it's an old gun, and Murtaugh's not a very good shot." - Riggs (to George, the man acting with Rianne in the condom commercial)

Trivia

• In the original script (written by a reluctant Shane Black), the South Africans were even more vicious. At one point, they even torture Riggs in much the same manner as Mr. Joshua in the original. And the ending climaxed with a distraught Riggs dying after the wounds delivered from Arjen Rudd.

• When the original Shane Black screenplay was changed he temporarily left the series. He had no part in Lethal Weapon 3 but returned for rewrites on Lethal Weapon 4, knowing it would be the last in the series.

• The rewites which resulted in the final film are by Warren Murphy, co-creator of Remo Williams (the lead character of The Destroyer novels) and Jeffrey Boam (screenwriter for Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade and The Lost Boys).

• At two points in the film, Riggs intentionally dislocates his shoulder in order to get out of a straitjacket and then slams it back into place. This becomes a running gag not only throughout the series, but also throughout a lot of parody movies.

• The character of Rika was originally intended to survive, with the last scene in the movie being Riggs and Rika eating Thanksgiving dinner with the Murtaughs, but the director decided to kill the character to increase Riggs' motivation to destroy the South Africans. The scenes of her rescue and the finale with her were shot, but not used.

• Danny Glover, a human rights activist, had starred in the made-for-TV film Mandela, as Nelson Mandela himself, just two years earlier in 1987; the film's bad guys are South African in Lethal Weapon 2.

• Patsy Kensit described her sex scene with Mel Gibson as having been very uncomfortable to act out. She stated that the reason was that she and Gibson were "both married" and "both Catholics."

• The manner with which diplomatic immunity is depicted in the movie is extremely inaccurate and has obviously been altered for dramatic effect. While technically a sufficiently ranking diplomat could perform the acts shown in the movie without being subject to arrest, their home government would be requested to turn the diplomats over for trial, or the diplomat would be declared persona non grata and expelled from the country. A drug smuggling ring and murdering multiple policemen is far, far more serious than actual crimes that diplomats have been expelled (or handed over for trial) for in the real world. An Iranian diplomat working for the United Nations was expelled after September 11th, 2001 for photographing landmarks in New York City. Also, Gueorgui Makharadze, a diplomat from the Republic of Georgia was handed over for trial after killing a teenaged woman in a drunk driving accident in Washington DC in 1997. Furthermore, diplomatic immunity is interpreted by the United States to allow reasonable exceptions to exemption from arrest or detention in emergency situations involving public safety or the prevention of serious crimes. Diplomatic immunity also likewise would not protect a diplomat from the use of force, including deadly force, by the police in self-defense or protection of public safety. A campaign of assassination against the police run out of a diplomatic mission as depicted in the movie would likely be treated very seriously by the host country, up to and including being interpreted as an act of state-sponsored terrorism or war.

• When Danny Glover and his family gather around the TV to watch his daughter's commercial, on the TV before is an episode of the television show Tales from the Crypt, a TV show in which Richard Donner is an executive producer and has directed several episodes. The particular episode playing was directed by Robert Zemeckis and starred Mary Ellen Trainor, who plays the police department psychiatrist, a recurring role in the series.

• As of 2007, all UK versions remove Riggs' revenge killings for the death of Rika. We fail to see him fighting and killing the two men on the dock after he discovers her body, even though the film carries an 18 rating. The sequence where he enters a full clip into one of the villains is also shortened.