''Lethal Weapon 4'' is a 1998 American
buddy cop action film
The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...
directed and produced by
Richard Donner
Richard Donner (born Richard Donald Schwartzberg; April 24, 1930 – July 5, 2021) was an American film director, producer and actor. Described as "one of Hollywood's most reliable makers of action blockbusters", Donner directed some of the mo ...
, and starring
Mel Gibson
Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. The recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Mel Gibson, multiple accolades, he is known for directing historical films as well for his act ...
,
Danny Glover
Danny Glover ( ; born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, producer, and political activist. Over his career he has received List of awards and nominations received by Danny Glover, numerous accolades including the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian A ...
,
Joe Pesci
Joseph Frank Pesci ( , ; born February 9, 1943) is an American actor and musician. He is best known for portraying tough, volatile characters, in a variety of genres, and for his collaborations with his best friend, Robert De Niro in the films ' ...
,
Rene Russo
Rene Marie Russo (born February 17, 1954) is an American actress and model. She began her career as a fashion model in the 1970s, appearing on magazine covers such as '' Vogue'' and ''Cosmopolitan''. She made her film debut in the 1989 comedy '' ...
,
Chris Rock, and
Jet Li
Li Lianjie (courtesy name Yangzhong; born 26 April 1963), better known by his stage name Jet Li, is a Chinese-born Singaporean Martial arts, martial artist and actor. With a Jet Li filmography, film career spanning more than forty years, Li is re ...
(in his international film debut).
It is the fourth installment in the
''Lethal Weapon'' film series. It is the last film in the series directed by Donner before his death, and the latest to be released theatrically.
The film was released on July 10, 1998, by
Warner Bros. Pictures. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $285 million worldwide, becoming the
tenth highest-grossing film of 1998.
A sequel titled ''Lethal Finale'' is in development for the streaming service
Max
Max or MAX may refer to:
Animals
* Max (American dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog
* Max (British dog), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of the OBE)
* Max (gorilla) ...
. Glover and Gibson will reprise their roles as Riggs and Murtaugh, with Gibson also in talks to direct.
Plot
Lorna Cole is pregnant with
LAPD
The City of Los Angeles Police Department, commonly referred to as Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 8,832 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the th ...
Sergeant Martin Riggs's baby; they are not married, but both are thinking about it. LAPD Sergeant Roger Murtaugh's daughter Rianne is also pregnant but won't reveal who the father is.
The officers and Leo Getz come upon a
Chinese immigrant smuggling ring after running an oceangoing vessel aground, though the boat's captain escapes. Murtaugh finds the Hong family hiding from US Immigration officers to avoid deportation. Murtaugh offers them shelter in his home, and their families, along with Riggs and Cole, bond. Grandfather Hong is looking for his uncle, a skilled engraver, who had paid for their passage to the United States. Riggs discovers through Lorna that the father of Rianne's unborn child is Detective Lee Butters. The family is hiding this from Murtaugh, who would not approve of his daughter being with a police officer.
Continued investigation of the smuggling ring leads the officers to "Uncle" Benny Chan, a crime boss operating from a
Chinatown
Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...
restaurant. There, they are introduced to high-ranking
Triad negotiator Wah Sing Ku. Chan forces them out of his restaurant when the officers show no probable cause. Riggs pulls the fire alarm so that the sprinklers can go off, forcing all the restaurant customers to flee. Outside, Riggs spots the ship captain and tries to give chase but fails to capture him. Ku later intercepts the captain and kills him as punishment for attracting the police's attention.
Hong manages to contact his uncle, but this leads the Triads to Murtaugh's house. Ku and the Triad thugs kidnap the Hongs, tie up Murtaugh, his family, Riggs, and Cole and set the house ablaze. Ping, Hong's grandson, has evaded capture and helps to free the others in time. Though Riggs and Murtaugh chase down and kill Triad members, Ku escapes. Ku brings Mr. Hong to his uncle at a warehouse, where he has been engraving plates for a counterfeiting operation for Ku and Chan in exchange for transit for his family. Ku kills Hong in front of his uncle to assure his continued work.
With Getz serving as a distraction, the officers confront Chan at his dentist's office to interrogate him with
laughing gas for more information but cannot get any leads, and during which Riggs and Butters accidentally reveal the family secret to Murtaugh. Later, as they discuss what they know with Detective Ng, who has worked on cases involving the Chinese government before, Ng recognizes that Ku must be trying to negotiate with a corrupt Chinese general for the release of the Four Fathers, high-ranking Triad members that include Ku's brother. New information leads them to the abandoned warehouse where they find the bodies of Hong, his uncle, and Chan, the latter two killed by Ku after they served their usefulness. Knowing that Ku plans to use counterfeit money, the police intercept the exchange between Ku and the general, telling the general that the money is fake. The enraged general executes most of the Four Fathers before being killed by the Triads. A firefight breaks out between the Triad, the general's private army, and the police; most of the Triad and army die, and Butters is wounded shielding Murtaugh. Ku attempts to escape with his brother, who is killed by Murtaugh. Riggs and Murtaugh pursue Ku to a pier and engage him in a fistfight. Murtaugh impales Ku through the stomach with a rebar before being knocked out by Ku. The pier then collapses and sends Riggs and Ku into the water. Riggs finds an assault rifle and kills Ku, while Murtaugh recovers in time to rescue Riggs from a piece of concrete that had pinned him underwater.
Riggs and Getz later discover that Lorna is about to give birth and race to the hospital, where Riggs and Lorna are ceremonially married by a
rabbi
A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...
just before she enters labor. Their son and Rianne's daughter are born, and Murtaugh accepts Butters as his son-in-law. Hong's family is granted
asylum.
Cast
In addition, series regularswho appear in minor roles in
all four films of the franchiseinclude: Damon Hines and Ebonie Smith as Murtaugh children Nick and Carrie, respectively; and
Mary Ellen Trainor as psychologist Stephanie Woods.
Production
In early 1993, after the release of ''
Lethal Weapon 3'', Warner Bros. and producer
Joel Silver
Joel Silver (born July 14, 1952) is an American film producer.
Life and career
Silver was born and raised in South Orange, New Jersey, the son of a writer and a public relations executive. His family is Jewish. He attended Columbia High School ...
tried buying a new spec script titled ''Simon Says'' in hopes of rewriting it into a script for ''Lethal Weapon 4''. Written by
Jonathan Hensleigh, the story was about a police detective and a shop owner forced to find and stop bombs planted all over a city as part of a mad bomber's revenge plot against the detective.
However, 20th Century Fox purchased the script first, planning a project for
Brandon Lee's next film after ''
The Crow''. It was considered for a standalone film or to be re-written into a sequel to his 1992 action film, ''
Rapid Fire'', when Lee was killed during filming on ''The Crow''. Fox would then use the script as the basis for a third ''Die Hard'' film they were having trouble developing. After many rewrites by several writers, it was finally made into ''
Die Hard With a Vengeance'' (1995).
In July 1993, Warner Bros. and Silver started working on not just the fourth ''Lethal Weapon'' film but a fifth as well. Screenwriter and script doctor
Jonathan Lemkin, who had just done some uncredited work for them on ''
Demolition Man'' (1993), was hired to write the script for ''Lethal Weapon 4'' while another writer worked on the script for ''Lethal Weapon 5''. According to Silver, the plan was to shoot both films back-to-back, with the possibility of using the best parts of both scripts for a single film.
In June 1994,
Richard Donner
Richard Donner (born Richard Donald Schwartzberg; April 24, 1930 – July 5, 2021) was an American film director, producer and actor. Described as "one of Hollywood's most reliable makers of action blockbusters", Donner directed some of the mo ...
was still planning on making both films. Asked about them in an interview at the time, however,
Mel Gibson
Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. The recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Mel Gibson, multiple accolades, he is known for directing historical films as well for his act ...
said he was not interested in doing any more ''Lethal Weapon'' sequels.
Between late 1994 and early 1995, screenwriter
Jeffrey Boam was brought in to rewrite the script for the fourth film. Boam had previously done uncredited work on the first ''
Lethal Weapon
''Lethal Weapon'' is a 1987 American action film directed by Richard Donner and written by Shane Black. It stars Mel Gibson and Danny Glover alongside Gary Busey, Tom Atkins, Darlene Love, and Mitchell Ryan. In ''Lethal Weapon'', a pai ...
'', rewrote an original script by
Shane Black
Shane Black (born December 16, 1961) is an American screenwriter, film director, and actor, known for his distinctive style of Action film, action and action comedy films. He is the original creator of the ''Lethal Weapon (franchise), Lethal Wea ...
and
Warren Murphy called ''Play Dirty'' into ''
Lethal Weapon 2
''Lethal Weapon 2'' is a 1989 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Richard Donner, and starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Joss Ackland, Derrick O'Connor and Patsy Kensit. It is a sequel to the 1987 film '' Letha ...
'', and wrote the story and script for ''Lethal Weapon 3''. He was initially unsure of working on the film, as he had problems with the script and following a bad experience on the third film: he had to keep rewriting that script all through filming and was fired at one point only to be rehired later. Agreeing to work on the fourth script, he tossed out the existing story and began work on his own. His first draft was completed in January 1995, focusing on Riggs and Murtaugh fighting neo-Nazi survivalists committing terrorist attacks on L.A., including using Stinger missiles to attempt to shoot down a jet carrying the
Los Angeles Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA ...
. He said in an interview at the time that he would probably have to write at least three more drafts. By October 1995, Boam was still working on the script, while at the same time also working on a fourth ''Indiana Jones'' film which went unproduced.
Peter Bart
Peter Benton Bart (born July 24, 1932) is an American journalist and film producer, writing a column for ''Deadline Hollywood'' since 2015. He is best known for his lengthy tenure (1989–2009) as the editor in chief of ''Variety'', an enterta ...
's book ''The Gross: The Hits, The Flops -- The Summer That Ate Hollywood'' offered many details regarding ''Lethal Weapon 4s troubled production, from writing to release. While Boam was still working on his version of the story, other writers were brought in to pen their own versions, all of which were rejected. Though many were positive on the darker, edgier, more serious tone of Boam's script that recalled the first film, it was ultimately rejected because of the tone. Finally, Warner Bros. decided that they wanted to focus on a storyline involving the
Chinese Triads. Boam would later say he felt that the main plot about counterfeiting Chinese money was not a good or suspenseful enough plot for a ''Lethal Weapon'' sequel.
Jonathan Lemkin was once again brought in to write the first version of the script involving the Triads, about four years after he wrote his first rejected script. Although his new script was received very positively, Warner Bros. again had other writers work on their own versions of the story.
Alfred Gough
Alfred Gough ( ; born August 22, 1967) is an American screenwriter, producer, writer, director, showrunner and creator. He is the developer of The WB/The CW's Superman-prequel television series ''Smallville (TV series), Smallville''. Alongside lo ...
and
Miles Millar wrote one of the unused scripts; they would be credited with Lemkin for the story of the finished film.
Silver ultimately brought in TV writer
Channing Gibson to work on the script, after he was impressed by Gibson's rewrite of a spec script titled ''Sandblast'', an action adventure thriller by screenwriter
Steven Maeda described as "''
Die Hard
''Die Hard'' is a 1988 American action film directed by John McTiernan and written by Jeb Stuart (writer), Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza, based on the 1979 novel ''Nothing Lasts Forever (Thorp novel), Nothing Lasts Forever'' by Roderick ...
'' (1988) meets ''
Cliffhanger
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious situation, facing a difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction or bef ...
'' (1993)". Gibson took the gig thinking it would be a more relaxed writing job than anything he did for TV. However, much like the previous two sequels, the script kept getting changed and rewritten over and over again. Gibson would end up doing more work and revisions on it than on all of his TV work put together. Production even started with only half of the script. The ending was not written until it was finally time to film it.
The characters of Leo Getz and Lee Butters were not in the original scripts.
Joe Pesci
Joseph Frank Pesci ( , ; born February 9, 1943) is an American actor and musician. He is best known for portraying tough, volatile characters, in a variety of genres, and for his collaborations with his best friend, Robert De Niro in the films ' ...
was hired and paid $1 million for three weeks of work, forcing rewrites. Gibson was "three-fourths" through his newest draft when
Chris Rock was hired, which caused yet another rewrite. Butters was originally written to be a homosexual detective. When they started filming the police station scene between Riggs, Murtaugh, Leo, and Butters, everyone felt the character did not work. He was changed to be Rianne's husband and father to her unborn child. The two only share one scene in the final film with no written dialogue, due to last minute changes made to his character.
Besides Lemkin, Gibson, Gough and Millar, other writers did uncredited work on the script, including Michael Curtis,
Greg Malins,
Fred Dekker (who came up with the scene where Riggs and Murtaugh drive their car off the freeway and through the building), and even Boam was brought in to work on the script.
The film entered production in early January 1998 with a planned summer release of that same year. Due to issues during filming, including the script changes, production ended around mid May, less than two months before its scheduled July release. Editors had to work very quickly to have the film ready, which is why the trailers feature some deleted and alternate scenes which are not in the film. Despite this, the film was finished and released as planned.
Release
Box office
''Lethal Weapon 4'' debuted at 1 at the box office with $34.05 million. Although the film grossed $130 million in the U.S., it was not considered a runaway financial success as the previous three films had been.
Shooting began in January 1998, just months before the film's release, with a production budget estimated at $120–$150 million (although
Warner Bros. maintained it cost less than $100 million)
and an additional $50 million spent on marketing and distribution.
This made the fourth film the most expensive entry of the series. Its profit margin was saved in part due to the combined foreign box office sales making the film gross approximately $285 million in total,
making the second highest-grossing film in the ''Lethal Weapon'' film series behind, ''
Lethal Weapon 3'' (1992). Still, like its predecessors, ''Lethal Weapon 4'' was among the top ten grossing films of its release year.
Critical reception
James Berardinelli gave the film three stars out of four, writing: "Given the expectations that constrain it, ''Lethal Weapon 4'' is probably the best motion picture that could possibly result from another teaming of Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh. The series has lost a lot of steam since the first two entries, and, although the fourth movie ratchets up the energy level from the moribund state of the disappointing ''Lethal Weapon 3'', there's no sense of spontaneity."
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
gave ''Lethal Weapon 4'' two stars out of four, writing: "''Lethal Weapon 4'' has all the technical skill of the first three movies in the series, but lacks the secret weapon, which was conviction. All four movies take two cop buddies and put them into spectacular and absurd action sequences, but the first three at least went through the motions of taking the plot seriously (and the first one did such a good job, it made my 'best 10' list of that year). This time, we're watching an exercise."
Michael O'Sullivan of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' called it a "stupid and violent delicacy" that balances a "patented blend of high action and low comedy".
The film was nominated for a
Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor for Pesci.
Home media
''Lethal Weapon 4'' has been released on
VHS and
DVD numerous times. It has been re-released in numerous sets that contain all four films in the series. ''Lethal Weapon 4'' was released on
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of ...
as part of a box set with the additional ''Lethal Weapon'' films on May 22, 2012.
Soundtrack
The film's music was composed by
Michael Kamen
Michael Arnold Kamen (April 15, 1948 – November 18, 2003) was an American composer (especially of film scores), orchestral arranger, orchestral conductor, songwriter, record producer and musician.
Early life
Michael Arnold Kamen was born in ...
,
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English Rock music, rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s l ...
, and
David Sanborn
David William Sanborn (July 30, 1945 – May 12, 2024) was an American alto saxophonist. He worked in many musical genres; his solo recordings typically blended jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He began playing the saxophone at the age o ...
. This was the only film in the series not to have a soundtrack album released alongside it, but in 2013, La-La Land Records released the score as discs seven and eight of its limited edition ''Lethal Weapon Soundtrack Collection''.
Sequel
There had long been talk of a fifth ''Lethal Weapon'' film, although both
Mel Gibson
Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. The recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Mel Gibson, multiple accolades, he is known for directing historical films as well for his act ...
and
Danny Glover
Danny Glover ( ; born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, producer, and political activist. Over his career he has received List of awards and nominations received by Danny Glover, numerous accolades including the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian A ...
had initially expressed a lack of interest. In 2007, Moviehole.net received word from sources that
Warner Bros. were in the early stages of trying to relaunch the ''Lethal Weapon'' series sometime in 2009 or later. A spec script treatment was written by
Shane Black
Shane Black (born December 16, 1961) is an American screenwriter, film director, and actor, known for his distinctive style of Action film, action and action comedy films. He is the original creator of the ''Lethal Weapon (franchise), Lethal Wea ...
and
Chuck Mondry, leading to rumors that the sequel was on fast track by
Warner Bros. with Black in the director's chair. In 2008, Richard Donner said, "Mel turned it down. I would like to think that Mel turned it down because I wasn't involved." Donner said that he and ''Lethal Weapon 4'' writer Channing Gibson "had an incredibly strong story for the fifth movie" but that the studio had opted to work with Joel Silver instead.
In November 2017, Mel Gibson hinted that a fifth movie might happen and that he, Richard Donner, and Danny Glover have discussed the idea to return. In December 2017, Donner confirmed in an interview on the Spocklight podcast that Gibson and Glover have agreed to return as Riggs and Murtaugh respectively and that he has a story all set. The only obstacle is Warner Bros. greenlighting the film. Channing Gibson remains involved as screenwriter. The story will take place in present-day and is intended to be the final film in the series. In February 2018, Donner revealed the film's official title to be ''Lethal Finale''; while also stating that the film is being held up by the production company and story. In January 2020, producer
Dan Lin confirmed that ''Lethal Weapon 5'' is in active development, with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover confirmed to return, and
Richard Donner
Richard Donner (born Richard Donald Schwartzberg; April 24, 1930 – July 5, 2021) was an American film director, producer and actor. Described as "one of Hollywood's most reliable makers of action blockbusters", Donner directed some of the mo ...
returning to direct, but that a script had not yet been finalized. In December 2020, Richard Donner confirmed that he was developing the sequel and would produce and direct it, adding that it would be the last film he directs. However, Donner died on July 5, 2021, leaving the fate of the film unknown. Mel Gibson has been approached for potentially directing the film.
On November 15, 2021, Gibson confirmed that he is in talks to direct and star in the fifth ''Lethal Weapon'' film, saying that he would be helming the film to honor Donner. It was also revealed that
Richard Wenk (''
The Equalizer'', ''
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back'') had drafted a screenplay. The production will be exclusive to
Max
Max or MAX may refer to:
Animals
* Max (American dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog
* Max (British dog), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of the OBE)
* Max (gorilla) ...
with no theatrical release.
References
External links
*
*
{{Richard Donner
1990s American films
1990s buddy comedy films
1990s buddy cop films
1990s Cantonese-language films
1990s English-language films
1990s Mandarin-language films
1998 action comedy films
1998 action thriller films
1998 comedy films
1998 films
1998 martial arts films
1990s pregnancy films
American action comedy films
American action thriller films
American buddy comedy films
American buddy cop films
American comedy thriller films
American martial arts films
American police detective films
American pregnancy films
American sequel films
English-language action comedy films
English-language crime films
Films about the Los Angeles Police Department
Films about human trafficking in the United States
Films about immigration
Films about United States Army Special Forces
Films directed by Richard Donner
Films produced by Joel Silver
Films scored by Eric Clapton
Films scored by Michael Kamen
Films set in Los Angeles
Films shot in California
Lethal Weapon (franchise)
Silver Pictures films
Triad films
Warner Bros. films
English-language thriller films
English-language buddy comedy films