Lethal Weapon 3
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| Lethal Weapon 3 | |
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 Lethal Weapon 3 movie poster |
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| Directed by | Richard Donner |
| Produced by | Richard Donner Joel Silver |
| Written by | Jeffrey Boam Robert Mark Kamen |
| Starring | Mel Gibson Danny Glover Joe Pesci Rene Russo Stuart Wilson |
| Music by | Michael Kamen Eric Clapton David Sanborn Elton John |
| Cinematography | Jan de Bont |
| Editing by | Robert Brown Battle Davis |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | May 15, 1992 (U.S.) |
| Running time | 118 min. 121 min. (director's cut) |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) |
| Followed by | Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Lethal Weapon 3 is a 1992 buddy cop action-comedy film directed by Richard Donner and starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Rene Russo and Stuart Wilson. It is a sequel to Lethal Weapon and Lethal Weapon 2.
The movie is set in 1992, five years after Riggs (Gibson) and Murtaugh (Glover) originally met. The pair are joined by their companion of three years ago, Leo Getz (Pesci), as well as beautiful but aggressive Internal Affairs Sgt. Lorna Cole (Russo). This time, the villain is intelligent but ruthless former LAPD Lieutenant Jack Travis (Stuart Wilson).
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[edit] Plot
Sergeants Riggs and Murtaugh respond to a bomb threat. Riggs convinces Murtaugh - who is working his last week before retirement - to enter the building before the bomb squad arrives, claiming that he can defuse the bomb himself, and that the bomb squad is always late. He convinces Murtaugh that they should cut the blue wire using the toilet bomb incident that occurred three years ago as an example, but instead he cuts the red wire. When he cuts the red wire, however, the bomb's timer accelerates, and the partners barely escape before the bomb detonates and destroys the building. To add insult to injury, the bomb squad arrives a few seconds later. Although they save a cat, the partners are demoted to patrol officers.
During their first patrol, Riggs and Murtaugh foil a routine armored car robbery; surprisingly, the robbers are found to have pistols loaded with armor-piercing bullets. They order one of the robbers brought in for interrogation, but arrive to find someone has infiltrated the police station and killed him. A hidden camera shows the killer to be former LAPD Lieutenant Jack Travis, legendary for both his brutality and his corruption.
Riggs and Murtaugh are promoted back to detective's rank. Leo Getz - who is now an estate agent trying to sell the Murtaugh home - recognizes Travis from the video, as a man he once did a favor for: box seats at ice hockey games. The three track Travis to a Los Angeles Kings game, but Travis gets away after shooting Leo on the ice (but not seriously wounding him).
During their investigation, Riggs observes a group of gang members making a drug deal. One opens fire with an automatic MAC-10, forcing Murtaugh to return fire, killing the gang member - who is revealed to be a fifteen-year-old boy named Daryl, a friend of Murtaugh's son. Murtaugh becomes depressed and hides from both Riggs and his family.
Riggs confronts Internal Affairs Sergeant Lorna Cole about joining forces, but she is reluctant at first because the case is supposed to be under her investigation. But they discover they are kindred spirits, and she shares what she knows: Travis has been stealing LAPD-seized guns and ammunition from police storage facilities, and selling the stolen weapons to street gangs, using the proceeds to finance a private housing project in the desert (thus allowing him to launder the money). The gun used by Daryl is one such weapon.
As time passes, Riggs and Cole become romantically involved after she shows off her own martial arts prowess in a fight with Travis's men, and while recuperating they compare scars and wounds of increasing seriousness.
Riggs ultimately helps Murtaugh cope, remembering how he felt for a long time after his wife died. Riggs also finally lets out his own resentment about Murtaugh retiring, saying it will be the end of their partnership, and probably their friendship, which is the best thing Riggs has in his life.
At Daryl's funeral, Murtaugh approaches the grieving parents to offer his condolences. The mother promptly slaps Murtaugh, but the father implores him to find the person who gave the gun to his son. Murtaugh confronts one of the gang's leaders, confirming that it came from Travis.
As Murtaugh, Riggs and Cole investigate, Captain Ed Murphy is kidnapped by Travis. The trio catches on to this just as Travis is mounting another raid on an LAPD storage warehouse. They give chase through L.A.'s under-construction subway system, and manage to rescue Murphy, though at the cost of a young rookie cop's life, care of Travis.
Following on real-estate information from Leo, the trio follow Travis to his housing development, and Riggs sets fire to it, while the trio take down several of Travis's thugs in a gunfight. During the fight, Travis shoots Cole several times with armor-piercing bullets, and she goes down. In rage, Riggs struggles with Travis, who knocks him and down and prepares to run him over with a backhoe loader. Riggs's shots are useless against the loader's dozer blade, but Murtaugh tosses him the Mac-10, also loaded with armor-piercers, and Riggs shoots Travis. The backhoe loader then crashes through the burning houses, lighting Travis on fire and fatally killing him. He runs to Lorna, and finds that she was wearing two bullet-proof vests and she survives, though seriously wounded.
On his retirement day, Murtaugh reconsiders and decides to extend his service in the force after all, preserving the Riggs/Murtaugh partnership.
As the credits roll, another bomb threat is reported, and Riggs again persuades Murtaugh to investigate. The two arrive on scene seconds before the building explodes; as the building collapses, they quickly drive away, both simultaneously stating, "I'm too old for this shit."
[edit] Reaction
The $35-million movie was a big box-office success, earning $145 million. Although slightly less than the $150 million domestic gross of the first sequel, it was nevertheless the second-most successful summer movie of 1992 (after Batman Returns) and the fourth most profitable film of the year.
Despite box-office success, critical reaction was mixed, especially in comparison with the previous two movies. Although the movie's action sequences and moments of humor are still eye-catching and entertaining, the film was criticized for being a bit repetitive and for almost repeating the formula that was used by its predecessors. Further complaints included that the neurotic Leo Getz, who made his debut in Lethal Weapon 2, is either relatively irrelevant to the film's storyline or the fact that he is not given enough screen time.
However, the movie still had some strengths. The new character of Lorna Cole (played by Rene Russo) - portrayed as a female version of Martin Riggs - finally added a (lasting) love interest for Riggs. Additionally, both the opening sequence and the finale are considered to be some of the best scenes of the Lethal Weapon saga.
The movie featured the songs "It's Probably Me", performed by Sting, and "Runaway Train", performed by Elton John and Eric Clapton.
[edit] Demolition scene
In the first scene of the movie, Riggs accidentally sets off a bomb that destroys the ICSI Building. The ICSI Building is actually the former City Hall building of Orlando, Florida. The entire scene was filmed in Downtown Orlando, at the intersection of Orange Avenue and South Street. One of the officers who sarcastically claps at them–in specific, the one that says "Bravo"–is played by Bill Frederick, who was Orlando's mayor at the time. In the various external shots in the scene, Orlando residents will recognize the new City Hall building (which has a Coca-Cola sign mounted onto it), the SunTrust Center (Orlando's tallest building) and the Orlando Utilities Commission building. Warner Bros. decided to use the demolition of the building in the movie, and as a result paid for the demolition.
The building was demolished so that it would collapse slightly forward (toward Orange Avenue), minimizing the chances of it damaging the new City Hall building, built directly behind it. The space was cleared out and became a plaza for the new City Hall, with a fountain and a generic monument.
In the brief scene after the closing credits, the building that is demolished was the Hotel Soreno in St. Petersburg, Florida.
[edit] Miscellanea
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- The game Riggs activates on Lorna's computer is the computer version of the Cinemaware game The Three Stooges.
- Screenwriter Jeffrey Boam is credited twice in the 'screenplay by' credits. This is because he did one draft by himself (granting him the first credit) and a second draft collaborating with Robert Mark Kamen (granting him the second credit). If two writers are credited on a film and their names are separated with an ampersand (&), this means they collaborated on the screenplay. If their names are separated with the word 'and,' this means they both contributed enough significant material to receive credit but did not work together (more than likely one was hired to rewrite the previous writer). In this rare scenario, Boam was hired to rewrite his own script with a second writer.
- The housing development under construction was an abandoned construction project in Lancaster, CA that succumbed to the housing market bust of the early 1990s. The city allowed the film company to film when they agreed to demolish it when finished.
- This was filmed from October 1991 to January 1992.
- Robert De Niro was considered for the role of Jack Travis.
- The gunfight at the housing development at the end of the movie was shot in January 1992. The fires were the heat source for the actors on the set, due to temperatures at night in that desert only being as low as 11 degrees.
- From August 1991 to October 1991, the production crew fitted the old Orlando City Hall building featured in the opening scene with carefully placed explosives to create the visual effect of a bomb explosion.
- Leo Getz was originally not in the script and all of his scenes were written in afterwards, In the original script Leo had left L.A for New York.
- Lorna's computer is a 1991 Compaq.
- At the end of the film, in the bathroom scene, Joe Pesci's broken hand changes from left to right and then again to right. This was due to the mirror next to the bath tub.
[edit] See also
- Lethal Weapon 3 – soundtrack album
- Lethal Weapon
- Lethal Weapon 2
- Lethal Weapon 4
[edit] External links
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