Lethal Weapon 4
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| Lethal Weapon 4 | |
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 Lethal Weapon 4 movie poster |
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| Directed by | Richard Donner |
| Produced by | Richard Donner Joel Silver |
| Written by | Jonathan Lemkin Alfred Gough Miles Millar Channing Gibson |
| Starring | Mel Gibson Danny Glover Joe Pesci Rene Russo Chris Rock Jet Li |
| Music by | Michael Kamen Eric Clapton David Sanborn |
| Cinematography | Andrzej Bartkowiak |
| Editing by | Dallas Puett Kevin Stitt Eric Strand Frank J. Urioste |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | July 10 1998 (USA) |
| Running time | 127 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English Cantonese Mandarin |
| Budget | $140,000,000 (est.) |
| Preceded by | Lethal Weapon 3 (1992) |
| Followed by | Lethal Weapon 5 (2010) rumored |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Lethal Weapon 4 is a 1998 buddy cop action-comedy film directed by Richard Donner and starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Rene Russo, Chris Rock and Jet Li. It is the final film in the Lethal Weapon series.
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[edit] Synopsis
In this installment of the Lethal Weapon series, Lorna Cole is pregnant with Martin Riggs' baby; they are not married but both are thinking about it and have misgivings and fears. Murtaugh's daughter Rianne is also pregnant and has secretly married Lee Butters, a young cop who works at the same precinct as Murtaugh and Riggs, though she cannot tell her father because he doesn't want her to date cops.
The opening scene is an unrelated sequence in which Riggs and Murtaugh confront a man wearing a flame-retardant armored suit and wielding an automatic firearm and a flamethrower. The unidentified man is destroying cars and shops along a city street. Aside from some comedic value and a reminder to the audience of Riggs marksmanship skills, the scene mainly serves to show the two partners informing each other of Lorna's and Rianne's pregnancies. After this scene, a title card shifts the story to "almost nine months later."
The rest of the movie revolves around Riggs, Murtaugh, and Butters' investigation of a Chinese immigrant smuggling ring, which begins after a vessel is captured with a cargo hold of slave labor. That night, Murtaugh, along with Riggs and Leo Getz (Pecsi) (who had now become a private detective) finds a small dingy alongside with an entire Chinese family who he 'rescues' and provides shelter for at his house, claiming to be 'freeing slaves'.
Information about Uncle Benny (Kim Chan) then leads them to Chinatown, where they are introduced to their new arch-nemesis, a high-ranking Triad negotiator named Wa Sing Ku (played by Jet Li). Wa Sing Ku is organizing the release from prison of four overlords or Triads, called the Four Fathers, from a corrupt Chinese general in exchange for counterfeit money. The captive artist working on the master-plate to create the 'funny money' is the elder uncle to Hong, the father of the Chinese family Murtaugh has rescued.
Riggs and Murtaugh decide to hire Leo to follow Uncle Benny around. When they get too close, the Triad gang decides to strike back. When Hong contacted his uncle, Riggs and Murtaugh come home to find Wah Sing Ku there with the other gang members holding Murtaugh's family hostage and that Hong and his family were already taken away. After a brief skirmish (where Wah Sing Ku dismantles Riggs' gun with a flick of his wrist), the entire family is tied up and the house is set on fire with everyone inside, including both pregnant women. Little Ping, the smallest of the Chinese children, who had evaded capture earlier manages to escape and frees them just enough to break out through the living room window.
Riggs takes a radio from Lorna's car and the pair set off with Rianne's car in hot pursuit of two of the Triads. Reaching them on the freeway, Riggs passes the wheel to Murtaugh, climbs out of the car and leaps over to a mobile home. He pulls one of the thugs through the car window into it, demanding to know where the Hongs are. After engaging in a fight they crash onto the road; Riggs, sitting on a table holds onto the trailer by the plastic covering they fell through, and the Triad is run over by a bus. His partner accelerates and attempts to kill Riggs, who is forced to throw one of the table legs at the assailant. Murtaugh rams into the Triad car and, hearing sirens, the thug makes an escape. Riggs climbs back beside Murtaugh, and they chase the thug, trying to find answers. However, they accidentally fly off a ramp into a building, driving through one of the floors and driving out back onto the road. Then the last Triad they know of is killed by a truck.
Leo alerts them that he had tracked down Uncle Benny at his dentist and while using Leo as a distraction to keep the dentist busy, the three use laughing gas to extract information from him. Here Murtaugh inadvertently learns that Butters is the father of his daughter's baby, but puts it aside until later. In a comedic scene, Uncle Benny mentions the Four Fathers, which initially is mistaken as 'forefathers'. Benny is later strangled to death by Wah Sing Ku for this indiscretion, and Hong is killed as an example to get his uncle to cooperate, whom is also murdered when his work is complete. After locating the area where Hong's family was held, one of Riggs and Murtaugh's detective friends, an expert of Chinese society is able to identify the Four Fathers after Murtaugh mentioned them and they are able to figure where the meet was taking place.
Riggs, Murtagh and several other detectives disrupt the exchange and expose the money that is being used to buy the prisoner's release as counterfeit. As a result, the Chinese general personally executes the Four Fathers. Wah Sing Ku shoots and kills the general and a three way gun battle breaks out between the cops, the Triads and the general's private army in the foreign trade zone, presumably down by the docks. During the fight, one of the Triad leaders and older brother to Wa Sing Ku is killed by Murtaugh, and Butters is injured while protecting Murtaugh, but his wounds are not serious. The climactic scene takes place on a pier where Riggs and Murtaugh, both unarmed, take on Wa Sing Ku who is enraged by the death of his brother. Eventually, Murtaugh is knocked out and Riggs and Wa Sing Ku fall into the water as the concrete pier begins to collapse. In desperation, Riggs finds a AK-47 and kills Wa Sing Ku underwater, but becomes trapped under part of the broken pier. Murtaugh comes to, realizes Riggs is in the water and dives in to free him. Murtaugh tells Riggs that he could hear Riggs willing him to save him.
The movie ends with Lorna and Martin marrying, and Roger accepting Lee and Rianne's marriage. Two babies are born to Rianne and Lorna, as Martin Riggs is finally settling down. The Hong family is granted asylum. The end credits feature a collage of screen shots and snapshots taken during production from all four movies in the series.
[edit] Themes
Prominent in the story is the idea that Riggs is now feeling his age and has started echoing Murtaugh's standard line about getting "too old for this shit." Riggs and Murtaugh resist this idea and talk numerous times in the film about the power of their own will to bring them through. Riggs and Lorna also have a couple of conversations about getting married now that she is going to have his child. This sets up a conflict for Riggs as he has not fully achieved closure after the death of his wife, Vicki, years before.
This installment also continues the series' tradition of political statements being integrated into the story. The film takes a couple of noticeable jabs at the NRA and features dialogue concerning U.S. immigration attitudes and the problem of slavery both past and present. There are also some running jokes carried over from the previous movies such as Riggs' antagonistic relationship with the police psychiatrist played by Mary Ellen Trainor and Leo's tendency toward profanity-laced tirades.
[edit] Reaction
Although the film grossed $130 million domestically, it was not considered a runaway financial success as the previous three films had been. Although shooting began in January 1998, just months before the film's release, the film had a production budget in excess of $140 million along with related advertising expenses. This made the fourth movie the most expensive entry of the Lethal Weapon franchise. Its profit margin was saved in part due to the combined foreign box office sales making the film gross approximately $285 million in total. [1] Still, like its predecessors, Lethal Weapon 4 was among the top 10 grossing movies of its release year.
The UK version is heavily edited by the BBFC, with 93 seconds removed due to violence. Ninety shots are removed in 38 separate cuts.
[edit] Cast and production notes
Jackie Chan was initially offered the role of Wa Sing Ku, but he declined since he does not like to play villain roles. Instead, the film became Jet Li's American film debut. It is also the first film where Li plays the villain.
Mel Gibson was reluctant to revisit the franchise and was paid $25 million for the film. This is the first and only film in the franchise where his character's hair is cut shorter and he is not sporting his mullet hairstyle as he had in the previous three films. In reality, Mel Gibson abandoned this hairstyle in between Lethal Weapon 3 and his 1994 film Maverick.
After appearing in this film, Pesci announced that he was leaving acting in order to pursue his musical career and to enjoy life away from the camera. (Though in 2006, he would make a cameo appearance in the film The Good Shepherd, which was directed by friend and fellow actor Robert De Niro.)
Larenz Tate and Chris Tucker turned down the role of Detective Butters, Tucker turned down the role as he was filming Rush Hour and did not want to play a similar character.
The freeway chase scene was filmed on an unopened section of Interstate 215 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Exit numbers (which were not installed on most California freeways until 2002) can be seen on highway signs during the pursuit.
Van Halen performed "Fire in the Hole" on the soundtrack (From the album Van Halen III).
There was talk of a Lethal Weapon 5, where Richard Donner said "I have the story in my head for a fifth and final Lethal Weapon, but it's all up to Mel Gibson."[2] Gibson, however, had no interest in continuing the series. In 2007, Moviehole.net received word from sources that Warner Bros. are in the early stages of trying to relaunch the Lethal Weapon series sometime in 2009 or later [3].
[edit] References
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