History Headscratchers / LethalWeapon

** Remember also that the bad guys are all Special Forces veterans of TheVietnamWar. They quite likely learned their torture methodology during that time frame.

** Joshua's a sadist, so the interrogation and kidnapping is mostly just a pretext for some ColdBloodedTorture and revenge against the heroes.

* What was the point of all the torturing and hostage-taking in the first movie? Those sorts of things are for when someone has something you want but don't have. Not for finding out how much they know. They clearly weren't going to believe Murtaugh and Riggs if they said anything less than explaining the entire plan in full detail, so why don't they just assume they know everything and move on? It's the only answer they're prepared to accept anyway, and it's pretty commmon-sense.

** Nitrous Oxide - in supervised, controlled doses - acts as a tranquilizer for anyone who is having a tooth pulled. Dentists, or orthodontists who need to do such procedures, will require that the patient have someone to drive them home afterward, as the effects of the gas - which vary from patient to patient - take a while to wear off.

* A question regarding a scene from the 4th film: Why in heck does a ''dental office'' have ''laughing gas''?!

** [=McAllister=] is dead, but his files and records aren't; for a drug operation that large there ''has'' to be some kind of paper trail, and doubtlessly the police will be going through them with a fine-toothed comb. The police are also presumably going to watch the docks closely for any suspicious cargos or persons coming in around about the time that the shipment was expected. The smugglers on the boat (who are presumably unaware that the network they're relying on to pick up the drugs has completely fallen apart underneath them) are now going to be holding onto a large quantity of drugs that are now not going to be picked up by anyone and are going to have to get rid of them somehow without having any replacement networks in place. This will most likely make them stand out a lot more as they put out feelers to get new contacts, act more suspiciously than they otherwise would have had the network been running smoothly, and so on.

*** But they don't don't anything about the shipment that was coming in other than the fact that it's due in the next few days. They don't know who's delivering it, how it's being delivered, or where it's coming in.

** DiplomaticImmunity [[ArtisticLicenceLaw isn't.]] The theory behind immunity is based on the fact that sovereigns don't subject each other to the laws of their own countries, and this extends to the body of the ambassadors that each country may send ''while that ambassador is doing that country's diplomatic or policy work.'' This is why UN diplomats should technically pay their New York Parking tickets - infringing New York Traffic laws are almost never the goals or work of an outside sovereign nation. Cop killing and drug smuggling is *not* the Republic of South Africa's international diplomatic policy - Rudd wouldn't be covered, even if he was the ambassador (and if he's just a random functionary within the embassy, that's even worse- they're not covered ''at all''). Further, nations may declare any of their ambassadors ''persona non grata'' which means that they're withdrawing their immunity. The Republic of FW De Klerk would have probably signed that order in a heartbeat in the face of evidence of Rudd's atrocities.

** DiplomaticImmunity [[ArtisticLicenceLaw isn't.]] The theory behind immunity is based on the fact that sovereigns don't subject each other to the laws of their own countries, and this extends to the body of the ambassadors that each country may send ''while that ambassador is doing that country's diplomatic or policy work.'' This is why UN diplomats should technically pay their New York Parking tickets - infringing New York Traffic laws are almost never the goals or work of an outside sovereign nation. Cop killing and drug smuggling is *not* the Republic of South Africa's international diplomatic policy - Rudd wouldn't be covered, even if he was the ambassador (and if he's just a random functionary within the embassy, that's even worse- they're not covered ''at all''. Further, nations may declare any of their ambassadors ''persona non grata'' which means that they're withdrawing their immunity. The Republic of FW De Klerk would have probably signed that order in a heartbeat in the face of evidence of Rudd's atrocities.

** DiplomaticImmunity [[ArtisticLicenceLaw isn't.]] The theory behind immunity is based on the fact that sovereigns don't subject each other to the laws of their own countries, and this extends to the body of the ambassadors that each country may send ''while that ambassador is doing that country's diplomatic or policy work.'' This is why UN diplomats should technically pay their New York Parking tickets - infringing New York Traffic laws are almost never the goals or work of an outside sovereign nation. Cop killing and drug smuggling is *not* the Republic of South Africa's international diplomatic laws - Rudd wouldn't be covered, even if he was the ambassador (and if he's just a random functionary within the embassy, that's even worse- they're not covered ''at all''. Further, nations may declare any of their ambassadors ''persona non grata'' which means that they're withdrawing their immunity. The Republic of FW De Klerk would have probably signed that order in a heartbeat in the face of evidence of Rudd's atrocities.

** Bearing in mind the dismaying level of [[ArtisticLicenseGunSafety gun-related ignorance]] on display across the entire series, it's unlikely the writer knew trauma plates were even a ''thing'', let alone made sure a character used one.

** Since any complaints the South African government might raise about Riggs and Murtagh's conduct would be rapidly countered with the fact that South African diplomats were engaged in the far more serious acts of smuggling drugs into the United States and kidnapping and murdering local police officers and citizens, and since the United States government is going to be less than thrilled with the South African government over that to begin with, it's practically guaranteed that the South African government wouldn't kick up that much of a stink in case they make things worse for themselves. Most likely, they offered a lot of profound regrets and apologies, took their lumps and, like the troper above said, just waited for the whole mess to go away as quickly as possible.

** They probably would have notified Customs or had other LAPD officers do a search and seizure. It's safe to assume that heroin didn't make it to the streets, given the fact that they took out the entire distribution network.

* What happened to the big shipment of heroin that [=McAllister=] was expecting during the first movie? The people who were going to pick it up are all dead, but depending on how it was coming in, it might not have been possible for the delivery men to turn around and take it back to Asia.

* I'm genuinely curious about the legal aftermath of the second film. While there were oodles and oodles of evidence against Rudd and his cronies (especially when they started killing off police officers) there surely had to be some sort of Internal Affairs or even Department of State investigation at the end to clear Riggs and Murtaugh of any culpability. I'm particularly interested in the kind of defense that could apply: they didn't have any warrants for searching/destroying Rudd's property, much less arresting, let alone ''killing'' his staff (not all of their kills were in self-defense.) In fact, much of the property they destroyed wasn't even Rudd's, it was the sovereign domain of the South African government. It gets worse when you remember that they had BOTH left their badges behind in order to indulge in acts of revenge, outside the auspice (and legal procedure) of the LAPD. Would they be reprimanded? Suspended temporarily? Demoted?

* So Lorna survives getting shot with Hollywood "cop killer" bullets by putting on two ballistic vests, even though they just easily punched through a solid steel bulldozer blade? That makes no sense even if you forgot that earlier in the movie, Riggs demonstrated the ammunition by shooting clean through a free-hanging vest. In case you're not following, that's two layers it went through in that scene, yet the same two layers somehow stopped the bullets cold at the end. Wait, what?

** Isn't that the reason the partolmen were there?

** It was the alley outside the club [=McAllister=] held them hostage. Murtaugh was looking for him but it was a lucky coincidence that he fled at that point, at that time.

* In the first film, how did Murtaugh know where to find General [=McAllister=] at the end? It looked like he just wandered into the right alley.

* In the first film, how did Murtaugh know where to find General McAllister at the end? It looked like he just wandered into the right alley.

** She had nothing to do with the story whatsoever, other than the possibility of creating wacky misunderstandings or some sort of comic relief that Leo would be there for anyway. And considering Murtaugh was stuck in a [[spoiler:HeroicBSOD]], followed by an [[spoiler:enraged HesBack]], there was absolutely no way she'd fit without being anticlimatic and a tired gag.

* What the HECK happened to Delores!? She was in Lethal Weapon 3 at the beginning, showed up again breifly later, and then she was dropped from the story line all together. What happened?