History Trivia / LethalWeapon

** Creator/ShaneBlack's original draft was much darker and more violent. The sniper scene in the Director's Cut one dead kid being carried on a gurney and the draft ended with a big chase scene including a police helicopter which gets blown up by Joshua who fires napalm missile at it causing it to crash into the Hollywood sign and start a huge fire, Murtaugh killing General McAllister while he is driving a a trailer truck full of heroin and guns which then crashes and explodes over Hollywood Hills causing for heroine to start snowing over the burning Hollywood sign, and Riggs killing Joshua by stabbing his finger through Joshua's eye right to the brain.

** ShaneBlack and Warren Murphy's treatment for the second film, titled ''Play Dirty'', was deemed too dark and depressing and was heavily rewritten by Jeffrey Boam, who had served as an uncredited script doctor on the first film. However, Donner and producer Joel Silver insisted on near-constant on-set revisions, necessitating an uncredited Robert Mark Kamen to rewrite much of the characters' dialogue mere minutes before filming. Almost all of the villains' dialogue exchanges were penned by Kamen during principal photography.
** Donner's dissatisfaction with Boam's treatment for the third film led to the writer being fired and replaced altogether by Kamen, who made constant revisions between 1989 and 1991 before the producers rehired Boam to make new revisions to Kamen's material. Boam asked to work alone on the script, and made constant revisions between October 1991 and January 1992 while filming was already taking place. Boam and Kamen moved onto other projects, leading to CarrieFisher to step in as on-set script doctor and writing most of the romantic exchanges between Riggs and Lorna Cole.
** The fourth film was fast-tracked into production without a script, leading to it being written on-the-fly during principal photography by no less than four credited writers (Channing Gibson, Jonathan Lemkin, Alfred Gough, Miles Millar) and at least three uncredited contributors (Tony Gilroy, Jonathan Hensleigh, Graham Yost). In the end, Gibson was given a screenplay credit, while Lemkin, Gough, and Millar were given a "Story by" credit.

* ActorAllusion: Kim Chan (Uncle Benny) says, "Bloody marvelous!" a catchphrase often used by his character The Ancient in ''Series/KungFu: The Legend Continues''. [[Film/TheCorruptor This also isn't the first time he played a crime lord named Uncle Benny]].

* FakeNationality:
** ''2-4'': In an odd reversal of Jewish actors portraying Italian-Americans, Italian-American actor {{Joe Pesci}} plays Leo Getz, a character of German-Jewish descent.
** ''2'': None of the [[AmoralAfrikaner Amoral Afrikaners]] in ''2'' are played by actual South Africans. Joss Ackland (Rudd), Patsy Kensit (Rika), and Jim Piddock (Steyner) are English, Derrick O'Connor (Pieter) is Irish, and MarkRolston (Hans) is American.
** ''3'': Ex-LAPD CorruptCop Jack Travis and Internal Affairs Chief Herman Walters are played by Briton Stuart Wilson and Canadian Alan Scarfe respectively.

** ''Film/FortyEightHours'' from 1982 should be considered the origin of the 1980s buddy-cop film, but the Lethal Weapon series does codify most of the tropes.

* FakeNationality: None of the South African characters were the real deal.

* ActorAllusion: [[Film/MadMax This isn't the first time Mel Gibson plays a burnt out cop whose wife has been murdered]]. [[Film/MadMax2TheRoadWarrior He also eats dog biscuits in the third movie]].

* FakeAmerican: The English Stuart Wilson as Jack Travis.

* UncreditedRole: Rather infamously, each of the films scripts have undergone heavy last-minute revisions by uncredited writers, usually leading to from the original writers CreatorBacklash.
** Jeffrey Boam doctored Black's initial script for the first film, removing many of the DarkerAndEdgier components and adding more humor in order to avert the perceived DarknessInducedAudienceApathy.
** Black and Warren Murphy's (of ''TheDestroyer'' fame) treatment for the sequel, titled ''Play Dirty'', was deemed too dark and depressing, and included a potentially-expensive action setpieces including a plane carrying a shipment of cocaine exploding over Los Angeles causing it to "snow", and a climactic battle inside of a massive bush-fire in the Hollywood Hills. Furthermore, the violence was much BloodierAndGorier than what ended up on-screen; with the character of Detective Shapiro being tortured to death and the BigBad being impaled on a length of rebar (the latter death was ironically reused for the LighterAndSofter fourth film years later). Most controversially, the character of Riggs was killed in the climax. Producer Joel Silver hired Boam to heavily re-write the ''Play Dirty'' treatment into what eventually ended up on-screen, with Robert Mark Kamen hired to provide uncredited on-set re-writes at the behest of director Richard Donner. Black was upset by the changes, and labeled his original treatment "the best thing I ever wrote."
** CarrieFisher was an uncredited script doctor on the third film, which itself was heavily changed from Boam's original treatments.
** The fourth film began as a January 1995 treatment by Boam, who centered it on Riggs and Murtaugh fighting white supremacists engaged in a series of terrorist attacks on Los Angeles. This treatment went unused, and the film languished on the shelf for three years until Warner Bros. decided to fast-track it as a guaranteed summer tentpole in the midst of riskier projects. Production began in January of 1998 with a projected July release date, but no script. Several writers were brought on board to provide on-the-fly scenes with a only a loose understanding of the overall story. The final screenplay was credited to Channing Gibson, with a story credit to Jonathan Lemkin, Alfred Gough, and Miles Millar. Boam, however, provided numerous on-set rewrites, but went uncredited for his contributions due to his animosity toward producer Joel Silver at having thrown out his original treatment, which he deemed superior to the finished film.

* CreatorBacklash: Creator/ShaneBlack disliked the sequels, mainly due to how much of his script for the second film was re-written. He also said how the problem with the final version of the second movie was that they did too much comedy, and how he dislikes the other two sequels of the film because of the way they ruined Riggs' character (in his opinion, anyway).

** ''2'': None of the [[AmoralAfrikaner Amoral Afrikaners]] in ''2'' are played by actual South Africans.

** Creator/JackieChan was considered for the role of Wah Sing Ku in the fourth film, but turned it down, because he chooses never to play the villain in a movie.
** Music/SeanCombs, Creator/EddieMurphy, Creator/WillSmith, Creator/LarenzTate and Creator/ChrisTucker, were considered Lee Butters.

* ThrowItIn: Leo's rants about people who fuck you with various goods and services, (The drive-thru, the hospital, etc.) are improvised. In fact, when he goes on his rant about being fucked by the hospital in three, you can see Renee Russo [[{{Corpsing}} start to crack up]] in one shot before it's cut to another. The rant he and Butters go on about cellphones in ''4'' is entirely unscripted, with Donner apparently just telling them to, "Bitch about cell phones for a while."

* CreatorBacklash: Creator/ShaneBlack disliked the sequels, mainly due to how much of his script for the second film was re-written. He also said how the problem with the final version of the second movie was that they did too much comedy, and how he dislikes the other two sequels of the film because of the way they ruined Riggs' character.

** Creator/PierceBrosnan, Creator/KevinCostner, Creator/MichaelDouglas, Creator/HarrisonFord, Creator/RichardGere, Creator/JeffGoldblum, Creator/RutgerHauer, Creator/MichaelKeaton, Creator/ChristopherLambert, Richard Norton, Michael Nouri, Creator/SeanPenn,
Creator/ChristopherReeve, Creator/KurtRussell, Creator/CharlieSheen, Creator/PatrickSwayze and Creator/BruceWillis all turned down the role of Martin Riggs. Creator/ShaneBlack wanted Creator/WilliamHurt, but studio executives informed him that Hurt was too obscure for the part.
** Creator/PeterBoyle, Creator/BruceDern, Robert Duvall, Creator/JamesEarlJones, Richard Jordan and Creator/LeeMarvin were considered for General McAllister.

** Music/SeanCombs, Creator/EddieMurphy, Creator/WillSmith, Creator/LarenzTate and Creator/ChrisTucker, were considered Lee Butters.

* ActorAllusion: [[Film/MadMax This isn't the first time Mel Gibson plays a burnt out cop whose wife has been murdered]]. [[Film/MadMax2TheRoadWarrior He also eats dog biscuits in the third movie]].

* CareerResurrection: The original was one for Creator/GaryBusey.

* TheDanza: In the second film, the carpenter is named [=McGee=]. This is the actual surname of the actor portraying him, Jack [=McGee=].
* DeletedScene: Riggs originally had a different introduction. In it, Riggs is sitting alone in a bar getting drunk. He finishes off one bottle of Jack Daniels and orders another, but the bartender, both concerned for and wary of Riggs, cuts him off. Riggs stumbles into the back and is accosted by two hoodlums. He tries to warn them off, but they don't listen. He ends up crippling them and the bartender is not surprised. He tells Riggs as a friend to get out. Creator/RichardDonner felt it was too dark to open the film with. He felt that with the show of violence, viewers would judge Riggs' character before they got the chance to know him. Hence, he changed Riggs' introduction to the lighter, funnier morning scene in his trailer
* DyeingForYourArt: Creator/GaryBusey dyed his hair blonde to play Mr. Joshua.
* EnforcedMethodActing: In the scene where Riggs is contemplating suicide, there is an actual bullet in the chamber which Creator/MelGibson was pointing at his head, thinking that it would allow for a greater sense of portraying the scene realistically and dramatically--and foolishly.
* FakeAmerican: Stuart Wilson in the third film.
* FakeNationality: The second film had South-Africans as villains. None of them were the real deal.

* InMemoriam: The first film was dedicated to legendary stuntman Dar Robinson, who was killed in a motorcycle accident shortly after principal photography was finished.
* MissingTrailerScene: Theatrical and TV trailers for the film show few deleted and extended scenes that were never released in full on any DVD or Blu-Ray release of the movie; Murtaugh saying "New Partner?" after he gets thrown to the floor by Riggs when they first meet and when he is told that Riggs is his new partner, Riggs and Murtaugh driving in the car and Murtaugh telling Riggs "Don't kill anybody" and Riggs repeats the same line, couple shots of short deleted scene where Murtaugh is shooting his gun at target range alone, Riggs beating up two guys who try to rob and kill him while he is in the bar (original introduction scene for his character), and Riggs saying additional line "Nobody can touch me" after Murtaugh asks him is he really that good as he says he is.

** Creator/JetLi was delighted to get the role of Wah Sing Ku because in China he is repeatedly type cast as a hero and he revelled getting a chance to play a villain for once. He would play villains in other American movies afterwards, but this was his first real bad guy role.
* StarMakingRole: For Creator/MelGibson, Creator/DannyGlover, and Creator/JetLi.
** Whilst Mel Gibson had commercial success in the ''Film/MadMax'' films and critical success in ''{{Film/Gallipoli}}'' and ''Film/TheYearOfLivingDangerously'', the original ''Film/LethalWeapon'' was the film that established him as an A-lister.
** Danny Glover was primarily a character actor in supporting roles before the original film proved that he was a capable leading man.
** ''Lethal Weapon 4'' is the film responsible for introducing American audiences to Jet Li - doubly so as he played the main villain, which helped break his typecasting as strictly heroic characters.
* ThrowItIn:
** Leo's rants about people who fuck you with various goods and services, (The drive-thru, the hospital, etc.) are improvised. In fact, when he goes on his rant about being fucked by the hospital in three, you can see Renee Russo [[{{Corpsing}} start to crack up]] in one shot before it's cut to another. The rant he and Butters (ChrisRock) go on about cellphones in ''4'' is entirely unscripted, with Donner apparently just telling them to, "Bitch about cell phones for a while."
** In the second film, Jack [=McGee=] ad-libbed his line about the condom commercial during rehearsals. The cast and crew liked it so much it was kept in the film.
* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The first film establishes that Murtagh and Riggs are both [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietnam War]] veterans, [[spoiler: as are the villains]], and the second film centers around South Africa still being an apartheid state.

** Creator/ChristopherReeve, Michael Nouri, Creator/KurtRussell, Creator/MichaelKeaton, Creator/ChristopherLambert, Creator/CharlieSheen, Creator/PatrickSwayze, Creator/PierceBrosnan, Creator/JeffGoldblum, Creator/KevinCostner, Creator/RutgerHauer, Richard Norton, Creator/SeanPenn, Creator/RichardGere, Creator/BruceWillis, Creator/HarrisonFord and Creator/MichaelDouglas all turned down the role of Martin Riggs. Creator/ShaneBlack wanted Creator/WilliamHurt, but studio executives informed him that Hurt was too obscure for the part.

** The original script for the second film was different. Leo Getz being only a minor character and having only one scene and few lines of dialogue. Lot more violence throughout like South African villains, who were even more vicious in original script than in the final film, torturing Shapiro, a female police officer working with Riggs and Murtaugh (the one who is killed by a bomb in the pool in the film) to death in a very nasty scene. There was also a scene where Riggs is tortured by South Africans in a similar way like he was in the first film but much worse. The script also included an action sequence in which plane full of cocaine gets destroyed causing for cocaine to fall all over L.A like snow. The ending of the script included climactic battle which took place at hills engulfed with big brush fire, and after the destruction of the stilt house, Riggs chases Benedict (original name of the villain Pieter Vorstedt from the movie) who was different and lot more dangerous character in original script and Riggs' "arch-nemesis, his worst nightmare" as Black himself said, into the fire. After the final battle with Benedict, Riggs dies very slowly after he gets stabbed by him. The last scene in Black's script was Murtaugh watching the video tape that Riggs made earlier since he had a premonition that he was going to die and in which he says his goodbye to Murtaugh.
** In earlier drafts of the third film, Lorna was completely different, had a different name and wasn't a woman, and was actually just as lethal and crazy as Riggs which made him his match. Riggs did however still had different love interest in those drafts. He was actually having an affair with Roger's oldest daughter Rianne, which explains a couple of parts in the finished film where Roger suspects that Riggs and Rianne are having an affair. Those parts are only bits left from original drafts where the two of them were a secret couple.

** Creator/RobertDeNiro was considered to play Jack Travis in the third film.
** Leo Getz was originally not in the script for the third film and all of his scenes were written in afterwards. In the original script Leo had left L.A. for New York.
** Jeffrey Boam's unused script for the fourth film was built around Riggs and Murtaugh dealing with racist white trash [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic right wing]] [[ThoseWackyNazis neo-nazi]] [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic survivalists militia group]] who were doing a terrorist attack in L.A. The fourth film was also supposed to be a DarkerAndEdgier sequel.

** Creator/ChrisTucker, Creator/WillSmith, Creator/EddieMurphy, and Creator/LarenzTate were considered for the role of Lee Butters in the fourth film.
** Butters' character was originally going to be a gay character but once filming started, everyone involved realized how the decision to make him gay didn't work, so his character was re-written again to be a husband of Roger's daughter Rianne.

* DeletedScene: Riggs originally had a different introduction. In it, Riggs is sitting alone in a bar getting drunk. He finishes off one bottle of Jack Daniels and orders another, but the bartender, both concerned for and wary of Riggs, cuts him off. Riggs stumbles into the back and is accosted by two hoodlums. He tries to warn them off, but they don't listen. He ends crippling up them and the bartender is not surprised. He tells Riggs as a friend to get out. Creator/RichardDonner felt it was too dark to open the film with. He felt that with the show of violence, viewers would judge Riggs' character before they got the chance to know him. Hence, he changed Riggs' introduction to the lighter, funnier morning scene in his trailer

* PlayingGertrude: Riggs was meant to be 38, yet Creator/MelGibson was 30.
** Also, Murtaugh was 50, yet Creator/DannyGlover was 40.

* ThrowItIn: Leo's rants about people who fuck you with various goods and services, (The drive-thru, the hospital, etc.) are improvised. In fact, when he goes on his rant about being fucked by the hospital in three, you can see Renee Russo [[{{Corpsing}} start to crack up]] in one shot before it's cut to another. The rant he and Butters (ChrisRock) go on about cellphones in ''4'' is entirely unscripted, with Donner apparently just telling them to, "Bitch about cell phones for a while."

** Creator/ChristopherReeve, Michael Nouri, Creator/KurtRussell, Creator/MichaelKeaton, Creator/ChristopherLambert, Creator/CharlieSheen, Creator/PatrickSwayze, Creator/PierceBrosnan, Creator/JeffGoldblum, Creator/KevinCostner, Creator/RutgerHauer, Richard Norton, Creator/SeanPenn, Creator/RichardGere, Creator/BruceWillis, Creator/HarrisonFord and Creator/MichaelDouglas all turned down the role of Martin Riggs.
** Creator/ShaneBlack's original draft was much darker and more violent. The sniper scene in the Director's Cut one dead kid being carried on a gurney and the draft ended with a big chase scene including helicopters and a trailer truck full of cocaine which explodes over Hollywood Hills causing for cocaine to start snowing over Hollywood sign.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: Initial UK releases of Lethal Weapon 2 and 4 suffered cuts for a lower category.

** The original script for the second film was different. Leo Getz being only a minor character and having only one scene and few lines of dialogue. Lot more violence throughout like South African villains, who were even more vicious in original script than in the final film, torturing Shapiro, a female police officer working with Riggs and Murtaugh (the one who is killed by a bomb in the pool in the film) to death in a very nasty scene. There was also a scene where Riggs is tortured by South Africans in a similar way like he was in the first film but much worse. The script also included an action sequence in which plane full of cocaine gets destroyed causing for cocaine to fall all over L.A like snow. The ending of the script included climactic battle which took place at hills engulfed with big brush fire, and after destruction of stilt house Riggs chases Benedict (original name of the villain Pieter Vorstedt from the movie) who was different and lot more dangerous character in original script and Riggs' "arch-nemesis, his worst nightmare" as Black himself said, into the fire. After the final battle with Benedict, Riggs dies very slowly after he gets stabbed by him. The last scene in Black's script was Murtaugh watching the video tape that Riggs made earlier since he had a premonition that he was going to die and in which he says his goodbye to Murtaugh.
** In earlier drafts of the third film, Lorna was completely different, had a different name and wasn't a woman, and was actually just as lethal and crazy as Riggs which made him his match. Riggs did however still had different love interest in those drafts. He was actually having an affair with Roger's oldest daughter Rianne, which explains couple parts in the finished film where Roger suspects that Riggs and Rianne are having an affair, those parts are only bits left from original drafts where two of them were a secret couple.

* ActorAllusion: [[Film/MadMax This isn't the first time Mel Gibson plays a burnt out cop whose wife has been murdered. He also eats dog food in the second movie.]]

* ActorAllusion: [[Film/MadMax This isn't the first time Mel Gibson plays a burnt out cop whose wife has been murdered. He also eats dog food in the third movie.]]

* RevisedEnding: The first film ended with Riggs and Murthaugh parting ways, with the latter revealing that he plans to retire. Warner Bros. changed this, sensing they had a hit on their hands.
** The second film originally ended with Riggs dying from his wounds.
** An alternate ending to the second movie featured a Thanksgiving dinner at the Murtaugh house which is attended by both Riggs and Rika Van Dan Haas. Creator/RichardDonner later decided that Rika [[spoiler:should be killed to further fuel Riggs' hatred of the South African diplomats. With Rika dead, this entire ending had to be scrapped. This ending was filmed prior to filming some of the other scenes from the film, including most of the second half where Riggs and Murtaugh go into final showdown with South Africans]]. Another reason why this ending was not used is because filmmakers weren't sure about whether Riggs should die or live at the end of the film.