Lethal Weapon 3
Lethal Weapon 3 is a 1992 American buddy cop action film directed by Richard Donner and written by Jeffrey Boam and Robert Mark Kamen. The sequel to Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), it is the third installment in the Lethal Weapon film series and stars Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Rene Russo, and Stuart Wilson.[3]
Lethal Weapon 3
Jeffrey Boam
Characters
by Shane Black
- Richard Donner
- Joel Silver
- Robert Brown
- Battle Davis
- May 15, 1992
118 minutes
United States
English
$35 million[1]
$321.7 million[2]
In Lethal Weapon 3, LAPD Sergeants Martin Riggs (Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Glover) pursue Jack Travis (Wilson), a former LAPD lieutenant turned ruthless arms dealer, during the six days prior to Murtaugh's retirement. Riggs and Murtaugh are joined by Leo Getz (Pesci) as well as internal affairs Sergeant Lorna Cole (Russo).
The film was a box office success, grossing over $320 million worldwide. It was the fifth-highest-grossing film of 1992 and the highest-grossing installment in the series overall. The film was followed by Lethal Weapon 4 in 1998.
Plot
A week before his retirement, L.A.P.D. Sergeant Roger Murtaugh and his partner Martin Riggs are demoted to uniform duties after failing to defuse an office building bomb. While on street patrol they witness the theft of an armored car, and help to thwart the crime assisted by armored car driver Delores. One of the two thieves gets away, but the other is taken into police custody. The suspect is found to be a known associate of Jack Travis, a former LAPD lieutenant who is running an arms smuggling ring in Los Angeles. The department is further concerned that the thieves were using armor-piercing bullets. Riggs and Murtaugh are re-promoted and assigned to work with Sergeant Lorna Cole from internal affairs to track down Travis.
Travis is currently negotiating with mobster Tyrone regarding his arms deal. The armored car thief that escaped is brought to Travis, who subsequently kills him in front of Tyrone for putting the police on his trail. Travis then uses his old police credentials to enter the interrogation room and kill the suspect in custody before he can be interviewed. Travis is unaware that closed-circuit cameras have been installed in the station, and Cole is able to confirm Travis' identity. While the three are reviewing the footage, their good friend Leo Getz, who has been helping Murtaugh sell his house, arrives and immediately recognizes Travis from several prior business deals and his love of ice hockey. Murtaugh, Riggs, and Getz narrowly miss capturing Travis at a hockey match, and Getz is wounded. However, Getz manages to provide them with information of a warehouse Travis owns, which they suspect is where he has stored his arms shipments.
Riggs and Murtaugh contact Cole for backup before they raid the warehouse, and stop at a food truck to wait for her. As they wait for their food, they witness a drug deal and attempt to stop it. Murtaugh kills a gunman who fired at them, while the rest escape. Murtaugh recognizes the gunman, Darryl, a close friend of his son Nick. With Murtaugh emotionally distraught, Riggs and Cole head to the warehouse, where they successfully secure his next arms shipment delivery. That night, Riggs and Cole find they have feelings for each other and sleep together. Riggs later finds a guilt-ridden Murtaugh drunk in his boat and consoles him in time for Darryl's funeral. There, Darryl's father passionately insists that Murtaugh find the person responsible for giving Darryl the gun.
Cole finds that Darryl's gun, the armor-piercing bullets, and the arms they recovered were originally in police custody, meant to be destroyed, and were stolen by Travis; they revoke his credentials from the system. They further tie the guns to Tyrone and interrogate him. Tyrone directs them to an auto garage where many of his henchmen work from. Riggs, Murtaugh, and Cole are able to arrest several of the men. Meanwhile, Travis has one of his men hack into the computer system to find another arms storage area. He then forces Captain Murphy under gunpoint to take him to this new facility so he can steal the guns using Murphy's credentials. Cole finds the evidence of hacking and Murphy's absence, and the three, along with a rookie cop, Edwards, who looks up to Riggs and Murtaugh, intercept Travis. They are able to rescue Murphy and stop Travis and his men before he can take the weapons, but Edwards is killed during their pursuit.
Getz provides information on a housing development owned by Travis's shell company. Riggs, Murtaugh, and Cole infiltrate the site at night and enter a large-scale gunfight. Riggs sets the construction site on fire and most of Travis' men are killed, while Travis wounds Cole. When Travis uses a bulldozer to chase down Riggs, using its blade as a bullet shield, Murtaugh tosses Daryl's gun, now loaded with the armor-piercing bullets, to Riggs, who then shoots and kills Travis through the blade. After finding out Cole wore two layers of kevlar vests, Riggs admits his love for her as she is taken away in a chopper.
The next day, Murtaugh's family is celebrating his retirement, when Murtaugh reveals to Getz that he has decided to not sell the house and stay with the force, preserving his partnership with Riggs, who announces his relationship with Cole to Murtaugh.
Promotion
To promote the film, theater lobbies featured a 3-D cutout of the film poster of Riggs and Murtaugh posing with their guns and Leo Getz peeking from the background. On the display, there was a motor which helped Leo's head bob up and down from behind them.
Release
Box office
Lethal Weapon 3 made $33.2 million during its opening weekend.[19][20] The $35 million film[1] was a big box-office success, earning $145 million.[21][22][23] Although slightly less than the $150 million domestic gross of the first sequel, it was nevertheless the second-most successful summer film of 1992 (after Batman Returns)[1] and the fifth most profitable film of the year, as well as the highest-grossing in the film series worldwide with $320 million worldwide.
After the film's success, Warner Bros. head Robert A. Daly bought Land Rovers for Gibson, Glover, Pesci, Russo, Donner, Boam, and producer Joel Silver.[24] Daly later said "It cost us $320,000 to buy those Land Rovers, and we were criticized left and right for the expense. Do you know what it got us? Lethal Weapon 4, which made $285 million".[25]
Critical reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 58% of 48 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "Murtaugh and Riggs remain an appealing partnership, but Lethal Weapon 3 struggles to give them a worthy new adventure as it cranks up the camp along with the mean-spiritedness."[26] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 40 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[27]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a positive review, awarding it 3 out of 4 stars.[28]
Home media
Lethal Weapon 3 has been released on VHS and DVD numerous times. The first DVD was released in 1997 and featured the film's theatrical version. The 1997 DVD contains both the widescreen and the pan and scan editions. The Director's Cut was released in 2000. Since then, numerous sets have been released that contain all four films in the series (featuring the same DVDs).[29] The film was released on Blu-ray Disc in 2011.
Lethal Weapon 3
June 9, 1992 (Original)
December 3, 2013 (Expanded)
Orchestral, jazz, blues
39:32 (Original); 126:35 (Expanded)
Reprise (Original); La-La Land (Expanded)
Video games
Several versions of a Lethal Weapon video game were released in conjunction with this sequel's release, appearing on the NES, SNES, Game Boy, Amiga, Atari ST, and Commodore 64 platforms.
Also released was a Lethal Weapon 3 pinball game.