Lethal Weapon 3

Infobox_Film
name = Lethal Weapon 3


caption = "Lethal Weapon 3" movie poster
writer = Screenplay:
Jeffrey Boam
Robert Mark Kamen
Story:
Jeffrey Boam
starring = Mel Gibson
Danny Glover
Joe Pesci
Rene Russo
Stuart Wilson
director = Richard Donner
producer = Richard Donner
Joel Silver
cinematography = Jan de Bont
editing = Robert Brown
Battle Davis
music = Michael Kamen
Eric Clapton
David Sanborn
Elton John
distributor = Warner Bros.
released = May 15, 1992
runtime = Theatrical Cut:
118 min.
Director's Cut:
121 min.
language = English
country = USA
amg_id = 1:29105
imdb_id = 0104714
budget = $35 million
preceded_by = "Lethal Weapon 2"
followed_by = "Lethal Weapon 4"

"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).

Plot

L.A.P.D. 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. They have an argument about which wire to cut. 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 which Murtagh refers to as "Cop Killers". 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 eager to investigate, but they are shunted to the side by Internal Affairs Sergeant Lorna Cole.

Riggs and Murtaugh are promoted back to detective's rank. Leo Getz - who is now a real 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, contrary to what he believes). At the hospital, Riggs and Murtaugh convince the medical staff to keep Leo in for two days, knowing this will keep him out of their way. Riggs even signs him up for a rectal exam, though he was shot in the arm.

On a lunch break during their investigation, Riggs observes a group of gang members making a drug deal nearby. Initially attempting a solo arrest, Riggs is hit from behind by a gangster with a piece of wood, leaving him unable to defend himself when another one opens fire with an automatic MAC-10. Murtaugh, arriving late, returns 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 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 and nakedness, eventually leading them to make love.

Riggs, after being contacted by Murtaugh's concerned daughter Rianne, figures out he is most likely hiding on his boat. Riggs confronts Murtaugh about the selfishness of his depression, pointing out he saved Riggs and the public in general from a killer, which is his job. Riggs finally also 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.

Leo returns from the hospital shouting about the unnecessary tests that Riggs set up. (They fuck you in the hospital! They fuck you!") 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 Daryl's MAC-10, also loaded with "cop killers", and Riggs shoots Travis. Riggs then send the backhoe loader crashing through the burning houses, killing Travis. He runs to Lorna, and finds that she was wearing "two" bullet-proof vests and she survives, though seriously wounded.

Riggs declares his love for Lorna after her near death experience as she waits to be transported to the hospital following being shot several times by Jack Travis. Lorna is reluctant as she fears she will lose Riggs like all the others did. But Riggs claims that it is "not likely" to happen and the two kiss before Lorna is airlifted to hospital.

On his retirement day, Murtaugh reconsiders and decides to extend his service in the force after all, preserving the Riggs/Murtaugh partnership.

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."

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.

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.

Miscellanea

*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.
*This is the only Lethal Weapon film in which Leo Getz has bleached blond hair.

See also

* "Lethal Weapon 3" – soundtrack album
* "Lethal Weapon"
* "Lethal Weapon 2"
* "Lethal Weapon 4"

External links

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