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Lethal Weapon
Sign in to save1987 film directed by Richard Donner
Film · TMDB
7.3A veteran cop and an unstable detective become partners who must put their differences aside in order to bring down a heroin-smuggling ring run by ex-Special Forces.
Cast
- Mel Gibson as Martin Riggs
- Danny Glover as Roger Murtaugh
- Gary Busey as Mr. Joshua
- Mitchell Ryan as General Peter McAllister
- Tom Atkins as Michael Hunsaker
- Darlene Love as Trish Murtaugh
Themes
- showdown
- police
- self-destruction
- mixed martial arts (mma)
- los angeles, california
- police detective
- ex soldier
- buddy cop
- lapd
- buddy comedy
This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
Ratings
IMDb
7.6/10
294,178 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
82%
Metacritic
68/100
- Year
- 1987
- Runtime
- 109 min
- Genres
- Action, Crime, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- Awards
- Nominated for 1 Oscar. 5 wins & 3 nominations total
via OMDb · IMDb
Key facts
- Directed by
- Richard Donner
- Written by
- Shane Black
- Produced by
- Richard Donner, Joel Silver
- Starring
- Mel Gibson Danny Glover Gary Busey
- Cinematography
- Stephen Goldblatt
- Edited by
- Stuart Baird
- Music by
- Michael Kamen , Eric Clapton
- Production company
- Silver Pictures
- Distributed by
- Warner Bros.
- Release date
- March 6, 1987 ( 1987-03-06 )
- Running time
- 112 minutes
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Budget
- $15 million
- Box office
- $120.1 million
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Duration
- 112
- FilmAffinity ID
- 453476
- Official website
- www.warnerbros.com/movies/lethal-weapon
Show 5 more facts
- publication date
- 1987-00-00
- title
- Lethal Weapon
- box office
- 120207127
- review score
- 68/100
- Commons category
- Lethal Weapon
Sources (12)
via Wikidata · CC0
~20 min read
Article
Lethal Weapon is a 1987 American action thriller film directed by Richard Donner and written by Shane Black. Starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, the film follows two mismatched LAPD detectives—Martin Riggs (Gibson), a volatile former Special Forces soldier struggling with suicidal impulses after his wife's death, and Roger Murtaugh (Glover), a seasoned homicide sergeant and devoted family man—who are partnered to investigate a young woman's apparent suicide during the Christmas season. The supporting cast includes Gary Busey, Tom Atkins, Darlene Love, and Mitchell Ryan.
Conceived by then-unknown screenwriter Shane Black as a contemporary urban Western exploring trauma, masculinity, and moral decay in Los Angeles, the film underwent extensive development under producer Joel Silver and was shaped by Donner's emphasis on character dynamics and gallows humor. Black's script, among the highest-selling spec scripts of the 1980s, helped redefine the buddy cop genre.