Lethal Weapon 2

"The magic is back!"

1989 1h 54m EN

👍

7.1

SOLID

★7.1TMDB · 3,901

ActionThrillerCrime

Synopsis

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Riggs and Murtaugh are on the trail of South African diplomats using their immunity to engage in criminal activities.

“The magic is back!”

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Cast

Mel Gibson
Martin Riggs
Danny Glover
Roger Murtaugh
Joe Pesci
Leo Getz
Joss Ackland
Arjen Rudd
Derrick O'Connor
Pieter Vorstedt
Patsy Kensit
Rika Van Den Haas
Darlene Love
Trish Murtaugh
Traci Wolfe
Rianne Murtaugh

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Richard Donner
Writers: Jeffrey Boam, Shane Black, Warren Murphy
Languages: English, Afrikaans
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 9.1× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

37 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Afrikaans.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Lethal Weapon Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CAST

Did you know

255+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Directed by Richard Donner, shot by Stephen Goldblatt. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Eric Clapton. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Stuart Baird shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Richard Donner directs. Stephen Goldblatt behind the camera. Eric Clapton scores. Stuart Baird cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Afrikaans.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Made its money back 9.1× over at the box office.
237 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Afrikaans.
4Part of the "Lethal Weapon Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5255+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
6Directed by Richard Donner, shot by Stephen Goldblatt. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by Eric Clapton. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Stuart Baird shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Mel Gibson and Danny Glover and Joe Pesci carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "The magic is back!".
11IMDB entry: tt0097733 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
12Classified under 14 themes, including "showdown", "police", "loss of loved one", "sequel".

The technical file

Cinematography: Stephen Goldblatt
Original score: Eric Clapton
Editing: Stuart Baird
Production design: J. Michael Riva
Makeup / hair: Paul Abascal
Sound: Rick Alexander
Stunt coordinator: Charlie Picerni
Runtime: 114 min · 1h 54m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $25,000,000
Box office: $227,853,986
Return: 911% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)

Part of

Lethal Weapon Collection

Lethal Weapon is a buddy cop movie series starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. A total of four films have been made since the first one in 1987, and all have been a success at the box-office.

Also by

Richard Donner

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2019-07-07
★ 7/10
A truly great sequel that expands upon the friendship that was born in the first picture. Intrepid cop partners Riggs & Murtaugh are on the trail of South African diplomats who are using their diplomatic immunities to engage in criminal activities. With the success of Lethal Weapon in 1987 it made common sense to follow it with a sequel. All the same elements were in place, cast, director and writers were all back for another slice of buddy buddy action bonanza. The only change of course is the villains, here represented by Joss Ackland & Derrick O'Connor's weasel South African bastardos. Joe Pesci enters the fray as the comical Leo Getz, a Federal Witness that the cop duo have to "babysit" till trial. Right from the off the tone of the film is set as our ears split and our eyes get dazzled by a high speed car chase. Riggs & Murtaugh are in hot pursuit whilst exchanging a now customary difference of opinion as regards police work. We know they are mates and we know that Riggs is still the lethal weapon and Murtaugh is old school copper. So whilst there's nothing new in that the formula remains the same, the makers do flesh out the relationship more as the film progresses - with one or two scenes absolute gold dust as the boys' lives come under serious threat. We are now, in spite of the carnage that surrounds them, involved with them, yes, such is the charm of their relationship, we do care. It's good writing, regardless of the charges from some quarters that these films are nasty shallow excuses for making money... It's fair to say that this is Gibson's movie, this is because it's written that way. Some of Riggs' back story is filled in and he even gets a love interest in the slender form of Patsy Kensit. Riggs cracks the jokes and does the outrageous mental stuff, while Glover's (still doing fine work in Gibson's shadow) Murtaugh continues to be the counter opposite, with some of the astute written sequences involving Murtaugh and the South African core of the story being excellently handled by Glover. Regardless of character development and nifty political observations, it's the action that dominates proceedings. Director Richard Donner has a wail of a time putting the cast through their paces. There's explosions, fights, shoot-outs, more high speed pursuits, and on it goes till we get to the finale, and it's a potential cliffhanger one too. Two more inferior sequels would follow, all of which still made serious money, but this serves notice of the last time that all the elements came together successfully. A stylish Hollywood action comedy with two impressionable lead actors providing a lesson in on screen chemistry success. 7.5/10
JPV8522019-08-28
★ 8/10
Fun sequel with plenty of action and the teamwork between Gibson and Glover was great. Joe Pesci was fine but kind of got a bit annoying. Still highly entertaining all these years later.
kevin20192024-08-16
★ 8/10
"Lethal Weapon 2" has a generous selection of set piece action sequences which usually results in the wholesale destruction of property and all in the name of entertainment. These sequences have been exceptionally well executed and they certainly go towards further enlivening what is an already highly entertaining although not particularly memorable motion picture experience. A lot of the carefully constructed scripting used to establish exactly what is going on is all too eagerly disregarded in favour of the much lazier and undoubtedly the more crowd pleasing option of simply blowing things up or killing a lot of people just for the sake of it. Of course it would be nice if this wasn't always the more commonplace approach in a genre film such as this one.