Lethal Weapon 4

"The gang's all here."

1998 2h 7m EN

👍

6.6

SOLID

🥫

54%

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

6.6

IMDB

★6.6TMDB · 3,095🥫54%Rotten Tomatoes●39Metacritic★6.6IMDB · 179,234

ActionCrimeThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

With personal crises and age weighing in on them, LAPD officers Riggs and Murtaugh must contend with a deadly Chinese crime lord trying to get his brother out of prison.

“The gang's all here.”

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Cast

Mel Gibson
Martin Riggs
Danny Glover
Roger Murtaugh
Joe Pesci
Leo Getz
Rene Russo
Lorna Cole
Chris Rock
Det.Lee Butters
Jet Li
Wah Sing Ku
Steve Kahan
Captain Murphy
Kim Chan
Benny Chan

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Richard Donner
Writers: Channing Gibson, Miles Millar, Alfred Gough
Languages: English, Cantonese, Mandarin
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

$140M budget — tentpole studio territory.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

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

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Cantonese, Mandarin.

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

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

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Richard Donner, shot by Andrzej Bartkowiak. 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 Michael Kamen. 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 Dallas Puett 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. Andrzej Bartkowiak behind the camera. Michael Kamen scores. Dallas Puett cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Cantonese, Mandarin.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1$140M budget — tentpole studio territory.
228 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Cantonese, Mandarin.
4Part of the "Lethal Weapon Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5267+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
6Directed by Richard Donner, shot by Andrzej Bartkowiak. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by Michael Kamen. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Dallas Puett 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 gang's all here.".
11IMDB entry: tt0122151 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
12Classified under 14 themes, including "showdown", "police", "sequel", "mixed martial arts (mma)".

The technical file

Cinematography: Andrzej Bartkowiak
Original score: Michael Kamen
Editing: Dallas Puett
Production design: J. Michael Riva
Costume design: Ha Nguyen
Makeup / hair: Charlene Johnson
VFX supervisor: Michael L. Fink
Sound: John Pospisil
Stunt coordinator: Mic Rodgers
Runtime: 127 min · 2h 7m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $140,000,000
Box office: $285,444,603
Return: 204% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
Rotten Tomatoes: 54% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 39/100
IMDB rating: 6.6/10 · 179,234 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

4 wins & 11 nominations total

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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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2025-09-05
★ 6/10
With their joints creaking almost as much as the script, this instalment of the franchise sees “Riggs” (Mel Gibson) and “Murtaugh” (Danny Glover) start they way they mean to go on - pyrotechnically! This time, it’s the encroaching Triad gangs from China who are involved in some people smuggling and currency forging that could end up facilitating an all-out war in Chinatown between the menacingly stylish “Wah Sing Ku” (Jet Li) and local mobster “Uncle Benny” (Kim Chan). Just to add to the mayhem, IAD detective “Lorna” (Rene Russo) is about to have a baby (with “Riggs”); his partner is soon to be a grandfather courtesy of his daughter and another fellow cop, “Butters” (Chris Rock) and then there is the wacky “Leo” (Joe Pesci) whose words of wisdom and frenetic techniques have to be heard/seen to be believed. “Murtaugh” takes pity on the recently arrived “Hong” family and sufficiently narks the Triad so they invade and set fire to his home. He and “Riggs” only just manage to save the family and now the battle lines are drawn. Chris Rock and Joe Pesci just annoyed me from start to finish, but there is compensating chemistry from Gibson and Glover who know each other inside out by now and this features one of the most entertaining car chases cinema has ever produced. I hope the city had a great deal of insurance! It’s quickly paced and the writing, though heavily laden with unnecessary expletives, does deliver some pithy one liners, especially for Gibson, as it heads towards it’s lively denouement with bullets and fists flying all over the place as yet more concrete crumbles. It’s a formula that has worked well until now, pitching two charismatic actors into frying pan and fire environments with little jeopardy but enough humour. Perhaps that emphasis ought not be on enough now, and they should all retire to Palm Springs, rear frogs and leave us to recall this duo in their heyday?

Production companies