Lethal Weapon – Mel Gibson in a familiar role
Lethal Weapon is one of the most iconic action film franchises ever. But like the other successful franchises on this list, we’re only interested in the original movie!
Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) is only a few years away from retirement from the LAPD (remember the iconic line, “I’m too old for this” — well, you can finish it). He’s partnered up with Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson), the suicidal officer who recently lost his wife in a car accident who doesn’t care whether he lives or dies anymore. Even though they’re reluctantly thrown together, the duo uncovers a huge drug-smuggling ring, and their friendship starts to grow as they tackle these criminals together.
You might have realized, this isn’t the first time Gibson played a disturbed character like this. Riggs’ struggle is extremely similar to the character of Max in Mad Max, also played by Gibson. Both characters are vengeful policemen who lose their families. In Mad Max, his wife and child are murdered by a motorcycle gang, and in Lethal Weapon, he discovers that his wife’s car accident was a murder, not an accident at all. Gibson must play a good cop-turned-widowed husband seeking revenge.
Despite his experience with this dark backstory, there’s one scene where they upped the stakes a bit to make it even more emotional. When Riggs is contemplating suicide, the gun Gibson was pointing at his head had an actual bullet in the chamber. They did this because they thought it would allow him to better portray the emotion necessary to make this scene realistic and dramatic.