Cast and Characters (Lethal Weapon 2) Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)
Principal Cast
Martin Riggs — Mel Gibson
The recently-stabilized half of the LAPD partnership, two years past the LW1 events that closed his suicidal grief. Gibson plays Riggs at thirty-three as functional-loose-cannon: jokey rather than haunted, in motion rather than frozen, dangerous in the field but no longer dangerous to himself. The film's structural innovation is that Riggs's old wound — Vicki's death, processed in LW1 as a "car crash" Riggs blamed himself for — turns out at the midpoint to have been a contract murder by the men in this case. Gibson's performance has to be wisecrack-functional in the first hour and silent-dangerous in the second; the trailer-chair scene is the pivot. See Mel Gibson (Lethal Weapon 2).
Roger Murtaugh — Danny Glover
The institutional half of the partnership, fifty-two and openly counting toward retirement.b5 Glover plays Murtaugh as a working family man whose wife's station wagon, suburban toilet, and three kids are the things the case keeps trying to wreck.b1 b2 b15 The structural payload of the film lands on Murtaugh's shoulders, not Riggs's: when Riggs is mortally wounded on the dock, it is Murtaugh who fires the shot that voids Rudd's immunity. The line "It's just been revoked" is Glover's, not Gibson's, and the film's argument about institutional bypass is staged through the by-the-book partner pulling the trigger.b36 See Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon 2).
Leo Getz — Joe Pesci
The federal money-laundering witness assigned to Riggs and Murtaugh's protective custody.b8 b9 Pesci, four months from his Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Goodfellas, plays Leo as fast-talking, terrified, and structurally indispensable: his accidental-research moment with Murtaugh's tax records surfaces the Alba Varden lead, and his memory of the "house with stilts on it" is the address that points the partners at Rudd.b10 b22 The "okay, okay" verbal tic locks in across the film and becomes the franchise's most recurring catchphrase. Pesci was a one-film hire who returned for both Lethal Weapon 3 (1992) and Lethal Weapon 4 (1998). See Joe Pesci (Lethal Weapon 2).
Arjen Rudd — Joss Ackland
South African minister of diplomatic affairs, the case's structural antagonist.b6 b13 Ackland plays Rudd as a soft-spoken bureaucrat whose menace is institutional — he never raises his voice and never has to, because the Diplomatic Relations Act and "Article 27 of the Vienna Convention" are doing the threatening.b13 The film stages every encounter with Rudd through the language of paperwork and immunity, which is what makes the climax's single-syllable shield-revocation land. See Joss Ackland (Lethal Weapon 2).
Pieter Vorstedt — Derrick O'Connor
Rudd's chief of security and operational killer. O'Connor plays Vorstedt as quiet, methodical, and confident — a man who carries out contract murders himself rather than delegating.b26 The midpoint trailer-chair speech in which Vorstedt re-discloses Vicki's murder to Riggs is the film's most load-bearing scene; O'Connor delivers it offering a drink, almost gently, knowing exactly what the disclosure will do to the man tied across from him.b26 See Derrick O'Connor (Lethal Weapon 2).
Rika van den Haas — Patsy Kensit
Rudd's office assistant at the South African consulate, recruited by Riggs as inside source and by the film as Riggs's first post-Vicki love interest.b18 b19 Kensit, twenty at filming, plays Rika with a transplanted Englishness that softens the consulate scenes and underwrites the trailer wedding-ring conversation.b19 Her death offscreen the same night as the midpoint compresses the post-midpoint approach into a single grief: Riggs phones Murtaugh saying "they got Rika and my wife."b27 b28 See Patsy Kensit (Lethal Weapon 2).
Supporting Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Steve Kahan | Captain Ed Murphy |
| Mary Ellen Trainor | Dr. Stephanie Woods |
| Darlene Love | Trish Murtaugh |
| Traci Wolfe | Rianne Murtaugh |
| Damon Hines | Nick Murtaugh |
| Ebonie Smith | Carrie Murtaugh |
| Jenette Goldstein | Shapiro |
| Dean Norris | Tim Cavanaugh |
| Mark Rolston | Hans |
| Nestor Serrano | Eddie Esteban |
Riggs and Murtaugh return through the same people
The continuity from Lethal Weapon (1987) is more than the two leads. Director Richard Donner returns; producer Joel Silver returns; composer Michael Kamen returns with Eric Clapton on guitar; cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt returns; editor Stuart Baird returns. Steve Kahan plays the captain again. Mary Ellen Trainor reprises Dr. Stephanie Woods. Darlene Love, Traci Wolfe, Damon Hines, and Ebonie Smith all return as the Murtaugh family. The film is built on the LW1 ensemble's continuity, then weaponizes that continuity against the LW1 wound.
The new blood — Pesci, Ackland, O'Connor, Kensit — was assembled fast. Pesci was a late addition, brought in by producer Joel Silver after a meeting where Silver decided the franchise needed a third voice in the Riggs/Murtaugh dyad. Ackland was cast on the strength of White Mischief (1987) and The Hunt for Red October (1990, then in production), where he played another buttoned-down institutional menace. O'Connor was an Irish character actor with credits across British television; Kensit was a former teen pop star with the band Eighth Wonder, just transitioning to film. (wikipedia, imdb)