Lethal Weapon (1987) Lethal Weapon (1987)

The buddy-cop film that defined the genre. Richard Donner directed Shane Black's first sold screenplay; Joel Silver produced; Mel Gibson and Danny Glover starred as a suicidal narc and a 50-year-old family man dragged into a Vietnam-era heroin conspiracy run by Shadow Company mercenaries through Christmas-season Los Angeles.

Field Value
Director Richard Donner
Year 1987
Runtime ~110 min
Screenplay Shane Black
Producer Joel Silver
Setting Los Angeles, Christmas season
Martin Riggs Mel Gibson
Roger Murtaugh Danny Glover
Joshua Gary Busey
Gen. Peter McAllister Mitchell Ryan
Michael Hunsaker Tom Atkins

See _Index for navigation. See Plot Structure (Lethal Weapon) and Backbeats (Lethal Weapon) for analysis.