Production History (Lethal Weapon 2) Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)
Lethal Weapon was a hit Warner Bros. wanted to repeat
Lethal Weapon opened on March 6, 1987, against forecasts that put it in the $30–40 million range domestic. It finished with $65 million in North America and another $55 million internationally on a $15 million budget — the kind of return that made a sequel an immediate corporate decision. Producer Joel Silver had a sequel in development before the original had finished its first run.
"Lethal Weapon was the kind of hit that turns into an annuity. Joel knew within two weeks of release that we were doing a sequel." — Richard Donner, Empire oral history (2017)
The original's writer, Shane Black, was twenty-five and the most-paid screenwriter in Hollywood off the back of his Lethal Weapon spec sale. Warner Bros. wanted his name on the sequel, but Black's instincts were running in a different direction — darker, more violent, more committed to killing Riggs at the end. (wikipedia)
Shane Black wrote a draft in which Riggs dies
Black and his collaborator Warren Murphy (the Destroyer novelist, not the Inspector Clouseau writer) delivered a draft in 1988 that has since become Hollywood folklore: an apartheid-themed Krugerrand-smuggling story in which Riggs ends the film dead, killed by Vorstedt's men at the Alba Varden in a death the partnership cannot reverse.
"We wrote a Lethal Weapon 2 in which Riggs dies. It was darker. It was sadder. It was about how this guy had been moving toward this his whole life. The studio looked at it and said: nope." — Shane Black, The Hollywood Reporter (2018)
Donner and Silver agreed the death was too much. Silver brought in Jeffrey Boam — a screenwriter who had just rewritten Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) for Spielberg, and who had a track record of taking writer-driven action specs and making them releasable. Boam took the Black-Murphy spec, kept the South African-Krugerrand spine, kept Leo Getz, kept the diplomatic-immunity climax, and reworked the third act so Riggs survives. The Vicki re-disclosure speech at the trailer — the film's structural midpoint and most load-bearing scene — does not appear in the Boam November 1988 draft preserved at reference/screenplay-draft.txt. It was added between the spec and the shooting cut, almost certainly during production. (See Shane Black, Murphy, and Boam — Sequel Authorship.)
The credit, after Writers Guild arbitration, went to Boam (screenplay) and Black & Murphy (story). Black has said in interviews that he was disappointed but understood the decision. (wikipedia)
Donner kept the team together
Richard Donner brought back nearly every department head from Lethal Weapon. Cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt returned. Editor Stuart Baird returned. Composer Michael Kamen returned with Eric Clapton on guitar and David Sanborn on saxophone — the LW1 score's signature instrumentation extended. Production designer J. Michael Riva returned. Stunt coordinator Bobby Bass returned. Steve Kahan reprised the captain. Mary Ellen Trainor reprised Dr. Stephanie Woods. The Murtaugh family — Darlene Love, Traci Wolfe, Damon Hines, Ebonie Smith — all came back. (imdb)
The continuity was deliberate. Donner has said in interviews that he wanted LW2 to feel like the second hour of the same film, not a fresh start. Goldblatt's lighting, Kamen's score cues, even the editing rhythms of action set-pieces are carried over. The new contributions — Pesci's verbal tic, Ackland's institutional menace, Goldblatt's blue-night-exterior look — sit on top of an LW1 chassis the audience already trusts.
Joe Pesci was a late addition
Joe Pesci was not in the Black-Murphy spec. The Leo Getz character existed (a money-laundering witness who survives the case) but the role was smaller and was offered to several actors before Pesci. Silver brought Pesci in after seeing him in Once Upon a Time in America (1984) and Raging Bull (1980); Pesci's Goodfellas (1990) shoot was concurrent and his Best Supporting Actor Oscar for that film arrived during LW2's home-video release window.
"Joe came in and within fifteen minutes the whole movie tilted around him. We rewrote scenes overnight to give him more. The 'okay okay okay' was his — he just started doing it." — Richard Donner, Empire oral history (2017)
The "okay okay" verbal pattern, Leo's tax-records angle, and the Murtaugh-family banter scenes were expanded in revision after Pesci was cast. (See Joe Pesci (Lethal Weapon 2).)
The shoot was Los Angeles, summer 1988 through early 1989
Principal photography ran from October 1988 through February 1989, with the bulk of the shoot in and around Los Angeles. The opening freeway chase was filmed on the I-110 with a re-dressed wagon Donner has said was "the same wagon, basically" as LW1's, painted a different color.b1 b2 The stilt-house collapse used a partial practical build on a hillside in the Hollywood Hills, with the actual demolition staged in a parking lot at full scale and intercut with hilltop coverage.b30 The Alba Varden cargo-bay sequence was shot at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro on a containerized cargo ship Donner's location team rented for the week.b31 b34 (wikipedia, imdb)
The toilet-bomb sequence was practical, with stunt coordinator Bobby Bass rigging a release that lifted the bathtub clear of the practical detonation by inches. Mel Gibson reportedly insisted on doing the in-tub jump himself.
Release and box office
Lethal Weapon 2 opened on July 7, 1989 — peak summer slot, against When Harry Met Sally… and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids — and grossed $20 million in its first weekend. It finished with $147 million domestic and another $80 million internationally on a budget of approximately $25 million, more than doubling the original's worldwide gross. (box office mojo)
The film outperformed the original in nearly every metric, validating Donner's continuity strategy and locking in a third installment. Lethal Weapon 3 followed in May 1992; Lethal Weapon 4 in July 1998. The Donner/Silver/Gibson/Glover/Pesci core remained intact across all three.