  |
This article's content is marked as Mature Martin Riggs contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature articles are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. |
|
| “ | Now that's a real badge, I'm a real cop, and this is a real f*cking gun! | „ |
| ~ Martin Riggs while arresting a criminal. |
Martin Riggs is a Homicide Detective for the LAPD and one of the two (later, three) main protagonists of the Lethal Weapon film series along with his best friend/partner Sergeant Roger Murtaugh and their close friend/sidekick Leo Getz.
He was portrayed in all four films on the series by Mel Gibson, who also portrayed William Wallace in Braveheart, Max Rockatansky in the Mad Max trilogy, Rocky Rhodes in Chicken Run, Thomas Craven in Edge of Darkness, Graham Hess in Signs, and John Smith in Pocahontas and by Clayne Crawford in the TV series.
History[]
In Lethal Weapon, after a shooting incident, Riggs gets transferred from narcotics division to the homicide division and gets partnered with more cautious, mature partner, Roger Murtaugh as they work together to stop General McCallister. After getting off on the wrong foot at first, they start to become best friends throughout the film and the whole series.
In Lethal Weapon 2, Riggs discovers some shocking details about his wife's death. It is revealed that the South African crime lord Arjen Rudd that he and Murtaugh are pursuing had, in fact, ordered his death in 1984, but his enforcer, Pieter Vorstedt, killed Victoria by mistake and, to cover their error, made the murder look like an automobile accident. After avenging the deaths of his wife and Rika Van Den Haas (whom Riggs had briefly become involved with romantically before she too was murdered by Rudd and his minions), he is able to finally put his demons to rest and move on with his life.
In Lethal Weapon 3, he met Sgt. Lorna Cole, an internal affairs officer during an investigation into the disappearance of weapons from L.A.P.D. impound. The two found themselves to be equals in temperament and attitude (not to mention that Lorna is shown to be a fan of The Three Stooges, like Riggs), and worked closely together after a stolen impound gun was found to be involved in a shooting incident where Murtaugh was forced to kill a friend of his son's in self-defense. The two ended up falling in love and moved in together after the end of the film.
In Lethal Weapon 4, Riggs and Cole are still living together, and Cole is pregnant with their first child, but they have dodged the issue of marriage. Both Riggs and Murtaugh get promoted to Captain by Captain Ed Murphy to keep them out of trouble, but by the end of the movie, their status is returned to Sergeant after the city has been self-insured. At the end of the film, Riggs visits his first wife Vicky's grave and appears to still be grieving her until Leo Getz arrives and helps him find closure by essentially telling him that Lorna wouldn't be a better wife than Victoria, only different. Touched by Leo's advice, Riggs lets her know that even though he's going to marry Lorna, which she would've wanted anyways for him, that he'll always love her and always have her in his heart. At the hospital, just before Lorna is about to give birth, Riggs marries her in which the small ceremony is done by a Rabbi. The same day at the same hospital, Murtaugh's eldest daughter, Rianne, is giving birth as well.
Afterward, both Cole and Rianne's children are in the hospital's nursery together. In the end, he, Lorna their newborn child, the Murtaughs, Butters, Leo, and Captain Murphy all join in a family photo.
The troubled life of Martin Riggs has now come to a full circle and is about to enter into a new chapter: Now a parent and a reason to live for and be afraid.
Weapons[]
Throughout all four films, Riggs has used martial arts, including Kali, Tai-Chi, Shotokan Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Wing Chun, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, Capoeira, Boxing, and Muay Thai (leading Murtaugh to jokingly suggest that Riggs himself be registered as a "lethal weapon", hence the title of the first film) and a Beretta 92F (assume FS) pistol as his signature weapon, though he will often commandeer an H&K MP5 sub-machine gun or AK-47 assault rifle from a vanquished foe if more firepower is needed, and also briefly used a Heckler & Koch PSG1 sniper rifle in the first film, for ranges exceeded by accurate 9x19mm (Luger) firepower.[6] Riggs has previously claimed to have killed a target in Laos from a distance of 1000 yards "with a rifle shot in high wind," something he claims 8 to 10 people in the world could have accomplished.
Trivia[]
- Before Mel Gibson was cast as Riggs, the actors considered were Bruce Willis, Christopher Reeve, William Hurt, Alec Baldwin, Jeff Bridges, Pierce Brosnan, Kevin Costner, Willem Dafoe, Bryan Brown, Nicolas Cage, Robert De Niro, Harrison Ford, Michael Douglas, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Gere, Don Johnson, Rutger Hauer, Michael Keaton, Kevin Kline, Christopher Lambert, Al Pachino, Liam Neeson, Michael Madsen, Michael Nouri, Dennis Quaid, Sean Penn, William Peterson, Eric Roberts, Kurt Russell, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Selleck, Charlie Sheen, Sylvester Stallone, Patrick Swayze and John Travolta.
- Clayne Crawford declined playing Martin Riggs a number of times before finally reading the script and deciding he'd take the part.
- The scene in Lethal Weapon where Riggs is contemplating suicide, there is an actual bullet blank in the chamber which Mel Gibson was pointing at his head, thinking that it would allow for a greater sense of portraying the scene realistically and dramatically.
- Mel Gibson was only thirty when Lethal Weapon was filmed, although his character Riggs was supposed to be 38, funny as that was Clayne Crawford's age when the Pilot episode aired.
- Riggs' military background changes for the TV series from the film version. In films, Riggs (Mel Gibson) is a former U.S. Army Special Forces Sniper (i.e. "Green Beret"). In the TV series, Clayne Crawford's Riggs character is a former Navy SEAL.
- In Shane Black's original Lethal Weapon script, Riggs was also a much different character and lot more mentally unstable. For example, in the original version of the scene where he kills a sniper who is shooting at the kids, instead of using his gun, Riggs uses a rocket launcher to blow up the sniper after he shot and killed several kids. In another part of the script, he also uses Shuriken (throwing Ninja stars) to wound one of the villains, and then tortures him for information.
- His badge reads: Detective LAPD (not Detective Sgt) badge number 5893.
- In earlier drafts of Shane Black's Lethal Weapon 2 script, Play Dirty Riggs was intended to be killed by the end of the film. However, director Richard Donner was against this idea.
- Advertisements for the Lethal Weapon TV series credited Clayne Crawford as "Introducing Clayne Crawford" (a credit usually reserved for actors making a debut) even though Crawford had his first onscreen credit in 1997 (in an episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") and has multiple credits per year, every year, since the early 2000s.
- While many aspects of the characters and the story lines have been subtly altered between the films and the series, the one constant is the death of Riggs' wife. In both the films and the series, it is established that she was killed in a car accident while Riggs was on the job. And in both mediums, it is later revealed that she was actually murdered.