!!Installments
[[index]]
* ''Trivia/LethalWeapon1987''
* ''Trivia/LethalWeapon2''
* ''Trivia/LethalWeapon3''
* ''Trivia/LethalWeapon4''
* ''Trivia/LethalWeapon2016''
[[/index]]

!!Series Wide
* ActorInspiredElement: Riggs' love of Film/TheThreeStooges comes from Creator/MelGibson himself.
* BeamMeUpScotty: Inverted. Murtaugh's {{catch phrase}} is "I'm too old for this shit", not "I'm ''getting'' too old for this shit", but he says the latter in ''Film/LethalWeapon3''.
* CashCowFranchise: Rare for an action series of its time to go to at least a tetralogy of films, all four films were box office smash hits. Each entry was among the biggest hits of its given year (''4'' was the only one not to finish in its year's top-ten box office, finishing 11th), and adjusting for 2019 inflation, the series ''averaged'' $262 million per entry in the United States. Even its television series was a solid ratings-grabber for FOX that was only cancelled due to being a TroubledProduction and heavy HostilityOnTheSet between its leads.
* CreatorBacklash:
** Creator/ShaneBlack disliked the sequels, mainly due to how much of his script for the second film was re-written. He also said how the problem with the final version of the second movie was that they did too much comedy, and how he dislikes the other two sequels of the film because of the way they ruined Riggs' character (in his opinion, anyway).
** Jeffrey Boam was unhappy that his script for ''Film/LethalWeapon3'' was largely thrown out and heavily re-written by Robert Mark Kamen. Similarly, his initial draft for ''Film/LethalWeapon4'' was unused, and his later contributions to the shooting script went uncredited due to the hectic production schedule. Boam later went on to say that both films were inferior to his original treatments.
* DevelopmentHell: A fifth movie is still in development, with Mel Gibson taking over the reins from Richard Donner who had directed all the previous installments.
* DiedDuringProduction: Creator/RichardDonner, the director of the movies, passed away on July 5th, 2021, leaving the fate of ''Lethal Finale'', the GrandFinale of the franchise, to Mel Gibson himself, who was chosen to {{direct|ed By Cast Member}} the movie in his place.
* FollowTheLeader: The series spawned a ''lot'' of buddy-cop films.
** ''Film/FortyEightHrs'' from 1982 should be considered the origin of the 1980s buddy-cop film, but the ''Lethal Weapon'' series does codify most of the tropes.
* PlayingAgainstType: Kind of; Leo Getz, like most of Creator/JoePesci's characters, is a hot-headed little guy with a HairTriggerTemper and [[SirSwearsALot a filthy mouth]], but where most of Pesci's well-known characters tended to back this up by being genuinely dangerous and often psychotic thugs, Leo is a harmless bumbling sidekick and a bit of a ButtMonkey. Though for all his bluster, he’s a nice guy and loyal friend to the heroes.
* ThrowItIn: Leo's rants about people who fuck you with various goods and services, (The drive-thru, the hospital, etc.) are improvised. In fact, when he goes on his rant about being fucked by the hospital in three, you can see Creator/ReneRusso [[{{Corpsing}} start to crack up]] in one shot before it's cut to another. The rant he and Butters go on about cellphones in ''4'' is entirely unscripted, with Donner apparently just telling them to, "Bitch about cell phones for a while."
* UnderageCasting: Both Murtaugh and Riggs were treated as being about ten years older than their actors, Creator/DannyGlover was 40 playing a character talking about retirement and Creator/MelGibson was in high school during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar and far too young to play a Vietnam vet. The fourth film 11 years later was when their ages were more plausible to the characters.
* WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants: Creator/RichardDonner and producer Joel Silver's tendency to make serendipitous, on-set improvisations and changes has made this series infamous for it.
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