History Film / LethalWeapon1987

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: When Harper Murtaugh meets her dad's new partner, she asks if Riggs is a crook. Riggs responds with a bark of laughter.

* AcousticLicense: Riggs and Murtaugh carry on a conversation at a firing range, complete with earmuffs (though there are "amplified earmuffs" that only mute sounds above a certain decibel level, they were not widely spread at the time the movie was released).

* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: Riggs pulls out his Beretta in the middle of the police station, a very stupid thing to do, especially since he wasn’t in uniform. Inspired by recent events in-universe, Murtaugh instantly attempts to tackle him, thinking he was a shooter.
** Averted in the very next scene. When Murtaugh asks to examine Riggs' piece, Riggs removes the mag and ejects the round in the chamber before handing it over.

* SaltAndPepper: Subverted, Murtaugh is the old, grizzled but by-the-book cop, Riggs is the young, reckless, titular lethal weapon.

* HurtingHero: Martin Riggs spends most of the movie suicidally depressed after the death of his wife.

* {{Fingore}}: When Murtaugh realizes that Riggs really is crazy, he jams his thumb into the gap between hammer and chamber so Riggs won’t blow his head off.

* PlayingGertrude: Riggs was meant to be 38, yet Creator/MelGibson was 30. Also, Murtaugh was 50, yet Creator/DannyGlover was 40.

--->'''Martin Riggs:''' ''"'''DO YOU REALLY WANNA JUMP?!''' Do you WANNA?! Well then, that's fine with me!"''

---> '''Riggs:''' Do you really wanna jump ?! DO YOU WANNA?!? Well then, that's ''fine'' with me! Come on!

---> '''Murtaugh''' ''[re: Riggs' gun]:'' What do you do, sleep with that thing under your ''pillow''?\\

* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: Cited in-universe by Hunsacker when Murtaugh questions why Shadow Company killed Amanda rather than just [[HeKnowsTooMuch kill Hunsaker himself]] after he called Murtaugh earlier in the film. McAllister ''needs'' Hunsaker, because his role as a banker's a ''perfect front for laundering their ill-gotten finances and avoiding drawing Federal attention. However, it ultimately gets subverted ''hard'' when McAllister decides that as valuable as Hunsaker is, it's simply too dangerous for Shadow Company to leave him alive.

Followed by 1989's ''Film/LethalWeapon2''.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lethal_weapon1.jpg]]

The first film of the ''Film/LethalWeapon'' series, released in 1987.

* DeadfootLeadfoot: PlayedWith. [=McAllister=] and his driver escape in a car through an alley, only for the driver to be shot dead by Murtagh. [=McAllister=] desperately attempts to take the wheel, but is thwarted when the car is hit by a bus and ultimately destroyed by a live grenade in the back seat.

* OnlyAFleshWound: Murtagh states his preferred method is to shoot a felon in the leg so he can question them later. This is mainly to differentiate him from Riggs. That's not how police operate if they've decided firing their weapon is necessary. Riggs' methods are correct. He just does it way more than any real police officer ever would.

* WhileYouWereInDiapers: Murtagh says this when Riggs criticizes his driving:

Roger Murtaugh (Creator/DannyGlover) is an LAPD cop who prefers to play by the rules, cares for his family, and worries about getting too old ([[CatchPhrase for this shit]]). He gets partnered with Martin Riggs (Creator/MelGibson), a suicidal narcotics cop still grieving the recent death of his wife, and is also well versed with both martial arts and gun play which, added to his [[TheBerserker berserker]] tendencies, make him a candidate to be registered as a [[TitleDrop lethal weapon.]] They start tracking down the BigBad of the film, a major drug dealer who has ties within the military.

* ActorAllusion: [[Film/MadMax1 This isn't the first time Mel Gibson plays a burnt out cop whose wife has been murdered]].

* ChekhovsGun: Riggs' references to Vietnam and his combat stories prove important when one of the bad guy turns out to have the same Special Forces tattoo that Riggs has.

* SocietyMarchesOn: Riggs' disgust at a lesbian relationship would seem out of place in a movie produced today. He also displays homophobia when he says, "What are you, a fag?" when Murtaugh tries to smother the flames on his jacket.

* AllThereInTheScript: The original script had more of a backstory for Joshua, who was working as CIA assassin in Vietnam and he got a legendary status due to all the things he did in the war, as Riggs did in this version. This explains how did they knew of each other's names and reputations in the film.