Why the buddy cop movie has never been able to recapture the magic of ‘Lethal Weapon’
The buddy cop movie may have existed in some shape or form long before Mel Gibson‘s turn in Lethal Weapon was released in 1987. But the subgenre has never managed to recapture the lightning in a bottle to define a movie that ended up becoming one of the most influential mainstream actioners ever made.
Partnering up a pair of disparate personalities for an adventure defined initially by bickering, then by mutual respect, and eventually friendship had been a cinematic staple for decades, but the genesis of the buddy cop flick as it exists to this day began in 1982 with 48 Hrs., which hit several important beats that Lethal Weapon would go on to emulate.
In Walter Hill, it had a proven director at the helm who knew their way around a set piece, and in teaming Nick Nolte with Eddie Murphy – in his feature-length debut – 48 Hrs. struck gold by having an established veteran with a respected dramatic background bouncing off a rising star with charisma to spare. It’s a classic in its own right, but Lethal Weapon raised the bar significantly.
Richard Donner had The Omen, Superman, and The Goonies under his belt when he took the reins, while Danny Glover was a known and proven commodity in film, television, and theatre. Mel Gibson, meanwhile, had only recently turned 30 years old when cameras started rolling but already had the Mad Max trilogy, Gallipoli, and The Year of Living Dangerously to underline that he was on his way to the top.
Shane Black’s screenplay proved so seminal he built his entire career on the back of it, and it’s not a coincidence that so many buddy cop capers remain cut from a Lethal Weapon-esque cloth, whether it’s the sci-fi stylings of Men in Black, the overtly-comedic 21 Jump Street, or even forgotten duds like Stuber.
What sets Lethal Weapon apart, though, is how it ended up becoming a subversion of the films it would go on to inspire. The buttoned-down veteran and the wild-eyed partner they’re reluctantly partnered with has long since become a trope, but Black’s screenplay and the performance of the leads are more interested in pathos than pyrotechnics.
Gibson’s Martin Riggs is depressed, suicidal, and suffering from PTSD, and is introduced contemplating the idea of blowing his own head off. It was a raw, unvarnished, and relatable look at trauma through the lens of what was a mass-marketed action movie, with the suicidal detective brought back from the brink by not only the promise of a found family but the unquenchable thirst for revenge that drives him through to the end of the third act.
By extension, that means Gary Busey deserves a special mention as Mr Joshua, the pitch-perfect and quintessential ‘secondary villain/lead henchman who ends up becoming way more memorable than the principal antagonist’. He leads us to a rain-soaked showdown on a front lawn that would be a borderline Shakespearean finale between good and evil were it not for the repeated roundhouse kicks and sense of silliness that’s acknowledged, without being too on-the-nose or self-aware.
Riggs is a broken toy ready to be discarded until he finds someone willing to put him back together, which, in this instance, is a combination of the warm welcome extended by the Murtaugh family and a renewed passion for his job. Countless buddy cop movies have cast two well-known stars and relied on the hope of chemistry to coast by on autopilot, but Lethal Weapon thrives on its depth and complexity.
From Roger’s wife and kids to Steve Kahan’s police captain Ed Murphy via Mary Ellen Trainor’s psychologist Stephanie Woods; the story is populated by well-rounded, richly-drawn, and independent characters who possess their own sense of identity away from the shootouts and explosions. That’s something the innumerable pretenders to the throne tend to disregard as inessential. Even the guy who Riggs handcuffs and takes with him by jumping from a rooftop gets his own set of quirks and characteristics, and his entire function is to power a one-scene gag.
Lethal Weapon ended up so integral to the DNA of the buddy cop caper that almost everything about it became a trope, which is kind of the point. And yet, none of them have managed to do it better, which says everything about how the film raised the bar to heights the best examples can come within a whisker of reaching, without ever being in danger of soaring over.