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Martin Riggs (born October 16, 1949) is a police officer for the Los Angeles Police Department. He was a member of the United States Special Forces until 1969. He married a woman named Victoria Lynn in 1973 and soon joined the Los Angeles Police Department.
After Victoria's death, Riggs fell into a deep depression, with his job as a police officer being the only thing keeping him from suicide.
He was portrayed by Mel Gibson in all Lethal Weapon films. Clayne Crawford portrays him in the television series.
Background[]
Personality[]
Martin Riggs is a skilled, trustworthy, and loyal police cop from the LAPD. Riggs lives in a travel trailer on a beach along the Pacific Coast Highway in Los Angeles. It was destroyed by the rogue South African diplomats in the second film, but he escaped along with Rika Van Den Haas, who was also there at the time. He has a new remodeled trailer (in deleted scenes restored in a director's cut) in Lethal Weapon 3, and still lives there with his new love Lorna Cole in Lethal Weapon 4.
Riggs loves his first wife very much, and after he has been widowed due to her unexpected demise involving a car crash, Riggs went on the verge to become suicidal. But each time he tries to commit suicide, he couldn't bring himself to do so. He does find out that Vorstedt caused his wife's death, and went into rage of attacking him. He then later does the same to Travis in the third film, when he thinks that Travis had killed Lorna Cole, but fortunately Lorna survives with two bullet proof vests.
Riggs has a loose right shoulder which can dislocate easily. How he developed the issue is unknown, but it could possibly be a battle injury from his times during the war in Vietnam. He is able to dislocate, then re-set it at will by slamming it into a wall or other hard objects, although doing so in the process is very painful for him even more. He sometimes demonstrates this as a trick, but it has also proven quite useful for him. It helps him escape execution by the South Africans in Lethal Weapon 2 when he is able to escape a straitjacket while tied up underwater.
In his off duty time, Riggs enjoys watching television, particularly Looney Tunes and The Three Stooges. Whether alone or with his dogs, Riggs never misses a chance to laugh and watch his favorite hilarious cartoons. It is possible he may have inherited his crazy personality from watching multiple episodes of The Three Stooges.
Riggs also loves dogs. He owns a Sheltie named Sam who he is presumed to have owned since Victoria's death. He refused to kill a Rottweiler that was defending an arms operation, saying, "I can't shoot a dog. People okay, but not dogs." He instead tamed, befriended, and rescued the Rottweiler, and still keeps him as a pet along with Sam in the fourth film.
It isn't unlike Riggs to be comedic. He particularly enjoys antagonizing Leo Getz. After Getz was shot while pursuing rogue cop-turned-gun runner Jack Travis at a hockey game in Lethal Weapon 3, Riggs added proctology to Getz's medical chart, dooming him to a needless rectal exam. In Lethal Weapon 4 where he is annoyed by Leo ranting about cell phones charging you for the first minute after you make a call and get cut off, Riggs calls Leo on his cell phone and asks him to "investigate his privates", charging Leo 3 dollars for a phone call.
Physical appearance[]
Martin Riggs is an slender adult man, with fair skin and long brown hair (which was trimmed short in the fourth film), and wears collared shirts often with jackets. He carries a Beretta 92 as his service weapon.
Appearances[]
Films[]
Lethal Weapon[]
Somewhere in a beach in California, Riggs lives all alone in a trailer with his dog Sam. He is an alcoholic, smokes, and he can't get a grip of himself since the loss of his wife Victoria Riggs three years earlier. One morning, Riggs wakes up naked, and goes for a drink from his refrigerator. He then gets changed, loads his Beretta 92F pistol, and has another drink, all the while listening to the man on TV talking about the Super Bowl, which makes him irritated and break the TV. Riggs then looks at the picture of his deceased wife and says "I'll buy you a new one."
Then, while driving his car out on the open road, Riggs hears a distress call on his police radio about a sniper at an elementary school. Riggs decides to put a stop to it. The sniper is on the second floor guarded by metal for cover, putting several kids' lives in danger. After feigning warning by police, Riggs manages to take down the sniper when he fails to kill Riggs; he initially went into the line of fire as a suicide attempt. Riggs then walks off silently as the police deal with the rest of the situation.
Riggs later met with drug dealers, acting undercover with intentions to arrest them. He would sample some drugs in front of them. He would then pay for the drugs for $100, only to push them earlier after intentionally paying in small amounts of cash rather than a big sum. After stating that he'd buy all the drugs they had in front of him, with a free Christmas tree included, he revealed that he'd take the drugs for free and put them in jail, showing his badge and pistol. He was able to take out two of the four drug dealers (one was hiding in the truck-trailer) while the other fled to hide. Just when the police showed up, the dealer grabbed Riggs and held him at gunpoint. After several shouts telling the officers to shoot, Riggs got fed up and headbutts the dealer pointing his own gun under his chin, about to kill him before the officers took over and handcuffed the suspect.
Back in his trailer, Riggs talks to Sam about his day. He looks at his wedding picture of him and Victoria, then begins attempting suicide with his pistol. With the TV on and only one bullet loaded in his pistol, Riggs points the gun on his forehead, then his mouth. He fails to pull the trigger and then tells his wife (looking up) "not today", and promises he will be with her again soon.
Because of his suicidal problems, Riggs was transferred from the Narcotics division to Homicide. He waits in the police station for his new partner to show up. When he pulls out his gun to check out his ammunition, a policeman mistakenly suspects him as a criminal and charges after him, but Riggs tosses him over his shoulder and points the gun at him. That policeman is Roger Murtaugh. Detective Boyette introduces Roger Murtaugh to Riggs, his new partner on the Hunsaker case.
In the garage of the police building, Riggs and Murtaugh dislike each other immediately, both telling each other they're "both fucked" because neither of them wants to work together. Murtaugh won't even let Riggs drive because of his problematic issues. Their first minor assignment is a dispatch call to a man contemplating suicide, going by the name of Len McCleary. Riggs decides to bring the man down himself.
After showing his badge to police officers, he confronts McCleary, who wants no physical contact from Riggs and tells him to stay away. In order to bring him down, the hard way, Riggs tricks him into giving him a cigarette then feigns lighting it in order to handcuff McCleary to Riggs. Riggs tells him now if he attempts to jump, he will be taking Riggs with him, making him a murderer. After a brief argument, Riggs had enough with McCleary's rants and jumps off the building and onto the trampoline below.
The authorities proceed to take the man into custody as Murtaugh gets upset at Riggs in how he handled the situation. The two get into a heated argument in an empty store, where Riggs tells Murtaugh everyday he thinks about committing suicide but his job is the only thing keeping him from doing it. Seeing his emotions, Murtaugh tells him to use his revolver and pull the trigger on himself if that's what he feels. Riggs moves the gun away before it can be done and leaves Murtaugh stunned, leaving him to question he's not really trying to pull a psycho pension on himself. Riggs then leaves the store to grab a bite to eat.
A little while later, after both men have calmed down, Murtaugh continues driving his car while he tells Riggs they are going to see a suspect in relation to Amanda Hunsaker's murder and question him but not kill him. The men arrive at the suspect's house. Riggs tries opening the front door but it is locked. Then they walk towards the back and see two young women dosing on heroin when Riggs and Murtaugh show their guns to them, revealing they are the police.
This attracts the attention of the pimp who fires a sniper rifle. Murtaugh responds back by shooting his leg while Riggs drags the girls out of the house and handcuffs them to a tree to question later. He then walks over to arrest the pimp but as he pulls him up, the pimp grabs out a handgun and almost kills Murtaugh. Riggs saved him by pushing the pimp's arm out of the way and shoots him three times as he falls into the pool.
Remembering what his partner spoke about earlier, Riggs and Murtaugh jump in the pool to try and untangle him from the plastic. They were too late and the suspect drowned while bleeding to death. When they both reached the surface, Murtaugh asks Riggs "Is there anybody, you didn't kill?" The latter responds saying he has not "killed you yet." The police arrive and handle the rest while Murtaugh thanks Riggs for saving his life, and dismisses the things he said to him earlier.
Murtaugh invites him over for dinner and Riggs meets one of his kids Carrie Murtaugh. Then Riggs is introduced to his teenage daughter Rianne, who instantly becomes attracted to him. At the table, the kids see her blushing in front of Riggs and sing a song about it, annoying Rianne.
The next morning, Riggs awakens Murtaugh with the smell of coffee and proceeds to tell him that there is still more information on the case than he uncovered and a hooker named Dixie is responsible for poisoning Amanda. The duo then drive to Dixie's House and proceed to arrest her. But before they can set foot in the house, it explodes right before their eyes; luckily no one was hurt.
By the time the police arrive, a detective tells the duo that four boys, who just saw Riggs and Murtaugh attempt to question Dixie, know who set the house on fire. In particular, Alfred saw the suspect who trespassed and eventually changed the meter to a dangerous temperature that caused it to explode.
Riggs and Murtaugh approach Hunsaker before Amanda's funeral, where he reveals that he had previously been part of "Shadow Company," a heroin-smuggling operation run by former special forces operators from the Vietnam War, masterminded by retired General Peter McAllister and his right-hand man, Mr. Joshua. Hunsaker had been laundering the money, but wanted to get out, and when McAllister found out he'd contacted Murtaugh, the general had Amanda killed. As they talk, Joshua arrives in a helicopter and kills Hunsaker. Shadow Company attempts to kill Riggs in a drive-by shooting, but he is saved by a bullet-proof vest. Murtaugh and Riggs fake his death to gain the upper hand.
Upon discovering that the Shadow Company had kidnapped Rianne and demand Murtaugh turn himself over to them for her return. Murtaugh and Riggs plan an ambush at the exchange at El Mirage Lake with Riggs providing sniper support, but the ambush ends in failure when Riggs gets captured by McAllister, Murtaugh got shot down on the shoulder and Rianne is re-captured and all three are taken to an unknown location. Murtaugh and Riggs are tortured for information; as Murtaugh is repeatedly punched by the thugs, Riggs is shocked by a thug but he manages to overpower his captors by breaking their necks, and rescues Murtaugh and Rianne, and they escape to find themselves at a busy nightclub used as a front for Shadow Company. After blowing their cover, McAllister and Joshua attempt to escape separately. Joshua manages to get away, but McAllister ends up crashing his car on Hollywood Boulevard and is killed when hand grenades in the car detonate. Murtaugh and Riggs race to Murtaugh's home, knowing Joshua will be after his family. They arrive in time to stop him, and Riggs beats him in a violent fist fight on the front lawn and seemingly chokes him to death. As officers arrive to take Joshua away, he breaks free and grabs a gun, but both Murtaugh and Riggs pull their guns and shoot him dead.
After visiting his deceased wife's grave, Riggs decides to spend Christmas with the Murtaughs, having become best friends with Murtaugh and bonding with the rest of the family. Riggs also gives Murtaugh a symbolic gift: an unfired hollow-point bullet which he had been saving to commit suicide, as he does not need it anymore.
Lethal Weapon 2[]
A year later after the events of the first film, Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh are pursuing unidentified suspects transporting an illegal shipment of gold krugerrands. The Afrikaner apartheid government of South Africa subsequently orders Los Angeles consul-general Arjen Rudd and security agent Pieter Vorstedt to warn both detectives off the investigation; they are reassigned to protecting an obnoxious federal witness, Leo Getz, after an attack on Murtaugh's home.
It soon becomes clear that both cases are related: After an attempt on Leo's life, Riggs and Murtaugh learn of the former's murky past laundering funds for vengeful drug smugglers. Leo eventually leads them to the gang, but upon dispatching his would-be assassin and returning with backup they are confronted by Rudd, who invokes diplomatic immunity on behalf of his unscrupulous "associates."
Though instructed to leave the case alone, Riggs begins to openly harass the South African consulate, defying Rudd and romancing his secretary, Rika van den Haas, a liberal-minded Afrikaner who despises her boss and his racial philosophy. Vorstedt is dispatched to murder all of the officers investigating them while Murtaugh deduces that Rudd is attempting to ship funds from his smuggling ring in the United States to Cape Town via Los Angeles Harbor. Two assassins attack Murtaugh at his home, but he kills them in the ensuing fight, though Leo is abducted in the process.
Riggs and Rika, both unaware of what's happened, arrive at Riggs' trailer ad begin to sleep with each other. However, Sam alerts Riggs and Rika about the helicopter approaching, prompting Riggs, Rika and Sam to evacuate the trailer as the gunmen repeatedly shoot at his trailer, Riggs shoots down most of the gunmen and realizes that Rudd has sent them down to kill Riggs. After dropping off Rika at her apartment, Riggs is captured by Pieter and is taken to a pier where is informed by Pieter that he was the one that killed Victoria, intending to kill Riggs after he got too close to Pieter's drug operation. Riggs is soon thrown into the water nearby by Pieter's thugs, strapped into a straightjacket.
After escaping by dislocating his right shoulder, Riggs sees Rika's body, still wearing his coat, having drowned. Deeply sorrowed by this, he swims to the top of the water and climbs out, killing both thugs brutally. He relocates his arm and recovers her body.
Riggs paces along the beach, cradling Rika's body in his arms, sobbing over the death of yet another loved woman. Sam watches from the other side of the beach and he looks over the body of the woman he loved. He would then begin to seek vengeance against the diplomats and end their reign on apartheid through the consulate.
Riggs would phone Murtaugh that tonight he is not a cop and he is going to kill the diplomats personally. Although Murtaugh tells him it's not their problem, he gave in and would meet Riggs at Arjen Rudd's house.
Riggs arrives at Rudd's house, as Murtaugh fights off most of Rudd's henchmen and rescues Leo from hostage, Riggs destroys Rudd's hose by pulling it off the cliff with his truck. They head for the Alba Varden, Rudd's freighter docked in the Port of Los Angeles, as the South Africans prepare their getaway with hundreds of millions in drug money.
While investigating a guarded 40 foot cargo container at the docks, Riggs and Murtaugh are locked inside by Rudd's men. They use the car to break out of the cargo container, scattering two pallets of Rudd's drug money into the harbor in the process. Riggs and Murtaugh engage in a firefight with some of Rudd's men aboard the Alba Varden before separating to hunt down Rudd. Riggs is then injured in the leg by Pieter with a machete and fights him hand-to-hand, culminating when Riggs stabs Vorstedt with his own knife, leaving him severely injured. An weakened Riggs limps over to the switch just as Vorstedt is about to shoot him, Riggs crushes him to his death by dropping a cargo container on him. Rudd retaliates by shooting Riggs in the back multiple times with an antique Broomhandle Mauser pistol. Fortunately, Murtaugh saves Riggs by killing Rudd with a single shot from his revolver, ignoring Rudd's claim to diplomatic immunity. Murtaugh tends to Riggs, sharing a laugh with him as more LAPD personnel respond to the scene.
Lethal Weapon 3[]
One night, a bomb is set to explode in less than 10 minutes inside a building. All the people have been evacuated and the LAPD are awaiting the arrival of the bomb squad. Martin Riggs wants to prove himself by being a hero by disarming the bomb himself. Although Roger Murtaugh kept telling him to wait for the bomb squad, he gave in and joined him as both cops went inside the building to disarm the bomb. It was located inside a silver car and Riggs and Murtaugh slowly opened both sides and took a look at the timer. Riggs was not sure whether to cut the blue wire or the red wire. Murtaugh spotted a cat and brought him down from the car's roof. When Riggs cuts one of the wires, the bomb's timer ticks down faster and close to detonation, both Riggs and Murtaugh fled the building before they could be killed. The building explodes and the duo are demoted to patrolmen as their punishment the following day.
Due to their patrolman duties, Riggs and Murtaugh are forced to wear regular LAPD Police uniforms, which disgusts Riggs. Murtaugh blames Riggs for the demotion saying he will keep talking about it until he retires. Riggs then spots a jaywalker, calls him over, and gives him a ticket. But haven't not used a notepad in years, he changes his mind and instead decides to shoot the jaywalker, but Murtaugh thinks Riggs is taking it too far now. In the end, they let him go and laugh as Murtaugh told him to run far away from Riggs.
Then Riggs spots a criminal dressed as a bank guard who shoots the real armored car driver who arrives, as he and his partner make heist with the stolen money. Riggs throws his baton at the suspect and disarms him, then gives chase while Murtaugh follows from behind in Dolores' armored truck. During the chase, Riggs battles one of the robbers, Smitty, and fist fights him. Smitty throws Riggs out of the truck but thanks to the highway speed limit, is saved by the hood of Dolores' truck. He is quickly able to resume the fight and punches Smitty, making him drop the keys to the vehicle. Riggs attacks Smitty again and this time gets thrown out of the truck but survives with minimal injuries.
He makes his way to the front and then engages in a brief battle over the wheel with Billy Phelps. The two struggle to gain control over the wheel until Riggs puts his seatbelt on and hits the brakes hard as Billy flies through the windshield, breaking the glass and becoming unconscious. Riggs comes out the door and handcuffs Billy to the bumper as he jokes with the Miranda rights and proceeds to take him into custody. Murtaugh checks on him to see if he is okay and Riggs says he is. Then as Billy regains consciousness, Riggs punches him in the face.
At Murtaugh's house, Riggs was about to light up a cigarette, when Murtaugh stopped him from doing so in that he would "stink up the house when it became apparent that Roger would be selling the house after he'd retire. He receives a telephone call at the house which was Rianne who needed to speak to her dad about her new job she got as an actress.
On their way to work, Riggs notices what appears to be a hold-up with Rianne apparently being held hostage. Once Riggs went to stop it, he noticed after he jumped "thug" that the gun was a rubber gun, but never was aware that it was a movie set being done. Rianne tries to tell the director that the whole thing was a misunderstanding, but he fires her anyway for no apparent reason. While Murtaugh was trying to comfort Rianne, Riggs tries to reason with the director, insisting that he'd take the blame for the misunderstand, because it wasn't her fault. Right where Riggs drew line at the director's bad attitude, he punches him in the stomach and then in the face insisting on giving Rianne her job back and allowing Riggs to take the blame for it.
Later at the station, Riggs and Murtaugh are called by Captain Murphy, who says he's reinstating them back to their positions as sergeants again for their effort in foiling the bank robbery and arresting Billy Phelps. Riggs, Murtaugh, and Lorna Cole, who they met in the elevator, all go to the interrogation room to talk to Phelps, but were too late before they could get any information from him as he was shot and killed right there before then. They checked the surveillance cameras, and noticed how a man was covering up knowing there was a camera. However, another secretly installed surveillance camera installed in the interrogation room was able to get a shot of the man who killed Phelps: Jack Travis, a former LAPD police officer who went sour. A short time later, Leo sees the still image of Travis, and knows he'll be at a hockey game in The Forum.
At the Forum, Riggs announces on the P.A. to Jack Travis that cops are at every section of the Forum and that he's under arrest. However, Travis made the clean getaway after shooting Leo in the forearm after Leo tried to get him down. Riggs tried to catch up with him, but Travis made the getaway. Soon after, Riggs and Murtaugh bring Leo to the hospital for the gunshot wound, but he insists that the doctors keep him their a little longer, and adding proctology to the requirements on the chart, thus dooming Leo to a needless rectal exam as part of his usual pranks, especially on Leo.
The next day, Riggs and Murtaugh go to Fast Eddie's Hamburger Stand to have some hamburgers. Riggs notices what appears to be a drug deal and attempts to arrest the gangsters, but was forced jump out of the way when the driver of the car fires at him and most of the gang members escape and Riggs gets knocked out in the head. Once Murtaugh goes to assist Riggs, he notices one gangster was hiding in the shed. Murtaugh ordered gangster to surrender, but instead, the man shoots at Murtaugh forcing him to return fire. Right after Murtaugh takes off the sunglasses, he sees it was his son Nick's friend Darryl Smithers. He tries to revive him, but Riggs tells him he's dead and that it was clean shot and needed to be done.
After Murtaugh didn't show up for work the next day, Riggs teams up with Cole in finding the arms dealing and the supplier. Once they got the address, Riggs and Cole go to the location, where Riggs finds a Rottweiler. Refusing to kill the dog, he tames the dog giving him dog biscuit and petting him. Just then after, Riggs tries to interrogate the men who packing up all the guns in boxes for their client, only right then Riggs gets captured, just right before Lorna shows up. There, Riggs and Lorna fight the guys one-by-one before taking off in a truck that has boxes of guns in them, and just then, the Rottweiler takes off and goes with Riggs and Lorna.
Later, at Lorna's place, Riggs asked her for a antiseptic and a bandage for his head. Just when he was about to bandage his head, they show each other their scars they've had in each of their previous times. Just right then, Riggs and Lorna shared a kiss for the first time, and Lorna threw him down and they start making out right there. Riggs is then at his trailer as it was being renovated by Mickey McGee, watching the Three Stooges with his dog Sam and his newly tamed Rottweiler. Rianne shows up and tells him that her dad didn't come home last night, and asks him to find Roger. Riggs then goes to Murtaugh's boat and sees that he is so depressed while drinking a bottle of Jack Daniels whiskey. Murtaugh is getting the nutty notion in that Rianne came to see Riggs, and he tells Roger that she was worried about him. Riggs tries to get Roger to calm down about killing Darryl, knowing that Darryl would've killed him and Riggs and anyone who came along and that Riger had no other choice. Murtaugh knowing he has to forgive himself for it, gives in, at Riggs' insistence.
Riggs is then seen at Darryl's funeral, seeing Murtaugh trying to apologize to Mr. and Mrs. Smithers, only to be slapped in the face by Mrs. Smithers, with Mr. Smithers, however, asking Murtaugh to find the man who sold Darryl the gun. Riggs, Murtaugh, and Cole then go after every source of the arms trafficking, and eventually learn from Tyrone, that the dealer is Jack Travis. Later, they go to a chop shop operation where they interrogate Hubie, who is supposed to be on parole, but is in cahoots with Jack Travis.
At the station, Riggs, Murtaugh, and Cole deduce that another set of weapons might be stolen from their station's weaponry storage. Another cop, a rookie named Officer Edwards, joins them to help them out. After Travis and his henchmen kidnap Captain Murphy to gain access to the weapons storage facility, the cops show up to stop them, but only to have gunfire exchanged between them, resulting in the death of Officer Edwards right there, and Travis and his men get away. Riggs commandeered a police motorcycle going after them. Thereafter they shot the motorcycle tires, the motorcycle ends up falling from the bridge, and Riggs grabs ahold of a rope only to have his shoulder dislocated like before, and rights when falls there, he hits it into something getting it back into place. Riggs met up with Murtaugh there, and Leo gives them the information on where Travis is at, and he and Murtaugh shoot Leo's tires to prevent him from accompanying them.
Later that night, Riggs and Murtaugh go to Rancho Oroya, where Jack Travis and his henchmen are at. They're joined with Lorna Cole where they start up a gunfight taking on Travis' henchmen, and they set the entire illegitimate development on fire. Right after Lorna shoots a henchman, backing up Riggs and Murtaugh, Travis comes out of nowhere and shoots her with his armor piercing bullets, thinking he killed her. Riggs sees Lorna and thinks she is really dead, takes her pistol, then seeks vengeance on Travis.
As Riggs is going after Travis, Riggs is kicked and tormented by Travis, who comes after Riggs with a mini-digger. Murtaugh tosses Riggs an SMG filled with armor piercing "cop killer" bullets, and Riggs shoots Travis through the plow of the digger. Travis lifts his head to see Riggs and say with his last words "Go to hell, Riggs," to which Riggs replies "You first," and Riggs takes his foot off the brake lever of the digger, thus allowing it to go forward and into a burning up housing development, taking Travis with it.
After the battle, Riggs tends to Lorna and sees she had on two bulletproof vests, to prevent any further damage, though still a couple of bad ones. Riggs tells her he loves her, just before she is taken to the hospital.
The next morning, Riggs is seen kissing Rianne outside of his car. As he and Riggs are leaving for work, Murtaugh warns Riggs to stay away from Rianne after seeing they kissed, but Riggs lets him know he's already spoken for by Lorna and going to her up from the hospital in the afternoon, to which Murtaugh says "You're serious?" It indicates that Riggs and Lorna have decided to be in a committed relationship together after all they've been through together.
Lethal Weapon 4[]
While attending to an armored criminal firing a flamethrower and a machine gun at stores and vehicles, Riggs and Murtaugh are soon pinned down in a life and death situation. Murtaugh tells Riggs that Lorna is pregnant and that'll he'll be a father. Riggs soon after informs Murtaugh that Rianne is pregnant and he'll be a grandfather. Riggs decides to have Murtaugh run from cover in his boxers to distract the criminal. The plan works and Riggs fires at the criminal's flamethrower valves, sending him into a gas tanker truck and causing an explosion that kills him. Riggs and Murtaugh walk away from the scene.
Nearly nine months later, Riggs and Murtaugh are on Murtaugh's boat, fishing with Leo, who has captured a shark. Just when they were about to eliminate the shark, a vessel with a cargo hold comes out of nowhere. There, Riggs and Murtaugh shoot at the guys shooting at them from the ship, and soon after investigate it and see it's a slave ship being brought in from China. Little did Riggs know, Murtaugh had brought some of the slaves to his home to watch over them until they could be granted asylum.
At his trailer, Riggs is talking to Lorna about the possibility of marriage while she is pregnant with his child, but she is having a little bit of a tough time deciding so. While walking along the beach, she tells him that Rianne is secret married to a cop named Sergeant Lee Butters, who is, in fact the father of Rianne's baby. Lorna has Riggs swear that not at all will he mention it to Murtaugh until the baby is born.
Later, they meet Roger and the rest of the Murtaugh at the Murtaugh house, and have breakfast with them. Riggs notices a kid in the kitchen, and Roger tells him that he's watching over the Hongs until they'll be granted asylum, from there, Riggs and Murtaugh leave for work.
At the station, Riggs and Murtaugh being told by their supervisor, Captain Murphy, that the damage they've done over the times, the department lost it's insurance carrier and can't get a new one, and since firing them isn't really an option, that they are being promoted to Captain. They then partner up with Butters, a rookie LAPD detective. They deduct in that the slave ship being brought in had something to with Uncle Benny Chan, the crime boss of the Triad gang, and a owner of a Chinese restaurant in Los Angeles' Chinatown. There, they ask him what he knows about it so far, and he says nothing. While questioning Uncle Benny, Riggs starts noticing Wah Sing Ku, Chan's top enforcer for the Triads. After they are forced to leave with no probable cause, Riggs pulls the fire sprinkler soaking the whole room while covering with an umbrella and shooting through the glass.
As they leave the restaurant, Riggs sees the Chinese Captain from the ship the other night, and goes after him and his accomplice. Though, the Captain escaped, his accomplice was forced to give in on the interrogation about the slave ship. They arrested him for the conspiracy, but the Captain was killed by Wah Sing Ku, and was later discovered, with his eyeballs pecked out by pigeons.
The next day, Wah Sing Ku and his henchmen kidnap the Hongs and hold Trish, Rianne, and Lorna hostage. All of them get overpowered, and Riggs and Murtaugh get overpowered by Ku while taking apart Riggs' gun in one deft move. They're tied up with duct tape and left in the house to die with it set on fire. Ping, who hid to avoid capture, however, came out from hiding and set them free, and they all got out of the house. And Riggs and Murtaugh go after the Triads with the help of police helicopter units.
Riggs, Murtaugh, and Butters find out from Leo that Uncle Benny was having a dental appointment, and they use Leo as distraction while trying to interrogate Uncle Benny on where the Hongs are at. Uncle Benny not giving in on information, while denying any of it, Riggs makes him breathe in nitrous oxide to extract the truth from him. Breathing in so much of it, Uncle Benny was forced to give about where Hongs are at while telling them about the Four Fathers and buying them back. While having breathed in some nitrous oxide, he accidentally told Murtaugh that Butters was and is his son-in-law. Once they left the dentist office, he gets punched out by Murtaugh for "keeping it from him".
Later, after Riggs and Lorna, along with Ping, were attacked on the train tracks and they go forth and their "would-be" assailants get hit by the train. Riggs leaves Lorna to watch over Ping and the rest of the Hongs after they were rescued. Afterwards, Riggs, Murtaugh, Butters, Ng, Ng's partner, and some other detectives go to the harbour where the Triads would be meeting the general to make the exchange. There, Riggs reveals to the general that the money being given to them from the Triads for the exchange of the release of the Four Fathers was counterfeit money.
A firefight breaks out between the Triad, the general's private army and the police, and most of the Triad and army are killed. Ku attempts to escape with his brother, but his brother is shot and killed by Murtaugh. Enraged by his brother's death, Ku challenges both Riggs and Murtaugh. Riggs engages in a fistfight with Ku at the pier, Murtaugh impales Ku with a metal stick before being knocked out cold. The pier collapses and sends them underwater after Murtaugh was knocked out cold and unconscious. Riggs find a submerged AK-47 and kills Ku. Riggs makes it up to the harbour, but more of the pier falls off with him under it and traps him. There, Murtaugh regains consciousness and dives in to rescue Riggs pulling the broken piece of the pier off him.
After Murtaugh saved him, Riggs visited the grave of Victoria after a long time of not having visited. He spoke of his love for Lorna before Leo soon arrived. Leo told Riggs a story of a pet frog he once had, informing him that he and Murtaugh were different friends than the frog, inspiring Riggs to marry Lorna.
Riggs and Leo arrived at the hospital in time to see Lorna being wheeled towards a delivery room. She insisted and demanded that she and Riggs marry her before the baby arrived, to which he shared his approval. The two were unofficially wed by a Rabbi, with the help of Leo as Riggs' best man.
Lorna and Riggs soon went into the delivery room, where Riggs' son was born. Murtaugh and Butters soon arrived, where the friends viewed Riggs' son and Murtaugh's granddaughter. The Captain arrived with gifts for the mothers of the new babies and the families, including Leo, the Captain and Murtaugh's other daughter, son and wife, took a photo together.
Television series[]
Relationships[]
Roger Murtaugh[]
Martin has a lot in common with Murtaugh. He and Murtaugh start disliking each other, until after Riggs saved his life, Murtaugh gratefully thanked him and they become best friends. But Riggs can sometimes gets on Murtaugh's nerves, and he can sometimes secretly humiliate Murtaugh behind his back.
Victoria Riggs[]
Martin deeply loved his wife more than ever. After the day that his wife died in a car crash, Riggs went in depression and tries to commit suicide, but cannot bring himself.
Lorna Cole[]
Martin started a romantic relationship with Lorna Cole whilst on the case to clear Murtaugh's name after he killed a 15 year old friend of his son. Despite his first wife's demise, Riggs had to let his tragic past go when Leo reveals his past when he loved his pet frog to overcome his mother's departure.
Quotes[]
- [shouting at the driver while hanging onto the bonnet of a moving car] "I'd like to see your drivers license and proof of insurance!" [Riggs falls of the car]
- "Naw, not really, just another goddamn pen."
- "Ah, reminds me of the night Vicki was killed."
- "She wasn't much of a housekeeper. And this voice goes off inside my head, kind a like a drill instructor, I really heard it. It said GET UP NOW. I didn't feel like it but I got up, muscles were still working and I drove to the hospital and identified her in the morgue and signed her out with my gold pen."
- "Well, it would be okay on the three days of the year when you can actually see it!"
- "I'm pissed"
- "Oops"
- "Hey, Moe"
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Martin Riggs' crazy behavior and his humor can be compared to another action hero, John McClane of the Die Hard series.
- In all films, Riggs nearly suffers death: once when Endo continuously kept electrocuting him, the next when he is critically wounded by a shot from Arjen Rudd, another from when Jack Travis nearly crushes him with the digger and Riggs was unable to move due to injury, and finally when he was dealt multiple life threatening hits by Wah Sing Ku and nearly died in the water before Roger Murtaugh saved him.
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