Riggs and Murtaugh Close Out the Franchise With a Triad War in Lethal Weapon 4

Lethal Weapon 4 arrives as the fourth and final entry in the Lethal Weapon franchise, and it plays like a movie built to end things. Directed by Richard Donner, who helmed the first three films, the 1998 buddy cop action picture brings together Martin Riggs, played by Mel Gibson, and Roger Murtaugh, played by Danny Glover, for one last ride. The film adds new faces, including Chris Rock as Det. Lee Butters and Jet Li as Wah Sing Ku, and it leans on the personal stakes of its leads — Riggs is about to become a father, Murtaugh’s daughter is pregnant too — to give the gunfire some weight.

The setup is simple. Riggs and Murtaugh stumble upon a Chinese immigrant smuggling operation while chasing a vessel aground, and their investigation leads them to “Uncle” Benny Chan, a crime boss running a Chinatown restaurant. Through him, they meet Wah Sing Ku, a high-ranking Triad negotiator, and the film spends its runtime moving between the officers’ domestic lives and the escalating war against the Triads.

Trailer, via Warner Bros. Rewind.

The Family Stakes

The film’s emotional core rests on the pregnancies of both leads. Riggs is engaged to Lorna Cole, played by Rene Russo, and Murtaugh’s daughter Rianne, played by Traci Wolfe, is expecting as well. The film spends time with Murtaugh’s wife Trish, played by Darlene Love, and his grandchildren, showing how the case disrupts their quiet life. When the Triads target the family, the threat feels personal in a way the previous films didn’t.

This isn’t a subtle shift. The film wants you to care about the Murtaughs before it burns their house down.

Jet Li and the Chinatown War

Jet Li makes his international film debut as Wah Sing Ku, and he gets the best action scenes in the film. His arrival signals a change in tone from the earlier entries, which were more focused on Riggs and Murtaugh’s partnership than on elaborate set pieces. The fight choreography is sharp, and the film leans into the spectacle of a Triad war in full public view.

“The gang’s all here.”

That tagline sums up the film’s approach. Everyone from the franchise’s past shows up in small roles, and the movie treats its own history as a selling point rather than a burden. It’s a crowd-pleaser first, a thriller second, and a farewell to these characters third.

The Case Against It

The film’s weaknesses are structural. The plot stretches thin across its 127-minute runtime, and the smuggling ring investigation feels like a connective tissue between bigger set pieces rather than a driving force of its own. The villain, Wah Sing Ku, is competent but not memorable, and his plan — to punish the captain of the vessel for attracting police attention — feels like a convenient excuse to start the fire.

The film also leans heavily on the chemistry between Riggs and Murtaugh, and that relationship is the one thing that hasn’t aged. Their banter remains the film’s best asset, even as the world around them grows darker.

A Final Word on the Fire

The climax is the film’s most memorable sequence. The Triads kidnap the Hongs, tie up Riggs, Murtaugh, Cole and the rest, and set the house ablaze. Ping, Hong’s grandson, helps free everyone in time, but the scene is pure chaos, and it plays like a final act of defiance against the villains. It’s a fitting end to a series that spent years building up these two men.

The film’s reception was mixed when it came out. Critics weren’t kind, and the movie grossed $285 million worldwide, becoming the tenth highest-grossing film of 1998. That number speaks to audience appeal, not critical approval.

The film is not a masterpiece, but it’s a sincere one. It knows what its audience wants — a reunion, a family crisis, a big finale — and it delivers all of it without pretense. It’s a flawed farewell to a beloved pairing, and it earns its ending.

action comedy · Danny Glover · Jet Li · Lethal Weapon · Mel Gibson