Martin Riggs
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Martin Riggs (born October 16, 1950) is a fictional police officer from the Lethal Weapon franchise. He is played in all four films by Mel Gibson.
[edit] Career
Riggs joined the United States Army at age 19 as a member of special forces, receiving specialized training in weaponry and hand to hand combat. These skills would later serve him well when he became a police officer. Most of Riggs' time in special forces was in Vietnam, where he served as an assassin under the CIA's "Phoenix Program" directive; while his ability as a trained killer would later plague his conscience, he thought of it as "...the only thing I was ever really good at."
Shortly before the first Lethal Weapon film begins, Riggs' wife, Victoria, is murdered, sending him into a deep depression. At that time, he does not know that she died as a result of murder, and believes it was simply an accident. Driven to the brink with grief and anger, he regularly puts himself (and anyone else near him) in harm's way, secretly hoping someone will put him out of his misery by killing him, but unable to do that himself with suicide. The factor which initially gave Riggs the edge is that because of his wife's death, he was so suicidal that he didn't care whether he lived or died, and this gave him a definite advantage in showdown situations.
Riggs is transferred from narcotics after a shooting incident, and partnered with fellow detective-sergeant Roger Murtaugh in hopes that the older, more conservative veteran will keep him in line. After a rough start, the two become good friends, even though Riggs always gets on Murtaugh's nerves. By the end of this film, the two have worked together to rescue Murtaugh's daughter, who had been kidnapped by drug-lords and military mercenaries.
In Lethal Weapon 2, Riggs discovers that the South African crime lord he and Murtaugh are pursuing had in fact ordered his death, but killed Victoria by mistake. After avenging the deaths of his wife and Rika van den Haas (whom Riggs had briefly become involved with romantically before she too was murdered), he is able to finally put his demons to rest and move on with his life.
Lethal Weapon 3 spawns the memorable line: "I can't shoot a dog: People are OK, but not dogs." Therefore showing Riggs's "Human" side. Or perhaps showing his distaste for humanity.
Riggs eventually falls in love with officer Lorna Cole (played by Rene Russo) in Lethal Weapon 3, and they have a child at the end of Lethal Weapon 4. Both Riggs and Murtaugh are promoted to Captain by the fourth film in order to keep them out of trouble, but by the end of the movie their status is returned back to Sergeant.
Throughout all four films, Riggs has used martial arts (leading Murtaugh to jokingly suggest that Riggs himself be registered as a lethal weapon) and a Beretta 92F (assume FS) pistol as his signature weapons, though he will often commandeer an MP5 sub-machine gun or AK-47 assault rifle from a vanquished foe if more firepower is needed, and also briefly used a G3SG/1 sniper rifle in the first film, for ranges exceeded by accurate 9x19mm (Luger) fire power. Riggs has previously claimed to have killed a target in Laos from a distance of 1000 yards "with a rifle shot in high wind.", something he claims very few people could have achieved.
