Question; What if Riggs did died at the end?
Considering how not too long ago i posted this topic;
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097733/board/thread/257279858
in which i talked about original script for the film, i thought to myself about what would happen if one way or another we did get the different ending for Lethal Weapon 2 in which Riggs dies. This is just a question i wanted to ask other fans here, what do you think?
The movie has lot of comedic moments and fun, but second half really changes into the more darker tone, almost shockingly quick, so i don't think that ending the movie with one of main characters dying would be out of place.
In my opinion, even though third and fourth film have some solid action scenes, i think that they should't have been made and that LW2 should have been the only sequel, no matter whether Riggs would die or survive. But if i would have to choose, i would prefer the ending in which he dies because it's obvious, if we forget about next two sequels that is, how Riggs has clearly gone back to his old self, angry and vengeful killing machine who does not care will he die or not. Maybe it's just me, but that's the way i always looked at it. And considering how messed up he was in the first film just from losing his wife, in the second one he loses several of his friends and his new girlfriend who let's be honest was killed because he got together with her and convinced her to turn against Rudd, instead of just leaving her alone. That's something that he would have to live with, even if he did avenged her death.
And when you think about it, Riggs and Murtaugh going up against South Africans in the ending, destroying the stilt house and having a shootout with them is not something that they would get away with. South Africans were still under protection of diplomatic immunity which would mean that Riggs and Murtaugh in a way committed vigilante crime, and Murtaugh even shoots unarmed man in the end, even if he was a main villain and had shot Riggs. I can see how even darker ending that would have been, with both of them being fired and jailed or Riggs dying and Murtaugh suffering the fate of not only losing his best friend and several other friends but also going to jail for what he did.
Of course, you can always say that it's just a movie plot and it doesn't matter because it's not realistic, but i'm just talking about how would the entire thing eventually end up for main heroes.
From what i know about Shane Black and Warren Murphy's original story/script, in the original ending Riggs went up against South Africans in order to protect Murtaugh and his family, willingly risking his life to save theirs and eventually dying in rather brutal and painful way, but still managing to protect them. That would make much better ending in my opinion, him making the ultimate sacrifice to protect people he loves and cares for, and also avenging his dead police friends.
So my questions are;
what do you guys think would have happen if test audience didn't convinced studio and director to use the ending in which Riggs lives instead of one in which he dies (which was filmed),
do you agree that Riggs should have died specially considering how he has gone off the deep end by the last half of the movie (after Rika and others have been killed), maybe even without a chance of returning to be the fun loving guy that he was throughout the rest of the film (try to ignore other sequels which also ignore this little detail),
would there still be more LW films but only with Murtaugh or maybe him with some different guy as his partner,
would LW2 be better movie if Riggs did died at the end,
if you are one of the fans who would prefer the ending in which Riggs dies, how would you like to see it happen (how he should have died, what would happen after his death etc...)