Half-Assed Internet Research
Urban-western origin; Gibson's horseshoe kidney; Jackie Swanson's own high fall; a blank in the suicide scene; the Beretta 92F; director's cut and alternate opening and ending; the original Shane Black script
In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 01:11:17Read transcript
- Shane Black wrote the screenplay in mid-1985, first intending an urban western.
- Gibson has a horseshoe kidney (two kidneys fused), joked as the source of his sprint speed.
- Jackie Swanson, who played Hunsaker's daughter, did the high fall herself.
- In the suicide-contemplation scene there was a blank in the chamber of the gun Gibson pointed at his head.
- The gun was a Beretta 92F, also used by Bruce Willis in Die Hard and since retired.
- A director's cut runs about seven minutes longer; an alternate opening had Riggs drinking alone in a bar and beating up thugs.
- The original 1985 Shane Black script is online and much darker, with a possible school-shooting opening, a rocket launcher and more Vietnam material.
- The alternate ending, on YouTube, has Riggs telling a retiring Murtaugh not to retire; the fight was four minutes longer.