Martin Riggs

After his wife's death, Riggs, a narcotics cop, lives on the edge. The captain partners him with Murtaugh, thinking he fakes the madness to retire on a pension. The police therapist disagrees. He and his partner investigate Amanda Hunsaker's death and reach Shadow Company. Riggs fakes his own death after taking a shot in a vest, withstands torture, kills the henchmen and spares Joshua in their fight. At Christmas he hands Murtaugh the bullet he had been saving to kill himself.

Two years on, Riggs and Murtaugh guard Leo Getz and uncover a South African gang hiding behind diplomatic immunity. Riggs harasses consul Rudd and gets close to his secretary, Rika. Security agent Vorstedt captures him and says he was responsible for the death of Riggs's wife. Riggs escapes, loses Rika and goes to the harbor after Rudd. He kills Vorstedt, is shot in the back, and survives because Murtaugh revokes the immunity with a bullet.

Riggs and Murtaugh are put back in uniform for failing to defuse a bomb, but they return to the case of guns stolen from the police itself, with armor-piercing bullets. Internal Affairs Sergeant Lorna Cole joins the team and soon joins Riggs's life. He consoles Murtaugh after a terrible death and stays on Jack Travis's trail. At the climax Murtaugh tosses Riggs a gun loaded with armor-piercing rounds, and he kills Travis by shooting through a bulldozer blade.

Lorna is expecting Riggs's child, and the two are thinking about marriage. When a ship of Chinese immigrants runs aground, Riggs learns that the man dating Murtaugh's daughter is Detective Lee Butters. The Hong family moves into Murtaugh's house, the triad strikes, and Riggs faces the fighter Wah Sing Ku on a pier. He nearly dies pinned under concrete, but Murtaugh saves him. At the hospital, he and Lorna are symbolically married before the birth of their son, Billy.

Riggs was born in Shane Black's 1985 script, conceived as an urban Western. Mel Gibson played him in all four films. In the Fox series (2016-2019), Clayne Crawford played the part for the first two seasons, until he was dismissed in May 2018.