Continuity mistake: At the end of the movie, when Riggs is in the cargo area, a gunman shoots at him, he rolls and starts emptying the clip into him - you see the bullet holes in the gunman. But as Riggs is face to face with the gunman, the holes disappear.
Continuity mistake: While he's on the toilet, Murtaugh is wearing a flak jacket that disappears for one shot while he is getting instructions from the bomb squad leader. (00:54:25)
Continuity mistake: When firing his gun at Riggs through the flatbed's rear window, the hotel waiter's shooting hand switches from left to right between shots. (00:40:50)
Continuity mistake: In the fight scene toward the end of the film between Riggs and the guy who killed his wife and Rika, look carefully at the watch Riggs is wearing - it moves from one arm to the other in close-up as Riggs forces the guy to stab himself. (01:38:35)
Continuity mistake: When the surfboard crashes into the tow-truck cabin the driver is gone. (00:37:35)
Continuity mistake: The right headlight of Murtaugh's car, when it is chasing the BMW, falls off when he hits something, but later on it is fine. (00:03:20)
Continuity mistake: Near the end of the car chase you see a shot of the station wagon Riggs and Murtaugh are riding in get held up by a couple of police cars. The hood is popped open. The shot changes to the BMW crashing into the store window and then back to the station wagon. The hood is down.
Continuity mistake: When Hans first walks into the room with the fishtank, the plastic on the floor flaps up behind him as he walks, ending up folded up on itself without much space between the man and the end of the plastic. When he gets shot and falls back onto it, it's perfectly flat and he's a lot further forward. (00:16:25)
Continuity mistake: During the opening chase when Riggs is driving through the small gap on the bridge, as Murtaugh shouts, "Get off ya mother f***er", the car that is next to them goes from being right up against their car to a good 10 feet away between the 2 shots.
Continuity mistake: When the bathroom explodes, from one angle we see the toilet come sailing out over the roof of a police truck parked at the front of the house. While the angles make it a bit tricky to judge, there's a definite leftward trajectory. We then cut to a closeup of Murtaugh's car, and the toilet lands on it as if it was flying to the right. Even if the angles are misleading, in the first shot the police truck and other cars are parked to the right of the exploding window. In the shot of Roger's car he's also parked to the right, but without all the cars visible around it which there should be. (00:57:15)
Suggested correction: The toilet is flying straight out and straight towards the car - you can see this from the perspective of the interior of the car prior to the toilet becoming visible. Next the toilet is flying towards the area in front of the police van, not over it. And the car is parked in front of the van. When we see the car again, the van and other police cars are out of frame, so they can't be seen.
The mistake is valid. When we see the toilet flying, it's moving to the viewer's left, but when it hits the car, it's moving to the viewer's right now. Even if in the first shot, with the angle of the camera, the toilet is flying straight, it doesn't hit the car straight on. And he's not saying the toilet sails over the roof, but that you can see the toilet in the background is above the roof of the van in the foreground and that's moving over it (from right to left).
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Riggs and Rika are in the trailer while the men in the helicopters are shooting, after the scene where you see the T.V. fall down, You see the cabinet being shot. If you look carefully, you can see pieces of the cabinet fall down, then appear again. Director's cut.
Continuity mistake: During a chase scene involving Murtaugh's station wagon and a flatbed tow truck, the hotel waiter shoots at Riggs through the truck's rear window. In this series of shots, notice how Riggs is swinging by a chrome handle on the passenger's side - which wasn't there during the gunpoint hijack shot just moments ago. (00:39:30 - 00:40:45)
Continuity mistake: When Rika comes to Riggs' trailer he offers her a chair, and she sits down twice in different camera angles. (01:07:50)
Suggested correction: This is too subtle to be called a mistake - she's in the process of sitting when she's facing the camera, the shot changes to behind her and she's seen finishing her settling into the chair - this could just as well be her making a natural adjustment to her sitting position. It's not an obvious mistake by any means.
Continuity mistake: When the boss gives Riggs and Murtaugh the Leo assignment the name on the office door changes from Capt. E. Murphy to Capt. L. Murphy when they leave the office. (00:24:30)
Continuity mistake: Murtagh states he was 7 floors up, but the room number (612) suggests it's a 6th floor room. When he looks down to see the three men falling, his vantage point is well above 7 floors up. (00:30:20)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Murtaugh is shooting his attackers with the nail gun the walls are apparently covered with super plastic. How is it that the plastic sheeting is light enough for the bad guy to punch through, but is able to support the weight of his corpse by a single nail when Murtaugh shoots him through the plastic? Wouldn't the plastic tear and drop the body to the floor? (01:15:45)
Continuity mistake: In Lethal Weapon 1 Murtaugh turns 50. In Lethal Weapon 2, you can see a copy of Murtaugh's police file in the South African Embassy, when they are discussing repercussions against the police. In the file it says Murtaugh was born in 1947 which would make him 42 in this movie.
Continuity mistake: Near the end, when Riggs is captured by the bad guys they tie him in a straight-jacket and toss him off a pier into the drink, he's wearing a pair of Dingo style boots. Underwater when he dislocates his shoulder and escapes the straight-jacket, he sees Patsy Kendit's corpse, swims over, checks her pulse and swims to the surface. Now he's barefoot. Yet when he attacks and kills the two thugs he's got the boots on again. They can even be heard on the pavement.
Continuity mistake: As Murtagh's car pulls up behind the small pickup, a man is reaching into the bed of the truck from the left side of the truck. But as soon as Riggs steps out of the car, the man is instantly behind his truck. (00:37:25)
Continuity mistake: When Captain Murphy is briefing Riggs and Murtaugh on their Leo Getz assignment, a small red No Smoking sign can be seen facing outwards on the desk. But as Riggs and Murtaugh stand up to leave, notice how the sign has momentarily turned itself around to face the Captain. (00:25:55)
