Corrected entry: This film was banned in South Africa in 1989. The trailers played on TV but after about a week the movie disappeared without a trace. It was eventually shown on TV in 1998.
Corrected entry: In the opening scene when Riggs and Murtaugh are driving through the tunnel, Riggs states over the radio that they are "East bound, on foot..." when they are driving a vehicle. (00:00:40)
Correction: He says "we're east bound on Fourth", not foot.
Corrected entry: Right before a chase ensues near the stilt house, at the point where the hotel waiter hijacks a flatbed truck at gunpoint, notice how its passenger side door has no mirror (all it's got is a metal assembly, no mirror). But moments later when Riggs climbs along the truck and tries to get a better look him, he does so through a passenger side mirror. How did it get there in the midst of a chase? (00:39:30 - 00:40:30)
Correction: The tow truck has a passenger side door mirror the entire time. You see the mirror when the gunman says "give me your keys" and even when he's getting into the driver seat. There is a shot when the door is open and you only see the metal support, but the mirror is still there.
Corrected entry: When Riggs rolls over the front of the recovery truck, as he goes over and stops, he bounces, because there is a platform out of shot that Riggs lands on, that is removed in the later wide shots.
Correction: The front of the tow truck has a frame-mounted winch that Riggs landed on. It is visible in frontal shots of the truck.
Corrected entry: When Riggs emerges from the water after he has freed himself from the straightjacket he knocks out the two bad guys using both his arms. This wouldn't have worked as he had to dislocate his shoulder to wiggle himself out of the jacket, and he relocates it only after the fight. (01:24:55)
Correction: As pointed out in another correction, his arm will still function fully with a dislocated shoulder, albeit causing tremendous pain. However, Riggs was so enraged over the deaths of Rika and Victoria to likely have even noticed, let alone cared.
Corrected entry: There's no way Riggs could have got to Rudd's building before Rudd did. Given that Rudd had a head start (after running the red light), Riggs somehow managed to not only beat him, but find a parking spot, steal a sign and be there waiting, while Rudd was doing a straight drive there. There's simply no way.
Correction: Riggs drives like a madman, has a flashing light to get past traffic, and a badge to get a parking spot and sign. He could do it.
Correction: Who said he went straight there?
Corrected entry: When Riggs is on the recovery truck, he drops his gun and it lands on the left side of the road, but when Leo picks it up after Roger stops the car, its now on the opposite side of the road.
Correction: This is incorrect. Riggs drops the gun onto the right-hand side of the road, which is the same side Leo retrieves it from.
Corrected entry: When the helicopters approach Riggs' trailer it's late night, but from inside it looks as if sunlight is falling through the window (the little lamp in front could not provide such brightness. (01:16:30)
Correction: My local Police Force bases it's helicopter at my local RAF base, and I've stood next to it. The lamp mounted under it is only some 12-16 inches in diameter, but produces something like a million candlepower or more.
Corrected entry: In the beginning, when Riggs and Murtagh are chasing the BMW the red police beacon can be seen flashing inside the windscreen. When it then cuts to a conversation between Riggs and Murtagh inside the car and you can see the beacon but it's not on. Then it then cuts to the outside of the car and the beacon can be seen flashing once again.
Correction: The beacon is still on, but it has a back shield on it to keep it from blinding the driver. The flashing can just barely be noticed around the beacon where it meets the glass.
Corrected entry: Murtaugh and Riggs are partners since the first movie, they've been working cases together, drive together, Riggs has extra clothes at Murtaugh's house and yet Riggs had no idea that Murtaugh was having construction done, asking if it was an oxygen tent. Murtaugh is showing Riggs the garage and hobby room as if he'd never discussed it with him before. And it's not as if they just broke ground, the job is halfway complete, with the frame up and all. Obviously the dialogue was done for the viewer, not for the characters.
Correction: If it's obvious that this exposition was done for the viewers, then it's not a mistake. It's an accepted film making technique.
Corrected entry: Before Riggs tears down the embassy he and Murtaugh are seen outside discussing the course of action. Around them there's thick fog that disappears completely between shots. (01:28:35)
Correction: Not fog. As the vehicles arrive, Riggs' truck slides sideways a bit, kicking up dust that slowly disapates during the scene.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Murtah is fighting with the two guys in his garage he shoots them with a nail gun. These nail guns run on compressed air, yet there is no air hose attached to the gun. You can see this when he raises the gun to shoot the guy through the plastic.
Correction: It is a cordless nail gun. It uses a black powder charge, like a blank round for a gun, to power the gun. Both cops pull their guns on the contractor in an earlier scene when the nail gun is first used.
Corrected entry: When Riggs is being attacked at his trailer, his MP-5 continues to blaze away. The MP-5 will empty a 30 round magazine in about 3 seconds.
Correction: It's obvious when you see a man cocks his MP in the helicopter that they are using extended clips which can hold hundreds of bullets. The clips wrap around the sides of the gun and make the MP5 look almost like an old-fashioned Tommy gun.
Corrected entry: In the scene where the toilet blows up, smashes through the window and hits the station wagon, it is clear that the windshield on the car has been broken already and duct taped in place.
Correction: The windshield had been replaced temporarily after Riggs had kicked it out when they were chasing the red BMW.
Corrected entry: Throughout this movie, Mel Gibson slips in and out of his Australian accent.
Correction: I don't think Mel ever tried to hide his accent. As he moved back to the states later in life, his accent started to fade over the years. At that point in his life his accent wasn't as pronounced, but you could identify it when he said certain words or phrases. Given his chequered past though, a certain hint of a non-American accent isn't entirely inappropriate.
Corrected entry: At the docks near the end of the film Riggs shoots a guy multiple times and says names Shapiro, Wyler, Cavanaugh, Rika. When his saying Wyler's name his mouth is closed.
Correction: After seeing this many times Riggs is not actually saying the names. It is in his head he's saying them.
Corrected entry: When Riggs confronts the South Africans in the Embassy, he beats up two of them before aiming his gun at Arjen, Vorstedt, and the two other remaining South Africans. However, after he shoots the fish tank, there are three South Africans scrambling to pick up the fish as Arjen directs them, and Vorstedt was not one of them (he remained standing ahead of the tank). No-one else could have entered the room, and it isn't plausible that either of the two that Riggs viciously beat would've recovered so quickly.
Correction: First off, no one was "viciously beat" by Riggs. He head-butted one guy and kicked the second guy (not hard, just enough to push him away causing him to fall). However, before he shoots the fishtank, we see the guy who got head-butted get up when Vorstedt snaps his fingers.
Corrected entry: The building used for the South African Consulate is actually a bank. When Roger and Leo are thrown out, the glass front doors are marked with winged logos and consulate lettering that is dark in color, but one door has additional white lettering that says "Open to Serve You, Monday - Thursday 9am-4pm, Friday 9am - 6pm"- rather out of character for a consulate. (01:06:30)
Correction: While a consulate would undoubtedly be staffed 24 hours for consular emergencies, it's not uncommon for one to maintain regular office hours for normal business such as visa applications.
Correction: Yep, here're the hours from the LA South African Consulate as of 2021. Their hours are 9-2 Mondays and Tuesdays due to pandemic restrictions, but gives numbers for proper channels for Emergencies. Pre-pandemic they probably had Mon-Fri hours. https://www.southafrica-usa.net/losangeles/hours.html.
Corrected entry: When Riggs, Leo, and the bad guy crash through the hotel window they push the curtains to the side, but when they sail down into the pool the curtains are wrapped around them. (00:27:20)
Correction: When the three of them fell they took the tablecloth from the room service cart with them, not the window curtain.
Corrected entry: When Murtaugh meets up with Riggs before he destroys the stilt house, you hear the tires of both their vehicles screech as they stop, yet they are on a gravel road.
Correction: The movie was far from being banned in South Africa and "disappearing without a trace", it was passed uncut by the South African censor board (albeit with a heavy age restriction) and was one of the most popular releases that year.