Lethal Weapon 2 NJL-11876 ( 0162 )

Two years after the events of the first film, LAPD sergeants Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh are pursuing unidentified suspects suspected of drug trafficking. However, they discover they have been transporting an illegal shipment of gold in the form of Krugerrand coins from the Afrikaner apartheid government of South Africa. Later, consul-general Arjen Rudd and security agent Pieter Vorstedt kill Hans, their man who lost the shipment of Krugerrands, and debate how to steer the police away from their activities. Pieter suggests warning Murtaugh off the investigation, so commits a home invasion on his residence, causing Captain Murphy to reassign Riggs and Murtaugh to protecting an obnoxious federal witness, Leo Getz.

It soon becomes clear that both cases are related; after an attempt on Leo's life, Riggs and Murtaugh learn of the former's murky past laundering funds for vengeful drug smugglers. Leo explains how the laundering works and leads them to the gang, but upon dispatching his would-be assassin and returning with backup they are confronted by Rudd, who invokes diplomatic immunity on behalf of his "associates", leaving the LAPD powerless to take action against them.

Though instructed to leave the case alone, Riggs begins openly harassing Rudd and romances his secretary, Rika van den Haas, a liberal-minded Afrikaner who despises her boss and his racial philosophy. Murtaugh enlists Leo's help in creating a scene at the consulate that wins the support of anti-apartheid protesters outside. Vorstedt is dispatched to murder all of the officers investigating them while Murtaugh deduces that Rudd is attempting to ship funds from his smuggling ring in the United States to Cape Town via Los Angeles Harbor. Two assassins attack Murtaugh at his home, but he kills them both with his contractor's nail gun, though Leo is abducted in the process.

Meanwhile, Vorstedt seizes Riggs at van den Haas' apartment and discloses he was responsible for the death of Riggs's wife years earlier during a botched assassination attempt on him. He has his men kill Rika by drowning her and orders them to do the same to Riggs, who escapes and brutally kills both men. Riggs phones Murtaugh, declaring an intention to pursue Rudd and avenge his wife, Rika, and their fallen friends; Murtaugh willingly forsakes his badge to aid his partner. After rescuing Leo and destroying Rudd's house, they head for the Alba Varden, Rudd's freighter docked in the Port of Los Angeles, as the South Africans prepare their getaway with hundreds of millions in drug money.

While investigating a guarded cargo container at the docks, Riggs and Murtaugh discover Rudd's laundered drug money, but are locked inside by Rudd's men. They break out, scattering two pallets of the money into the harbor in the process. Riggs and Murtaugh engage in a firefight with Rudd's men aboard the Alba Varden before separating to hunt down Rudd. Riggs confronts and fights Vorstedt hand-to-hand, stabs the latter with his own knife and drops a container on him. Rudd retaliates by shooting Riggs in the back multiple times and again invokes diplomatic immunity when Murtaugh aims his gun at him. However, Murtaugh fatally shoots him and declares that his immunity has "just been revoked". He then tends to Riggs, and they share a laugh as more LAPD personnel respond to the scene.