Recent UCLA graduate Shane Black wrote the screenplay in mid-1985. Black stated that his intention was to do an ''urban western'' inspired by Dirty Harry where a violent character ''reviled for what he did, what he is capable of, the things he believed in'' is eventually recruited for being the one that could solve the problem. The protagonists would be everymen policemen, ''guys shuffling in a town like Los Angeles searching for something noble as justice when they're just guys in washed and worn suits seeking a paycheck''.

Is it true that is lethal weapon based on a true story?
no