40 Trivia Tidbits About ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ on Its 40th Anniversary

Before Eddie Murphy, there was Sylvester Stallone

Forty years ago this week, Detective Axel Foley cracked his first case, and Eddie Murphy proved that he could carry a big-screen comedy all on his own — no established co-stars necessary.

Earning $234 million on a $13 million budget, Beverly Hills Cop made more money than both of Murphy’s previous hits (48 Hrs. and Trading Places) and was the top-grossing film of 1984. It also received critical acclaim, with nominations for Best Picture at the Golden Globes and Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars. Then came the trio of sequels: 1987’s Beverly Hills Cop II, 1994’s Beverly Hills Cop III and 2024’s Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F

To celebrate the first film’s 40th anniversary, here are 40 trivia tidbits about the franchise… 

Axel’s Original Precinct

The origin story of Beverly Hills Cop began in 1977 with Paramount executive Don Simpson, who had an idea for a cop from East L.A. — not Detroit — who transfers to Beverly Hills. 

The Comedy Came Later

As Spinoff Online reported, the original script was a straight action movie written by Danilo Bach. Later, Daniel Petrie Jr. did an action-comedy rewrite, and Axel’s origin city was switched to Detroit.

Doesn’t Have Quite the Same Ring to It

The original title was Beverly Drive, not Beverly Hills Cop.

Proto-Foleys

Bach imagined stars like Al Pacino, James Caan and Clint Eastwood for the lead, though none of them were ever approached. 

The First Foley

The first person tapped to play Axel Foley was Mickey Rourke, but he departed after the project stalled in the early 1980s. 

The Second Foley

Sylvester Stallone then became attached. He even rewrote the script to remove the comedy. As Stallone has explained, “I rewrote the script to suit what I do best, and by the time I was done, it looked like the opening scene from Saving Private Ryan on the beaches of Normandy. Believe it or not, the finale was me in a stolen Lamborghini playing chicken with an oncoming freight train being driven by the ultra-slimy bad guy. Needless to say, they drop-kicked me and my script out of the office, and the rest is history.” 

Did Sly Get Sheepish?

The book High Concept: Don Simpson and the Hollywood Culture of Excess, however, tells a very different version of how Stallone was removed from the project. Allegedly, Simpson, who preferred the comedic version of the script, told Stallone about a Swiss doctor doing experimental “youth treatments” with sheep hormones, and he got Stallone to the top of this doctor’s list. Stallone then flew to Switzerland for the treatment, and Simpson simply kept working on Beverly Hills Cop without him.

The ‘Cobra’ Connection

Interestingly, much of Stallone’s take on the film would end up in his 1986 movie Cobra.

Who Gets Credit for What?

Simpson and Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was a producer at Paramount at the time, both claimed credit for the idea of casting Murphy. Similarly, both Simpson and Paramount President Michael Eisner would claim credit for the original concept of Beverly Hills Cop.

The Many Names of Axel Foley

In Bach’s original script, the main character’s name was Elly Axel. Petrie then switched it to Axel Elly. In Stallone’s rewrite, he changed it to Axel Cobretti (his Cobra character would be named Marion Cobretti). Ultimately, of course, the name became Axel Foley.

Left Up to a Coin Flip

In a making-of interview, director Martin Brest said he originally declined doing the film several times. He only accepted after flipping a coin that came up heads, which meant he would say “yes” to it. Brest later framed the quarter.

Murphy Turned Down ‘Ghostbusters’ for ‘Beverly Hills Cop’

According to Murphy, he chose Beverly Hills Cop over Ghostbusters because Ghostbusters was an ensemble, whereas Beverly Hills Cop was a chance to prove himself as a leading man. 

Murphy Wrote a Lot of His Own Material

As The New York Times reported when the film was released, Murphy was encouraged to improvise and write his own lines during filming. 

Potatoes Are Funny, But Bananas Are Funnier

Case in point: The beloved banana-in-the-tailpipe scene was originally written with a potato, but Murphy changed it to a banana.

Enter Judge Reinhold

Reinhold was cast thanks to Brest’s friend, director Amy Heckerling, as Brest asked for “a straight-looking comedic actor.”

Inspired By the Classics

The odd couple pairing of Reinhold and John Aston was inspired by Laurel and Hardy and The HoneymoonersPer Reinhold, the pair was told to play their partnership like “an old married couple” with Reinhold as the “overly-concerned wife” and Ashton as the “henpecked husband.” As with Murphy, many of their scenes were improvised.

Detroit’s Top Cop

Axel Foley’s Detroit-based boss, Inspector Todd, was played by real-life Detroit homicide detective Gil Hill. He later became a Detroit city councilman. He once remarked that the only real difference between him and his character was that he didn’t swear as much. 

Busting Ghostbusters

The industry screening of Beverly Hills Cop was disastrous, with almost no laughs. Still, the producers at Paramount believed in it, and it went on to be the biggest movie of 1984, outperforming even GhostbustersIndiana Jones and the Temple of DoomGremlins and The Karate Kid.

The Zen of Axel Foley

When Brest described Axel Foley to The New York Times, he said, “It was important that Foley was totally unassisted by anything material. That(’s) why he has a junky gun, a junky car. He’s almost a zen character. All he has are his wit, intelligence, humor, guts and street smarts.”

The Legacy of ‘Beverly Hills Cop’

According to Murphy, Beverly Hills Cop changed cop movies. Or as he put it, “Before that movie, cops were ‘Go ahead, make my day’ and Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood. After that movie is when cops started having little wisecracks. After that movie, all the cops tried to be kind of funny.”

The ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ TV Show (Part One)

According to a making-of documentary on a DVD release of Beverly Hills Cop II, Paramount was hoping to do a Beverly Hills Cop TV show. Murphy didn’t want this, but he did agree to a sequel.

London Cop?

Originally, the thought was to give Beverly Hills Cop II an international setting, but Murphy preferred to keep it in the U.S., which is why Axel Foley returns to Beverly Hills in the sequel.

New Director

Brest, however, passed on Beverly Hills Cop II. Instead, Top Gun director Tony Scott directed the sequel.

More Action, Less Comedy

Editor Billy Weber said of Beverly Hills Cop II, “(Tony Scott) wasn’t a comedy guy, so after we ran the first cut, Don (Simpson) and Jerry (Bruckheimer) just looked around, and shrugged, and said, ‘Huh.’ It wasn’t a comedy — it played like a straight action movie, which made sense, because Tony was an action guy, and that’s what he knew how to do best, so it was really action heavy. We just never had a great script, and it never had a chance of being as good as the first movie because the script never got there. They rewrote the script after the first screening and more jokes were shot and added in, and it brought it up a little bit. Eddie also started to act up on the set, the prima-donna behavior was starting to show, and he was always late for filming, but he got along great with Tony.”

Axel Foley > Riggs and Murtaugh

Financially speaking, Beverly Hills Cop II was even more successful than the first movie, earning $299 million at the box office worldwide. It was the second biggest movie of 1987, beating out PlatoonPredator and the first Lethal Weapon, but coming in behind Fatal Attraction.  

Murphy Doesn’t Love ‘Beverly Hills Cop II’

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Murphy said of the sequel, “Beverly Hills Cop II was probably the most successful mediocre picture in history. It made $250 million worldwide, and it was a half-assed movie. Cop II was basically a rehash of Cop I, but it wasn’t as spontaneous and funny.”

Or Does He?

Yet, in a recent interview promoting the fourth Beverly Hills Cop film, Murphy referred to the first two films as “really good.”

Third Time’s Not the Charm

John Landis took over directing duties for Beverly Hills Cop III. In an interview at the time, Landis said, “The reason that I agreed to do it, after looking at the first two, especially the first one, is I realized, ‘You know, Axel Foley is a very sympathetic, likable guy. This is a person I wouldn’t mind hanging out with for a couple of hours. I was not intrigued with the idea of doing a sequel — I thought, ‘I’ve never done a sequel to one of my movies — but then I realized, ‘I won’t make a sequel. He’s been to Beverly Hills. What I’ll make is the next Axel Foley adventure.” 

This was how a theme-park setting was chosen for the film, which was producer Joel Silver’s idea

Axel Falls Flat

Beverly Hills Cop III made a profit, pulling in $119 million off a $70 million budget, but it grossed well below the previous films and was panned by critics.

What Went Wrong

Murphy has said that Beverly Hills Cop III suffered because “Axel didn’t have any skin in the game. The first movie, Axel’s best friend is killed. And the second one, his boss, the Chief, gets killed. And then in the third one, Uncle Dave is in trouble,” referring to the Walt Disney-like character in the movie.

Beverly Hills Bad Guys

Murphy has said that another reason Beverly Hills Cop III was “a little soft” was because it didn’t have a great villain. He said this informed the choice of casting Kevin Bacon as a strong bad guy in Axel F.

The ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ TV Show (Part Two)

A fourth Beverly Hills Cop film had been in the works since the 1990s. Brett Ratner was even attached to direct it. Eventually, though, it was shelved in 2011 in favor of a TV show focused on Axel Foley’s son, played by Brandon T. Jackson, with Murphy as a producer. After shooting a pilot in 2013 — which Murphy appeared in — CBS passed on the series and plans for a fourth movie were revived.

Inspiration for ‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F’

Finally, earlier this year, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F was released on Netflix. It was directed by first-timer Mark Molloy. In an interview, Molloy said that, in addition to the first two Beverly Hills Cop films, he took inspiration from Midnight Run and To Live and Die in L.A.

Practical (Movie) Magic

A major goal of Molloy’s was to do practical effects instead of CGI to give the film a more real “sense of danger.”

The Foley Family Business

Axel Foley is arrested twice in Axel F. The first time, Murphy’s daughter arrests him, and the second time, it’s his son-in-law.

Murphy’s Laugh

While doing interviews for Axel F, Murphy explained that his iconic laugh doesn’t appear in the movie because he doesn’t laugh like that anymore. He said that, after hearing people laugh at his laugh, he trained himself to stop laughing that way. 

The Importance of Being Axel Foley

Murphy has called Axel Foley his “most important role,” explaining that “before Beverly Hills Cop, there had never been a movie starring a Black man — a Black person —  that was successful all around the world.”

More Axel on the Way?

During interviews for Axel F, Murphy confirmed that a fifth film is in the works. 

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