Goofs for
Beverly Hills Cop (1984) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: The goon in Maitland's office buttons his jacket twice.
  
  
• Continuity: The bananas that Axel uses to disable the car are not the ones he was given.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Obvious stunt double when Axel is thrown through the window.
  
  

• Revealing mistakes: Obvious stunt double for Axel during the opening chase. His arms have become more muscular, his hair is different, and he has grown a few inches.
  
  
• Continuity: The henchmen's shoulder holsters disappear/reappear as they run out after seeing the police on the monitors.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Obvious stunt double for Axel as he throws the man at the Harrow club.
  
  
• Continuity: On Maitland's estate, the wall over which Rosewood boosts Taggart changes.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: As Taggart is climbing the wall at Maitland's villa, the shot of him over the wall from above includes a large camera shadow.
  
  
• Continuity: When Axel is talking to Serge for the first time in the art gallery while talking Serge puts his hand on his face, in the next shot it's by his side.
  
  
• Continuity: When the goon gets thrown over the buffet table at the Harrow club, his face lands in some sliced oranges. In the next shot we see cream/strawberries etc on his face.
  
  
• Continuity: When Taggert gets fired upon after being hoisted up over the wall at Maitland's mansion, he is wearing a blue suit whereas before he was shot at he was wearing a brown colored suit. After he has been fired upon the first time, his suit is back to the original brown color.
  
  
• Continuity: In the shootout when Axel, Taggart and Rosewood are trying to get to Victor there is a sequence when the three of them are shooting over the top of a short wall. During this sequence all three fire at once, as Axel fires the slide of his gun goes back indicating he has run out of ammunition. The next shot shows them all firing again and only after this is Axel shown reloading.
  
  
• Continuity: When Alex and Jenny first visit the warehouse they see the crate being delivered and opened. Once the bonds have been removed the top is replaced and clearly has four nails sticking out, one at each corner. The shot cuts back to Alex briefly and when it returns to the crate the nails are gone, but not enough time has elapsed for them to have been knocked in.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: As Axel is being led into the Beverly Hills Police Department for the first time, you can see the reflection of the camera crew in the plate-glass windows in the hallway.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: In just about every scene where Victor Maitland's black Mercedes drives past the camera, the crew is visible reflected in it's polished black doors. In particular, driving out of the warehouse after kidnapping Jenny and arriving at the Harrow Club.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: As Foley walks across a tiled floor in Maitland's mansion, his shoes make the sound of men's business shoes, or even women's high heels, but he's wearing running shoes. A Foley error.
  
  
• Continuity: When the cigarette deal gets broken up, three different models of police cars are involved in the first 20 seconds. Possibly they had rapid support, but definitely a different car emerges from the alley than the one which began backing out of it.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: In the rear driver's side window of the police car following the truck pursuit on the other side of the railway tracks.
  
  
• Continuity: When Axel wants to talk to his boss after Mikey has been killed, his gun is tucked in his jeans. When his boss tells him it isn't his case, his gun has gone.
  
  
• Continuity: Shot reversed when Foley is tailing Maitland and they both turn to enter the clubhouse.
  
  
• Continuity: After Axel goes through his racial tirade at the Beverly Palms Hotel, the blonde clerk looks down at the computer when the manager tells Axel how much the room will cost, in the next shot both she and the manager are looking straight at Axel anticipating another racial outburst, but in the shot after that, she is just looking up from the computer at Axel.
  
  
• Continuity: Pool ball disappears from the middle of the table just before the guy makes his trick shot.
  
  
• Continuity: When Axel is shot in the arm by Victor Maitland he is holding his gun, but when he falls his gun is already on the floor.
  
  
• Continuity: When Maitland's head goon gets thrown over salad bar at the club by Axel, the goop on his face changes throughout the scene. To begin with there is a strawberry, then the strawberry is gone and there is lettuce instead. Also the amount of dressing/cream varies.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: After Taggart collapses on the grass after being fired at for the first time at Maitland's house, you can clearly see the holes in the grass indicating where the bullets will "hit."
  
  
• Factual errors: Maitland's German bonds are incorrectly labeled "10,000 Mark". The official name for West German currency was "Deutsche Mark", only East Germany used the single word "Mark". However, bonds did not exist in the communist East and even if they would have, they had not been worth a single cent in the capitalist West. Second, in Germany the number "10,000" means "ten point zero zero zero", not ten thousand like in the USA. Even if it's just about ten Mark, nobody would add three zeros for a currency with only 100 fractions.
  
  
• Continuity: During cigarette truck chase, the plate on the truck's hood, which is left from the crash with a vegetable truck, disappears in the scene after the bus breaks, the reappears in the next scene. Also, in the following close-ups you can see the plate has been attached with a wire in the middle.
  
  
• Continuity: As the police interrupt the cigarette truck discussion, Axel's hand holding the money is down. In the next shot, seen from outside the truck, his hand is up, with the goon grabbing the money from his hand.
  
  
• Errors in geography: The bar scene, shown as if in Detroit, could not have been filmed in Detroit as lighted signs advertising alcoholic beverages are illegal in Michigan.
  
  
• Continuity: The cue ball changes position from the time the bet is made to when the man actually hits it.
  
  
• Continuity: Det. Owensby is misspelled as Det. Owenby in the credits.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Foley (Eddie Murphy) first enters the Detroit police station after the truck chase, the door he goes through is misspelled "INVESTIGATON OPERATIONS DIVISION".
  
  
• Continuity: The police car plows through the same barrels and rubbish twice during opening chase.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When the police car hits the barrels during the opening chase, we see a shot of it from the inside of the patrol car behind it. In the next exterior shot, the camera is visible in the front seat.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: There are large crowds watching the main crashes during the opening chase.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: There are crew members on roof when the cigarette truck smashes into the taxi.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Mikey is killed outside Foley's apartment, there is no flame emitting from the gun the assassin fires to kill him. It's not terribly bright in the hallway, and therefore we should see a flame when the assassin pulls the trigger.
  
  
• Continuity: When Axel and Mikey are playing pool in the bar at the beginning of the movie, Mikey's wristwatch disappears and reappears between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: When Axel is shot while in Maitland's kitchen, he falls to the floor on top of the should that was shot. He quickly got up and ran for cover by a wall to reload his gun. The next time they show the scene you can see a trail of blood from where he initially fell on the floor, and the wall is smeared with blood, as if he had dragged himself on the wall. He never dragged himself on the floor or on the wall. He just fell once, got up and sat up against the wall. The blood trail is inconsistent with his movements.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The Beverly Hills Police Department did not have a satellite tracking system in 1984 (this was made up to advance the plot faster. However, such a system actually did come to be in later years.)
  
  
• Continuity: Once Foley breaks open the gate outside Maitland's place to infiltrate the compound, but before he goes in, the position of the open gate jumps around between shots.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: There are no bullets in the revolver guns many of the cops use.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the opening chase scene, the Detroit PD cars have a single bubble siren. Only Michigan State Police cars are set up this way. Detroit has the two side-by-side siren set up.
  
  
• Continuity: When Axel is thrown through the front window of Maitlands office building he is in the sun, but when the police pull up he is in the shade, as the scene goes back and forth between the two angles Axel goes from being in the sun then the shade then back to the sun.
  
  
• Continuity: In the shootout near the end, when the three of them jump over the wall at the same time, The rifle is soon on the ground, and all of them shoot over the wall with pistols. The next time they shoot though, Taggert has the rifle in his hands instead of a pistol.
  
  
• Continuity: When Axel asks Serge about the price of the table sculpture, Serge's hands are by his side. In the next shot of Serge, his hand is by his face. When the camera cuts back to Axel, Serge's hand is at his side again.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the movie poster for the film, where Axel is leaning on the Mercedes and holding a gun, he is shown with a 1911-style .45 Automatic. However, he uses a Browning 9mm throughout the film. It's also worth noting that this particular error also is seen in the poster for Beverly Hills Cop II where Axel is leaning against the famous Beverly Hills sign. This error was corrected in the poster for Beverly Hills Cop III which does show Axel brandishing a Browning 9mm.
  
  

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