Beverly Hills Cop (1984) - 51 mistakes

Continuity: Check out the police car(s) when Axel is in the back of the trailer truck. At first, the police arrive in a then-new 1984 Plymouth Gran Fury, then when the truck flees, the police car reverses back out of the alley, emerging in the next shot as a late 1970's Dodge St.Regis. The next shot has the police car now a 1977 Plymouth Fury, which seconds later changes back again to the St.Regis.

Revealing: Near the start of the truck chase, a long shot shows the truck followed by several police cars. In the foreground, another police car's roof comes into view, showing hastily-applied orange numbers on the roof. They appear to be magnetic vinyl, but don't adhere well at all, looking very wavy, with gaps under them. Also, they seem to be applied over faded, yellow, painted, *different* numbers, and are aligned so badly, that the old numbers are very exposed. This error is visible in later shots as well, but most exposed here.

Continuity: When a police car pulls in front of the truck from a side-street, a shot from inside the truck's cab just before the two collide shows the police car's license plate reads '742JOU', its unit number (on the C-pillar) is '82340', and its trunk lock cylinder is missing. As the car spins out with its rear toward a camera, the plate now reads '103DLS', the unit number becomes '82199' and the lock cylinder is back.

Continuity: The police car that is destroyed early in the chase when hit from behind by the truck (unit number 82340 on C-pillar, seen from behind before being hit), returns undamaged near the end of the chase to slide sideways and crash again.

Continuity: During the first chase scene, the semi passes by an empty taxi cab and when the camera angle changes, the semi crashes into the same taxi cab.

Visible crew/equipment: When the fruit truck is slammed by the tractor trailer, it slides into a parked, green Chevy Impala. Before the collision, the Chevy can be seen to have camera equipment under its front and rear bumpers, concealed by black cloth or tarp (the rear camera location is made obvious in a slow-motion shot when the fruit truck slides right toward we viewers). When the Chevy is hit, the rear camera is hidden from view and very likely damaged, but we actually see the front camera fall over.

Deliberate "mistake": When the truck is slamming numerous parked cars on a residential street, it sideswipes a parked Dodge Aspen (white with tan landau top). At the lower-right corner of this shot, a white Chevy Nova is parked at the corner (its vinyl top and trim has been poorly painted the same white as the body). Both these cars are repositioned to be at the roadblock location at the end of the chase, with the Nova slammed from behind by the truck and the Aspen parked near the cop cars.

Continuity: Before the white Beetle is hit by the truck, a shot shows that the truck and most of the police cars have already safely passed the Beetle and the green Buick that pushes the Beetle forward in the next shot.

Revealing: Just before the white Beetle is struck by the truck, it can be seen moving forward as if being driven, but there is nobody in it, and its tires do no touch the ground as if it is on casters being pushed by the green Buick (with black vinyl top) behind it. A tubular brace that might connect the Beetle to the Buick falls off the Beetle's right-side rocker panel when the car is hit.

Continuity: When the tractor-trailer turns off the pavement to avoid the roadblock, just before the second trailer separates, a quick shot (watching the truck from the front as it enters the shot from the camera's right) shows that there is no second trailer at all.

Continuity: When the truck driver jumps out after crashing, it is not the actor shown in the prior close-ups. The stunt guy has much more, fuller, and neater hair.

Other: After the early truck chase, Axel arrives at the police station. He walks through a glass door that reads 'Investigaton Operations Division' which is missing the last 'i' in the first word, exactly as I've typed it here.

Continuity: When Axel and Mikey are in the pool hall, the guy playing pool calls out a 2 rail bank. Mikey says "fifty bucks you don't make that shot". The guy says "bullshit". They they get a close up camera shot of the shot. The cue ball and the angle of the shot change between the bet and the actual bank shot taken. At first the cue ball was down near the corner. When the shot is taken the cue ball is struck from around the side pocket.

Visible crew/equipment: When Axel first pulls up to the country club to talk to Victor, He gives the valet his keys and requests his car be "parked in a good spot" as last time it was damaged. As valet drives off you can see the reflection of the camera, stage light and a crew member on the rolled up window as well as a stage light. Easier to see on the VHS version.

Continuity: When Axel visits Victor at the club he throws Victor's henchman across the buffet table. When the henchman gets up he has a strawberry smashed into his hair at the top middle-right portion of his forehead. Later on the strawberry is gone but there are green leaves that now are on the middle-left side of his forehead. This is evident as the camera regains focus although the colors can be seen when the the view of him is blurry.

Continuity: During the machine gun fire at Victor's house Rosewood holds up his badge and says "Police, you are all under arrest". The bad guys then shoot at Rosewood and Taggart. They shoot up a sculpture/planter above Taggart. A piece falls onto Taggart with part of it leaning against the planter and the top part leaning against Taggart's shoulder. The next shot the piece is shown standing on the ground leaning up against Taggart's head. It did not have time to relocate to the position it ended up in.

Continuity: When Axel is asking Lt. Bogomil to straighten things out with Inspector Todd during the conversation we get numerous shots from behind Foley's head. When he says "I guess I'm just out of a job. It's cool though" there is nothing in his afro. The camera then goes to Lt. Bogomil. After Foley tells him he is going to "start his own investigation company. How does that sound?" we get another shot of the back of his head. There is now a white piece of fuzz on the back left side of Axel's afro.

Continuity: When Axel is checking out of the hotel the position of his shirt collar and his sling varies from shot to shot. There is no visible movement of his arm that would make this change. It just changes.

Continuity: When Eddie Murphy is getting the bananas from the waiter in the hotel, the bananas he gets are straight. When he places the bananas in the tailpipe of the detectives' car, they are curved.

Revealing: In the scene where Axel throws the art dealer's henchman onto the buffet table, if you watch carefully (or use slo-mo) you can clearly see the stunt double pulling off that maneuver.