Beverly Hills Cop (1984) - 51 mistakes

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.

Continuity: When the police arrive at Victor's house the guards in the security room decide to run. At this time they are wearing guns in shoulder holsters. When you see them next, running out the door, they are unarmed. You see them again in the van, again with guns and shoulder-holsters.

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: 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: 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: As Taggart is apologizing to Axel for punching him, you see Taggart's gun on his belt, but when the camera angle changes the gun is no longer visible.

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: 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.

Continuity: In the last scene (Victor Maitland's house) Taggart, Rosewood and Foley are hiding behind a small wall. After Rosewood says 'I hate machine guns', all three of them shoot back at the gangster, who is trying to gun them down. Foley shoots first, one shot and his gun is empty. One second later he shoots back once more (with the empty gun), and he reloads only after this.

Continuity: The blood smears on the floor when Axel has gotten shot changes between shots. In the first clip there is just one spot and he moves a bit away from that. In the next clip there are two long smears.

Continuity: When Axel is thrown through the window you see his arm covering his face as he lands on the ground, but when the camera angle changes his arm is now to his side.

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 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.

Audio problem: When Axel is first arrested you hear Axel talking to the police officers as they pull up to the station and you hear the police officer talking back to him as he gets out of the car but none of their lips are moving.

Revealing: At the end, when one of Victor's bad guys is shooting at the officer on the wall, the bullet holes go into the wall vertically. From the angle of the bad guy, this is impossible since he is at a 45 degree angle.

Continuity: When Axel Foley hits Victor's hitman in the restaurant and the hitman lands on the buffet table, he has lots of stuff on his face and something green is stuck on his forehead. In the next shot, the hitman's face has been cleaned up a little and the green thing stuck on his forehead disappears.

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.

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.

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.

Factual error: When Axel and Taggart are taken under fire by the gunner with the dark glasses (who is shot by Billy), notice that the gunner stands perpendicular (i.e. at a 90° angle) to the stairs where Axel and Taggart take cover. Yet, two of the bullet holes appear in a column at the base of the stairs which would have come from a different trajectory, namely in line with the stairway and thus from Axel and Taggart's flank.

Other: The bit part actor who plays one of Rosewood and Taggart's colleagues on the force is credited as "Owensby" on his desk sign (in the scene where Bogomil is asking where everybody is) and as "Owenby" on the end credits.

Continuity: When Axel and Jenny pull up to the Bonded warehouse, you see Axel's arm resting on the passenger door but when the camera angle changes his arm is inside the car.

Continuity: When the police pull up to the back of the semi, Axel was holding the money in his hands to his side but as the camera angle changes he's now holding the money up in the air.

Continuity: When Axel goes to see Victor at the club as he's walking up to the table you see Zack with his hand on the table but when the camera angle changes he is now wiping his mouth with his napkin.

Continuity: When Axel is talking his way into the club to see Victor, right before he's allowed to see Victor the camera angle from the back shows him rubbing the back of his head with his left hand but the camera angle from the front shows his hand at his sides.

Continuity: When Axel and Jenny go to Victor's warehouse you see Axel walk up to a crate and put both of his hands on it. The camera angle changes and his hands are no longer on the crate and he's pointing to a label on the crate telling Jenny that this is what they are looking for.

Continuity: When Victor catches Axel and Jenny at the warehouse one of Victor's henchmen is holding a gun to Axel's head and his other hand has Axel's sweatshirt in his grasp. Watch the hand holding the sweatshirt, it keeps changing positions as the camera angle changes throughout the scene.

Continuity: When Axel is telling Bogomil what he's really doing in Beverly Hills, you see Bogomil's hands in the front of him as he is talking but when the camera angle changes only one hand is in front and the other is to his side. Happens about 3 times during the scene.

Continuity: Mikey gets shot in the head twice but when the police are at the scene investigating there is no blood anywhere on the floor even though he has been laying in that position for at least an hour.

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: 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 opening chase, the truck's under-bumper license plates vanish in some shots, usually the same shots that show a wood board protecting the grille.

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 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: When Axel elbows the guy in the face at the strip club you can see his elbow not even hitting the guy's face.

Continuity: When Axel goes to talk to Jenny he asks her if there is somewhere they can talk and you see his left hand start to rub his stomach, but when the camera angle changes his hand is now in his back pocket.

Continuity: When Inspector Todd is yelling at Foley you see Jeffrey standing right behind Axel looking at the lockers, and when the camera angle changes he's now looking right at Axel.

Continuity: When Axel and Mikey are playing pool, the guy Axel is playing calls out his shot and you see about 3 balls on the table not including the cue ball. Mikey bets the guy that he can't make the shot and you now see only the 8 ball on the table.

Revealing: You can see it's a stuntman and not the Zack actor rolling over the buffet at the Harrow's Club.

Revealing: Obvious stunt man for Axel when Maitland's thugs toss him out the window. His hair is different and his arms are more muscular.

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.

Factual error: Taggart and Rosewood try to pursue Foley from the hotel but their car stalls from the "banana in the tailpipe", and when Rosewood tries to restart it, it makes the starting sound of an older Chrysler, when the car is actually a Mercury.

Revealing: When Axel shoots Zack, Maitland's chief thug, Zack stumbles backwards. As he does, he turns his head to watch whether he's stumbling back the correct way (if it had been a result of the bullet impact, his entire body would spin around).

Continuity: When Axel goes to talk to Victor the first time, the pen on Victor's desk changes from being in the horizontal position to vertical between camera angles. One in the pen holder moves as well.

Continuity: When Axel and Mikey are at the bar Mikey puts his hand on Axel's neck. The shot changes and the hand is now on Axel's shoulder. The shot changes again and the hand is missing.

Continuity: When Maitlands guys remove the bonds from the box, they have opened the lid and 4 nails are sticking out. But they don't hammer them back in. Nevertheless the nails disappear from one shot to the next.

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 semi crashes into the fruit truck you see the impact, but the camera angle changes and you see the semi hitting the truck again.