Continuity mistake: 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.
Continuity mistake: 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.
Continuity mistake: 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. (00:04:50)
Continuity mistake: 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. (00:06:05)
Continuity mistake: 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 mistake: 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 mistake: 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 mistake: 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. (00:05:20 - 00:07:15)
Continuity mistake: 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 mistake: 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. (01:38:35)
Continuity mistake: 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 mistake: 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 mistake: 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. (00:07:40)
Continuity mistake: 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. (00:05:20)
Continuity mistake: 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.
Continuity mistake: 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 mistake: 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. (01:29:50)
Continuity mistake: 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. (01:38:00)
Continuity mistake: 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. (00:13:55)
Continuity mistake: 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.
Chosen answer: Much of Axel Foley's lines were improvised, including this scene, according to the commentary. But many other actors improvised their lines too, most notably Bronson Pinchot. The script was originally written with the intent of Sylvester Stallone playing Axel and as such, the issue of his race wasn't scripted and the director tried to avoid mentioning race in the film. It was Eddie Murphy that would bring it up in improvised lines.
Bishop73