Revealing mistake: You can see it's a stuntman and not the Zack actor rolling over the buffet at the Harrow's Club.
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.
Other mistake: 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. (00:08:10)
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)
Revealing mistake: 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 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)
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. (00:06:40)
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.
Continuity mistake: 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. (00:07:10)
Other mistake: 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.
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.
Continuity mistake: 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 mistake: 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 mistake: 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. (00:07:25)
Continuity mistake: When Axel is booking into the Beverly hills hotel the clerk and the manager change from standing very close to each other, to very far apart, depending on the different camera angle.
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. Easier to see on the VHS version. (01:02:30)
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