Beverly Hills Cop II is a 1987 action-comedy film starring Eddie Murphy and directed by Tony Scott. It is the first sequel in the Beverly Hills Cop series. Murphy returns as Detroit police detective Axel Foley, who returns to Beverly Hills, California to track down a group of international munitions smugglers involved in a series of armed robberies. He reunites with Beverly Hills detectives Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and John Taggart (John Ashton) to stop the gang after their friend, Captain Andrew Bogomil (Ronny Cox), is a victim to one of their crimes.
Plot
In a scenario set approximately two years after the original film, Captain (formerly Lieutenant) Andrew Bogomil (Ronny Cox), Detective Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), and Sergeant John Taggart (John Ashton) are trying to figure out who is behind the "Alphabet Crimes," a series of mostly high end store robberies distinguished by their monogrammed envelopes with an alphabetical sequence the assailants leave behind. Complicating matters is the new "political" state of the Beverly Hills police, headed by an incompetent and verbally abusive new police chief named Harold Lutz (Allen Garfield), who is doing everything he can to stay on Mayor Ted Egan's (Robert Ridgely) good side. Unimpressed when Rosewood calls the FBI to help solve the case, Lutz holds Bogomil responsible as commanding officer and suspends him, despite Bogomil's efforts to convince him that Rosewood was only following a hunch, a traditional aspect of police work. Lutz also punishes Taggart and Rosewood by placing them on traffic duty.
On the way home, Bogomil is shot by Karla Fry (Brigitte Nielsen), the chief hench-woman of Maxwell Dent (Jürgen Prochnow). Finding out about the shooting over a news report, Axel Foley (Murphy) immediately flies out to Beverly Hills (covering his absence from his actual job in Detroit by telling his commanding officer Inspector Todd he was going "deep deep deep DEEP undercover" on the credit card fraud case he had been assigned to) to help find out who shot Bogomil to repay the favor he owes Bogomil for saving his job two years ago. Taggart and Rosewood agree to assist Foley because of Lutz's apparent attempts to find an excuse to get them fired. Posing as an undercover FBI agent to get past Lutz (by convincing his would-be partner Jeffrey Friedman in Detroit to pose as Todd to intercept Lutz's phone call to Todd's office and convince Lutz that Foley is part of a multi-jurisdictional task force). Foley soon starts making the connection between the robberies and Dent, and has Bogomil's daughter Jan use her connections as an insurance agent to find out about Dent's financial dealings: Dent is robbing his own businesses to finance firearms deals and is discreetly using his henchman Charles Cain (Dean Stockwell) as the front man for his operations. Bogomil was shot because he was on the right track with his investigation into the case.
Having foiled a robbery attempt at a bank depository, Foley is able to trick Dent's accountant into using his computer and discovers that Dent and Karla are planning to leave the country, and he learns from Jan that all of Dent's businesses have gone under except his race track, which he is convinced is the next target. On the way Foley solves the latest riddle sent to the police, and is convinced that this riddle was intended for the cops to solve so Dent could implicate Cain as the Alphabet Bandit (though Foley is aware that Cain is not intelligent enough to be the Alphabet Bandit, having met him personally at Dent's gun club).
The three arrive too late to stop the robbery and find Cain's body (he was shot by Karla) among those killed. While Lutz announces publicly that the Alphabet Crimes have been solved, Foley notices some red mud at the stables, which leads him, Taggart and Rosewood to Dent's oil field where Dent is making his final arms deal. The three of them then engage in a shootout with everyone involved in the deal. Dent confronts Foley in the warehouse, but Foley gets distracted and Dent walks into the shadows. Dent then crashes through the wall in his car and Foley shoots Dent through the windshield, sending his car down a hill and erupting in flames. Karla appears and is about to kill Foley, but Karla was shot dead by Taggart.
Just as the last thugs are about to flee, the police arrive upon the scene, along with Lutz and Mayor Egan. Lutz tries to fire Rosewood and Taggart for their insubordination as well as arrest Foley. However, both Taggart and Rosewood stand up to Lutz this time and prove that Dent was the real Alphabet Bandit. They are also able to convince Mayor Egan of Lutz's incompetence, and the Mayor personally fires Lutz because he is tired of his abusive attitude towards his own men.
At the end of the film, Bogomil is chosen by Mayor Egan to replace Lutz as the new Chief of Police, and Foley returns back to Detroit, but not before he gets chewed out by Inspector Todd over the phone, right after Egan called him to congratulate him on allowing Foley to assist them on this case.
Cast
Cameos
- Chris Rock made his film debut appearance as the valet at the Playboy Mansion who complains about Axel bringing in a cement truck. Rock was previously featured in an HBO comedy special which was produced by Eddie Murphy and his childhood friend, Clint Smith. Chris Rock also worked with Eddie Murphy in the 1992 film, Boomerang.
- Paul Guilfoyle has a small part as gun-runner Nikos Thomopolis. The best shot of him can be seen in the scene at the Playboy Mansion, complete with a full head of blond hair. Paul Guilfoyle is best known as Detective Jim Brass on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
- Ola Ray appears as one of the Playmates at Hefner's party. Ola Ray is famous for her appearance in Michael Jackson's video "Thriller".
- Gilbert Gottfried appears briefly as Maxwell Dent's accountant Sydney Bernstein. Gillbert Gottfried is well known for his roles as Iago in Disney's Aladdin series, and Mr. Peabody in the Problem Child series.
Production
Paramount Pictures had planned a television series based on the first film. Eddie Murphy refused the series but was willing to do a sequel.[1] Producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer hired Tony Scott to direct because of the good job he did on the 1986 film Top Gun. The film was originally to be set and filmed in London and Paris, however, the script was re-written after Eddie Murphy expressed a reluctance to film outside the United States.
The AutoMag handgun is stated as being the weapon of choice by the Alphabet Bandits. Empty AutoMag casings are even shown as key pieces of evidence from the first heist. However, no .44 AutoMag was used by anyone in the film. Most of the bandits use Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns, which are 9 millimeters. At various points, Karla Fry used a 9 millimeter and/or a .357 Magnum.
When Axel Foley first meets Chief Lutz, he tells him he is Johnny Wishbone from the Isle of St. Croix. Upon their next meeting, Lutz says that he checked with Immigration and they had never heard of Johnny Wishbone. St. Croix is an island in the US Virgin Islands and therefore Immigration would have no record of anyone from there coming to the Continental U.S. When Axel Foley is searching the map coordinates the address of city deposit is 9752 Gregory way but when Taggart is calling for back-up he clearly says the address as 341 Gregory. In another scene after the City Deposit heist, as Murphy jumps up into the concrete truck, he drops his gun which can be seen briefly and in a change of camera view of the following scene you can see the gun in the street. And after Murphy reaches the armored truck to look through it he has his gun.
Chief Todd's office window has his name inscribed as "G. TODD", however, in Beverly Hills Cop III, dialogue reveals that Todd's first name is Douglas.
References to popular culture
- Amos 'n' Andy - When Bogomil calls Axel Foley, Axel Foley answers as George "Kingfish" Stevens. "Kingfish" is a character from this situational comedy.
- Kibbles 'n Bits - When Axel Foley first meets Chief Lutz and his partner Biddle, he tells them that they were like this brand name of dog food.
- Charles Bronson - Axel Foley showed an empty Auto Mag casing to a gunsmith named Russ Fielding (Tom Bower) in the Beverly Hills Gun Club. When Fielding asked Foley about where did he get the empty Auto Mag casing, Foley answers that Charles Bronson gave him the empty Auto Mag casing as a Christmas gift.
- Rambo - In the scene where the cops return to Rosewood's (Judge Reinhold) apartment, there is a promotional poster of Sylvester Stallone's 1985 film Rambo: First Blood Part II. This is a reference to the fact that Stallone was originally cast as Axel Foley. A Special Edition of Beverly Hills Cop I details Stallone's involvement in the film project. During filming of Beverly Hills Cop II, Stallone was married briefly to Brigitte Nielsen. In the final shoot-out, Rosewood blows up a semi trailer with a rocket launcher by accident. Taggart was surprised and says to Rosewood "Fuck Rambo."
- Cobra - Axel Foley was looking into the poster of Sylvester Stallone's 1986 film Cobra while making a call in Rosewood's (Judge Reinhold) apartment. This is another reference to the fact that Stallone was originally cast as Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop I. After being released from the movie, Stallone put his ideas into making this film.
- "Spanish Flea" - In the fingerprint scene in Rosewood's apartment, Murphy and Reinhold improvised the idea of humming the tune of this song from the 1960's.
- The Dating Game - In the fingerprint scene in Rosewood's apartment, Murphy and Reinhold improvised the idea of humming the tune of the 1960's song "Spanish Flea" in which the song is from this long-running American television show.
- Harry Callahan - When Rosewood pulls a .44 Magnum out of his holster, Axel Foley says "Who do you think you are, Clint Eastwood? Dirty Rosewood?"
- Star Wars - When Rosewood was driving a cement truck and accidentally smashed police cars chasing after them, Axel Foley says: "Are you driving with your eyes open? Or are you, like, using 'the force'?"
Trivia
- Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) introduces himself at the gun club as "Richard James", the name of Murphy's musician friend who produced his 1986 album.
- The name of the villain, Maxwell Dent, is a combination of two names that were used as "house pseudonyms" by Street and Smith Publishing for its 1930s pulp fiction magazines: Maxwell Grant (aka Walter Gibson), author of "The Shadow", and Lester Dent (aka Kenneth Robeson), author of "Doc Savage".
- The cement truck that Billy drives has a sticker saying DS/JB Construction Company. DS and JB stand for the film's producers, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer.
Soundtrack
The song "Hold On" as sung by Keta Bill plays during the scene wherein Axel, Rosewood, and Taggart confront Dent at the Playboy Mansion. However, the film's soundtrack CD released by MCA Records includes only a different song entitled "Hold On," sung by Corey Hart. This song has different music and slightly altered lyrics. According to Keta Bill, "They contracted with Corey Hart---he heard my version and quickly rewrote the song. When the movie people heard his version they were furious he did that----used my version in the movie, and had to keep their contract with him for the album."[cite this quote] The movie introduced George Michael's controversial song "I Want Your Sex". It also includes "Cross My Broken Heart" by The Jets and "Shakedown" by Bob Seger which became a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as "Better Way" performed by James Ingram. As with the first movie, none of Harold Faltermeyer's soundtrack score has ever been released. However, Harold Faltermeyer's 1988 album, Harold F, includes a song called "Bad Guys" which is used as part of the film's score—an instrumental section of the song plays during the opening jewelry store robbery scene, and also during several other scenes throughout the movie.
References
External links
|
Films directed by Tony Scott |
|
| 1960s |
|
|
| 1980s |
|
|
| 1990s |
|
|
| 2000s |
|
|
| 2010s |
|
|
