* CastTheExpert:
** The role of Detroit police inspector Douglas Todd was played by RealLife Detroit police detective Gilbert Hill.
** The stripper in the club was an actual stripper named Mouse. She even chose the song she dances to - "Nasty Girl" by Vanity 6, which was what she danced to in real life.
* CompletelyDifferentTitle: In Sweden, the film was called "Snuten i Hollywood", meaning "The Cop in Hollywood", despite not actually being set in Hollywood.
* {{Corpsing}}: Eddie Murphy apparently caused plenty of this, especially because most dialogue was improvised. During the "Super Cops" scene, John Ashton is doing sort of a FacePalm to hide his laughter (with a self-aware little eyebrow raise that pleads, "stop shooting, I'm going to blow the take"); Creator/JudgeReinhold, in turn, was pinching his thighs through his pants pockets.
* CreatorBacklash: Creator/StevenBerkoff is said to have been disappointed with his performance in the film, and refused to speak about it in interviews after the fact.
* TheDanza: John Ashton as Sgt. John Taggart.
* {{Defictionalization}}: During his tirade at the Beverly Palms Hotel, Axel pretends to be writing an article called "Music/MichaelJackson: Sitting on Top of the World" for ''Magazine/RollingStone'' magazine. In real life, ''Magazine/{{Playboy}}'' ran an article called "Creator/EddieMurphy: Sitting on Top of the World."
* DeletedScene:
** The 2020 Blu-Ray release of the film includes two previously-unreleased scenes -- Axel questioning a "Mr. Carbonowski" in a steak restaurant about Mikey's death (who assures him he had nothing to do with the matter, and unintentionally gives Axel the motivation to travel to L.A.), and a sequence of Axel packing up some belongings in preparation for the trip. Both these scenes were evidently cut from the film for pacing and redundancy reasons. Part of the scene involving Carbonowski (played by Ron Karabatsos) made it to the theatrical trailer, however.
** Behind the scenes stills showed Axel taking part in some kind of melee fight with Maitland, which never occurs in the finished film.
* ExecutiveMeddling: When the script was in development, the character of Jenny was supposed to be the LoveInterest. After Creator/EddieMurphy was finally cast in the part, Paramount [[WhereDaWhiteWomenAt got nervous]] and decided to make Jenny Axel's platonic childhood friend.
* HarpoDoesSomethingFunny: By the time Creator/EddieMurphy was attached to the project, the script had been shopped around considerably and rewritten several times. Many of the funniest scenes just resulted from Eddie and the other actors improvising in place of the scripted lines.
* MidDevelopmentGenreShift: It went from violent action film to comedy.
* NoStuntDouble: Creator/EddieMurphy did many of his own stunts during the opening chase sequence.
* RecycledSet: The Beverly Hills PD was inspired by Creator/MartinBrest's original conceptual designs for the NORAD scenes in ''Film/WarGames'', a film which he was fired from.
* TheRedStapler: Axel's "Mumford Physical Education Department" t-shirt became an instant best seller.
* SerendipityWritesThePlot: In the script, Axel stuffs potatoes he stole from the hotel kitchen into the tail pipe of Rosewood and Taggart's car. Due to time constraints, no scene from the kitchen could be shot. Because the hotel lobby was already a location for a few scenes, the script was re-written so Axel takes bananas from a buffet in the lobby.
* SparedByTheCut: Back when this was an action film, Billy Rosewood was originally killed off halfway through.
* ThrowItIn: There are a ''spectacular'' number of ad-libs in this movie in general, most of them from Murphy. One example of this is a moment where Maitland has Axel and Jenny cornered and is deciding what to do with them when he stops in his tracks and makes a face. In reality, Creator/StevenBerkoff was reacting to something Creator/EddieMurphy ad-libbed but was removed in editing. They kept in his reaction because it made Maitland seem even more sinister and unhinged.
** The chief referring to Rosewood as Rosemont was an accident during rehearsals that they decided to keep in the finished film.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Creator/SylvesterStallone was originally attached to play Axel Foley. The Stallone draft of the film itself featured various ideas:
*** When Stallone was attached to the film, the character of Jenny was supposed to be his LoveInterest. After Eddie Murphy got the part, Paramount were concerned about [[WhereDaWhiteWomenAt the implications]], and made the (somewhat questionable) decision to make Jenny Axel's childhood friend.
*** The original finale for the Stallone draft of the script took place at night and ended with a car chase between Victor in a Lamborghini and Axel in a turbo-boosting Pontiac GTO. Victor is ultimately killed when his car smashes into an oncoming train.
*** Amusingly, Stallone had a bunch of ideas about how the movie should go and was editing the script accordingly. When Murphy was brought on, Stallone gracefully backed out, taking the ideas with him to be used in ''Film/{{Cobra}}''.
** Creator/JeffBridges, Creator/JamesCaan, Creator/RobertDeNiro, Creator/HarrisonFord, Creator/RichardGere, Creator/MelGibson, Creator/MichaelKeaton, Creator/NickNolte, Creator/AlPacino, Creator/RichardPryor, Creator/DennisQuaid, Creator/MickeyRourke, Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, Creator/JohnTravolta, Creator/RobinWilliams and Creator/BruceWillis all could have been Axel.
** Originally, two men were supposed to be working in the art gallery scenes. When Creator/MartinBrest heard Creator/BronsonPinchot's Serge impersonation, however, he thought it was so hysterical he scaled back the other part to give Pinchot more screen time. The second actor shows up only briefly with his shirt collar open too wide, on which Serge comments.
** Creator/MartinScorsese was offered the chance to direct but he turned it down, saying the premise reminded him too much of ''Film/CoogansBluff''. Creator/DavidCronenberg was also asked to direct, but turned it down.
** [[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47999808/detroit-free-press/ A fruit stand scene]] was to have been included during the cigarette tractor-trailer chase, but was scrapped for unknown reasons.
* WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants: The film had a very tight shooting schedule and the screenplay was being reworked as production went on. Sometimes the actors would be given their dialogue less than an hour before shooting. When Stephen Elliott as the chief of police enters his first scene, you’ll notice he’s carrying rolled up papers in his hand. Brest notes these are actually script pages he was handed just before filming the scene. Holding these pages during rehearsals looked so official that Creator/MartinBrest felt it added to his character to be holding them during the actual shoot.
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