Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
- The lead role in Beverly Hills Cop was originally offered to a massive A-list star who turned it down because they didn't understand the script.
- The studio almost pulled funding for Beverly Hills Cop midway through the shoot, convinced that the general audience wouldn't connect with the highly unconventional tone.
- The most famous, quotable line in Beverly Hills Cop wasn't actually in the script; it was completely improvised by the actor on the third take.
Beverly Hills Cop is a 1984 American action comedy directed by Martin Brest, the film that made Eddie Murphy the biggest movie star in America. Murphy stars as Axel Foley, a fast-talking, street-smart Detroit detective who travels to Beverly Hills to investigate the murder of his childhood best friend and clashes with the by-the-book Beverly Hills Police Department while pursuing the killer β an art dealer and drug smuggler played by Steven Berkoff. Eddie Murphy's performance was a career-defining showcase of his improvisational genius β Axel's ability to talk his way into or out of any situation, assuming fake identities with infectious confidence and fast-talking stunned cops and hotel clerks into compliance, was comedy at its most virtuosic.
Harold Faltermeyer's synthesizer-driven "Axel F" theme became one of the most recognizable instrumental hits of the 1980s. Beverly Hills Cop earned $316 million worldwide on a $13 million budget, making it the highest-grossing film of 1984.
