Beverly Hills Cop II

Beverly Hills Cop II
Directed by	Tony Scott
Written by	Characters: Danilo Bach Daniel Petrie, Jr. Story: Eddie Murphy Robert D. Wachs Screenplay: Larry Ferguson Warren Skaaren Uncredited: David Giler Dennis Klein
Produced by	Jerry Bruckheimer Don Simpson
Starring	Eddie Murphy Judge Reinhold Jurgen Prochnow Ronny Cox John Ashton Brigitte Nielsen Allen Garfield Paul Reiser
Edited by	Billy Weber
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	May 20, 1987
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$299,965,036 (worldwide)

Beverly Hills Cop II is a 1987 film starring Eddie Murphy and directed by Tony Scott. This is the sequel to the 1984 hit Beverly Hills Cop and was followed by Beverly Hills Cop III in 1994.

Paramount had planned a television series based on the 1984 original. Eddie Murphy refused the series but was willing to do a sequel.

Taglines:

"The heat's back on!"

"Axel Foley is back. Back where he doesn't belong."

Plot

Approximately two years after the original film, Captain (formerly Lieutenant) Andrew Bogomil (Ronny Cox), Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), and John Taggart (John Ashton) are trying to figure out who is behind the "Alphabet Crimes", a series of mostly high end store robberies distinctive 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 temperamental new police chief 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 trying to convince him that Rosewood was only following a hunch. 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 henchwoman of Maxwell Dent (Jürgen Prochnow). Finding out about the shooting over a news report, Axel (Murphy) immediately drives 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. Taggert and Rosewood agree to assist Axel 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 co-worker in Detroit to pose as Todd to intercept Lutz's phone call to Todd's office and convince Lutz that Axel is part of a multi-jurisdictional task force), Axel 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 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 due to being on the right track with his investigation into the case.

Having foiled a robbery attempt at a bank depository, Axel is able to trick Dent's accountant into using his computer and discover that Dent and Karla are planing 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 Axel 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 (which Axel 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 among the causalities. While Lutz announces publicly that the Alphabet Crimes have been solved, Axel 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 Axel in the warehouse, but Axel gets distracted and Dent walks into the shadows. Dent then crashes through the wall in his car and Axel shoots Dent through the windshield, sending his car down a hill and erupting in flames. Karla appears and is about to kill Axel, but is shot several times 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, but both prove that Dent was the real Alphabet Bandit. They are also able to convince Mayor Egan of Lutz's actual incompetence, and the Mayor personally fires Lutz because he is tired of his abusive attitude towards his men.

At the end of the film Bogomil is chosen to replace Lutz as the new Chief of Police, and Axel 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 Axel to assist them on this case.

Cast

• Axel Foley: Eddie Murphy
• Detective Billy Rosewood: Judge Reinhold
• Maxwell Dent: Jürgen Prochnow
• Andrew Bogomil: Ronny Cox
• John Taggart: John Ashton
• Harold Lutz: Allen Garfield
• Charles "Chip" Cain: Dean Stockwell
• Karla Fry: Brigitte Nielsen
• Jeffrey Friedman: Paul Reiser
• Inspector Todd: Gil Hill
• Nikos Thomopolis: Paul Guilfoyle
• Mayor Ted Egan: Robert Ridgely
• Jan Bogomil: Alice Adair

Soundtrack

The song "Hold On" as sung by Keta Bill plays during the scene wherein Axel, Billy, 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."

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 self titled album "Harold F," released in 1988, includes a song called "Bad Guys," which is apparently piece of score which plays during the opening jewelry store robbery scene and through several other scenes in the movie.

Trivia

• 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 film was the first American movie to utilize the concept of a laser security grid, although the scene would eventually be cut from the final release.
• When Axel 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 .
• Paul Guilfoyle, best known as Detective Brass on CSI: Las Vegas, has a small part as gun-runner Nikos Thomopolis. The best shot of him, complete with a full head of blond hair, can be seen in the scene at the Playboy Mansion.
• In the scene where the cops return to Billy's (Judge Reinhold) apartment, there is a poster of Sylvester Stallone's Cobra. This is a reference to the fact that Stallone was originally cast as Axel Foley. After being released from the movie, Stallone made Cobra, where Stallone put his ideas into. A Special Edition of Beverly Hills Cop I details Stallone's involvement in the film project. During filming of BHCII, Stallone was married briefly to Brigitte Nielsen.
• In the final shoot-out another reference to Stallone can be heard when John Ashton (Taggert) says "Fuck Rambo." This is after Judge Reinhold (Rosewood) blows up a semi trailer with a rocket launcher (by accident, since he has never fired one before).
• In a noticeable goof, the .44 Auto Mag handgun is stated as being the weapon of choice by the Alphabet bandits. Empty Auto Mag casings are even shown as key pieces of evidence from the first heist. However, no .44 Auto Mag is used by anyone in the film. Most of the bandits use Heckler & Koch MP-5 submachine guns, which are 9 mm. At various points, Karla used a 9 mm and/or a .357 Magnum.
• Chris Rock made his film debut here in a small role as a valet. Rock was previously featured in an HBO comedy special which was produced by Eddie Murphy and Clint Smith.
• When Axel 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 US.
• In the fingerprint scene in Rosewoods home, Murphy and Reinhold improvised the idea of humming the tune of Spanish Flea, which they refer to Taggart as the theme of The Dating Game.

External links

• Boxoffice Information
• Beverly Hills Cop II at IMDb