Axel Foley

Lore & Background

Axel Foley is a Detroit Police Department plainclothes detective. In Beverly Hills Cop, he investigates the murder of his best friend Mikey Tandino, who had recently moved from Detroit to Beverly Hills, leading him to art gallery owner and drug kingpin Victor Maitland. Foley works alongside Beverly Hills Police Department Detective Billy Rosewood and Sergeant John Taggart, and ultimately shoots and kills Maitland alone after a chase, as Lieutenant Andrew Bogomil was shot and incapacitated earlier. In Beverly Hills Cop II, Foley returns after Bogomil is shot, and helps Rosewood and Taggart uncover a weapons smuggling ring run by Maxwell Dent and his henchwoman Karla Fry. In Beverly Hills Cop III, Foley pursues the murderer of his boss, Inspector Douglas Todd, to Wonder World theme park in the Los Angeles area, where he uncovers a counterfeiting ring run by security chief Ellis Dewald. Foley does not kill Dewald directly; Dewald falls from a ride after a struggle with Foley. Foley later discovers that Agent Steve Fulbright is also corrupt. In Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, Foley returns to Beverly Hills after his daughter Jane's life is threatened, teaming up with her ex-boyfriend Detective Bobby Abbott and his old pals Taggart and Rosewood to uncover a conspiracy involving drug trafficking and money laundering.

Reader's Guide

Axel Foley is a defining action-comedy character of the 1980s and beyond, notable for blending street-smart humor with detective work. His signature 9mm Browning Hi-Power pistol and Detroit Lions letterman jacket became iconic. The character's enduring popularity is reflected in Empire magazine ranking him No. 55 on both its 2008 and 2020 lists of the 100 Greatest Movie Characters. Originally, Sylvester Stallone was intended to be cast as Foley. An unaired television pilot in 2013, with Brandon T. Jackson as Foley's son Aaron, was not picked up by CBS; Eddie Murphy later stated that his cameo in the pilot caused test audiences to break the rating knobs, leading the network to demand his recurring presence, which Murphy declined. The character's legacy includes four films and a continued cultural footprint as a symbol of Detroit resourcefulness in the face of Beverly Hills opulence.

Did You Know?

• Sylvester Stallone was originally intended to be cast as Axel Foley.
• Foley's signature sidearm changes across the films: he uses a Smith & Wesson Model 36 revolver in the first film, while the 9mm Browning Hi-Power appears only in later films.
• He wears a Detroit Lions letterman jacket bearing number 67 in the films.
• An unaired 2013 television pilot featured Brandon T. Jackson as Foley's son, Aaron.

The Decades-Long Road to a Fourth Chapter

A fourth Beverly Hills Cop film has haunted Hollywood development pipelines for nearly three decades. The project was first greenlit in the mid-1990s under Eddie Murphy's own production banner, but it quickly stalled. By 2001, writer Jason Richman was brought in to craft a treatment, and in 2006 Jerry Bruckheimer publicly declared his intent to revive the franchise before ultimately surrendering his production option to Lorenzo di Bonaventura. That same year, Murphy reviewed a consolidated script and reportedly felt it captured the spirit of the original. He later confessed that his personal drive to return stemmed from feeling the 1994 third entry was a disappointment he did not want to define the series' ending. Directors and writers cycled through the project over the years—including Brett Ratner in 2008 and the duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah—before Mark Molloy was tapped in April 2022 for his feature directorial debut. Bruckheimer came back on board as producer, and filming kicked off in California that August.

A Conspiracy in Beverly Hills

The 2024 plot repositions Axel Foley as a still-active Detroit detective working under Deputy Chief Jeffrey Friedman. After a high-speed pursuit leaves the city with a hefty damage bill, Jeffrey steps down to shield his friend and nudges Axel toward mending his fractured relationship with Jane Saunders, his estranged daughter and a Los Angeles defense attorney. Meanwhile, old ally Billy Rosewood—now a private investigator after clashing with John Taggart—warns Axel that Jane is in mortal danger while she defends Sam Enriquez, a man wrongly accused of killing an undercover officer. Rosewood retrieves critical evidence from the murder vehicle before a cartel abducts him. Back in Beverly Hills, Axel collides with a web of corruption centered on Captain Cade Grant, a protégé of Chief Taggart who is secretly laundering cartel money through a mansion. With the help of Detective Bobby Abbott, Jane's ex-boyfriend, Axel and his allies race to recover an SD card, survive a helicopter crash, and ultimately confront Grant in a violent showdown at the cartel compound, where Axel is shot shielding Jane and Abbott puts an end to the captain.

The Ensemble and Returning Faces

The 2024 installment assembles a layered cast that bridges the franchise's past and present. Eddie Murphy, who also produces, reprises his iconic role alongside Judge Reinhold as the now-private-investigator Rosewood and John Ashton, delivering what will be his final on-screen performance as Chief Taggart. New faces include Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Detective Bobby Abbott, Jane's former boyfriend, and Taylour Paige as Jane Saunders. Kevin Bacon, Paul Reiser, and Bronson Pinchot round out the supporting ensemble. The film also weaves in smaller touches that honor the series' history: Christopher McDonald pops up in a brief cameo as a golfer, while photographs of the late Gil Hill and Ronny Cox—both of whom played recurring characters in earlier entries—appear within scenes. Most personally, Murphy's real-life daughter Bria Murphy steps in front of the camera as Officer Renee Minnick, the cop who arrests Foley upon his arrival in Beverly Hills. The screenplay is credited to Will Beall, Tom Gormican, and Kevin Etten, with Beall also credited for the underlying story.

A New Home for a Classic Franchise

Breaking with the theatrical distribution model that defined the first three entries, Axel F found its audience through Netflix, premiering on July 3, 2024. It marked the first Beverly Hills Cop film not released by Paramount Pictures or in movie theaters, signaling a shift in how the franchise reaches viewers. Critics offered a mixed but generally warmer reception than the 1994 predecessor, with many reviewers framing the film as a welcome return to the series' original comedic and action-driven tone. The commercial response was strong: the movie held the top spot among Netflix's most-streamed titles for nearly two consecutive weeks, demonstrating that the Foley-Rosewood-Taggart dynamic still commands a devoted audience more than three decades after the original. For Murphy, the project also carried personal weight—he had long expressed a desire to close the chapter on a high note after feeling the third film fell short. The result is a standalone sequel that, while not a critical triumph, reasserts the franchise's identity and leaves the door open for future adventures.