Mark Molloy, the director of Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, still remembers the first time he encountered Axel Foley. 

“My uncle had a VHS player, which was rare where I grew up in rural Australia,” Molloy told Netflix. “He put [Beverly Hills Cop] on, and I remember lying on the carpet watching it. I was just in awe. I’d never seen a movie like it, for one. But Eddie [Murphy], Axel Foley, the jacket, LA, Beverly Hills — everything just felt so exotic to me.”

Nearly every member of the Axel F team remembers loving Beverly Hills Cop from afar. Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s brother taught him how to play “Axel F,” the film’s earworm theme song, on the piano; Taylour Paige marveled at early streetwear icon Axel’s casual sense of style; Kevin Bacon watched Murphy’s star rise as Bacon caught fire in Footloose the same year. And even series stalwarts Judge Reinhold and John Ashton feel its long afterglow: The two real-life friends still attract attention when they sit down at a restaurant together.

At the center of everything is Eddie Murphy himself and the legacy of Axel Foley. “I don’t look at it  like, ‘Oh, I’m reliving it and I have to get back into it for the feeling,’ ” he told Netflix. “I’ve played the character several times already, so I know him.” So do we. 

“Anyone that saw the original Beverly Hills Cop, you’re going to love this movie,” Murphy continued. “And even if you haven’t seen it, this movie stands by itself and you can jump right into it.” But if you have seen the original, there are a few pointed references that might just take you back to your first time meeting Axel. Join us on a tour of Beverly Hills Cop’s Beverly Hills.

Where is Axel Foley from?

A glance at his infamous Detroit Lions jacket will tell you exactly where the fast-talking cop hails from: Michigan’s Motor City. In the original film, Murphy also wears a “Mumford Phys. Ed Dept.” T-shirt with an unlikely origin story: Northwest Detroit’s Samuel C. Mumford High School is Beverly Hills Cop star producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s alma mater. (Murphy himself is from New York City, but has another connection to Mumford: Fellow Saturday Night Live breakout Gilda Radner attended the school as a teenager.)

Like the first three films, Axel F kicks off in Detroit, with Axel attending a Detroit Red Wings game alongside colleague Mike Woody (Kyle S. More). Of course, Axel isn’t just here for some hockey — he’s on the trail of the thieves behind a rash of burglaries. Soon, he and Woody are chasing the robbers through the streets of Motown in a borrowed snowplow: a far cry from the opening of the original film, with Axel hanging out of the back of a moving truck. This time, he’s in control.

Of course, there’s another familiar thing about this car chase: Harold Faltermeyer’s classic Beverly Hills Cop theme tune “Axel F” is blaring once again. In the years since its debut, the melody has been borrowed by artists as wide-ranging as Psy, Murphy Brown and Captain Hollywood, and even Crazy Frog. Now, it’s back in the hands of the film series that invented it, as Axel catches the bike-riding robbers with ease.

Behind the Theme: Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F

Of course, the damage to city property on Axel’s watch means he’s hauled into his superior’s office to get chewed out. But this time, Axel’s boss isn’t Inspector Todd (real-life Detroit police officer Gil Hill, who died in 2016), the hard-ass who was killed in the line of duty in Beverly Hills Cop III. Instead, it’s his old compatriot Jeffrey Friedman (Paul Reiser). 

“It was frightfully easy to slip back into it with Eddie,” Reiser told Netflix. “When we did the first film, we had already known each other from the comedy clubs, so we just hit the ground running. I haven’t seen him in a while, but it was very easy to just jump right in. And you get into this police precinct office and all this set dressing, it feels like, ‘Oh yeah, we did this before … a while ago.’ ” Jeffrey reveals he has turned in his papers to protect Axel’s job — and he implores Axel to call his estranged daughter, Jane, all while a photograph of Inspector Todd watches over them from the office wall.

Why does Axel return to Beverly Hills?

Axel’s daughter, Jane (Taylour Paige), is a hardworking public defender currently defending an innocent man accused of murdering a police officer; when she’s hung out of a parking garage by a group of mask-wearing thugs, things get personal for Axel. He sent her to Beverly Hills as a child to protect her, and this isn’t what he had in mind. Axel’s old pal Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) gives him a call, and Axel jets out to Beverly Hills to reconnect with his daughter. 

But when he arrives, Billy is missing — and a group of men are ransacking his office. “Billy has uncovered something that is pretty far-reaching and dangerous for the central characters, as well as a lot of people,” Reinhold said. “He has to be very careful with the knowledge that he has. He’s really on the hunt this time.”

Axel bluffs his way into the room, and we’re able to catch a glimpse of Billy’s Rambo merch collection, first established in Beverly Hills Cop II, before Axel has to escape yet again. 

Andrew Cooper

What happened to Billy Rosewood and John Taggart?

After another car chase (Axel racks up a lot of property damage here, as usual), Axel is back in a familiar place, the Beverly Hills Police Department. He’s being questioned by an unfamiliar face, Detective Bobby Abbott (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). 

Abbott shouts out Axel’s various trips to Beverly Hills, flipping through our hero’s file. “This is from ’84, then there’s one from ’87, and then ’94 — not your finest hour,” he tells him, cheekily referencing the previous three films’ release dates (and the middling reception to Beverly Hills Cop III). 

“Bobby is a new action hero for the 21st century. He’s emotionally intelligent, an honest-to-goodness nice guy who’s also a really good cop,” Gordon-Levitt said. “And of course, that kind of guy pushes Axel’s buttons, and that tension makes those scenes between our characters so much fun.”

A not-so-timely intervention from Axel’s lawyer daughter gets him sprung from the hoosegow, but Axel’s still determined to talk to his old friend John Taggart (John Ashton). Unfortunately, Taggart retired and moved to Arizona with his wife in between the second and third film. Or so we thought. “Well, I did,” he tells Axel. “But Maureen and I got back together” — Maureen being his wife, much discussed but never seen in the first two installments — “and trust me, home is the last place I want to be.” Taggart is the chief now, and he’s not quite as indulgent of his old friends Axel and Billy. Billy has left the force and headed out on his own private investigations, and now Axel is following him — and getting in the way of BHPD prosecuting a cop killer.

Melinda Sue Gordon

How does Axel solve the case?

Axel acts in characteristic fashion: resourcefully, but not exactly by the book. He sneaks into parties, steals a helicopter, and at one point even pretends to be a Jupiter Ascending fan (relatable) to flatter one of the film’s extras into letting him snoop around an impound lot. He even brings in some help from an old friend: Serge (Bronson Pinchot), the ambiguously accented socialite who appeared in Beverly Hills Cop and Beverly Hills Cop III. 

It doesn’t take long for Axel to start eyeing interdepartmental narcotics task force leader Cade Grant (Kevin Bacon), and it takes even less time for him to rope poor Bobby Abbott into his schemes. Bobby, Axel learns, is his daughter’s ex-boyfriend, which means he’s the perfect target for Axel’s relentless mockery — and for Serge’s hopeless mispronunciations. 

But Bobby is also a good cop, relentlessly pursuing the truth with Axel and Jane until Taggart finally suspends him. The trio don’t give up there. With the help of Jane’s client’s karaoke-loving uncle (Luis Guzmán), they discover that the murdered cop was about to point a finger at Cade Grant’s own task force. Axel and Bobby rescue Billy from his cartel kidnappers, but Jane is off on her own, having just fought with her father. Grant seizes the opportunity to kidnap her, and Axel is forced to turn to Jeffrey back in Detroit to track her down. 

With Billy and Axel finally reunited, Gordon-Levitt was able to have a bit of a fanboy moment. “Joseph Gordon-Levitt was in the middle of me and Eddie, and he looked at the two of us and he said, ‘I know this is corny, but I have to say, it’s so frigging cool to be between you guys,’ ” Reinhold recalled. “And Eddie goes, ‘Yeah, it’s really a blast for us, too, kid.’ ”

How does Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F end?

As the film reaches its climax, all the main players converge on Grant’s headquarters, with even Taggart getting out from behind his desk to join the shoot-out. Axel and company defeat the corrupt cops, and Axel takes a bullet for Jane, minorly hurting his ego but saving her life.

All’s well that ends well in Beverly Hills. Billy’s SD card containing the case evidence (concealed all along in the hilt of his Rambo bowie knife) is recovered and turned over to the authorities. To the familiar strains of “Axel F,” Axel escapes from hospital food in favor of a diner across the street. He and Jane mend their difficult relationship, and Axel gets ready to leave California — but not before making a quick stop with some friends.

Earlier in the film, Axel’s arrival at the Beverly Palms Hotel (really LA’s Millennium Biltmore) called back to the original film — he raised a stink there by pretending to be a Rolling Stone reporter. In Axel F, Axel begins to bluff his way through check-in before caving and deciding he’s too tired to proceed. Axel’s grown up — but not grown up enough to pass up the opportunity to duplicate another hotel scene from 1984. 

Billy and John are waiting outside Axel’s hospital, trying to make sure he rests (and doesn’t cause any more trouble). But Axel has other ideas. In a scene that recalls the infamous banana-in-the-tailpipe confrontation in the original film, he slides into the back seat and demands the pair of old friends take him to get a steak. 

“When we shot the scene where the three of us were in an unmarked car together, it was magical — not just for us, but there was an electricity with the crew, too, everybody,” Reinhold told Netflix. “It was like time travel. The first thing that Eddie said when he got in the back of the car — I hadn’t seen him in at least 10 years — was, ‘Well, we still resemble our characters.’ ” Some things never change.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is now streaming on Netflix.