Diksha Sundriyal
The iconic cop, played by Eddie Murphy, returns in ‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.’ Like in the previous films, he is torn out of his turf in Detroit and has to come to Beverly Hills, California, to fight the villains who threaten the safety of his loved ones. In this part, the focus is on Axel’s daughter, Jane, who is a defense attorney. She is representing a man who she believes has been falsely convicted of killing an undercover cop. Her search for truth puts her in the crosshairs of some very dangerous people. This is where Axel comes in. He wants to help Jane solve the case while also keeping her safe, but their difficult relationship, which has deteriorated over the years, makes it difficult for them to connect so easily. This also raises the question of Jane’s mother and why she is not in the movie. SPOILERS AHEAD
How Jane’s Mother Fits Into Beverly Hills Cop Timeline
The last time we saw Axel Foley in Beverly Hills, he had fallen in love with Janice Perkins, who worked at the Wonder World park. At the end of ‘Beverly Hills Cop III,’ he and Janice are in a relationship. She even names one of the characters in Wonder World after him. She is, however, not Axel’s wife, or at least, not Jane’s mother.
While there are several returning characters from previous ‘Beverly Hills Cop movies, ‘Axel F’ doesn’t really refer to the events of the previous films, including the villains and the supporting characters. So, Janice Perkins’ name never really comes into the picture. It must also be noted that Jane uses the surname “Saunders.” It was originally Foley, after her father, but due to the strained nature of their relationship and Jane basically hating her for never being there for her and her mother, it doesn’t make sense for Jane to take his name.
It makes sense that when changing her surname, she would adopt her mother’s, which means that her mother is “Saunders.” No character by this name has been introduced in the film series so far. Moreover, Axel mentions that Jane is 32 years old. With the fourth movie set in 2024 and the third movie released in 1994, it means that Jane was born in 1992, before the events of the third film. This means that Axel met Jane’s mother between the events of the second and the third movie in Detroit because he most probably didn’t return to Beverly Hill in between that.
The Events of Beverly Hills Cop III Explain Jane’s Anger Towards Axel
Axel reveals that he had to bring Jane and her mother from Detroit to Beverly Hills to keep them safe. He had been entangled in a mess with the 12th Street Mafia, who threatened to kill his family. To get them out of harm’s way, Axel sent baby Jane and her mother to Beverly Hills, where he had Taggart and Rosewood help him care for his family because he could trust them completely. But the distance between them was too much, and his wife asked for a divorce, which split their family for good.
But this isn’t the thing that enrages Jane. She is angry because, divorced or not, her father never really showed up for them. It was as if he abandoned them in Beverly Hills and was out and about doing his own thing, never actually making an effort to rebuild things or take Jane back to Detroit. What puts things more in perspective is that Axel returned to Beverly Hills in 1994 and fell for Janice Perkins. For obvious reasons, we don’t see him mention his family in the third film, but it gives more weight to Jane’s arguments about Axel prioritizing his work over his family and not caring about them as he should.
In between all this, Jane’s mother’s name is never mentioned, but Axel says she was scarier than the 12th Street Mafia. We don’t see her in the film because there is already so much going on, and the focus is on Jane and Axel’s relationship. However, this doesn’t mean she is completely out of the picture. She is most likely somewhere else, deliberately kept out of the loop by Jane because she doesn’t want her to worry. By keeping her identity obscure, the film opens the possibility of exploring her arc and her story with Axel in the next movie (if it happens.)
Read More: Beverly Hills Cop Axel F: Where Was the Netflix Movie Filmed?
