Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F’ is the fourth installment in the film series about the titular character played by Eddie Murphy. The events in this film take place thirty years after the third movie and show a different side of Axel Foley, though, at his core, he remains the same. The strained relationship between him and his daughter is at the focus while they try to expose a corrupt cop who is responsible for framing an innocent man for the murder of an undercover cop. Their search for truth takes them to various places in Beverly Hills. One of those locations is the Eastern, a private club visited by the villain.
The Eastern is a Fictional Private Social Club
‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F’ takes the audience on a thrilling journey across the streets of Beverly Hills, especially when Axel is chased after by his enemies. This puts a lot of real locations of the city into the background, but the Eastern is not one of those places. The private club comes into focus when Axel and Jane follow two guys hired by the main villain to the club. It turns out that the corrupt cop behind all this mess spends a lot of time at Eastern. This makes it an important location; however, it remains completely fictional.
With the story set in Beverly Hills, the filmmakers wanted to use the place to film the movie in real locations. However, they had to face some pushback from the authorities, especially concerning the image of the police department. It makes sense that they wouldn’t want to be painted in a bad light in a highly anticipated movie follow-up to a successful film series. Eventually, the filmmakers succeeded in getting permission to film across Beverly Hills, but they had to tweak some things. The name “the Eastern” appears to be one of those things. Even though they shot the scene in a real location, it makes sense that the place wouldn’t want itself attached to dirty cops, which made the film rename it.
Apart from Beverly Hills, several scenes were also shot in San Bernardino and Los Angeles, with Detroit also being used as an important filming location. The creators of ‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F’ used a mix of all these locations to give it a perception of Beverly Hills without straying too far from it. For finer points of the story, they had to come up with fake names like “the Eastern” to tie things together.
The club and Grant’s presence are interesting and important markers in the movie because it’s clear that someone on a cop’s salary couldn’t afford a place in the private club. And yet, we see Grant at home, as if he often comes there. The club’s setting also makes Axel and Jane feel othered and exposed, which marks a clear distinction between them and the people they are fighting against. So, even as a fictional location in a real city, the Eastern Club serves a crucial purpose in the storyline.
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