Sumith Prasad
In Netflix’s action comedy film ‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F,’ Captain Cade Grant unloads his drug consignments at the Port East Basin using the trucks of his front company, Sunset Point. When William “Billy” Rosewood learns about the drug operations that have been happening in the port, which ultimately led to the murder of an undercover cop, he arrives at the place to investigate, only to get captured by Grant’s men. Axel Foley then teams up together with Detective Sam Abbott to rescue Billy from the port. The ardent admirers of the ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ franchise may not be able to walk around the Port East Basin in real life, but an actual port stands in for the former in the buddy cop movie!
The Reality Behind Port East Basin
Port East Basin is a fictional port conceived by the screenwriters Will Beall, Tom Gormican, and Kevin Etten for ‘Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.’ Even though East Basin is a real place in San Diego, California, it is not even remotely connected with the region we see in the action comedy. The scenes set in the Port East Basin were shot in the Port of Long Beach, a container port that adjoins the Port of Los Angeles. Situated on land that spans around 3,200 acres, the establishment is a key landmark in the city of Long Beach.
The scenes set in Port East Basin, including the one in which Axel and Abbott save Billy from Grant’s men, were shot in the part of the port that’s under the Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement. The bridge is also visible in the aforementioned scene. The pillars of the bridge help us to differentiate it from Vincent Thomas Bridge, which is located near the Port of Los Angeles. The four smokestacks that can be seen near the bridge in the shot in which Axel and his colleagues rush to a Sunset Point truck are part of the NRG Long Beach Power.
Port of Long Beach is around thirty-five miles away from Beverly Hills City Hall, one of the major locations of the action comedy. The esblishment and the nearby area are also renowned filming locations, thanks to their industrial ambiance. Over the years, several popular productions have made use of the place for shooting purposes. These projects include Spike Jonze’s ‘Her,’ Michael Mann’s ‘Heat,’ John Woo’s ‘Face/Off,’ and Tom Cruise’s ‘Collateral.’
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