Joseph Gordon-Levitt: It felt like I was doing a scene in a movie with Eddie Murphy, which is more thrilling than a helicopter ride in real life.

[action music playing] 

[CLIP] Joseph Gordon-Levitt (as Bobby Abbott): I didn't realize the plan was gonna be to steal a chopper off the rooftop of a ******* police station! 

[CLIP] Eddie Murphy (as Axel Foley): I didn't realize that you were so ****** up at flying helicopters. Otherwise, I'd have came up with a different idea. 

[CLIP] Joseph Gordon-Levitt (as Bobby Abbott): I told you it was a bad idea!

Eddie Murphy: Well, when I first read it, I thought, "How are they gonna make it look like a helicopter's flying in the street?" Mark was like, "We're gonna really have a helicopter." I was like, “You're gonna have a helicopter fly in Wilshire Boulevard?” And they did it.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt: I figured it'd be fake too. I figured it'd be CGI, but it wasn't.

Eddie Murphy: I didn't think they'd do it. Yeah, we were in a rig. We were in a fake helicopter that they made.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt: I remember this scene feeling like Disneyland. Like, they built a Disneyland ride just for us. 

Eddie Murphy: I felt like we were doing a scene in the movie.

[both laughing]

Joseph Gordon-Levitt: That is what it felt. Yeah. It felt like I was doing a scene in a movie with Eddie Murphy, which is more thrilling than a helicopter ride in real life. 

Eddie Murphy: I don't know. And it was Sunday. A lot of that time, I might have been thinking, "This is bull****." "We got to work on a ************* Sunday on this fake *** helicopter." I remember thinking that once.

[both laughing] 

[CLIP] Eddie Murphy (as Axel Foley): What the ****?! Hey!

[tires screeching, people screaming]

Eddie Murphy: I remember being impressed with how they pulled it off to make it look like we were part of all of that.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt: The real guy who flew the real helicopter seems like, A, a very skilled pilot, and B, a crazy person.

[siren wailing, bullet ricocheting]

[CLIP] Eddie Murphy (as Axel Foley): Oh! He's shooting at us!

[CLIP] Joseph Gordon-Levitt (as Bobby Abbott): I'm seriously about to pass out right now.

[CLIP] Eddie Murphy (as Axel Foley): No. No, you ain't! Hey! Hey! 

Eddie Murphy: The sound that they put in to make it sound more violent than it was…

Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Yeah.

Eddie Murphy: Like a Bruce Lee movie.

[laughing]

Eddie Murphy: Pshh!

Joseph Gordon-Levitt: It's the windup.

Eddie Murphy: It wasn't that hard. 

Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Like your hand is traveling so fast through the air… 

Eddie Murphy: We broke the wind.

[CLIP] Joseph Gordon-Levitt (as Bobby Abbott): Can you be quiet, please?

[CLIP] Eddie Murphy (as Axel Foley): Oh, ****! 

Eddie Murphy: Did we improvise this ****? Yes. Those was all right off the cuff.

[both laugh]

Joseph Gordon-Levitt: That's how brilliant--

Eddie Murphy: Oh **** just came right out. But that's actually what you'd probably say in a helicopter crash. 

Joseph Gordon-Levitt: That's what… That's what I would be saying.

[CLIP] Joseph Gordon-Levitt (as Bobby Abbott): This is gonna come down hard right now.

[CLIP] Eddie Murphy (as Axel Foley): What?!

[CLIP] Joseph Gordon-Levitt (as Bobby Abbott): A hard landing!

[both screaming, exclaims] 

[CLIP] Christopher McDonald (as Golfer): Hey! Excuse me! 

[CLIP] Eddie Murphy (as Axel Foley): We got a little problem back here. Uh, somebody's still trapped in the helicopter.

[CLIP] Christopher McDonald (as Golfer): I'd love to help you guys. Seriously, I would. But listen, you put me in a pretty tight place here. Legally speaking. So… 

[CLIP] Eddie Murphy (as Axel Foley): To hell with all that! A person is dying back there. You gotta do something, now! 

Eddie Murphy: Yep, that's Axel.

[both laugh]

Eddie Murphy: That's what he does. 

Joseph Gordon-Levitt: I remember the first day that we kinda got to know each other. We were doing a car scene. You're stuck in the car all day long. You don't have anything else to do but talk to each other. But, like, what I remember is speaking to someone who's had a career of the magnitude like yours. People aren't always so willing or ready to just, like, talk about movies, talk about, you know, what you've done, your career, and I was always really flattered and grateful that you were just happy to talk about stuff. Felt like I was, like, getting something really special, and it wasn't a big deal to you. And I really appreciated that.

[Eddie Murphy laughing] 

Joseph Gordon-Levitt: That's all I wanted to tell you. So thank you.

Eddie Murphy: Yeah.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Now that the world is here watching. Thank you.

[laughs]

[CLIP] Christopher McDonald (as Golfer): Come on! What are you doing? 

[CLIP] Eddie Murphy (as Axel Foley): Yeah, we gotta get the hell out of here.