Plot
Akeem Joffer (Eddie Murphy), the prince and heir to the throne of a fictitious, wealthy African country called Zamunda, is discontented with being pampered all his life. The final straw comes when his parents, King Jaffe Joffer (James Earl Jones) and Queen Aeoleon (Madge Sinclair), present him with a bride-to-be, Imani Izzi (Vanessa Bell), whom he has never met and who is trained to obey his every command. Seeing that Imani is too subservient and offers nothing for his intellect, Akeem concocts a plan to travel to the United States to find an independent-minded wife he can both love and respect and who accepts him for himself, not his status. He and his friend and personal aide, Semmi (Arsenio Hall) arrive in Queens, a borough of New York City, because according to Akeem, "What better place to find a queen than the city of Queens?" They rent a run-down apartment in the neighborhood of Long Island City and begin working at a local fast food restaurant called McDowell's (restaurateur Cleo McDowell's attempt to copy McDonald's), passing themselves off as poor foreign students.
Akeem falls in love with McDowell's daughter, Lisa (Shari Headley), who possesses the qualities the prince is looking for. The rest of the film centers on Akeem's attempts to win Lisa's hand in marriage, which is complicated by her obnoxious and lazy boyfriend Darrell (Eriq La Salle). Although Akeem thrives on working hard and seeing how commoners live, Semmi is not comfortable with the life of a poor man. When Akeem donates their travel money (to the homeless Randolph and Mortimer Duke of Trading Places) after Semmi nearly blows their cover, Semmi transmits a plea to King Joffer for more financial help. This causes the Zamundan royal couple to travel to the United States and reveal themselves to the McDowells.
Although her father is ecstatic that his daughter has attracted the interest of a prince, Lisa, who has fallen for Akeem, becomes angry and confused as to why he lied to her about his identity, as he tried to convince Lisa he was a simple goat herder from Zamunda, not the prince. She refuses to marry Akeem even after he offers to renounce his throne, and he returns to Zamunda with a broken heart, resigned to marry the woman chosen for him by his parents. On the way to the airport, King Joffe remarks that Akeem cannot marry Lisa anyway because of "tradition," and defending himself by saying "Who am I to change it?" Queen Aoleon responds curtly, "I thought you were the King."
At the final scene's wedding procession, Akeem waits dejectedly at the altar as his bride-to-be makes her way down the aisle, but when he lifts the veil to kiss her, he finds Lisa instead of his arranged bride. They ride off happily in a carriage after the ceremony to the cheers of Zamundans. Witnessing such splendor, Lisa is impressed that Akeem would have given it up just for her. Akeem proposes that he can make his abdication official, but Lisa playfully declines and decides to become a royal instead.
Read more about this topic: Coming To America
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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