Bad Boys is an American action/comedy film starring Martin Lawrence and Will Smith. Produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, and directed by Michael Bay, it was completed on a budget of only $19 million and spawned a 2003 film sequel, Bad Boys II a 2020 second sequel, Bad Boys for Life and a third sequel, Bad Boys: Ride or Die.
Plot[]
Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) and Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) are best friends and detectives in the narcotics division of the Miami Police Department. One night, $100 million of Mafia seized heroin is stolen from a secure police vault. This is a major blow to Marcus and Mike, because it was the biggest drug bust of their careers. Internal Affairs led by Captain Alison Sinclair (Marg Helgenberger) suspects that it was an inside job with corrupted police officers and warns the rest of the department that if they do not recover the drugs in 72 hours, the narcotics division will be shut down.
Mike asks one of his informants and ex-girlfriend Maxine "Max" Logan (Karen Alexander) to look for people who are newly rich and therefore suspects. She gets herself and her best friend Julie Mott (Téa Leoni) hired as escorts by Eddie Domínguez (Emmanuel Xuereb), a crooked former cop and part of the coup. His boss, French drug kingpin Fouchet (Tchéky Karyo) and his henchmen Casper, Ferguson and Noah Trafficante do not want the coup to be endangered by outsider members who know nothing of the deal. Therefore, Fouchet shoots Max and Ferguson kills Dominguez. After witnessing the murder, Julie manages to escape over the roof. Lois Fields (Heather Davis), the madam who hired Julie and Max is disposed of by Noah who then knocks out Mike as he investigates Max's death.
Although she has not met Mike, because of Max's relationship with him, Julie will only trust and deal with Mike. However, he is following up the lead on the madam, when she contacts the police about the murders, threatening to run if she does not speak to Mike. Captain Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano) forces Marcus to impersonate Mike to get Julie to cooperate. Marcus manages to convince Julie that he is Mike Lowrey and together they escape from Julie's apartment after a shootout during which Marcus manages to kill Kuni, one of Fouchet's cronies. In order to continue the deception, Marcus and Mike switch lives. Marcus tells his family he is going to Cleveland for another drug case, leaving Mike to stay with them. Marcus then moves into Mike's apartment with Julie and her dogs. In Julie's presence, Marcus poses as Mike while Mike poses as Marcus.
The investigation proceeds with Mike and Marcus calling in on their old informants, including Jojo (Michael Imperioli), a former chemist and drug convict who now works at a tire shop. Later, Julie identifies Noah, while looking through mug shots. The two cops then head off to Club Hell, one of his known hangouts. Unbeknownst to them, Julie has followed, eager to dish out revenge on Fouchet for killing Max. Though the criminals spot them first, after a brief fight between Marcus and Casper and a car chase which ends with Noah getting killed by Mike, all three manage to escape. The incident is caught on camera by a news helicopter. The subsequent report is later seen by Marcus's family.
At Club Hell they discover barrels of ether, which Fouchet is using to cut and refine the heroin, so Mike and Marcus decide to visit Jojo again. After an aggressive and convincing good cop-bad cop act from Mike and Marcus, Jojo tells them the location of the chemist who is cutting the stolen drugs. After staking out his house, they follow him to where Fouchet is hiding the drugs. They return to Mike's apartment with Julie, where they are confronted by Marcus's wife Theresa who confirms Julie's suspicion that they have been impersonating each other. This causes Julie to storm off but Fouchet and his gang arrive at Mike's apartment and kidnap Julie. Because of this, Internal Affairs reassigns all members of the narcotics division, effectively shutting them down but Captain Howard delays the order to give Mike and Marcus more time to solve the case.
With help from a hacker named Fletcher (John Salley) they acesss Dominguez's police database profile and learn that the police secretary Francine (Anna Thompson) is Dominguez's former girlfriend. Francine explains that she was blackmailed by Fouchet and Dominguez for narcotics information after they took nude photos of her threatening to post them at her kids' school.
Marcus, Mike and two other detectives, Sanchez and Ruiz (Nestor Serrano and Julio Oscar Mechoso) organize a plan to stop the criminals from killing Julie and selling the drugs. A final shootout erupts between the group of cops and the drug dealers at Opa Locka Executiive Airport. Marcus is shot in the leg after saving Julie from Fouchet but manages to kill Casper by shooting some nearby barrels of ether which blow up Casper and some nearby thugs. After Mike kills Ferguson, he attempts to catch Fouchet, who shoots Mike while escaping the building, which is now on fire, but he is rescued by Marcus and Julie who left to get Mike's car.
Marcus, Mike and Julie chase Fouchet's Shelby Cobra AC 427 in Mike's Porsche 911 Turbo. Marcus bumps Fouchet into a concrete barrier but he manages to escape the wreckage. Attempting to run, Fouchet is shot in the leg by Mike. Fouchet, knowing he is beaten, tries to goad Mike into killing him, which he almost does as revenge for Max's murder until Marcus prevents it. While on the ground, Fouchet then pulls out a concealed weapon and aims at Marcus but seeing the reflection on his partner's forehead, Mike spins and shoots Fouchet numerous times, killing him.
Later, after Marcus and Mike profess their brotherly love for one another and their relief in surviving the gun fight, Marcus handcuffs Julie and Mike's hands together and hobbles away hoping for some much needed "quality time" with his wife so he could reconcile with her for his actions.
Cast[]
- Martin Lawrence as Marcus Burnett
- Will Smith as Mike Lowrey
- Téa Leoni as Julie Mott
- Tcheky Karyo as Fouchet
- Theresa Randle as Theresa Burnett
- Joe Pantoliano as Captain Conrad Howard
- Marg Helgenberger as Captain Alison Sinclair
- Nestor Serrano as Detective Sanchez
- Julio Oscar Mechoso as Detective Ruiz
- Saverio Guerra as Chet
- Anna Thompson as Francine
- Kevin Corrigan as Elliot
- Michael Imperioli as Joe "Jo-Jo"
- Vic Manni as Ferguson
- Frank John Hughes as Casper
- Ralph Gonzales as Kuni
- Marc Macaulay as Noah Trafficante
- Emmanuel Xuereb as Eddie Dominguez
- John Salley as Fletcher
- Karen Alexander as Maxine Logan
- Shaun Toub as Store Clerk
- Kim Coates as White Carjacker
- Michael 'Bear' Taliferro as Black Carjacker
- Lisa Boyle as Girl Decoy
- Ed Amatrudo as Ether Van Boss
Trivia[]
- Michael Bay makes his directorial debut in this film, which would ignite his career as a major Hollywood player.
- Mike Lowrey was originally supposed to be played by Arsenio Hall
- In the opening car-jacking sequence, the crew is reflected in the door of the Porsche as it is opened.
- When Mike throws the ether out of the car and makes it explode, a cable can be seen attached to the roof.
- This film is considered a phenomenal financial success, grossing over $141 million on a paltry (by Hollywood standards) budget of only $19 million.
- Bad Boys was nominated for a Grammy for best on-screen duo.
- A scene of the explosion appears at the end of the Season 4-5 intro of South Park.
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