Well, since we’ve looked at Bad Boys I, let’s take a look at its’ sequel, Bad Boys II and see the 30 things you never noticed in the sequel:
30. Scenes from the movie were filmed at the “Bird” house in Delray Beach, Florida. The mansion stood nearly completed and vacant for years before it was purchased. The new owner advertised in Variety for a movie company to use the mansion in a movie and blow it up. By the end of filming, only the swimming pool was left.
29. While this movie was shooting on one side of Cape Florida State Park on Key Biscayne, 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) was filming on the other side of the park.
28. Michael Bay comments on the DVD that they got through the whole car chase without damaging the Ferrari (in spite of what we saw on film for laughs). He complains that Martin Lawrence struck a concrete barrier with the passenger door in a following scene (an outtake).
27. When Dennis Greene, who played Reggie, showed up for shooting, he was told by Martin Lawrence’s bouncer that he mustn’t look into Lawrence’s eyes or talk to him, and Lawrence himself was subsequently nasty to him. It was all a ploy arranged by Director Michael Bay who wanted the boy to be genuinely scared of Lawrence. Greene also wasn’t told about the gun that he would be threatened with.
26. During the freeway chase scene, Michael Bay attached cameras to a couple of stunt cars, and asked the drivers to crash into the falling cars, in order to capture never-before-seen shots.
25. In return for illegally tapping into a phone line, Fletcher asks for floor seats to the Miami Heat vs. the Los Angeles Lakers game. John Salley is a retired professional basketball player, who has played for both teams.
24. Marcus’ dog, “Mason” actually belongs to Michael Bay. Martin Lawrence was uncomfortable acting around the dog during filming, due to the dog’s large size.
23. About three days before filming, Michael Bay suggested that Jordi Mollà play Tapia with a Cuban accent, so Cuban-born Yul Vazquez (Reyes) was taped reading all of Jordi Molla’s lines in Spanish and English. The character was built, in about two days.
22. When Marcus shows his badge to the exterminators in order to commandeer some of their equipment so they can get into Tapia’s mother’s house, if you freeze the picture you can read Marcus’ badge clearly. He is a Lieutenant with the Miami Police Department. In the original Bad Boys (1995), when Marcus holds his badge up to the peephole for Julie to look at, you can see it says “Sergeant”, so clearly, in the intervening eight years, Marcus was promoted.
21. The line in which Johnny Tapia says to Alexei “Listen here you Russian punk, I, me, Johnny Tapia will sever your head off” was taken from a real FBI audio surveillance recording of American Mobster John Gotti, in which Gotti stated “You tell this punk, I, me, John Gotti will sever your motherfucking head off.”
20. Johnny Tapia’s Miami mansion is actually an enormous estate known as “Vizcaya”. It was built by industrialist James Deering in the early twentieth century as his “winter home”. The estate is now a public museum and its gardens are a popular spot for weddings.
19. This was the last R-rated film to be directed by Michael Bay until Pain & Gain (2013), and the last to be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, as well as the last film that both of them worked on together.
18. Michael Bay claimed that one of the reasons why he wanted to make this film R-rated, was that he was tired of having to work within the confines of the PG-13 rating.
17. Two different Ferraris were used to make this film, the two models have very little external differences. The car you see most often is the more powerful 575M Maranello, however, Michael Bay’s 550 Maranello was used for really daring stunt work.
16. The MacArthur Causeway, the main route to South Beach in Miami, was shut down for several days for filming. This caused literally thousands of people to have to go several miles out of their way to get to and from Miami Beach in early August 2002.
15. The building used for the Spanish Palms Mortuary, is actually the milk plant for McArthur Dairy. They added a fake façade that matches the architecture, through which to crash the ambulance.
14. In a 2013 conversation with film critic David Denby at the Hammer Museum of Art in Los Angeles, Screenwriter Ron Shelton confessed that when asked by Jerry Bruckheimer to work on the script, he had not seen Bad Boys (1995) and quickly fast forwarded through a Blockbuster rental of the film before his interview. It also stated that to that day, he has never seen Bad Boys II (2003).
13. Mark Mancina was supposed to score the film along with Trevor Rabin, but ended up leaving the project due to “creative differences.” One of the reasons that original composer Mark Mancina did not return, is that Michael Bay instructed him to only come up with certain “action beats” for the film, and not to compose melodic music, like he had with the original. Unhappy with this decision, Mancina left the project, and was replaced by regular Jerry Bruckheimer collaborator Trevor Rabin.
12. The car that Will Smith is driving after the mortuary scene is a 2003 Buick Blackhawk concept car.
11. Henry Rollins has, in his spoken word performances, recounted the circumstances under which he received his part in this film. He showed up for an audition for Armageddon (1998) unkempt, with a single page torn out of the script and in a really pissed-off mood. He proceeded to give a lousy audition after being ignored by Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer. He didn’t get the part. However upon auditioning for Bad Boys II (2003), he threw caution to the wind and ended up landing the part almost by accident.
10. While filming a car stunt on the MacArthur Causeway in Miami, a stunt car went out of control and ran into a couple of street light poles.
9. Mike uses the same line near the end of both movies with just a little change. First, “that’s how you’re supposed to drive, from now on, that’s how you drive!” Second “that’s how you’re supposed to shoot, from now on, that’s how you shoot!”
8. The producers had to receive emergency relief of the manatee protection laws from Florida Governor Jeb Bush to hold the high-speed boat chase in the Miami River.
7. During the filming of the scenes at Cape Florida State Park the movie crew fenced off one of the main parking lots with a chain-link fence for trailers for Will Smith and Martin Lawrence and a basketball court was erected in their compound.
6. Michael Bay shut down production for a while, because he had to settle a legal matter with his financial advisors.
5. In an early version of the script, there was a part for English singer and actor Jimmy Nail.
4. Dan Marino’s cameo was written by Ron Shelton, who primarily works on sports films blended with romantic comedy and drama.
3. According to the yearbook, through which Mike Lowrey flips, his extra-curricular activities included the chess club and the world geometry society.
2. Early previews for the movie credited John Lee Hancock as a screenwriter.
and the #1 thing you never noticed in Bad Boys II is…
At one point, Tom Dey was attached to direct…and Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris turned down an offer to direct the film.
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