Locations in Florida included the world-renowned Viscaya Estate (museum and gardens) and the Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart in Coconut Grove, the Versace mansion in Miami Beach, Oleta State Park in North Miami Beach, the Biscayne Shopping Plaza, McArthur Dairy, Van Orsdel Funeral Home, Greenwich Studios and a variety of streets, thoroughfares and intersections in downtown Miami.
The cast and crew traveled north to beautiful Del Ray Beach to shoot Tapia’s mansion on Route #1. After spending four months in Florida, the film company wrapped principal photography with a quick trip to San Juan, Puerto Rico for the final week of production. One of the film’s more intricate car chases through the streets of a small pueblo were shot in a fictitious town fabricated by the talented team of builders in the construction department. The company also used Sony’s Stage #27 for various pickup shots as well as filming scenes taking place at the Gitmo Marine Base among the 700 acres of breathtaking vistas of Big Sky Ranch in Simi Valley, California.
"I remember looking through the lens," recalls Bay who also acted as the camera operator on the first film, "and Will was jumping over a car. I said, ‘the guy looks like a movie star.’ But what did I know? Another sequence that’s sort of become my signature shot is the spiral we did around Will and Martin as they rise up, like the buildings that were all around us in the background. Everyone thought I was crazy and we didn’t have time to do the shot, but I kept saying, ‘trust me. This is the trailer shot.’ And it was."
"I create a lot of action in my head when I search for locations," Bay says. "I like to create action that’s interesting to me personally. I write all of my own action scenes. I approach action by considering what I haven't done before, and thinking about how I can twist things to make them more exciting. Creating action is like a painting. I scout locations for ideas and take thousands of photos and start to conceive from there. Frequently, I develop an idea based on what the location itself offers."
In Bad Boys II, Bay became intrigued by Miami’s MacArthur Causeway, which along with the Julia Tuttle Bridge and the Venetian Causeway, links the City of Miami with the peninsula known as the City of Miami Beach.
For three days last summer, the production shut down all eastbound lanes of the MacArthur Causeway from Biscayne Boulevard to Fountain Street (Palm and Hibiscus Islands) in order to film the sequence. The production posted variable message signs to help direct all drivers (passenger vehicles as well as commercial autos and trucks) to follow I-195. Resident traffic was rerouted to the Venetian Causeway. During the closure, the production company paid for all tolls for vehicles traveling on the Causeway. Law enforcement from the City of Miami, Miami Beach and Metro Dade, as well as the Florida Highway Patrol, was on hand to assist with traffic flow, and Marine Patrol controlled the waterways. The production worked with the Florida Department of Transportation to minimize any inconvenience.
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