During the spectacular destruction of Tapia’s mansion there were ten cameras rolling, catching every possible angle of the conflagration.
One of the most uncomfortable locations for the cast and crew was Oleta State Park where the production spent ten nights filming Marcus and Mike crashing a Ku Klux Klan convocation. Even at night, the temperatures soared in the 90s, with humidity to match. The action took place in and around a swampy bog allowing the local insect population a feeding frenzy. Multiple cameras were placed in boats and on floating docks to capture the breadth of the scene.
The five-month production culminated with a company move from Miami to San Juan, Puerto Rico for one of the film’s most dangerous sequences. The stunt called for a team of drivers to navigate the narrow, winding streets of a shantytown carved out of the uncultivated, rocky terrain of a steep hillside by the film’s talented art department. The stunt drivers of a Hummer and another truck relied on spotters wearing NASCAR headsets to direct them down the unwieldy roads. The sequence became even more difficult due to inclement weather, which shut down production for more than a day.
"The drivers were basically blind once they started the drive through the shanties," explains Bay. "They couldn’t see so they had to trust the man spotting them. At one point the spotters lost them in the mix and by accident the cars switched, so they got the wrong instructions but when we saw it on tape, it looked great. We actually shot that scene in a day and a half. It was a movie miracle."
Union portrays the beautiful D.E.A. agent, Syd Burnett. When the first Bad Boys was released, she was a college coed. "I thought the shot of Will running down the street with his shirt open, bare-chested, was quite nice," she says with a wink. "It was the first time people saw him as a sex symbol." Smith also remembers the effect that scene had. "The first time I ever experienced women reacting to me that way, was when I was sitting in the back of a theatre listening to the audience and I was stunned when I heard a girl saying, ‘Um hmm, honey -- You go, Will -- Go ahead, run!’ It was weird because I was always the goofy, comedian. Michael Bay made me sexy," he laughs.
When Syd and Mike begin dating, they develop more than a casual relationship. Mike realizes he can’t fool around with this particular girl and perhaps he is finally ready to settle down. "Marcus thinks Syd works behind a desk at the D.A.’s office, and is just vacationing in Miami," explains Union. "But as an undercover agent with the D.E.A., she’s discovered this ring of ecstasy smugglers. She’s trying to earn her stripes but gets in way over her head."
Movie Database
In Theaters
