The Big Picture

Collider’s Steve Weintraub hosts an exclusive Q&A with
Bad Boys: Ride or Die
directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah.
Following our advanced IMAX screening, Arbi and Fallah discuss Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s chemistry on set, the crucial role Smith took in the movie’s storyline, and how Eric Dane brought the menacing ’80s nostalgia.
The directing duo also talks about pushing the envelope with innovative action sequences and visual comedy in IMAX, working with Michael Bay, and ideas for
Bad Boys 5
.

“The Bad Boys of cinema,” Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Ms. Marvel), had no idea they would be returning to the franchise after Bad Boys for Life. “That’s why we called it Bad Boys for Life,” Fallah laughs, well aware of the missed title opportunity for the fourth installment, Bad Boys: Ride or Die. But when Will Smith and Martin Lawrence’s reprisal of their iconic detective duo, Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett, became a box office hit, and Sony almost immediately greenlit the next one, minutia like that was hardly a factor. Now, they’re back with a game-changing storyline and innovative ways to put audiences directly into the action, in IMAX, no less.

Collider recently teamed up with Sony and IMAX for an advanced IMAX screening, where Arbi and Fallah joined the audience after the movie to talk about reuniting with Smith and Lawrence for their explosive return. This time, Mike and Marcus are framed as fugitives, flipping the script on the beloved Bad Boys formula. Originally setting out to clear Captain Howard’s (Joe Pantoliano) name after he’s posthumously set up, Mike and Marcus end up having to clear their own, now running from criminals and Miami PD.

Having taken the reins of the franchise from “the godfather of Bad Boys,” Michael Bay, Arbi and Fallah dig into their process from getting the green light to post-production with Collider’s Steve Weintraub. We find out how big of a part Smith played in coming up with an original storyline, why Eric Dane (Grey’s Anatomy) is crucial in capturing that ’80s nostalgia of action paragons like Die Hard and Lethal Weapon, and what part Bay had in bringing the “Bayhem” to this new chapter. The directing duo also discusses mastering their “visual style of comedy,” working with producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Smith and Lawrence’s improv on set, and ideas for Bad Boys 5.

You can watch the full Q&A in the video above or you can read the transcript below.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die When their former captain is implicated in corruption, two Miami police officers have to work to clear his name.Release Date June 7, 2024 Director Adil El Arbi , Bilall Fallah Writers Chris Bremner , George Gallo Studio Sony Pictures Expand

Read Our ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ Review

COLLIDER: After the success of Bad Boys for Life, which was a big hit for Sony, how quickly were they on the phone with you saying, “We’d like to do another one?”

ADIL EL ARBI: Actually, the last day of production. On the last day of post-production, we were thinking about doing that little post-credit scene, and it was 50/50. We weren’t sure if we were going to put it in the movie or not, and then we basically flipped a coin, and we said, “Okay, let’s put the post-credit scene in it.” Because the test screenings were going so well, the tracking was pretty good, so at that moment, Sony was thinking maybe we might do another one. After the first week of release, they said, “Okay, let’s start thinking about Bad Boys 4.”

BILALL FALLAH: We really thought that Bad Boys for Life would be the last one. That’s why we called it Bad Boys for Life. [Laughs]

Will Smith Was the Fresh Ideas Prince of ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’
Image via Sony Pictures

After the success of the last one, when you guys realized, “Oh, we’re gonna do another one,” what is it like between the studio, Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, and Jerry Bruckheimer in terms of coming up with what that story is gonna be? What is it like behind the scenes?

ARBI: The only idea that we had or that we were playing around with was the fugitive idea. Even though we’ve seen that multiple times in movies before, we had never seen Mike and Marcus in that kind of situation. So we were pitching like, “It would be cool if they’re on the run, and they’ve gotta be hiding from the cops but also from criminals.” Then, during the years after Bad Boys for Life, Will came up with a lot of these ideas. He really wanted Marcus to go through that spiritual awakening and to have a “trading places” kind of idea. We thought it was pretty fresh and interesting because we didn’t want this movie to be a copy of the other movies.

One of the things that I notice is a lot of movie stars do not like to lose a fight on screen [coughs] Jason Statham. I’m a huge fan of Jason, but he doesn’t like to lose. One of the things I respect about Will in this is that he is willing to deal with real human issues, like having panic attacks and being human, while still being like a superhero, if you will. What is it like with Will? Was there any apprehension about that aspect of the character or is it one of those things where he embraces it?

FALLAH: With Will, it’s all about story for him, for Jerry Bruckheimer, for us. He always wanted to explore the human dimensions of it and really dig into it. For him, it was really about that friendship that Mike and Marcus have and really about the ride-or-die aspect. So, seeing Mike going through all these struggles and seeing Marcus going through this spiritual awakening, and he’s coming back with a lesson of the wisdom of life, that was really the story. For him, the story serves everything, whether it’s the dramatic scenes, the comedy, or the action.

What it’s like with Martin and Will on set? We know there’s gonna be action, but the reason you go to see a Bad Boys movie is the chemistry between the two of them and them yelling at each other and driving around and making each other crazy. So how much are all those scenes scripted, and how much is it them improvising in the moment?

ARBI: Mostly the improvisation happens during the rehearsals. You will have a basic scene, for instance, the Chinook scene where they’re sitting and they’re just waiting, but then when we do the rehearsal, Will starts to come up with some idea, like, “Wouldn’t it be funny if we have a funny dialogue at that moment?” Then they improvise their riff, and the writer starts typing whatever they’re improvising at the moment. Sometimes it’s super funny and it takes a whole day, so we gotta tell them to calm down and to focus because you gotta move on to the other scenes. But by the time you come on set, all of these scenes have already been rehearsed and written because there’s not a lot of time to really improvise that much. Usually, we would do four takes of what’s on the page, and then after that, we just go freestyle. Sometimes they are like happy accidents that come up.

‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’ Employs a “Visual Style of Comedy”

One of the things about both Bad Boys that you directed is you have some really cool camera shots. I want to specifically talk about the beginning of the movie when Martin Lawrence is in the 7-Eleven, and he’s looking at the hot dog, his face is pressed against the glass. It’s a great shot, and it’s funny. It makes the audience laugh. How much is that storyboarded? How are you guys finding the shots that you’re looking for when you’re on set?

FALLAH: We’ve worked with our DP since the first movie we made, his name is Robrecht Heyvaert, and we always ask him, “What can we do to make it more edgy or more unique or to find an original way into a scene?” For example, in the opening scene, we really wanted to make it really funky, and that’s why we use those wide lenses. Even if it’s one shot, but it’s in the watch, we had to make this thing from the watch and put the camera underneath it. So, we are pushing everything in a visual way to make it more unique and different than all the other movies that we’ve seen, and also different than what we already saw in the Bad Boys movie.

ARBI: It also enhances the comedy. We knew that by having Martin pressing against the glass with the hot dogs in the front, it would be a more comedic scene, or like the point of view from the watch or even the point of view of the gun. It’s a visual style of comedy that was very important because it’s an action movie, but it’s also a comedy.

FALLAH: The shot with the hot dog, they really made that hot dog. There’s more work than you think.

ARBI: Yeah, it’s a rig. We actually had a lot of trouble trying to get those hot dogs looking realistic but I think it worked out on IMAX, I hope. [Laughs]

Speaking of IMAX, this is my favorite way to watch a movie. I know that the premiere last night was in IMAX. What is it like as a filmmaker being in a theater watching your movie on a huge screen like IMAX?

ARBI: Epic shit!

FALLAH: I mean, look at that screen.

ARBI: That’s fucking dope!

FALLAH: You feel so small. That’s what cinema is about: feeling small.

ARBI: We never saw the movie like that. When I saw it for the first time on IMAX yesterday, I was like, “It’s pretty epic.” Now it really looks like cinema. It looks legit. Even the poster looks cool. It looks like a Christopher Nolan movie. It’s nice.

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What’s funny is you’re playing on the same screens as Nolan.

ARBI: We’re getting there.

FALLAH: We’re coming.

What are you actually most excited for people to see in IMAX on a movie screen with your movie?

ARBI: We tried to have a little bit of that homage to Michael Bay cinema, to Bayhem, but also to Jerry Bruckheimer films. We pushed the envelope in terms of action scenes with really cool, funky shots that have been inspired by video games, but also things that we found on social media. There’s a moment where Will is using a rig called the SnorriCam, which is a Steadicam that becomes a first-person shooter, and that’s never been used before in a Hollywood movie. We also used drones inside, in interior locations. Seeing the movie on an IMAX screen really gives the best experience, that immersive action experience.

I 100% agree.

FALLAH: Thank you, brother.

I love talking about the editing process because it’s where it all comes together. This was your second Bad Boys movie. How was editing on this one the same or different from the last one?

FALLAH: We really went for the word “flowmatic.” That’s something we’ve been saying. It needs to flow automatically. It needs to really go. That’s what we went for during the script phase, during the shoot, even the visual style, that it just flows. In the edit it was really important that it’s a ride. It starts, and it goes until the end, and it’s like, “Oh shit, the movie is already over? I wanna see it again.”

ARBI: We had the editor Dan Lebental, who edited the first Iron Man, so basically, the MCU started with him. We told him the whole time, “It’s gotta flow like the whole MCU. Even faster than that.” That’s how he got the pace really going.

FALLAH: Actually, there was a duo editor, Dan and Asaf [Eisenberg]. Really, everything was a duo — it was Adil and Bilall, Dan and Asaf, Mike and Marcus. [Laughs]

ARBI: Asaf comes from the music video world so you know he really cuts it like a music video.

Did you end up having a lot of deleted scenes or was it more shortening scenes, tightening scenes, or adjusting?

ARBI: It was tightening a lot of the scenes, but actually, sometimes it was also cutting some great action moments. We had a lot of Porsche shots. Really, the coolest Porsche shots you’ve ever seen in your life.

Drone-based?

ARBI: Yeah, a lot of drones. We did a lot of donuts on Brickell Avenue in Miami.

FALLAH: It’s where Marcus is driving insane and he’s showing Mike, “Yo, I can’t die!”

ARBI: It’s gonna be in the deleted scenes. But the movie was not flowmatic with that, so we had to cut it.

FALLAH: We also had this, we call it the Freaky Friday montage, where you see Marcus is getting like Mike, and you see Mike becoming Marcus, and it’s split screen. It’s really funny, but if you put it in a movie, it slows everything down, and you see how important editing is. Sometimes it’s better to tell a story one time and not two times, and we had double beats a lot.

I’m thinking about that scene with a split screen. That would have been cool to see.

FALLAH: It’ll be on the DVD.

ARBI: If there’s still DVDs. [Laughs] Or on YouTube

Michael Bay Brings the “Bayhem” in ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die” Cameo
“He was directing himself.”

In the last movie, you had a cameo from Michael Bay, and in this movie you have a cameo from Michael Bay, and of course, when I saw him, I laughed hysterically. Talk a little bit about bringing him back again for a cameo. Was he game to do it? How did it happen?

ARBI: We had a cameo of him at the wedding scene, but we cut it so we didn’t have Michael Bay anymore. Then, at the last second, we found an idea to put him back in, and that was in the Porsche scene. It shows the Porsche of the first Bad Boys, actually. That scene we’d like to be a nice homage. We had to go to his house and shoot his scene in the Porsche. He was directing himself.

FALLAH: On the way, he said, “Guys, can you get me a Fatburger, cheese, no onion?” [Laughs]

ARBI: We were on the way, so we brought him two of those, and he was really happy with his Fatburgers, so he really did a great scene for us.

FALLAH: But he’s the godfather of Bad Boys, and for us, it was extremely important that his blessing and our honor to him is in every Bad Boys movie we make.

ARBI: It’s a stamp of approval.

I am a huge fan of Bayhem, but it is the most Michael Bay thing for him to direct himself.

ARBI: Absolutely.

FALLAH: It’s really easy for us.

ARBI: It’s chill.

You obviously have to have action set pieces in a movie like this. Is it in the scripting? Talk a little bit about how you decided on the plane sequence or a plane going into a building sequence.

ARBI: In the script, you mostly have a base. It’s mostly the story beats that are important or the changing characters that are important in the script, and we fill it in together with our DP, but also with our stunt coordinator. We had a great stunt coordinator named Greg Rementer, who comes from the Chad Stahelski/David Leitch school, so he did the crazy sequences of Atomic Blonde and he did Bullet Train. So, together we tried to design every sequence so that they’re as memorable as possible. We knew that we wanted to do something in the air, whether it was an airplane or a helicopter or a Chinook, because we have never seen the Bad Boys in that kind of situation before, and that seemed fresh to us. We also wanted it to be very visceral and feel as real as possible, even though it is heightened reality. That took a lot of time to design and to shoot.

FALLAH: For us, it was really important that it’s very chaotic and you feel it and you’re in the Chinook or the plane, but at the same time that you understand what’s happening during all of the mayhem, and it’s sometimes really difficult.

The Bayhem.

FALLAH: Yeah, the Bayhem! Understand what’s going on in the Bayhem.

Eric Dane Brings This Menacing ’80s Nostalgia to ‘Bad Boys: Ride or Die’
Image via Sony Pictures

What I really like about the plane sequence is that Mike and Marcus are really outmatched by Eric Dane’s character, and you feel like, “Oh, they could lose this.” Talk a little bit about the importance of having an antagonist who can go toe to toe with them.

ARBI: Even though it’s an action comedy, the villains are always real, and that’s very important. That’s what’s present in the Bad Boys, but it’s also present in that tradition of the action comedies like Lethal Weapon or the Die Hard movies. The villain is menacing, the danger is real, and in this case, if the bad guy is really dangerous and could really defeat our protagonists, then you have more of that suspense aspect to it. That was something that was also very important for Will. He really wanted to have somebody that has credibility in a fight, that he could lose. Eric, without doing too much — he’s a super sweet guy in real life — he can be so menacing just by his look. For us, it was an homage to Victor Maitland’s character in the first Beverly Hills Cop. That’s that kind of vibe that we wanted, but also the physical aspect.

FALLAH: For us, it’s really important to go as practical as possible. When we do action, it’s not like a CGI fest, like all blue screen. We really try to do it as much as possible with the practical and enhance it with our extraordinary visual effects team, who really killed it. That is an important aspect for movies like this, where it’s grounded and real.

It also hopes that Eric Dane is, I believe, six-foot-something. He’s a big dude.

FALLAH: And has these blue eyes, you know?

ARBI: The fights between him and Will were pretty intense, pretty cool. A great villain.

I think you guys were shooting before the actors’ strike and then didn’t finish, and you had to shoot after the actors’ strike. What was it like for you? How much had you shot before the strike happened? How much did you do after the actors’ strike? I’m assuming during the strike, you were editing, figuring out what you needed, stuff like that.

ARBI: For the whole movie, we had 55 shooting days in total, and 45 of those days were in Atlanta. We shot all of those days, then we had a week’s hiatus before we went to Miami, but during that week, we had the actors’ strike. So for six months, we didn’t have any Miami shots, no exterior Miami shots for the whole movie.

FALLAH: It was really, really difficult because you have a whole movie, but the crucial scenes are missing, the beginning and middle and ending.

ARBI: So basically, two-thirds of the movie. We had a sequence, interior location, and then just the title card, “This happens,” and then back to an interior location. We had just two-thirds of the movie for six months to look at.

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I can’t imagine that. Did you edit everything prior to the strike ending?

ARBI: We had basically edited the whole movie with title cards. We had tested the movie, also, with the title cards. Sometimes people love the title cards better than the scenes we had, so we know, “Okay, this is gonna work.” [Laughs] But then, by the time we were in Miami, we knew really very precisely what we needed. It was a very efficient Miami shoot that we did after that.

Was it a studio decision for the title? How did the title get figured out? Was it almost something else?

ARBI: It could have been Bad Boys Forever.

FALLAH: Yeah, we were between Bad Boys Forever or Bad Boys: Ride or Die.

ARBI: I don’t know who decided in the end.

FALLAH: We loved Ride or Die.

ARBI: We thought Ride or Die was cooler than “forever” because they never really say “bad boys forever.”

FALLAH: Also, the movie really is about your ride or die.

ARBI: It’s really about that friendship and that bond. But in a couple of years, we might change like Star Wars changed to A New Hope. So maybe this one will change to Bad Boys 4 Life and the other one to Ride or Die.

If you end up doing one more, it could be Bad Boys Forever.

ARBI: Yeah, so we make it extra confusing.

I actually think Bad Boys Forever is good, but I think Bad Boys Forever would be if you’re doing the last one.

ARBI: The seventh or eighth one. [Laughs]

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence Are Like Magic Together

This is the fourth one. What do you think it is about the relationship and the characters in this world that have resonated with so many people that it’s been a franchise now for 20 years or more?

ARBI: I think it’s the duo of Mike and Marcus. I think that regardless of what time period it is, the chemistry between Will and Martin, you just see it on the screen. We don’t really even have to direct that, we just, as spectators, see it happen. It’s like magic. Whatever situation or world you put them in, it’s interesting for the audience and to watch, like, “Oh, we cannot wait to see what the next situation is gonna be with them.”

FALLAH: You could put Mike and Marcus in a sci-fi movie.

ARBI: Yeah, it’s still gonna work. It’s just Mike and Marcus, and that transcends the generations, and people also relate to that friendship. Everybody wants to have that kind of ride or die in their life.

FALLAH: That’s why it’s so personal for us. We feel like Mike and Marcus, like we are the Bad Boys of cinema, that friendship. You go through the good and the bad!

Was there any strong disagreement that you had making this one? Was there something where you each felt so strongly about the opposite thing, or were you always aligned?

ARBI: The difference in approach may be like, usually he’s gonna be good cop and I’m gonna be bad cop. We want the same goal, but we don’t really know how to achieve that goal or how to achieve that idea, and that’s a different way of battling. He’s gonna be the smooth operator and I’m gonna be super harsh.

FALLAH: I’m a smooth operator?

ARBI: Yeah, and usually he wins. He tells me, “Don’t go hardcore on this idea because we’re not gonna win.”

FALLAH: We have this thing where the best idea wins no matter what. That’s the golden rule for us.

When you are on set does one of you tend to spend more time with actors and one of you more time with camera, or does it go back and forth all the time?

FALLAH: It really goes back and forth. It’s really from day to day. Sometimes Adil’s with the actors, and I’m with the cameraman, and it can switch around. The biggest difference is that Adil is more on the script side and the development of our projects, and I’m more in the post-production and editing. But for the rest, it’s just…

ARBI: Total chaos.

FALLAH: Chaos, but a lot of fun. If you’re on our set, it’s a lot of fun.

You guys mentioned 55 days. That’s not a lot of time to make a movie like this. When you were looking at the schedule, what was the thing that you were most nervous about being able to pull off with the time and the budget that you had?

ARBI: It was basically all the action scenes. That’s the thing, action always takes a lot of time and a lot of preparation, especially in these kinds of things where we wanna do a lot of practical stuff and special effects and stuff with the real actors as much as possible. You cannot improvise, you cannot make last-minute changes and all that. But also, on the day itself, you have to rehearse so much that sometimes you feel like you’re not gonna make it. Everything that looks cool in the movie, on the day itself, we thought, “It’s not gonna happen.” Like the drone interior. It takes a whole day, and you’ve got the line producer that says, “You got 30 minutes and this is it.

You can only get one take or two takes to achieve that, and if something goes wrong, you don’t have it.” Same with the SnorriCam, because Will needed to operate the camera himself, and do the stunt and do the special effects and all that, the same thing — a whole day of training. He was trained for weeks, but that day, the day of the shoot, you don’t shoot in the morning or in the afternoon, you shoot, really, the last hour of the day. So, all of these scenes were really a fight. Same thing with the burning van. Turns out it’s difficult to have a van on fire driving with an engine. Discovered that on the day, like, “Oh, it’s not possible. So how are we gonna do that?” It’s stuff like that that’s always hard. Dialogue was chill. Dialogue is eyes closed and autopilot basically.

FALLAH: On this one, we also had second unit days, which helped us. Much love to the crew because they really pulled it off.

One of the things about Jerry Bruckheimer is he’s dealt with every possible situation. He’s a great producer. Can you talk about an example in either this movie or the last movie where Jerry showed you why he’s Jerry Bruckheimer?

ARBI: When you have to cut stuff, then he’s really efficient.

FALLAH: Jerry doesn’t say a lot, but when he says something, it has such a major impact. One of these things is definitely during the editing where he knows immediately, “This is bullshit, cut it out. Cut it out.” We’re like, “Yeah, but…” “Cut it.” “Okay.”

ARBI: He’s like, “Nobody fucking cares.” And also music.

FALLAH: Oh, he has a big influence on music.

ARBI: He always tries to have cool songs in the movie. You see that in all of his movies. He’s super efficient. When he says something, everybody listens to him. He doesn’t say a lot, but it’s an order. But he’s always right.

Is There Going to Be a ‘Bad Boys 5’?
“Bad Boys: Around the World”

Has Sony called you and said, “Do you have ideas for another one?” I’m basically wondering what you might be doing after this one.

ARBI: They didn’t ask specifically, but they always wanna make other movies with us. If there’s another Bad Boys, it should go international in other countries, like Europe, Asia, Africa.

FALLAH: Dubai. Around the world. Bad Boys: Around the World. [Laughs]

When did you finish editing this? When did you hit wrap, if you will, on post-production?

FALLAH: Not long ago.

ARBI: It was 20 days ago or something like that?

People don’t realize a lot of the movies that are coming out, they were taken away from directors rather than the directors saying, “I’m done.”

ARBI: Yeah. In this case, it was really, “This is it.” The very last things, if we had not stopped, then all the cinemas would be too late. You could not see the movie here on IMAX. So, it was really at the very last moment, 20 days ago or something.

FALLAH: I just wanna add, also, we all were packed together making this movie. The studio — shoutout to Tom Rothman — really was so passionate about this project. Will, us, Jerry, we were all together ending this movie. There’s a lot you wanna change, but we were all like, “It’s time to let it go. Let the baby go.”

This one doesn’t have a post-credit scene. Was there any debate about putting one in?

ARBI: Well, maybe in home entertainment there might be one.

FALLAH: Yeah, some surprises.

ARBI: The thing is that because it was so tight there was the last thing that we didn’t have time to test, and then the studio said, “Let’s just put it in the home entertainment, and people will discover it then.”

Image via Sony

Do you guys know what you’re gonna be directing next? Are you working on scripts? What’s coming up for you?

ARBI: We’re going back to Belgium to do a Belgian movie about the drug trafficking in Antwerp, which is a sequel to a previous movie we did, also in Belgium. Then we just wait for what happens with this one, and hopefully, Mashallah, it becomes a success and then we can come back to Hollywood. We’ll be waiting for an email for if we’re allowed to come back. [Laughs]

FALLAH: We’re at your service.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die is in theaters now. Click the link below for showtimes.

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