Bad Boys II (2003)

Notable Action Sequence: Haitian Heist

Duration: 00:14:52

Act: 1st

Action Scenarios:

Escape

Fall

Fight

Heist

Pursuit

Rescue

Speed

Description: The Haitian heist sequence is among the longest action sequences appearing in the first act of a film. At close to a 15-minute running time, the sequence takes up more than 37% of the first act, creating an unusual 2-3-4-1 action structure in which over 61% of the total action in the film is placed within its first 40 minutes. In terms of action scenarios, the sequence primarily consists of an attempted heist that segues into an extended and highly destructive pursuit.

The sequence pivots on just three plot points. DEA Special Agent Syd Burnett (Marcus Burnett’s sister and Mike Lowrey’s love interest) works undercover as a money launderer. The first plot point occurs when members of a Haitian criminal gang ambush Syd and her driver, intent on stealing the laundered money she is conveying. They shoot Syd’s driver and try to enter the SUV, but Syd fires back at them and reverses with her hand on the accelerator, with two other gang members hanging onto the vehicle [Figure 1]. As Syd reverses, she manages to knock off one of the gang members when passing a parked car. Syd then heads towards the parkade exit, with a gang member still hanging on and Haitians pursuing in their muscle cars, effectively vertically combining the heist scenario with a multi-vehicle pursuit. Syd attempts to escape from them by speeding down the parkade ramp with a gang member still holding onto the door of the SUV. While fired upon by other gang members, Syd directs the SUV past a pillar, causing the gang member and car door to fall onto a parking booth below. Syd smashes through the barrier, exiting the parkade at speed with Haitians and her fellow DEA agents in pursuit. When Syd speeds past, Marcus recognizes her, motivating Marcus and Mike to jump into their Ferrari in an effort to rescue her from her pursuers. The pursuit enters a busy street, and Mike speeds along a pedestrian sidewalk to bypass the traffic and then winds his way through the pursuing vehicles as gang members continue to fire on Syd’s SUV.

After the multiple factions of the pursuit fire at each other while traveling at speed, Syd’s car crashes into another vehicle at an intersection. Immediately after, the pursuing vehicle rear-ends her, causing a pile-up that temporarily traps Syd and the Haitians, marking the second plot turn of the sequence [Figure 2]. With the pursuit momentarily halted, a shootout erupts as the Haitians exchange gunfire with DEA agents and the police. Mike and Marcus accelerate in their Ferrari towards the pile-up, with police vehicles following closely behind. The Haitians, now outside their vehicles, aim their weapons at the approaching Ferrari, but Mike executed a U-turn to return fire with his submachine gun. As the shootout continues, Syd attempts to escape by ramming her SUV through the wreckage and eventually breaks free, enacting the third plot turn as gang members commandeer an auto transport trailer to pursue her. Simultaneously, Mike and Marcus maneuver their Ferrari from the pileup to protect Syd from the pursuing Haitians. Syd leads the pursuit onto the MacArthur Causeway, with the gang members on the auto transport trailer continuing their chase [Figure 3]. The Haitians on the truck fire at Syd’s SUV, and when Mike accelerates his Ferrari, weaving through traffic to intercept them, they also direct their gunfire at the Ferrari. The gang member driving the auto transport trailer then smashes into the vehicles obstructing their path, creating obstacles for Mike and the pursuing police as well. The freeway obstacles escalate more dangerously when the Haitians start releasing the vehicles from the transport trailer onto the freeway, effectively weaponizing the falling cars [Figure 4]. This tactic creates destructive automotive mayhem on the causeway, culminating in a chaotic scene where a boat becomes unhitched from a pickup truck, spinning wildly across the freeway and crashing into commuters and a pursuing police car, which exploded on impact.

The sequence ends abruptly and anticlimactically when Syd comes to a stop and the gang members abscond by abandoning the auto transport trailer, with the audio track affecting action closure through the sounds of screeching tires and decelerating vehicles.