SPOILERS for Bad Boys for Life.

Bad Boys for Life features an unexpected cameo by Michael Bay - here’s why he returned for the movie. Perhaps the most influential action director of the last couple decades, Bay decided to pursue a career in film after serving as an intern on Raiders of the Lost Ark when he was fifteen. He went on to direct several popular commercials and music videos in the late ’80s and early ’90s, working with artists like Styx, Meat Loaf, and Tina Turner. Eventually, thanks to his music videos, producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson decided to hire Bay to make his feature debut on the movie Bad Boys.

A buddy cop action-comedy starring Will Smith (coming off his role in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) and Martin Lawrence (then an up and coming comedian), Bad Boys opened in 1995 and was an unexpected hit, grossing more than seven times its $19 million budget at the box office. Following its success, Smith, Bay, and Lawrence all became very high in demand and weren’t available to reunite for the sequel, Bad Boys II, until 2003. It’s taken even longer (seventeen years, in fact) for the third film, Bad Boys for Life, to come together, with Bay stepping away as the franchise’s director in-between the sequels.

However, as it turns out, Bay still found time to make a small appearance in Bad Boys for Life. The director shows up in the movie’s first act as a nameless MC at the wedding for Miami detective Marcus Burnett’s (Lawrence) daughter and introduces Marcus’ partner Mike Lowrey (Smith) to the crowd, about six months after an assassination attempt nearly cost Mike his life. It’s not actually clear how Marcus and Mike know Bay’s character beyond that, but anyone familiar with his history will understand this is Bay’s way of tipping his hat to the actors and franchise that gave him his career in the first place.

Bay had expressed an interested in directing Bad Boys 3 as far back as 2008, but indicated it might not be possible due to the cost. At the time, he and Smith were commanding some of the highest salaries in Hollywood, and the budget for Bad Boys II had already ballooned to $130 million because of that. The filmmaker had also directed the first Transformers movie by that point and ended up spending much of the next ten years working on the big-budget franchise. Even by the time pre-production on Bad Boys for Life started really gearing up in 2018, Bay was still too busy, having recently committed to helming Netflix’s $150 million action-thriller 6 Underground.

In a way, though, it seems Bay not returning to direct Bad Boys for Life was a blessing to the film. The sequel has since earned far and away the best reviews for any Bad Boys movie to date, with critics praising it as a fun return that actually allows the franchise to grow and mature with its leads (who are both in their fifties now). In addition, this helped to keep the sequel’s budget down to a more manageable $90 million, which Sony is no doubt happy about. All the same, it’s clear Bay is appreciative of Bad Boys and what it did for him professionally, as evidenced by his cameo in the latest installment.

  • Bad Boys 3 Release Date: 2020-01-17