Bad Boys: Ride or Die

Directed by

Adil El Arbi
Bilall Fallah

Produced by

Jerry Bruckheimer
Will Smith
Doug Belgrad
Chad Oman
Martin Lawrence

Barry H. Waldman
James Lassiter
Mike Stenson
Tasha Smith
Paola Nunez
Bianca Bethune
Dennis Greene
Jon Mone
Melanie Liburd
Chris Bremner
John K. Campbell
Nafessa Williams
Joseph Antonio Cartagena
Mendeecees Harris
Yandy Smith-Harris

Screenplay by

Chris Bremner
Will Beall

Based on

Characters by George Gallo

Starring

Will Smith
Martin Lawrence
Vanessa Hudgens
Alexander Ludwig
Paola Nuñez
Eric Dane
Ioan Gruffudd
Jacob Scipio
Melanie Liburd
Tasha Smith
Rhea Seehorn
Tiffany Haddish
Joe Pantoliano
Dennis Greene
Bianca Bethune

Music by

Lorne Balfe

Production companies

Jerry Bruckheimer Films
Westbrook Studios

Distributed by

Sony Pictures Releasing

Release date

June 7, 2024

Country

United States

Language

English

Budget

$100 million

Box office

$337,509,121

Chronology

Preceded by

Bad Boys for Life

Bad Boys: Ride or Die (also known as Bad Boys 4) is the fourth installment in the Bad Boys series. Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Joe Pantoliano, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Paola Núñez, Jacob Scipio, and DJ Khaled reprise their roles from the previous film with Tasha Smith taking over the role of Theresa Burnett from Theresa Randle, who previously played the character in the last three films. New cast members include Eric Dane, Ioan Gruffudd, Rhea Seehorn, Melanie Liburd and Tiffany Haddish. Chris Bremner wrote the screenplay for the film.

Plot Summary[]

Four years after the death of Isabel Aretas, Detective Mike Lowrey marries his physical therapist, Christine. At the wedding, his partner Detective Marcus Burnett suffers a near-fatal heart attack and collapses. As his friends and family call for help, Marcus sees himself by a beach where the spirit of Captain Conrad Howard is standing by a tree. He approaches Marcus and tells him it’s not his time.

Marcus wakes up in the hospital after a couple weeks, now having a newfound appreciation for life and an inflated sense of confidence over his mortality. He returns home to Mike, Christine, and the rest of his family all celebrating his return, but Marcus is annoyed to find that his wife Theresa got rid of all his snacks to start putting him on a healthy diet.

Later Mike and Marcus, delve into an internal investigation within the Miami Police Department following accusations that the late Captain Howard, was tied to drug cartels. Despite Howard's posthumous tarnishing, Mike and Marcus are determined to prove his innocence with the help of Captain Rita Secada and Rita's new boyfriend mayoral candidate Adam Lockwood.

When the conspirators failed to access Howard's computer, a video is sent to Mike and Marcus from Howard warning them of corruption within the department. Howard states he knows he was framed for a fall that goes back twenty years. He tells the two the follow the "coke bottle giant" mentioning their former hacker Fletcher who is now an artist that runs a nightclub which was a former stash house for the Haitian Zoe Pound gang back in 2003.

Mike and Marcus go to Fletcher's club to question him, where he states that he knows they came on behalf of Howard. But before he would reveal information to them he is shot in the head and killed, Marcus spots one of the conspirators sneaking out of the club and identifies him as Fletcher's killer. A shootout ensues between Mike and Marcus and the conspirators.

During the gunfight, Mike experiences a panic attack. The henchman escape out of the club leading to a chase through traffic on a highway where Mike again has a panic attack but just before the conspirators would run him over, Marcus saves Mike by pulling him out of the way.

With a QR code unlocked from behind the art wall of the club it reveals another video from Howard. In it he explains in further detail that he was working a cartel case and kept Mike and Marcus off of it because nine years ago he pulled two other detectives Sanchez and Ruiz out of retirement and assigned them to it. A week later, they were killed in a car accident. Howard warns the guys that the cartel have people working with the police and FBI.

Their hunt for the truth leads them to Mike's son, Armando Aretas, who is incarcerated for the murder of Captain Howard. Armando claims that Howard was not corrupt but knew who was, claiming that the reason Howard was killed was because he was close to bringing down the organization. He offers to help identify the person responsible for his murder. As they transport Armando to Miami, the conspirators sneak on board and kill the pilot and other escorts, leading to a helicopter crash and leaving Mike, Marcus and Armando as fugitives which the conspirators decide to put a bounty on them, hunted by both law enforcement and criminal gangs. Howard's daughter U.S. Marshal Judy Howard swears vengeance on Armando for killing her father.

With the assistance of the AMMO team members Dorn and Kelly, who are revealed to be dating, Mike and Marcus uncover the truth behind the murder and a setup involving a former Army Ranger turned DEA officer named James McGrath. McGrath, in cahoots with Lockwood, orchestrates the kidnapping of Christine and Callie, Judy's daughter. McGrath sends his men to get Marcus family but his son-in-law Reggie manages to keep them safe using his military combat skills. Rita, Dorn and Kelly apprehend Lockwood.

Using Lockwood as bait, Mike, Marcus, and Armando, along with Rita and AMMO, engage in a fierce gunfight with McGrath's men at a former alligator-themed amusement park to rescue the hostages, with Lockwood being mauled to death by an alligator. Mike finds and confronts McGrath, who holds both Christine and Marcus hostage at gunpoint. McGrath presents Mike with an ultimatum: either Christine or Marcus must die. Mike, alluding to Marcus's newfound belief that he "cannot die", tells McGrath that one of them cannot die before shooting Marcus in his bulletproof vest. The chaos allows Christine and Marcus to break free before Mike shoots McGrath multiple times, killing him.

Amidst the chaos, Judy finds Armando and prepares to take him into custody. With Armando being held at gunpoint, Callie appears and tells her mother that he saved her life. Grateful for his heroic act, Judy shows mercy to him and allows him to escape. After they and Captain Howard are cleared of all charges (posthumously in Howard's case), Mike and Marcus celebrate by cooking food on a public grill, only to be shown up by Reggie, finally earning the respect of both Mike and Marcus.

In a post-credits scene, the whole movie rewinds to the year 305 BC, alluding to one of Marcus' delirious ramblings to Mike from earlier in the film. Marcus is bringing along a donkey through the wilderness while berating it. The donkey then pushes Marcus down, and Mike's voice can be heard interspersed with the donkey's grunts, laughing and telling off Marcus.