Conrad Howard

Conrad Howard is the overarching protagonist of the Bad Boys franchise. He is the former police captain that detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett reported to.

History[]

Bad Boys[]

In 1995 after $100 million dollars of heroin was stolen from the evidence vault of the Miami Police Station, Howard calls Mike and Marcus along with Sanchez and Ruiz to the case. Captain Alison Sinclair of the Internal Affairs Division believe that the robbery was an inside job involving corrupt officers and warns the Narcotics Division that they will be shut down if the heroin isn't recovered in 72 hours.

Later on after the deaths of Eddie Dominguez and Maxine Logan, Marcus calls an informant at the station to look for Dominguez's file. After the caller insults him, Marcus hangs up while talking to his wife Theresa on the phone. She hangs up as well after accusing him of insulting her too. It is then that Julie Mott who witnessed Max and Dominguez's murders calls the station to look for Mike as she will only trust and deal with Mike as he was Max's ex boyfriend. Captain Howard forces Marcus to impersonate Mike in order to get Julie to cooperate.

In the upstairs gym where Howard is playing basketball he forces Mike and Marcus to switch lives in Julie's presence so they could get her to identify the killers of Max and to find out where the drug deal is going to take place. Since Julie mention that it was going to be in four days. Howard tells him that they will have four days to close the case much to Marcus' anger as he would rather be with his family instead of impersonating Mike fearing that his wife will be mad with him. Howard tells him if he doesn't like his job he can quit.

Later on, Sinclair confronts Captain Howard about the phone calls from Club Hell while Sanchez and Ruiz interrogate one of Fouchet's henchman after catching him spying on Marcus's house. He revealed that he is just an errand boy working for Fouchet.

After Julie is kidnapped, Marcus and Mike return to the station revealing to Captain Howard that they know the location of the drugs but their only witness was abducted by surprise. Fouchet calls Mike and reveals to him that he killed his chemist for luring the police to their hideout and warns them that if they interrupt his drug deal he will kill Julie. Sinclair reassigns all members of the narcotics division, effectively shutting them down. Captain Howard delays the order by giving Marcus and Mike a chance to rescue Julie and recover the drugs giving them two hours to find them. After accessing Dominguez's police database profile it reveals that he had a former relationship with Francine. They interrogate Francine who reveals to them that on new years eve she has given Fouchet and Dominguez narcotics information after they threatened to put nude pictures of her on the bulletin board of a teacher's classroom at her kids school. She gives Marcus and Mike the thieves phone number so they would track them down leading to the climax at the Opa Locka Executive Airport where they kill Fouchet's henchman, rescue Julie and in a confrontation after a car chase Mike kills Fouchet avenging Max's death.

Bad Boys II[]

In 2003, when Marcus and Mike arrive at the station they explain to Captain Howard about their investigation into the ecstasy drug case. Their spying on the Zoe Pound haitian gang and their rescue of Syd when her drug drop of her undercover operation was interrupted. Captain Howard demands that Marcus and Mike find the drug kingpin and do whatever it takes to protect his city.

After Mike and Marcus chase a mortuary van transporting dead corpses to medical research resulting in the driver being killed by Mike. Howard arrives at the crime scene upset with Mike and Marcus for leaving corpses on the street. When Mike bring up how Johnny Tapia had the perfect cover for smuggling drugs and money in bodies, Howard refuses a warrant to go to the mortuary bringing up how everytime they arrest Tapia he sues them and wins demanding that they end everything or the officials will fire them and disband the TNT.

After Marcus and Mike find and videotape evidence at the Mortuary, they head to Captain Howard's home to show him the footage which authorizes Howard to issue a warrant to raid Tapia's mansion, the Mortuary and Miami Harbor.

The next day, Howard gathers the TNT to hit up the locations allowing Marcus and Mike to raid Tapia's Mortuary and Vargas and Reyes raiding the mansion. Tapia later escapes from his mansion and escapes with Syd to Cuba after discovering her identity as a DEA agent. He calls Marcus and demands the return of his drug money in 48 hours in exchange for Syd's life. This leads to Marcus and Mike traveling to Cuba with their team, Syd's DEA co-workers and Howard's contacts from the CIA to prepare a plan to rescue Syd from Tapia's compound. Vargas reveals to Marcus that his brother Tito lives in Cuba which Marcus and Mike get help from. At the end of the film they rescue Syd and after a chase to U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Marcus kills Tapia, saving Mike who was held at gunpoint by the latter.

Bad Boys for Life[]

In 2020, Conrad and several policemen throw a night party in a bar to celebrate the birth of Marcus' grandson. The captain says to Marcus "Come, Marcus, come closer. We are here to celebrate and to toast one of ours", they all agree and Conrad says "And I sincerely hope that one day your namesake will follow in the footsteps of his grandfather's vegetable garden. ", everyone laughs and Conrad continues saying" protecting and serving our beautiful city "and Conrad makes a toast to Marcus and everyone raises their bottles and glasses, Mike joins Conrad saying" Because the name of Marcus Burnett instills fear in the hearts and in the minds of assholes for years to come "and they all drink. Marcus thanks everyone, says that he and Mike have been protecting the city for 25 years but also includes that they also protect the city and thanks everyone again, after saying that everyone starts cheering for Marcus. When the party is over, Conrad sees Mike and Marcus on the street getting ready for a race and says "There is nothing sadder than two old men reliving the past", Mike tells Marcus not to stretch and asks the captain about Who you bet on and the captain says "I bet a hundred dollars for a torn ligament." To make it more interesting, Mike and Marcus decide to make a bet: if Marcus wins, he and Mike will retire and if Mike wins, they will both remain cops, remain "bad boys for life." Conrad tells them "These" bad boys "don't have any boys anymore", Mike and Marcus tell him to prepare an ambulance for the other and Conrad decides to be the referee and when he says "now", Mike and Marcus start running, but during the race, Armando Aretas arrives riding a motorcycle and shoots Mike without stopping. Marcus, Rita, and the other cops go to help Mike, while Captain Howard calls the hospital for help.

During Mike's convalescence, Conrad assigns the investigation of Mike's attempted murder to Rita Secada, Mike's ex-girlfriend, and the Advanced Miami Metro Operations (AMMO). A few days later, Rita takes Conrad to the AMMO facilities to inform him of everything they have discovered. When they arrive, Rita says "Guys, let's show the captain what we have on the case. Kelly, tell us about the ballistics," she reports the type of bullets Mike was shot with, the guns that fire those bullets. It also says that those were custom made for the weapon. Rita says "I want to know who made them." While they investigate, Conrad leaves saying "Mike is like a son to me. Take that bastard", Rita agrees with Conrad saying that for her it is also personal and that they must put all the meat on the grill, and they all agree with their boss. After other murders, Conrad meets with the AMMO to investigate if there is any connection between the victims and Mike.

Death[]

Mike found Conrad attending his granddaughter's basketball game. While there, Conrad attempted to convince Mike into retirement, but ultimately failed. They were discussing Mike joining Conrad's family for dinner as they returned to their vehicles. When Conrad suggested they order Pizza, the suggestion ended up being his last words as Armando shot him in the neck. Mike tried to keep pressure on his neck while calling for an ambulance, but Conrad didn't survive. Later a funeral was held for him.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die[]

When Captain Howard is framed for corruption by being tied to drug cartels, Mike and Marcus arrive at the station to confront the higher ups and police officials who believe that the late Howard was crooked. Despite the corruption, Mike and Marcus are determined to prove his innocence with help from Captain Rita Secada and Rita's boyfriend Mayoral candidate Adam Lockwood. Howard's daughter Judy Howard a U.S. Marshal vows to kill Armando to get justice for her father's death.

Mike and Marcus later visit Armando in his prison cell and find out that Howard was targeted after his previous victims were eliminated due to the work he had against the cartels. He doesn’t remember the conspirator's name but remembers his face since he worked with Armando's late mother Isabel Aretas. So he can identify him. This leads Marcus to regret Isabel's death as they could've use her knowledge to clear Howard's name.

During the case, video messages from Howard are sent to Mike and Marcus when the conspirators try to get into Howard's account. In the first one he states he knows that he is being set up to take the fall for something going back over 20 years. Howard tells the two to follow the “coke bottle giant”, mentioning their former hacker colleague Fletcher who is now running a nightclub that was a former stash house for the Haitian Zoe Pound gang since 2003.

After Fletcher is killed by the conspirators, Mike and Marcus scan a QR code from behind the wall art of the club which reveals a second 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 he pulled Ruiz and Sanchez out of retirement to put them on it and they were killed in a car accident a week later. Likely their deaths were orchestrated by the cartel. Howard warns the guys that the cartel have people working with the police and FBI.

The conspirators later frame Mike, Marcus and Armando after sneaking on board a helicopter to transport Armando to Miami and faking a distress signal for the attack. Mike, Marcus and Armando land the helicopter after surviving the attack but are branded as fugitives with the conspirators placing a bounty on all three of them.

After the trio escape from gangsters who want to collect the bounty. They get help from AMMO members Dorn and Kelly who are now dating. The couple go through evidence to help Armando identify the conspirator who is is revealed to be James McGrath a former DEA agent turned Army officer who became corrupted after he was captured by the cartel and he gave up his team after being tortured and survived.

Later at the station, Rita gets a call from Mike warning her that Lockwood may not be as he seems. As they go down the elevator, Rita discovers that Lockwood is working with McGrath. Knowing that he's been made Lockwood attempts to kill his girlfriend but is subdued by Kelly and Dorn who had arrive to save Rita

Using Lockwood as bait, the team engages in a fierce gunfight with McGrath's men at a former alligator-themed amusement park to rescue Mike's wife Christine and Judy's daughter Callie 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.

Meanwhile Judy finds Armando and prepares to kill him but Callie tells her mother that he saved her life. Grateful for his heroic act in saving her daughter Judy shows Mercy to Armando and allows him to escape.

Finally the corruption is exposed and Mike, Marcus and Howard are cleared of all charges.

Behind the Scenes[]

Conrad Howard was portrayed by Joe Pantoliano in four films. Pantoliano was Michael Bay’s first and only choice for the part as Bay felt he not only had the acting skill to be a believable boss but also be extremely funny when needing to be.