Bad Boys for Life spoilers follow.
Bad Boys for Life was a big hit earlier this year, but it had a big shock in store for Bad Boys fans.
Talking to Digital Spy for the home release of the third movie, directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah revealed that they weren't responsible for the dark twist, but explained why it had to happen.
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If you haven't seen the movie yet, here's your last chance to turn away to avoid spoilers.
Watch now Bad Boys for Life on Prime Video UK
Bad Boys for Life delivers an emotional twist for Detectives Lowrey and Burnett (Will Smith and Martin Lawrence) when Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano) is assassinated by Armando (Jacob Scipio), who eventually turns out to be Lowrey's son.
Fallah explained that Captain Howard's death was always in the script – written by Chris Bremner, Peter Craig and Joe Carnahan – and it took him by surprise.
"When I read that for the first time, I was so shocked. I was like, 'Oh, no, this is not for real! And this is a Bad Boys movie?!'," he recalled.
"I think it's also the reason this movie is so emotional. It goes much deeper in the characters than the previous ones, which gave it this right to exist. So, yeah, Captain Howard had to die. We had no other choice."
El Arbi added that Pantoliano jokingly had reasons for Captain Howard to not be dead ("maybe I'm in the witness protection programme"), but the director agreed that it gives the third movie an extra edge.
"I think that everybody, obviously, when they read the script was devastated. When we showed it to the audience, you felt that the audience were even crying during those sequences," he said.
"We've never really seen the Bad Boys being so emotional and so invested. You see the love that they have for this Captain, and that the Captain has for them. So it was really hard, but it made the movie only better."
Bad Boys for Life is available to download and keep now, and is out on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD on May 25.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
