Bad Boys: Ride Or Die Ending Explained: Grill Skills

This article contains major spoilers for "Bad Boys: Ride or Die."

What does it mean to be a Bad Boy? That's the unasked question lingering over the "Bad Boys" franchise, but the question as well as the answer isn't as clear cut as it appears. After all, the title could be ironic, especially when Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz were originally slated to star in the first film. By the time the project morphed into Michael Bay's first feature starring then-TV sitcom stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, the title became a mission statement, where the film was going to (and eventually did) prove that these funnymen could be genuinely badass.

After "Bad Boys II," 2020's "Bad Boys For Life" appeared to be a swan song for Detectives Mike Lowry (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) as they faced the ravages of age as well as their checkered pasts, eventually proving their worth and their dedication to each other. Yet a post-credits scene featuring Mike visiting his estranged son Armando (Jacob Scipio) in jail to offer him redemption after being manipulated by his vengeful mother into (among other things) assassinating Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano), he promised some "Fast Saga"-style soap action shenanigans on the horizon.

Four years later, "Bad Boys: Ride or Die" is making good on that promise, yet it isn't going after increasingly ridiculous heights (after the Bayhem of "Bad Boys II," there's not much higher to go!) but is instead delving deeper into the characters of Mike, Marcus, and their growing ensemble of extended family members both on and off the Miami PD. Rather than position these characters as untouchable superheroes, "Ride or Die" reminds us that Mike and Marcus are utterly human at their core, thus making their feats of heroism that much bigger and badder.

Right away, "Ride or Die" establishes that the "Bad Boys" world isn't intended to exist preserved in a nebulous bubble like some franchises. Life goes on for Mike and Marcus as they speed in a Porsche to Mike's wedding. He's getting hitched to his onetime physical therapist, Christine (Melanie Liburd), who we're told met and fell in love with Mike soon after his near-fatal shooting during the events of "Bad Boys For Life." Of course, the more things change, the more they stay the same; on the way to the wedding, Marcus cajoles Mike into stopping into a convenience store ostensibly for some ginger ale, but really for some Skittles and a hot dog, snacks that Marcus' doctor has told him to stay away from. Sadly for Marcus, an attempted robbery of the store (not to mention Mike's stern orders) prevents him from his snacks.

Despite missing out on his Skittles, Marcus has a ball at Mike and Christine's wedding, which is also attended by the rest of the "Bad Boys" family, extended or not. Marcus' wife Theresa (played this time around by Tasha Smith) is there, along with his daughter Megan (Bianca Bethune) and her husband, the U.S. Marine (and butt of Mike and Marcus' teasing) Reggie (Dennis Green). Also in attendance are the family of the late Captain Howard (Joe Pantoliano): his daughter, U.S. Marshal Judy (Rhea Seehorn), and her daughter, Callie (Quinn Hemphill). Then there's AMMO team members Dorn (Alexander Ludwig), Kelly (Vanessa Hudgens), and now-Captain Rita (Paola Nùñez), Mike's ex, who is currently dating Miami mayoral prospect Lockwood (Ioan Gruffudd).

The wedding goes off without a hitch — until Marcus busts one too many moves on the dance floor and has a massive heart attack.

Marcus' heart attack sends him to a nearby hospital, but Marcus' subjective experience (portrayed with a flourish by directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah) sees him going into a "What Dreams May Come" meets "Flatliners" afterlife, whereupon he encounters the spirit of Captain Howard standing near a bare tree on a beach. The Captain tells Marcus it's not his time, before sending him back to consciousness. The now-revived Marcus exuberantly heads to the hospital roof, explaining to Mike that, because it's not his time, he believes that this means that he cannot die. He also cryptically warns Mike that the ghost of Captain Howard told him that there's a storm coming, and not a literal one either, after which Mike will be forced to "make a choice."

After checking out of the hospital, Mike and Marcus head off to their respective domestic bliss (the former enjoying a quiet moment with his new wife, the latter dealing with Theresa's mandate of a vegetarian diet and no snacks while Reggie eats Doritos and plays video games on the couch), while that storm begins to brew. A ruthless ex-U.S. military mercenary, James McGrath (Eric Dane), terrorizes and murders a banker (Steven Sean Garland) and his girlfriend (Jewelianna Ramos-Ortiz) in order to move millions of dollars into an account with Captain Howard's name on it. This is just the beginning of McGrath and his team of mercs laying the groundwork for framing Howard, a scheme which begins to bear fruit as the discovery of the banker's body reveals years of evidence that points to Howard being in league with the cartel, evidence that even Captain Rita can't easily dismiss.

Upon learning about the allegations against Howard, Mike and Marcus vow to get to the bottom of things. Sadly, Judy will not be much help; she still has beef with Mike regarding the fact that his "bastard son," as she puts it, assassinated her father during the events of "Bad Boys For Life." For his crimes, Mike's son Armando (Jacob Scipio) is currently serving his sentence in a prison in central Florida, though he has negotiated some time off of that sentence thanks to his father pumping him for information on his underworld dealings.

To that end, Mike and Marcus visit Armando to ask him if he knows anything about the accusations against Howard. Initially, the murder of Captain Howard appeared to be part of the hit list revenge scheme that Armando's cartel mother, Isabel (Kate del Castillo), made her son execute, but Armando reveals to Mike and Marcus that Howard's name was added to their list by "your people," meaning that there are moles in the Miami PD who wanted Howard dead. Armando once met the head of this shadow force, McGrath, but only knows his face and not his name.

When McGrath's team attempts to hack into Howard's personal laptop, they inadvertently trigger a failsafe which sends an automated video text to Mike and Marcus. All this video from the late Captain Howard contains (aside from his lamenting that he must be dead if they're receiving it) is a cryptic hint about who the duo are meant to contact to find more info about this situation, to prove that it's the Bad Boys receiving the message: Fletcher (John Salley), their old ex-hacker partner on the force.

When Mike and Marcus go to visit Fletcher, who now runs a tech-savvy art gallery, Fletcher explains that Captain Howard saved his life, and he's hidden his secret somewhere in the gallery. Before the Bad Boys can pick up on the hint, Fletcher is murdered by a sniper's shot, revealing that McGrath and his mercs have arrived to prevent them from finding the truth. During the resulting shootout, Marcus gets his lips around some sugary fruit punch (thus activating his own personal Beast Mode) while Mike — images of his new wife and estranged son flashing before his eyes — has a genuine panic attack which almost allows McGrath to wipe him out before Marcus intervenes.

After the actual baddies escape, Kelly and Dorn discover a QR code hidden in one of Fletcher's art installations. Sneaking away to the AMMO van, they open the code and discover the full video from Howard. Just as "Bad Boys For Life" moved the franchise from being solely about of-the-moment crime shenanigans to dealing with past issues coming back to haunt the Bad Boys, "Ride or Die" reveals that Howard had been investigating moles in the Miami PD who were helping drug cartels. This clandestine investigation began during the events of "Bad Boys II," but Howard had secretly hung onto a storage locker used by the Haitians from that film to store all his evidence in.

While Dorn and Kelly go off to retrieve those files, Mike convinces Rita and Lockwood to let him transfer Armando to Miami after an attempt on the latter's life occurs in the prison yard. On the transfer plane, Mike, Marcus, and Armando are nearly killed by McGrath and his cronies, who attempt to crash the plane while making it look like a failed escape attempt. The now three Bad Boys survive the crash but are on the run from authorities commanded by Judy Howard.

As the trio high-tail it through the swamps of southern Florida, they attempt to reconcile their differences. Mike apologizes to Armando, and Armando tentatively wonders if his parents ever, at some point, loved each other. While the team just barely makes it back to Miami intact (after stealing some clothes from a compound populated by white supremacists), they jump from the frying pan into the fire, discovering that McGrath has put out a $5 million dead or alive bounty on their heads that every underworld thug in the city is eager to collect.

Seeking refuge at a strip club run by an informant of theirs, Tabitha (Tiffany Haddish), Mike once again brushes up against his playboy past, as Tabitha agrees to help them only if he orally pleasures her. Before Marcus can cajole his friend into taking trim for the team, Tabitha reveals it was all a stalling tactic before her criminal cohorts could show up and take possession of Mike, Marcus, and Armando. The three are met outside by a vengeful Manny the Butcher (DJ Khaled), last seen in "Bad Boys For Life" getting his hand smashed by Mike while being interrogated.

Just before Judy shows up with her unit and things really go sideways, Mike, Marcus, and Armando manage to pull their asses out of the fire, literally and figuratively, and continue on their way to find Dorn and Kelly.

Once at Dorn's, the Bad Boys discover that Dorn and Kelly are now a couple, and are relieved they don't have to sneak around anymore. There's some tension given Armando's presence, but the group focuses on sifting through Captain Howard's mountains of evidence, looking for a name to match the face that Armando saw. Once they ID McGrath, Mike calls Rita to let her know that they're going to turn themselves in, complete with evidence that will exonerate themselves and Howard.

Lockwood catches wind of this, and it turns out he's the cartel mole. Informing McGrath that he's been made, he orders a simultaneous hit on the homes of both Mike and Marcus. From Dorn's, Marcus is able to warn Reggie that an attack is coming, inspiring the Marine to spring into surprisingly competent and deadly action. Reggie literally cleans house, saving Theresa and Megan, but Mike cannot get through to Christine, who's being visited by a distraught Callie. McGrath takes both women hostage, telling Mike over the phone that he'll exchange Christine for Mike and his evidence.

At the same time, Rita discovers Lockwood's true identity and is almost choked out by her former beau before Dorn and Kelly rescue their boss, capturing Lockwood, bringing him back to their place, and forcing him to talk. Lockwood explains that post-9/11, the cartel offered a deal where they would inform them of terrorist activity if the moles would arrange for their products to be smuggled into the country.

It turns out McGrath isn't fully a mustache-twirling villain, either: when he was captured while undercover in South America, he was tortured into giving up his unit, and after that disgrace decided to join his captors since he couldn't beat them. If McGrath and Lockwood are once-good men turned bad through succumbing to their past mistakes, the Bad Boys and their team seek to prove that the past doesn't have to define your life, and that mistakes can always be made right.

Learning from Lockwood that McGrath is holding Christine and Callie hostage at a defunct gator-themed amusement park, Mike and Marcus take Rita, Dorn, Kelly, and Armando with them on a rescue mission under the guise of Lockwood arriving to transport the hostages to Cuba. Once there and in position, Mike has a bead on McGrath but can't take the shot, having another debilitating panic attack after seeing Christine in his crosshairs.

After the team is made, Mike sees his own vision of Captain Howard, telling him it's not his fault. Whether this is an actual visitation from the other side or just Mike visualizing his own guilt, it helps him to start to let go of the pressure he's putting on himself. What also helps him is Marcus smacking the bejesus out of him, helping bring "Nasty Mike" back to the fore as the duo briefly rap a few bars of Run-D.M.C.'s "Peter Piper": "He's a big bad wolf in your neighborhood/Not bad meaning bad but bad meaning good."

With that, the Bad Boys take care of business, though they encounter a few distressing obstacles. At one point, Marcus attempts to use his newfound spirituality to dispel a visit from the park's resident albino alligator, Duke, to no avail. Thankfully, Duke is more than happy to chew on Lockwood after Rita kicks him into the gator's path. When Marcus comes upon a tree on the beach, he recognizes it as where he saw Captain Howard before being taken hostage by McGrath. Even though the merc tells Mike that either Christine or Marcus will die and it's Mike's choice, Mike calmly retorts that Marcus cannot die. He shoots his partner in his bulletproof vest, causing him to buckle long enough that he can blow a hole through McGrath's noggin.

Meanwhile, Armando nearly dies while protecting Callie, the granddaughter of the man he killed years ago. Tired and bleeding, he's confronted by a rage-filled Judy, who's only talked down from exacting her revenge by her daughter, explaining how Armando just saved her life. Judy begrudgingly allows Mike to help Armando escape, as the Detective sends his son off telling him to "Be good."

With Armando on the lam, Captain Howard's name cleared of all wrongdoing, and everyone else safe and home, the Bad Boys indulge themselves with a picnic in the park. As Mike and Marcus argue with each other about which of them is man enough to take control of the grill, Reggie approaches the duo with his chicken, requesting permission to use the grill himself. Initially, Mike and Marcus scoff at Reggie's request, in a shot framed to deliberately recall their initial meeting with the man back during "Bad Boys II," when he was just a boy looking to take Megan out on a first date.

Yet Reggie is not that timid boy anymore, nor are Mike and Marcus cocky young men. The duo correctly acknowledge Reggie's earning of a spot on the grill, and back off to help make potato salad and set the table. As this final scene demonstrates, the Bad Boys and their allies have learned that having true grill skills isn't always about coming in hot and taking charge; sometimes it's about slowing down, reflecting, fixing mistakes, and acknowledging your peers and loved ones. It's the difference between being small-b bad and capital-B Bad.

Fortunately, Mike and Marcus are very, very Bad.