He’s without question become the breakout star of the 2024 summer movie season. Dennis MacDonald’s famous character Reggie, first introduced in Michael Bay’s Bad Boys II , has since become a staple of the series. Normally, he’s the object of ridicule by Marcus (Martin Lawrence) and Mike (Will Smith), after he made the mistake of trying to date Marcus’ daughter and then — in Bad Boys for Life — getting the young woman pregnant. But the best thing about the new Bad Boys movies is how the scripts develop the main characters — Reggie included — and now we’re learning that one of Reggie’s key scenes wasn’t even in the original Bad Boys: Ride or Die script.
We have to go into detail about the new movie Bad Boys: Ride or Die , so stop reading now if you haven’t seen the movie and want to check out the latest film.
At the beginning of Bad Boys: Ride or Die , one of the best films in the series, Marcus suffers a heart attack during Mike’s wedding. After he gets out of the hospital, he returns home and mocks Reggie (Dennis MacDonald) for not having a job. Reggie reminds his father-in-law that he’s a U.S. Marine, to which Marcus says, “Well, then you need to be deployed.”
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Marcus ends up singing a different tune later in the story when armed goons attack the Burnett home, and Reggie goes into full Call of Duty mode to single-handedly take down an army of enemies. It’s one of the most high-octane moments in movies this summer, and Macdonald told EW he trained religiously for it. The actor said:
When I got the script and I found out what I was getting into, I already knew this could be something real, huge. He finally came into the family, [Marcus and Mike] finally accepted him, he’s finally getting his due, so I’m just happy for that. … I had to go into real military mode. I went online and looked up a lot of things related to military training and things like that. So even before I went into military training, I was one step ahead of the curve.
This scene works because it’s so believable. And it’s also funny because when we first met Reggie, he was a timid boyfriend who was being bullied by Mike and Marcus. And now he’s a military force, able to step up and protect his family. It’s a great arc for a character who has been embraced by the Bad Boys crowd. It’s a big reason why this movie has been critically acclaimed since it debuted.
And that’s apparently why the directors decided to include an unscripted scene with Reggie that ends the film. It takes place in a park in Florida, around a grill. Marcus is ready to cook for everyone, but Reggie steps up and offers to make chicken. And because of his bravery, Mike and Marcus hand him the “keys” to the grill. McDonald says he was just as surprised as everyone else that he got to have the final scene in the film, telling EW:
It wasn’t in the script at all. It was kind of crazy – I was filming in Miami, and then I came back home, and then they called me three or four days later to come back to Miami so I could shoot another scene. … I had the dialogue and everything, and that was the end of the whole movie. They say, ‘Yeah, you finish the whole movie. It ends with your face.’ And I say, ‘Are you serious?’ I was just overwhelmed.
It’s a great ending, and one of the few emotional moments in Bad Boys: Ride or Die that help make the sequel special. After a mild May, Bad Boys 4 and Inside Out 2 are making the summer box office relevant again. We have several movies coming in 2024 that could continue this great streak, including Despicable Me 4 and Deadpool & Wolverine . But for now, the summer belongs to Mike and Marcus. And of course Reggie.
