FILM · 1983 · USA
Bad Boys
49 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (49)
- #001
Sean Penn broke his wrist during the scene in which he runs through the woods after escaping from reform school. The injury forced the production to shut down for eight weeks.
- #002
Real-life reform school officials and about 30 real-life reform school inmates appeared in the film as actors, extras and background performers.
- #003
The reform school was actually a set built at the Navy Armory in Chicago. The set cost $500,000.
- #004
The photographs used in the opening title sequence were real childhood photos of Sean Penn and the other actors. According to Rick Rosenthal's commentary on the uncut DVD edition, he still has these pictures.
- #005
It was the first feature film for actors Clancy Brown, Jason Gedrick (though he is not credited in the titles), Alan Ruck and actress Ally Sheedy.
- #006
Actors Tom Cruise and Kevin Bacon auditioned for the lead role of Michael O'Brien, which went to Sean Penn.
- #007
In the scene where Sean Penn's character first enters the reform school and walks the line between the inmates, Penn encouraged the actors to spit in his face and throw things at him. Esai Morales, on the other hand, insisted that the actors playing the inmates brush their teeth and use mouthwash before spitting in his character's face in his similar scene.
- #008
Sean Penn insisted that his character be referred to as Mick O'Brien during the making of the film. Moreover, while Penn was shooting for a week at the St. Charles maximum security youth reformatory, his official name tag read "Mick O'Brien."
- #009
To prepare for the role of Mick O'Brien, actor Sean Penn grew his hair long, got a tattoo on his arm and wore street gang clothing. He and Rick Rosenthal also went horseback riding with the Chicago Police Department's Gang Team Unit. On the second night, Penn was mistaken for a real criminal and was attacked by one of the police officers.
- #010
It is one of four feature films featuring actor Eric Gurry, who plays Horowitz, Sean Penn's small cellmate's assistant. This was Gurry's second feature film to reach audiences, a year before he played one of Al Pacino's children in Author! Author! (1982).
- #011
All the actors did their own stunts.
- #012
Rick Rosenthal cast his real-life father as a juror.
- #013
RC Cola machines and products are prominently featured in the film (perhaps as a result of product placement), and many characters are shown with open RC Cola cans. However, when O'Brien fills his pillowcase with unopened soda cans, he specifically uses only ordinary sodas.
- #014
Horowitz takes revenge on everyone who hurts or humiliates him. He threw a firebomb at the street where he was beaten. After Wagner beat him, he caused Wagner's finger to be caught in a mousetrap. He got even with Viking twice. The first was when Viking insulted Horwitz, and Horwitz threw his food tray over him. The second was when, after Viking tripped him, he connected the wires that would make the stereo explode.
- #015
A cinema frame again shows Halloween II (1981), also directed by Rick Rosenthal.
- #016
All the characters played by the film's young leads had their faces beaten at some point in the story. O'Brien and Horowitz were the only ones not beaten by another inmate, and the two shared the same cell.
- #017
The film the boys watch is Kiss of Death (1947). The scene shown is the one in which Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark) pushes Mrs. Rizzo (Mildred Dunnock) down the stairs in her wheelchair. At the time, this scene was considered very shocking.
- #018
The real body count is 7: Paco's friend Carl (shotgun blast in the street), Paco's younger brother Terrell, the Punk in the butcher shop (executed by Paco with a car), Carlos (shot by police during JC's attack) and Tweety (killed off-screen upon his release from the facility).
- #019
Jamie Lee Curtis had a cameo in this film, and John Zenda played Officer Wagner. Both actors had previously worked together on Rick Rosenthal's Halloween 2 (2009).
- #020
It is often compared to the British film Scum (1979), which covers similar territory.
- #021
As Paco Moreno (Esai Morales) leaves home to go sell drugs, he says "La bendicion" (blessings) to his mother, and she replies "Que Dios te bendiga" (God bless you). This is a traditional Spanish-culture greeting and farewell given to elder family members, also said as "Bendicion (insert elder family member's title)" with the same response. Although it is very common among Spanish speakers in all countries, it is rarely depicted in film or television.
- #022
In an article published in the Los Angeles Times on March 1, 1983, Richard Di Lello stated that the script he wrote was fiction, but that it turned out far more realistic than his imagination had guessed.
- #023
John Zenda, the guard with the tough mustache, was a close friend of Sean Penn; he later appeared with Penn in Colours (1988) and was also hired as head of security behind the scenes alongside his acting work.
- #024
Much of the film takes place in a juvenile detention center. It was shot at a real-life detention center in Chicago, Illinois.
- #025
According to director Rick Rosenthal, he had Richard Di Lello write eight versions of the scene in which Mick (Sean Penn) and J. C. (Ally Sheedy) are on the floor in the bedroom; Rosenthal then took all eight versions, shuffled them and combined them into a new version.
- #026
Director Rick Rosenthal is listed as a jury member in the credits, but the judge is played by his father, who went on to play a judge in Johnny Dangerously (1984) and who is also mistakenly referred to as Rick. His father's name was also Richard, Richard J. Rothenthal.
- #027
This is the first of three times Clancy Brown (Viking) played a prisoner. He would do so again in Afterlife (1996) and Legacy (2015). He played a prison guard in The Shawshank Redemption (1994).
- #028
The slang term used for the prison's top dog was "Barn Boss."
- #029
In a 2019 GQ interview, Forest Whitaker mentioned that Sean Penn wanted him to appear in Bad Boys (1983). The two had appeared together in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982).
- #030
The original version runs over two hours. For a long time, VHS carried a cut version missing several scenes, such as the one showing Mick's (Sean Penn) possible future in a real prison and Tweety being taken away in a van.
- #031
The prison's point system for infractions was as follows: Smoking - 400; Fighting - 700; Gang Activity - 1000; Sexual Harassment - 1200; Drugs / Alcohol - 1500; and Escaping the Fence - 2000.
- #032
The prison's nickname was "The Zoo."
- #033
Jamie Lee Curtis, who was directed by Rick Rosenthal in Halloween 2 (2009), can initially be seen as a prostitute passing by Paco's friends… when we first see Esai Morales looking out of the apartment window, the camera pans up past them.
- #034
About 12 years later, in 1995, actor Sean Penn would again play a prison inmate in Dead Man Walking (1995). That was the same year the other Bad Boys (1995) film came out.
- #035
The film's title "Bad Boys" apparently inspired the name of the Croatian ultras group "Bad Blue Boys."
- #036
Jamie Lee Curtis and Clancy Brown appear in the film. Brown has a large role and Curtis a very small one. Brown and Curtis would also appear together seven years later in Blue Steel (1990).
- #037
Clancy Brown nearly lost the role of Lofgren because the director felt he did not come across as tough enough at the audition.
- #038
John Zenda, the actor who played the heavily mustached guard, later worked with Sean Penn again on the film Colors (1988).
- #039
The music system first seen being repaired in Horowitz's cell (which he got from the sellers by giving O'Brien a carton of cigarettes) is the same Zenith cassette player-radio model previously seen in O'Brien's bedroom. Clearly, the producers reused the prop.
- #040
Clancy Brown, who plays a prisoner nicknamed "Viking" in the film, would go on to play a Viking years later in the 2007 film Pathfinder (2007).
- #041
This is one of two 1983 films starring actor Sean Penn. The other was Summerspell (1983).
- #042
Michael O'Brien's (Sean Penn) nickname was "Mick," while Lofgren's (Clancy Brown) and Warren Jerome's (Robert Lee Rush) nicknames were "Viking" and "Tweety," respectively.
- #043
Clancy Brown's character is named "Viking." Löfgren is a Swedish name, a decorative name made up of the elements löv 'leaf' + grön 'green'.
- #044
The film was made and released about 12 years before the action-comedy of the same name, Bad Boys (1995), starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, was made and released.
- #045
A sequel was planned, but it would have starred Sean Penn not as Mick but as this film's villain, the character played by Esai Morales.
- #046
The novel Ramon Herrera reads as he falls asleep is by thriller author Shelley Katz, but its title is unclear.
- #047
Eric Gurry (Horowitz) appeared alongside intense method actors in two films: with Al Pacino in Author! Author! (1982) and with Sean Penn in this film.
- #048
After Perretti talks with Paco, Mick stands at his cell door wearing a light blue button-down shirt. When he enters his room, he immediately puts on a dark-colored T-shirt.
- #049
Reformatory guards Reni Santoni and Jim Moody appeared in the film 28 Days (2000). Reni Santoni and Dean Fortunato also had roles in Seinfeld (1989).
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