Bad Boys 4 Confirms The Third Movie Made A Major Title Mistake

Bad Boys: Ride or Die is the fourth installment in the Will Smith/Martin Lawrence action franchise, but its title also confirms a big error made by the third movie. It’s hard to recall a time when Will Smith wasn’t a movie star, but when the original Bad Boys debuted, he definitely was not. The Michael Bay flick proved beyond doubt that Smith would be moving on from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to a major film career, though he has remained loyal to the Bad Boys movie franchise.

He reunited with Lawrence and Bay for Bad Boys II, and after a long gap, a third entry arrived in 2020. Reviving a franchise after such a big break is risky, but Bad Boys for Life was a surprise commercial and box office success. The chemistry between Smith and Lawrence was as potent as ever, and it had a lot of heart to go alongside the explosions. Sony soon put another sequel into development, with the trailer for Bad Boys: Ride or Die finding Smith’s Mike and Lawrence’s Marcus on the run while trying to clear their late captain’s name.

Bad Boys 4’s Best Title Was Already Used In Bad Boys For Life

The Bad Boys franchise jumped the gun with the third movie’s title

The trailer also officially confirmed the fourth movie’s title is Bad Boys: Ride or Die, which is a reference that series devotees will be familiar with. In the second movie, Marcus’ sister Syd (Gabrielle Union) is kidnapped by the sequel’s villain and taken to Cuba. It’s left up to Mike, Marcus and their pals to stage an explosive rescue, with Mike telling Marcus “We ride together, we die together. Bad boys for life.”

Needless to say, their rescue is a total success. While Ride or Die is a perfectly fine subtitle for the next entry, a much stronger one would have been Bad Boys 4 Life. Of course, the third movie Bad Boys for Life already used this name and thus left the fourth film with a title problem. Again, Ride or Die works, and calls back to a classic franchise quote.

Ride or Die simply isn’t as catchy as Bad Boys 4 Life though, and ever since the fourth entry was greenlit this title blunder has become a recurring gag. Even Smith and Lawrence made a Bad Boys 4 Life joke (via Instagram) when first announcing the sequel, acknowledging – albeit in a tongue-in-cheek way – that they maybe should have held off in case a Bad Boys 4 ever happened.

Bad Boys For Life Revived The Franchise

Bad Boys 4 only exists thanks to For Life’s surprise success

Bad Boys for Life brought the series back 17 years after the previous installment, during a period when Smith was coming off disappointments like The Gemini Man. Bay declined to return, while Lawrence had been largely absent from the big screen for close to a decade. Regardless, Bad Boys for Life grossed over $420 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo), and it felt like a breath of fresh air to have a good, old-fashioned buddy cop movie back in theaters.

The third movie’s success paved the way for Bad Boys: Ride or Die to happen, and possibly more sequels beyond that. A fourth movie was far from guaranteed when Bad Boys for Life entered production, so it made sense to use such a perfect title. Time will tell if audiences will be as excited for Ride or Die, but there is a lot of goodwill towards the series following the previous installment. If yet another film happens, it will be interesting to see what quote gets used for Bad Boys 5.