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Full SPOILERS follow for all three versions of Michael Mann’s Miami Vice movie.
Miami Vice: The Director’s Final Cut premiered at Beyond Fest on Saturday. With the exception of the reordering of a few moments at the very end — and the omission of Nonpoint’s cover of “In the Air Tonight” — this version is largely the same as the Unrated Director’s Edition that was released on Blu-ray years ago. But the Final Cut’s rejiggered ending is enough to invite a slightly darker interpretation of the story than was evident in either of the film’s past versions, especially when considered with what writer-director Michael Mann revealed about the fact-based origins of his screenplay at the post-premiere Q&A.
Mann’s film version of the iconic 1980s TV series, which he executive produced but did not create, has been a love it or hate it affair since it came out in 2006. If you haven’t seen the Unrated Director’s Edition and are only familiar with the theatrical cut, then you will find much to unpack with this Director’s Final Cut when it arrives on 4K UHD and Blu-ray on December 15.
All three versions of Mann’s Miami Vice follow Miami-Dade P.D. undercover detectives James "Sonny" Crockett (a gruff, mustachioed Colin Farrell) and Ricardo Tubbs (a no-nonsense Jamie Foxx), who are recruited to infiltrate a Latin American narco-trafficking network after a mole has been discovered inside a joint Federal task force. Crockett and Tubbs sneak into South America by air and, once there, meet with sinister middleman Jose Yero (a scene-stealing John Ortiz). They succeed in insinuating themselves into Yero and his boss Montoya’s operation.
Crockett also falls for Isabella (Gong Li), a businesswoman who serves as the financial brains of Montoya’s operation. Crockett romances Isabella in the hopes of acquiring information (and she from him) but they soon genuinely fall for each other. It is not meant to be. She discovers during the climactic shootout that "Sonny Burnett" is actually cop Sonny Crockett. But Crockett can’t bring himself to arrest Isabella, instead arranging for her to escape via boat and start her life over elsewhere. All of that remains in the Final Cut, but the use of the song “In the Air Tonight,” the scene of Montoya’s empty compound being raided, and the very last shot of Crockett returning to the hospital where wounded fellow detective Trudy Joplin (Naomie Harris) is have all been removed in this version.
"The viewer is left to wonder what Crockett does next after letting a key player in their undercover operation escape justice.
Mann’s Miami Vice was a legendarily difficult production, culminating in the abrupt departure of Jamie Foxx, who abandoned the film during shooting in the Dominican Republic, a move that forced Mann to change the movie’s ending. Mann never shot what he needed to end the story as he had originally envisioned.
Both the theatrical cut and the earlier Unrated Director’s Edition end with Crockett returning to the hospital where badly injured Vice cop Trudy, comforted by Tubbs, emerges from her coma. Although he let Isabella escape, Crockett ultimately returns to his police family in both previous versions. Closing those versions with a shot of Crockett walking into the hospital always made for an awkward ending, but it communicated that Crockett ultimately remembers whose side he’s on.
But the Director’s Final Cut instead ends with Crockett walking back to his car while Isabella flees before cutting to the end credits. The viewer is left to wonder what Crockett does next after letting a key player in their undercover operation escape justice. Mann’s revision of those closing moments suggests a reading of the film where Crockett’s future is uncertain.
In the Beyond Fest post-screening Q&A, Mann shed light on his reasons for revising the ending and why he wanted to refocus the ending of his Final Cut of Miami Vice on Crockett and Isabella’s love story. Mann also revealed that the tragic inspiration for his screenplay was an undercover agent he was acquainted with:
“I knew a number of people, one guy in particular who did very, very difficult long-term undercover in foreign countries – Beirut, Marseilles, Hong Kong. And I became fascinated with the dynamics of what happened when you lived a fabricated identity, but the fabricated identity in many cases becomes facets of yourself and it becomes performance, but there's only one take. You cannot make a mistake.”
Mann continued: “This was very much based on this one guy who had a family in Florida, wife and kids, and he was undercover working a money laundering operation based out of Hong Kong and fell in love with his target's sister. And if you met the targets, they didn't self-identify as part of a criminal subculture. They just were dealing in commodities. The commodity could be number three opium, it could be tapioca futures. It didn't matter. They were just people of commerce. And it turned his life upside down. It was a long-term relationship. And he was eventually indicted in Florida. And when he realized that he was going to get convicted, they would've seized his real family's assets under RICO. And he went out on I-80 and walked in front of an 18-wheeler.”
(Mann said this was the inspiration for how John Hawkes’ informant character commits suicide early in the film.)
"When they score and they become very good in this criminal fabricated identity, it is truly like a drug.
“These (undercover agents) are very often men and women [who] are projecting the part of themselves that has not been manifested. So it's maybe part of themselves that they suppressed or it's been repressed,” Mann said. “They're convincing somebody that they could handle their transport or that this deal should go down and they sell and they're really good at it because oftentimes they're smarter [than the perps].
“And when they score and they become very good in this criminal fabricated identity, it is truly like a drug,” Mann said of how these agents can, in the parlance of Miami Vice, lose sight of which way is up.
In that sense, Crockett’s undercover persona “Sonny Burnett” is so convincing – he is able to seduce Isabella and eventually get her to agree to renegotiating his and Rico’s deal for a new percentage – that the character, in my estimation, begins behaving like an addict whose drug habit is worsening the longer he’s undercover. By the time the film’s final showdown comes along, Sonny is essentially a junkie in freefall.
“There often becomes a situation where (the undercover agents) don't go through red lights. There are no red lights. There's no red lights, no yellow lights, no green lights. There are no lights,” said Mann. “Maybe you look in a mirror in the morning when he wakes up and the guy will say that he is truly himself for the first time in his life.
“And particularly when you do what you're not supposed to do. They always say you're not supposed to have romances and bullshit. They wind up having romances. And that's basically, that's the genesis of this whole picture.”
Crockett’s romance with Isabella certainly doesn’t go unnoticed by his colleagues Rico, Trudy and Gina. While the latter two exchange looks of concern during a sequence at Yero’s club, Tubbs is far more direct with his partner. Tubbs’ concern is evident the minute Crockett ditches him for a boat ride to Havana with Isabella. Crockett assures Tubbs he’s got things under control at several points, but by the time they’re prepping their weapons for the final showdown he admits to Tubbs that he’s “with her 100%.”
Tubbs cautions Crockett that Isabella is “with them,” but Sonny is not ready for the collapse of his undercover identity where he will be required to bust the woman he loves. Like an addict struggling with their problem, Crockett assures those around him that he has his issues in check even as his actions and behavior indicate otherwise. His addiction eventually consumes him to the point where he can no longer do the job he’s required to do.
The original theatrical and the Unrated versions’ endings suggest Sonny found his way back from that dark place by returning to his Miami Vice colleagues – that he remembers which way is up.
Cutting that final shot of Sonny returning to his cop teammates seems like a relatively minor edit, but it’s one where Crockett’s self-destructive behavior and the loss of Isabella carries more thematic weight. He’s lost her, betrayed his badge by not arresting her, and is alone. It’s a more emotional and thought-provoking finale than what the previous two cuts of the film conveyed.
Miami Vice: The Director’s Final Cut is available on 4K UHD and Blu-ray on December 15.
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