20 Years Ago 'Miami Vice' Redefined Both Action and Romance — And It Deserves Another Look

Published May 17, 2026, 5:23 PM EDT

Michael Mann Wasn't Afraid to Force People Into a Violent World

Miami Vice famously opens in medias res, thrusting viewers into the middle of a botched nightclub take-down with zero set-up. Jay-Z and Linkin Park's “Numb” throbs and synths fire like sirens before the viewer has a chance to get their bearings. The bodies of sweaty dancers and faces of harried undercover cops, criminals, and sex workers fill the frames uneasily; some of the dialogue is even hard to understand.

Mann said in interviews with Indie Wire and Indie London that sensation was at the top of his mind; he wanted to make a harrowing action film that let viewers feel automatic rifle fire rattle their bones and blood spatter the lens. Miami Vice's audience would feel like they were there — even if it meant a bit of confusion. And Mann does just that in the film's first, terrifying, shootout, placing his camera right in the backseat of a car and showing exactly what a high-caliber sniper rifle does to an undercover Miami cop's body; an arm is torn straight off. Blood covers the interior and the lens, with bits of cotton stuffing from the seat filling the air.

To be sure, many audiences struggled to gel with Miami Vice's dark tone and dense webs of cartel trickery, feuding law enforcement bureaus, and surveillance jargon. That, plus the film's initially bewildering digital look, led to the reboot's chilly initial reception by audiences.

'Miami Vice's Romances Are As Thrilling As Its Firefights

Mann thrusts his characters into a world dominated by sudden violence and twists, a doomy atmosphere, and raw physicality that allows its romances to hit even harder. The ultimately doomed love affair between Colin Farrell's Crockett and Isabella (played by the ethereal Gong Li), the money woman for Satanic cartel kingpin Arcángel de Jesús Montoya, only adds more to the tension. Isabella is a savvy player in the game, who likely clocks Crockett as an undercover earlier than her employers. But the pair find themselves uncontrollably drawn to each other, even as they both acknowledge that their love will likely lead to a dead end.

The swiftness of the romance could be hard to buy, but not when it's given just as much visceral attention as the film's relatively few shootouts. To this day, Crockett and Isabella's speedboat ride to Havana, matched with Moby's "One of These Mornings," remains among the most boldly romantic moments in any contemporary action film.

And while the relationship between Foxx's Tubbs and Naomie Harris's uber-competent Trudy is violently disrupted by the film's cartel villains, Mann isn't afraid to linger on two tender, closely-shot intimate scenes that give as much attention to the couple's physical expressions of love as he does the thunderous, grisly shootout that closes the film.

The Doomed Digital Look of 'Miami Vice' Has Never Been Equaled

It must be stated that Miami Vice looked like no other film in 2006 — and nothing since has even approached it. There's never been an action movie that glowed, blistered, and smogged-up the screen the way Mann and Director of Photography Dion Beebe conjured in Miami Vice. Mann was hot off the heels of the Tom Cruise-starring L.A. thriller Collateral, which was so startling in its digital experimentation that the star himself told Mann after seeing the first dailies, "That's the movie?" according to an interview with Indie Wire. But in Miami Vice, the photography is responsible for so much of the experience, from the action to the sex scenes. Frames outdoors are filled with massive amounts of negative space, which means the ghostly, glowing L.A. night sky looms as a presence over every tense negotiation and gunfight.

The legacy of Miami Vice 2006 lives on not just in the fans who luxuriate in every searing pixel and over-the-top line of dialogue, but in today's massive action franchises. Mann's extreme attention to tactical detail and ear-splitting sound design can be seen in the four Keanu Reeves-starring John Wick films as well as later Mission: Impossible entries. In fact, it's hard to imagine today's action landscape in general without much of the gritty detail Mann first explored in 2006. He truly paved the way for modern sensibilities and aesthetics in action films.

20 Years Haven't Dulled the Dark Beauty of 'Miami Vice'

The film's final moments leave a deep impression, with Crockett and Isabella saying goodbye in the aftermath of the terrifying final shootout. They call back to some of their earlier flirtatious dialogue and put an end to their relationship in the only way that makes sense in the doomed world of Miami Vice.

“Remember, I said time is luck,” Isabella tells Crockett.

“Yeah. Luck's run out. It was too good to last,” he replies simply.

While Joseph Kosinski's 2027 reboot is sure to introduce a new generation to the seedy, romantic world of stylish undercover supercops and brutal drug runners — especially after mega hits with heart like Top Gun: Maverick and F1 — Mann's unprecedented action experience is just as visceral and moving as it was 20 years ago. And it's still criminally underrated to this day.