Ep. 34 Definitely Miami


MVfan

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THE BEACH AT THE END FOUND?

We never have found out where the beach in the final scene was. I always suspected that they drove to a special spot somewhere, also based on a statement of the director in the Making of Miami Vice book.

Today, I found evidence that they simply used the same beach in front of the Barcelona hotel that was used in the beach walk scene earlier in the episode. Maybe they did not shoot it the same day and they cleaned the beach (during filming there were some strong winds and hurricane warnings), but there is the same ascending beachline in the background and, it might sound crazy, but this type of beachline is something quite rare and usually not seen at the southern parts of Miami Beach, where the beach is very flat from the hotel until the waterline.

But from my time in Miami I remember that it does not really pay off to drive far from Miami Beach to find a better and lonely beach. So I doubt that they travelled somewhere else to try that.

 

 

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vor 2 Stunden schrieb Dadrian:

I don’t know @Tom  ...the clouds look different to me. 

Trust me. I counted all the sand grains in both scenes and their number are identical :p

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Tom Terrific - your location finding is fantastic.  You are probably right but I am less confident about this find based on the shape of the sand.  I realize it made sense for them to simply use the same beach in front of the Barcelona hotel that was used in the beach walk scene earlier in the episode.

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Am 30.1.2021 um 23:16 schrieb miamijimf:

Tom Terrific - your location finding is fantastic.  You are probably right but I am less confident about this find based on the shape of the sand.  I realize it made sense for them to simply use the same beach in front of the Barcelona hotel that was used in the beach walk scene earlier in the episode.

Thanks, but life is really tough with you non-believers :p

There are other clear matches as well. I did not post them as I thought this would be enough, but I am adding them now. The final scene was definitely filmed at the exact same stretch of beach, as below photo comparison of the background behind Crockett in the final scene and the beach behind the Barcelona looking south reveals. The palm tree line (green circle) and the dark increasing vegetation line completely matches.

Does this make you a believer now or do I need to magnify&compare the ships in the far background in both scenes as well to demonstrate that the same ships were seen in the background in both scenes but at different relative positions due to time elapsed between shots ? :D

For me that is a 100% match and proof that we can even pinpoint locations without any apparent clues like the final scene - there is no such thing as no clues. @C Glide 

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Edited by Tom
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P.S. we also could do a philosophical discussion whether the small sand cone in the walk scene is a remainder of Callie´s sand castle, similar to the famous spraying leftovers from "Smuggler blues" on the "Evan" studio floor that @daytona365 found?:p

 

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Edited by Tom
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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 year later...

another proof that the mysterious empty beach at the end was in fact the public beach behind the Barcelona Hotel, as demonstrated by me earlier.

A tiny background detail behind the helicopter shows the same palm tree line as in the earlier scene with Crockett and Callie behind the hotel. Here the match is more obvious than shown above on this thread.

It really pays off to consider every single frame of an episode.

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Maria Rojas is confronted by Agent Dalva at night

MV screencap, brightened up:

rojas.png.e5120ef239074b9100aa5e54c4e5120f.png

1986 home video of the Key Biscayne Hotel & Villas (not quite the exact spot, but it's almost identical):

trivia.thumb.png.d104d7320d0894b5ca67638c77b474c3.png

This page has a guide to what's in the video:  https://www.kbhistory.org/2012/09/21/key-biscayne-in-1986/

 

Edited by airtommy
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vor 6 Stunden schrieb airtommy:

Maria Rojas is confronted by Agent Dalva at night

MV screencap, brightened up:

rojas.png.e5120ef239074b9100aa5e54c4e5120f.png

1986 home video of the Key Biscayne Hotel & Villas (not quite the exact spot, but it's almost identical):

trivia.thumb.png.d104d7320d0894b5ca67638c77b474c3.png

This page has a guide to what's in the video:  https://www.kbhistory.org/2012/09/21/key-biscayne-in-1986/

 

OMG, this is a gem you found here!

This is a historic document. I have tried to find old photos of the long gone Key Biscayne Hotel esp. the interior and the entrance for a while but no chance. This one is from Winter 1986 shortly after VICE filmed there and shows not only the interior (not the Cape Florida room in OWTBDR but another one) but also the entrance exactly as we see it in the teaser of Score and Out where the buses don´t run with the curtains and the tile driveway. The 86 homevideo is old VHS material and very grainy, but I enhanced some stills a bit. See below.

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  • 4 weeks later...

A rare shot of the old (smaller) Rickenbacker Causeway Bridge used until 1986 and prominently seen in this episode (also used in Lombard). The new bridge built right next to it is much higher.

 

Bildschirmfoto 2023-03-21 um 08.08.20.png

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  • 2 months later...

Here is paper proof that the final beach scene was shot behind the Barcelona Hotel. See red mark on the production location sheet. It’s scene 135 with characters 1,8,9 (Crockett, Callie, Charlie).

e4ac847c-bb4d-4703-b4d1-0ff8fd4e950a.jpeg

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

To compliment previous posts here - The Barcelona deck seen in the 1960s  (Lower picture) from the opening credits of this episode. 

IMG_7437.jpeg

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