CVS Miama Beach

CVS at 728 Ocean Drive in Miami Beach stands on one of the most famous Scarface locations in South Florida. Today the building is a pharmacy on the busy Ocean Drive strip, but in Brian De Palma’s film it appears as the Sun Ray Apartments, the place where one of the film’s most notorious scenes takes place. The address sits in the middle of Miami Beach’s Art Deco district, between the bright hotel façades, neon signs and heavy tourist traffic that define South Beach. Even though the building’s function has changed, its connection to the film is still clearly marked on site.

In Scarface (1983), 728 Ocean Drive is used for the Sun Ray Apartments, where Tony Montana and Manny Ribera go to make a drug deal. The deal turns into a brutal trap, and Tony is forced to watch as his friend Angel is killed with a chainsaw in the bathroom. Tony narrowly survives, killing one of the attackers before escaping with Manny and the money. The scene is one of the defining early moments in the film, showing the extreme violence of the criminal world Tony is entering and helping establish the film’s raw, excessive tone.

The real location is still easy to recognise from the outside, although it is now a CVS rather than an apartment building. The stairway seen in the film is still there, but it is closed off, with a clear warning that trespassing will be reported to the police. Next to the stairs, a plaque marks the building’s connection to “Scarface”. Inside the CVS, the location also acknowledges its film history with a framed display featuring an image from “Scarface”, along with cigars and money connected to the film. This makes the site more than just a former filming location; it is one of the few Ocean Drive film spots where the production is still visibly remembered inside the building itself.

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