The Specialist (1994) is an American action thriller directed by Luis Llosa, starring Sylvester Stallone as Ray Quick, a former CIA explosives expert living in Miami after leaving government work behind. Sharon Stone plays May Munro, a woman seeking revenge against the crime family responsible for murdering her parents, while James Woods plays Ned Trent, Ray’s former colleague and now a dangerous enemy working for the mob. Eric Roberts and Rod Steiger appear as Tomas and Joe Leon, the gangsters at the centre of May’s revenge plot. The film is built around 1990s action-thriller ingredients: glamorous Miami settings, erotic tension, revenge, double-crosses, professional rivalry and carefully staged explosions. Although it was not a critical favourite, The Specialist became one of Stallone’s recognisable mid-1990s vehicles, helped by its Miami atmosphere, Sharon Stone’s star power and John Barry’s dramatic score.
The Specialist was filmed mainly in Miami and Miami Beach, using the city’s waterfront, hotels, bridges, streets and nightlife atmosphere as a major part of the film’s identity. Ray Quick’s world is strongly connected to Miami’s sleek but dangerous 1990s image, with locations such as the Port of Miami on Dodge Island, MacArthur Causeway, Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue giving the film its mixture of coastal glamour and crime-thriller tension. The Marlin Hotel at 1200 Collins Avenue is used for the scene where Ray is outside on the phone, while the Fontainebleau Miami Beach is connected to the film’s hotel material and final scenes. The Church of the Little Flower in Coral Gables appears in the church interior sequence, and the 41st Street Bridge area in Miami Beach was used for the bus scenes. The film also used Tennessee for the opening material, with Great Falls Dam at Rock Island used for the truck explosion sequence, and Cookeville listed among the wider Tennessee production locations. This gives The Specialist a location identity split between two worlds: the early professional-demolition material in Tennessee, and the main Miami story of luxury hotels, mob power, coastal roads, bridges, clubs and explosive revenge.
Fontainebleau Miami Beach
Fontainebleau Miami Beach appears in Goldfinger (1964), Scarface (1983), The Bodyguard (1992), Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach (1988), and many more.
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