The many faces of Sean Penn

“Bad Boys” (1983)

Penn the Rebel Without a Cause: Jeff Spicoli turned dangerous in “Bad Boys,” as Penn played Mick O’Brien, an Irish teenager from Chicago who accidentally kills a kid during a drug exchange and is sentenced to jail. In revenge for the death, the dead kid’s brother rapes Mick’s girlfriend, and is also locked up—in the same exact prison. “Bad Boys” builds up to a climactic showdown, where unchecked testosterone erupts in one hell of a jailhouse skirmish—teen rage in the form a cage match. Only a year after “Ridgemont High,” Penn proved he could hold a gun as convincingly as he held a bong.