“BAD” Michael Jackson

One of the most famous dance sequences in history happened underground — and you can still ride the train to the exact spot. In the winter of 1986, Martin Scorsese rolled cameras inside Brooklyn’s Hoyt–Schermerhorn station, and Michael Jackson turned a working subway into a stage. This hunt takes you underground to stand where the King of Pop proved he was “Bad.”

The Scene

The “Bad” video is really an 18-minute short film, directed by Martin Scorsese and written by novelist Richard Price, released in 1987 with the title track of Jackson’s album Bad. Jackson plays Daryl, a neighborhood kid home from a term at private school, riding the subway back to friends who aren’t so sure he still belongs. The gang is led by a young Wesley Snipes as Mini Max. Tensions build in black and white — until the film bursts into color and Daryl, head to toe in leather, leads a small army of dancers through the most famous subway dance number ever filmed. The station’s mezzanine was the main setting, and the shoot took six weeks, in November and December of 1986.

The Backstory

The Hoyt–Schermerhorn Streets station opened on April 9, 1936, as part of the Independent Subway System (IND), with Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia doing the ceremonial honors. It was built big: six tracks and four island platforms, among the largest in the system. The outer platforms were meant for local trains to Court Street, but that shuttle stopped in 1946 (the old Court Street station is now the Transit Museum), and the spare tracks sat dark and unused for decades — which is exactly why filmmakers kept coming back. Its unused corners have appeared in The Wiz (1978), The Warriors (1979), Nighthawks (1981), Crocodile Dundee (1986), Coming to America (1988), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990), and The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009). In 2026, Brooklyn Academy of Music marked the station’s 90th year with a film series, “Hoyt-Schermerhorn: Stand Clear of the Closing Doors.”

What to Look For

• The platform itself. Step off the A, C, or G — you’re on a working film set. The mezzanine above the station’s northern half is where Scorsese staged the shoot.
• The old tilework. The mezzanine still carries navy-blue-and-gold Art Deco tiles left over from when part of the station connected to Loeser’s department store — the blue tiles the original clue pointed to.
• The dark platforms across the way. Off-limits (stay behind the barriers, hunters), but visible from the active platforms — the ghost infrastructure that made this station a filming favorite.
• The mural (maybe). In 2018, the owner of a privately owned building above one of the station’s entrances agreed to paint a Jackson mural. If it’s still up, it’s the closest thing to a marker the station ever got.

Getting There

Hoyt Street & Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 — Downtown Brooklyn. Take the A or G train at any hour, or the C (it skips late nights) to Hoyt–Schermerhorn — that’s how it shows up on subway maps.

Trivia

• The shoot ran six weeks, November–December 1986, and the video was released in 1987 with the Bad album.
• Jackson said the story was inspired by a true story he’d read (in Time or Newsweek) about a prep-school student returning to his old neighborhood; various biographers have connected it to the case of Edmund Perry.
• Wesley Snipes — years before Blade — plays Mini Max, Daryl’s skeptical friend.
• “Weird Al” Yankovic’s parody “Fat” was filmed at the same station.
• Jackson’s leather jacket became a fashion icon in its own right, and critics call “Bad” one of the most iconic videos of all time.
• In 2009, after Jackson’s death, Councilwoman Letitia James asked the MTA to rename the station after him. The MTA refused — no renames, no plaques — sticking to its policy of naming stations after nearby geography.

The Hunt Clue

Down in Brooklyn, deep below the street,

Where Scorsese’s camera caught the King of Pop’s feet —

Find the blue tiles where the leather crew went “Bad,”

And prove yourself a hunter — now that’s not half bad!

Photo by GeneralPunger via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0