Heat is a 1995 American epic crime drama film written and directed by Michael Mann. The film explores the parallel lives of a seasoned thief and a dedicated detective in Los Angeles, delving into their obsessions, motivations, and the personal costs of their chosen paths. Heat was released by Warner Bros. Pictures on December 15, 1995.
Genesis and Development
The origins of Heat can be traced back to 1979 when Michael Mann penned the original script. This script was inspired by the real-life experiences of Chicago police officer Chuck Adamson and his pursuit of the criminal Neil McCauley, who serves as the namesake for Robert De Niro's character in the film. Mann wrote the original script for Heat in 1979, basing it on Chicago police officer Chuck Adamson's pursuit of criminal Neil McCauley, after whom De Niro's character is named.
Initially, the script was adapted into a television pilot, which ultimately became the 1989 television film L.A. Takedown after the pilot failed to secure a series order. In 1994, Mann revisited the script, expanding it into a feature film, co-producing the project with Art Linson.
Synopsis
Neil McCauley, a professional thief operating in Los Angeles, leads a crew comprised of Chris Shiherlis, Michael Cheritto, Gilbert Trejo, and Waingro. Their heist of $1.6 million in bearer bonds from an armored car is complicated when Waingro senselessly kills a guard, forcing the crew to eliminate two additional guards. McCauley, angered by Waingro's actions, plans to kill him but Waingro escapes.
Detective Lieutenant Vincent Hanna of the LAPD Robbery Homicide Division, along with his team (Detectives Bosko, Drucker, Casals, and Schwartz), is assigned to investigate the robbery. Hanna, a dedicated lawman, is portrayed as a former Marine whose commitment to his job strains his relationship with his third wife, Justine, and complicates his connection with his stepdaughter, Lauren.
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McCauley's fence, Nate, proposes selling the stolen bonds back to their original owner, the money launderer Roger Van Zant. Van Zant feigns agreement but sets up an ambush for McCauley and his crew. Foreseeing the trap, McCauley and his team retaliate, killing the hitmen. McCauley then threatens Van Zant, promising retribution.
An LAPD informant links Cheritto to the robbery, prompting Hanna's team to monitor him. This surveillance allows them to identify the rest of McCauley's crew and their next target: a precious metals depository. As the team stakes out the depository and prepares to break in, a careless officer makes a noise, causing McCauley to abort the heist.
With one last score in mind, McCauley's crew plans a bank robbery targeting $12.2 million. Hanna intercepts McCauley on the 105 Freeway and invites him for coffee. During their meeting, they discuss their dedication to their respective professions and the personal sacrifices they entail. Hanna speaks of his failing marriage, while McCauley confesses his own sense of isolation. They share their dreams; Hanna recounts a nightmare of dead bodies at a banquet table, and McCauley describes a dream of drowning. Despite acknowledging a mutual respect, they both acknowledge that they would kill the other if necessary.
Waingro makes a deal with Van Zant to eliminate McCauley's crew. Trejo, sensing the increasing pressure from the LAPD, decides to quit. Acting on a tip-off from Van Zant's associate, Hugh Benny, the LAPD intercepts the crew after they leave the bank, resulting in a shootout. Shiherlis kills Bosko, while Breedan and Cheritto, along with numerous police officers, are killed. McCauley and Shiherlis manage to escape, though Shiherlis sustains a wound inflicted by Casals.
McCauley takes Shiherlis to a doctor and leaves him with Nate. Suspecting Trejo of informing the police, McCauley discovers him mortally wounded and his wife dead, both victims of Waingro. Before dying, Trejo reveals that Waingro and Van Zant forced him to disclose the bank plan. McCauley retaliates by killing Van Zant in his mansion, while Hanna's team detains Benny.
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Learning of McCauley's connection to Waingro, who is hiding in a hotel, Hanna uses Waingro as bait to lure McCauley. As McCauley prepares to flee, Eady discovers his criminal identity but chooses to accompany him. Having separated from Justine, Hanna finds Lauren unconscious in his hotel room after a suicide attempt. He takes her to the hospital, saving her life.
McCauley drives with Eady to Los Angeles International Airport, intending to escape to New Zealand via private jet. However, when Nate provides him with Waingro's location, McCauley abandons his usual caution to seek revenge. Disguised as hotel security and triggering a fire alarm, McCauley infiltrates the hotel and kills Waingro in his room.
As McCauley heads back to Eady, Hanna spots him, leading to a chase. The pursuit ends on the airport tarmac, where Hanna fatally shoots McCauley in the chest.
Cast
The film features a stellar cast, including:
- Al Pacino as Lieutenant Vincent Hanna
- Robert De Niro as Neil McCauley
- Val Kilmer as Chris Shiherlis
- Jon Voight as Nate
- Tom Sizemore as Michael Cheritto
- Diane Venora as Justine Hanna
- Amy Brenneman as Eady
- Ashley Judd as Charlene Shiherlis
- Mykelti Williamson as Sergeant Drucker
- Wes Studi as Detective Sammy Casals
- Ted Levine as Detective Bosko
- Dennis Haysbert as Donald Breedan
- William Fichtner as Roger Van Zant
- Natalie Portman as Lauren Gustafson
Additional cast members include Martin Ferrero as a hardware salesman, Farrah Forke as news reporter Claudia, Patricia Healy as a woman in a relationship with Bosko, Rainelle Saunders as a prostitute murdered by Waingro, Hazelle Goodman as the prostitute's mother, and Yvonne Zima as the girl taken hostage by Cheritto. Featured as members of the LAPD are Steven Ford as Officer Bruce, Paul Herman as Sergeant Heinz, Cindy Katz as forensics investigator Rachel, Brian Libby as Captain Jackson, and Dan Martin as Detective Harry Dieter. Stuntmen Rick Avery, Bill McIntosh, and Thomas Rosales Jr. portray the armored truck guards.
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Realism and Influences
Heat is notable for its realism, which Mann achieved through meticulous research and attention to detail. The film is based on the true story of Neil McCauley, a calculating criminal and ex-Alcatraz inmate who was tracked down by Detective Chuck Adamson in 1964. In 1961, McCauley was transferred from Alcatraz to McNeil Island Corrections Center, as mentioned in the film. He was released in 1962 and immediately began planning new crimes. Pacino's character is largely based on Detective Chuck Adamson, who began keeping tabs on McCauley's crew, knowing that he had begun committing crimes again. On March 25, 1964, McCauley and members of his regular crew followed an armored car that delivered money to a National Tea grocery store at 4720 S. Cicero Avenue, Chicago. When the drop was made, three of the robbers entered the store. McCauley's crew was unaware that Adamson and eight other detectives had blocked off all potential exits; the getaway car turned down an alley, and the robbers saw the blockade and realized that they were trapped. All four exited the vehicle and began firing. Russell Bredon (or Breaden) and Michael Parille were slain in an alley while Miklos Polesti (on whom Chris Shiherlis is loosely based) shot his way out and escaped. McCauley was shot to death on the lawn of a nearby home. He was 50 years old and the prime suspect in several burglaries. Polesti was caught days later and sent to prison.
Mann took Kilmer, Sizemore and De Niro to Folsom State Prison to interview actual career criminals to prepare for their roles.
To enhance the authenticity of the film's action sequences, Mann hired British ex-Special Air Service sergeant Andy McNab as a technical weapons trainer and adviser. McNab designed a weapons-training curriculum, training the actors for three months using live ammunition before shooting with blanks for the actual take, and worked with training them for the bank robbery.
The film's visual style, crafted by cinematographer Dante Spinotti, utilizes a combination of natural and practical lighting to capture the grittiness and realism of Los Angeles. The vastness of the city and the isolation of the characters within the urban landscape are also emphasized.
Production
The film marks the first on-screen appearance together of Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. Mann assigned Janice Polley, a former collaborator on The Last of the Mohicans, as the film's location manager, along with Lori Balton, who primarily handled scouting duties. Scouting locations lasted from August to December 1994. Mann requested locations that had not appeared on film before, in which Balton was successfulâfewer than 10 of the 85 filming locations were previously used.
De Niro was the first cast member to receive the film script, showing it to Pacino, who also wanted to be part of the film. Keanu Reeves was offered the role of Chris Shiherlis, but he turned it down in favor of playing Hamlet at the Manitoba Theatre Centre. As a result, Val Kilmer was given the role.
Both Al Pacino and Robert De Niro prepared extensively for their roles. They spent time with real detectives and criminals to understand their characters in depth. The diner scene with Pacino and De Niro was shot with minimal rehearsals to maintain the spontaneity and intensity of their interaction.
Music
On December 19, 1995, Warner Bros. Records released a soundtrack album on cassette and CD to accompany the film, titled Heat: Music from the Motion Picture. The album is produced by Matthias Gohl. Heat uses an abridged instrumental rendition of the Joy Division song "New Dawn Fades" by Moby, which is also featured in the same form on the soundtrack album. Mann and Goldenthal decided on an atmospheric situation for the film soundtrack.
Release and Reception
Heat was released on December 15, 1995, and opened at the box office with $8.4 million from 1,325 theaters, finishing in third place behind Jumanji and Toy Story. It went on to earn a total gross of $67.4 million in United States, and $120 million in foreign box offices.
The film garnered positive reviews, with critics praising Mann's direction and the performances of Pacino and De Niro. On Rotten Tomatoes, Heat holds an approval rating of 84%, based on 152 reviews and an average rating of 7.8/10. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three and a half stars out of four. He described Mann's script as "uncommonly literate," with a psychological insight into the symbiotic relationship between police and criminals, and the fractured intimacy between the male and female characters: "It's not just an action picture. Above all, the dialogue is complex enough to allow the characters to say what they're thinking: They are eloquent, insightful, fanciful, poetic when necessary. They're not trapped with cliches." Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called the film a "sleek, accomplished piece of work, meticulously controlled and completely involving. The dark end of the street doesn't get much more inviting than this." Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote, "Stunningly made and incisively acted by a large and terrific cast, Michael Mann's ambitious study of the relativity of good and evil stands apart from other films of its type by virtue of its extraordinarily rich characterizations and its thoughtful, deeply melancholy take on modern life." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave it a Bâ rating.
Legacy
Heat has had a lasting impact on the crime film genre, influencing numerous subsequent works. French gangster Rédoine Faïd told Mann at a film festival "You were my technical adviser". The media described later robberies as resembling scenes from Heat, including armored car robberies in South Africa, Colombia, Denmark, and Norway and the 1997 North Hollywood shootout, in which Larry Phillips Jr. and Emil MÄtÄsÄreanu robbed the North Hollywood branch of the Bank of America and, similarly to the film, were confronted by the LAPD as they left the bank. A copy of Heat was found in the VCR at Phillips' residence. This shootout is one of the longest and bloodiest events of its type in American police history.
Home Media
A "Director's Definitive Edition" blu-ray was released on May 9, 2017, by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, who acquired the distribution rights to the film through their part-ownership of Regency back in 2015. A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Ultimate Collector's Edition of Heat that contains the Director's Definitive Edition of the film on UHD Blu-ray and Blu-ray, along with legacy bonus materials released on August 9, 2022, by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (under the 20th Century Studios label), was released coinciding with the release date of Mann's sequel novel. Unlike the previous home media releases, the Director's Definitive Edition Blu-ray and the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Ultimate Collector's Edition did not feature the Warner Bros. logo.
Heat was broadcast on NBC television on January 3, 1999, in a significantly edited version. Mann had offered the network some scenes that had been filmed but omitted from the theatrical edit with hope of having the film shown in four hours (with commercials) over two nights. Instead, NBC chose to cut nearly 40 minutes from the theatrical version so that Heat could be shown in a three-hour time slot (with commercials). Mann told Variety, "They cut so much out of the movie that they destroyed the narrative of the film along with its integrity….
Sequel
On March 16, 2016, Mann announced that he was developing a Heat prequel novel, as a part of launching his company Michael Mann Books. On April 27, 2017, Reed Farrel Coleman joined the project as co-author. On May 15, 2020, Mann stated that the novel would function as both a prequel and a sequel, with plot taking place before and after the film's main events. By January 19, 2022, it was revealed that the novel would be a collaboration between Mann and Meg Gardiner; it was subsequently released in August 2022.