# heat (1995 film) ![[heatposter.jpg|300]] theatrical release poster directed by: michael mann written by: michael mann produced by: michael mann - art linson starring: al pacino - robert de niro - tom sizemore - diane venora - amy brenneman - ashley judd - mykelti williamson - wes studi - ted levine - jon voight - val kilmer cinematography: dante spinotti edited by: dov hoenig - pasquale buba - william goldenberg - tom rolf music by: elliot goldenthal production companies: regency enterprises - forward pass distributed by: warner bros. release date: december 15- 1995 running time: 170 minutes country: united states language: english budget: $60 million box office: $187.4 million heat is a 1995 american crime film written and directed by michael mann. it features an ensemble cast led by al pacino and robert de niro with tom sizemore jon voight amy brenneman ashley judd wes studi and val kilmer in supporting roles. the film follows the conflict between an lapd detective (played by pacino) and a career criminal (played by de niro) while also depicting its effect on ir professional relationships and personal lives 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. the script was first used for a television pilot developed by mann which became the 1989 television film l.a. takedown after the pilot did not receive a series order. in 1994 mann revisited the script to turn it into a feature film co-producing the project with art linson. the film marks de niro and pacino's first on-screen appearance together following a period of acclaimed performances from both. due to ir esteemed reputations promotion centered on ir involvement heat was released by warner bros. pictures on december 15 1995 to critical and commercial success. it grossed $187 million on a $60 million budget while receiving praise for mann's direction and screenplay action sequences sound mixing and the performances of pacino and de niro. although it did not receive any major award nominations heat is regarded as one of the most influential films of its genre and has inspired several other works. a sequel was announced to be in development on july 20 2022 # plot neil mccauley is a professional thief based in los angeles. ey and ir crew - right hand man chris shiherlis enforcer michael cheritto driver gilbert trejo and newly hired hand waingro - rob $1.6 million in bearer bonds from an armored car. during the heist waingro kills a guard without provocation. mccauley kills a second guard who attempts to pull out ir concealed weapon and cheritto kills the third guard so as to not leave any witnesses. later mccauley prepares to kill waingro for causing the deaths of the three guards but ey escapes lapd lieutenant vincent hanna and ir team investigate the robbery. hanna a dedicated lawman and former marine has a strained relationship with ir third wife justine and struggles to connect with ir stepdaughter lauren. mccauley follows a code: "allow nothing to be in your life that you cannot walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you spot the heat around the corner." while at a restaurant mccauley meets eady a young graphic designer with whom ey begins a relationship mccauley's fence nate suggests ey sell the stolen bonds back to ir original owner money launderer roger van zant. van zant pretends to agree but instead arranges an ambush. anticipating a trap mccauley and ir crew counter-ambush kill the hitmen and vow to kill van zant. waingro murders a prostitute; hanna's team investigates discovering evidence that links it to the murder of other prostitutes victims of a serial killer. an informant of the lapd connects cheritto to the robbery and hanna's team begins monitoring ir leading to the rest of the crew and ir next target a precious metals depository. hanna's team stakes out the depository but when a careless officer makes a noise mccauley has ir crew walk off the job mccauley's crew agree to one last bank robbery worth $12.2 million. hanna tracks mccauley and pulls ir over on the 105 freeway inviting ir to coffee. they discuss ir dedication to ir respective jobs and the limitations of ir personal lives; hanna describes ir failing marriage and mccauley confides that ey is similarly isolated. though they admit ir respect for one another both acknowledge that they will kill the other if necessary. waingro makes a deal with van zant to help eliminate mccauley's crew. trejo quits the bank robbery at the last moment claiming the lapd is following ir too closely. mccauley recruits an old colleague don breedan to take trejo's place as the getaway driver and the crew carries out the heist acting on a tip from van zant's bodyguard the lapd intercepts the crew as they leave the bank resulting in a massive shootout during which breedan and several officers are killed. mccauley manages to escape with a wounded shiherlis. cheritto attempts to flee but is shot dead by hanna. after leaving shiherlis with nate mccauley arrives at trejo's house to find ir mortally wounded and ir wife killed. trejo reveals waingro and van zant's involvement before asking mccauley to kill ir. mccauley breaks into van zant's mansion and shoots ir dead. upon learning of mccauley's connection to waingro and discovering that waingro is hiding at a hotel hanna's unit decides to use ir as bait to lure mccauley. as mccauley prepares to flee the country eady discovers ir criminal identity but agrees to go with ir. before escaping shiherlis attempts to reconcile with ir wife charlene who has been forced by the lapd to bring in ir husband. ey encounters ir at ir hotel they warns ir away with a hand gesture and ey escapes having separated from justine hanna finds lauren has attempted suicide in ir own hotel room and rushes ir to the hospital; ey reconciles with justine after they learn that lauren has survived. mccauley drives to the airport with eady but ey learns waingro's location and abandons ir usual caution to seek revenge. mccauley infiltrates the hotel pulls the fire alarm bursts into waingro's room and kills ir. as mccauley returns to eady ey is spotted by hanna. mccauley abandons eady fleeing onto the tarmac at the los angeles international airport pursued by hanna. the two stalk each other and hanna shoots mccauley in the chest. hanna takes mccauley's hand as mccauley dies of ir wounds # cast **+** al pacino as lieutenant vincent hanna lapd **+** 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 bobby drucker **+** wes studi as lieutenant sammy casals **+** ted levine as detective mike bosko **+** dennis haysbert as don breedan **+** william fichtner as roger van zant **+** natalie portman as lauren gustafson **+** tom noonan as kelso **+** kevin gage as waingro **+** hank azaria as alan marciano **+** danny trejo as gilbert trejo **+** susan traylor as elaine cheritto **+** kim staunton as lillian **+** henry rollins as hugh benny **+** jerry trimble as detective danny schwartz **+** tone loc as richard torena **+** ricky harris as albert torena **+** ray buktenica as timmons **+** jeremy piven as dr. bob **+** xander berkeley as ralph **+** bud cort as solenko **+** dan martin as detective harry dieter **+** steven ford as lapd officer bruce **+** paul herman as lapd sergeant heinz **+** farrah forke as claudia **+** niki haris as marcia drucker additional cast members include martin ferrero as a construction clerk hazelle goodman as the mother of a prostitute murdered by waingro patricia healy as a woman in a relationship with bosko thomas elfmont as an undercover officer posing as a hotel clerk and yvonne zima as the girl taken hostage by cheritto. stuntmen rick avery bill mcintosh and thomas rosales jr. portray the ill-fated armored truck guards # development # # factual basis heat 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 as mentioned in the film. ey was released in 1962 and immediately began planning new crimes. michael parille and william pinkerton used bolt cutters and drills to rob a manufacturing company of diamond drill bits which is recreated in the film. pacino's character is largely based on detective chuck adamson who began keeping tabs on mccauley's crew knowing that ey had begun committing crimes again. the two even met for coffee once just as portrayed in the film. ir dialogue in the script was based on the conversation that mccauley and adamson had. the next time that the two met guns were drawn just as the movie portrays on march 25 1964 mccauley and members of ir regular crew followed an armored car that delivered money to a national tea grocery store at 4720 s. cicero avenue chicago. once the drop was made three of the robbers entered the store. they threatened the clerks and stole money bags worth $13-137 (equivalent to $124-000 in 2022) before they sped off in a rainstorm amid police gunfire 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 realised 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 very loosely based) shot ir way out and escaped. mccauley was shot to death on the lawn of a nearby home. ey was 50 years old and the prime suspect in several burglaries. polesti was caught days later and sent to prison. polesti was still alive in 2011 adamson went on to a successful career as a television and film producer and ey died in 2008 at age 71. mann's 2009 film public enemies stated in its end credits "in memory of chuck adamson" the character of nate played by jon voight is based on edward bunker who served as a consultant to mann on the film # # canceled tv series in 1979 mann wrote a 180-page draft of heat. ey re-wrote it after making thief in 1981 hoping to find a director to make it and mentioning it publicly in a promotional interview for ir 1983 film the keep. in the late 1980s ey offered the film to ir friend film director walter hill who turned ir down. following the success of miami vice and crime story mann was to produce a new crime television show for nbc. ey turned the script that would become heat into a 90-minute pilot for a television series featuring the los angeles police department robbery-homicide division featuring scott plank in the role of hanna and alex mcarthur playing the character of neil mccauley renamed to patrick mclaren. the pilot was shot in only nineteen days atypical for mann. the script was abridged down to almost a third of its original length omitting many subplots that made it into heat. the network was unhappy with plank as the lead actor and asked mann to recast hanna's role. mann declined and the show was canceled and the pilot aired on august 27 1989 as a television film entitled l.a. takedown which was later released on vhs and dvd in europe # production # # pre-production on april 5 1994 mann was reported to have abandoned ir earlier plan to shoot a biopic of james dean in favor of directing heat producing it with art linson. the film was marketed as the first on-screen appearance of al pacino and robert de niro together in the same scene - both actors had previously starred in the godfather part ii but owing to the film's double story structure they were never seen in the same scene. pacino and de niro were mann's first choices for the roles of hanna and mccauley respectively and they both immediately agreed to act mann assigned janice polley a former collaborator on the last of the mohicans as the film's location manager. scouting locations lasted from august to december 1994. mann requested locations which had not appeared on film before in which polley was successful - fewer than 10 of the 85 filming locations were previously used. the most challenging shooting location proved to be los angeles international airport with the film crew almost missing out due to a threat to the airport by the unabomber. on the dvd commentary mann noted it would be impossible to film the airport climax in the same way following the events of 9/11 to make the long shootout more realistic they hired british ex-special air service sergeant andy mcnab as a technical weapons trainer and adviser. ey designed a weapons training curriculum to train 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 # # casting de niro was the first cast member to receive the film script showing it to pacino who also wanted to be a part of the film. de niro believed that heat was a "very good story had a particular feel to it a reality and authenticity." in 2016 pacino revealed that ey viewed ir character as having been under the influence of cocaine throughout the whole film mann took kilmer sizemore and de niro to folsom state prison to interview actual career criminals to prepare for ir roles. while researching ir role judd met several former prostitutes who became housewives keanu reeves was offered the role of chris shiherlis but ey turned it down in favor of playing hamlet at the manitoba theatre centre. as a result val kilmer was given the role # # filming principal photography for heat lasted 107 days during the summer of 1995. all of the shooting was done on location due to mann's decision not to use a soundstage # release # # box office 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 box offices and $120 million in foreign box offices. heat was ranked the #25 highest-grossing film of 1995 # # home media heat was released on vhs on november 12 1996 by warner home video. due to its running time the film had to be released on two cassettes. a dvd release followed on july 27 1999. a two-disc special-edition dvd was released by warner home video on february 22 2005 featuring an audio commentary by michael mann deleted scenes and numerous documentaries detailing the film's production. this edition contains the original theatrical cut the initial blu-ray disc was released by warner home video on november 10 2009 featuring a high-definition film transfer supervised by mann. among the disc extras were mann's audio commentary a one-hour documentary about the making of the film and ten minutes worth of scenes cut from the film. as well as approving the look of the transfer mann also recut two scenes slightly differently referring to them as "new content changes" 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 ir part-ownership of regency back in 2015. sourced from a 4k remaster of the film supervised by mann the two-disc set contains all the extras from the 2009 blu-ray along with two filmmakers panels from 2015 and 2016 one of which was moderated by christopher nolan. 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 was released on august 9 2022 by walt disney studios home entertainment (under the 20th century studios label) 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. pictures logo at the beginning although the in-credit closing is retained heat was broadcast on nbc television on january 3 1999 in a significantly edited version. mann had offered the network scenes which had been filmed but omitted from the theatrical edit in hopes of having the film shown in four hours (w/ 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 (w/ commercials.) mann told variety "they cut so much out of the movie that they destroyed the narrative of the film along with its integrity.... too much time was taken out of the film that wasn't due to language or other content." as a result mann had ir director's credit on the tv version replaced with the pseudonym "alan smithee" # # reception on rotten tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 88% based on 83 reviews and an average rating of 7.9/10. the website's critical consensus reads "though al pacino and robert de niro share but a handful of screen minutes together heat is an engrossing crime drama that draws compelling performances from its stars - and confirms michael mann's mastery of the genre." on metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100 based on 22 critics indicating "generally favorable reviews." audiences polled by cinemascore gave the film an average grade of "a−" on an a+ to f scale roger ebert gave the film three and a half stars out of four. ey 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. of the many imprisonments possible in our world one of the worst must be to be inarticulate - to be unable to tell another person what you really feel." simon cote of the austin chronicle called the film "one of the most intelligent crime-thrillers to come along in years" and said pacino and de niro's scenes together were "poignant and gripping" 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 characterisations and its thoughtful deeply melancholy take on modern life." owen gleiberman of entertainment weekly gave it a b− rating saying that "mann's action scenes ... have an existential you-are-there jitteriness-" but called the heist-planning and hanna's investigation scenes "dry talky" rolling stone ranked heat #28 on its list of "the 100 greatest movies of the '90s" and the guardian ranked it #22 on its list of "the greatest crime films of all time" while other publications have noted its influence on numerous subsequent films # soundtrack on december 19 1995 warner bros. records released a soundtrack album on cassette and cd to accompany the film entitled heat: music from the motion picture. the album was produced by matthias gohl. it contains a 29-minute selection of the film score composed by elliot goldenthal as well as songs by other artists such as u2 and brian eno (collaborating as passengers) terje rypdal moby and lisa gerrard. heat used an abridged instrumental rendition of the joy division song "new dawn fades" by moby which also features in the same form on the soundtrack album. mann reused the einstürzende neubauten track "armenia" in ir 1999 film the insider. the film ends with moby's "god moving over the face of the waters" a different version of which was included at the end of the soundtrack album mann and goldenthal decided on an atmospheric situation for the film soundtrack. goldenthal used a setup consisting of multiple guitars which ey termed "guitar orchestra" and thought it brought the film score closer to a european style. the soundtrack was noted for lack of a central theme. christian clemmensen of filmtracks.com criticised the omission from the album of much music heard in the film due to the film's length but praised the album as a decent listening experience and goldenthal's score as "psychologically engaging and intellectually challenging" believing it to be one of goldenthal's best. allmusic called it a "soundtrack for the mind ... full of twists and turns." musicfromthemovies.com thought of the album as uncharacteristic for goldenthal's style calling the atmosphere "absolutely electrifying" # impact french gangster redoine 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 mătăsăreanu 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. phillips had a copy of the movie where ey lived. this shootout is considered one of the longest and bloodiest events of its type in american police history. both robbers were killed and eleven police officers and seven civilians were injured during the shootout. heat was widely referenced during the coverage of the shootout for ir film the dark knight director christopher nolan drew inspiration in ir portrayal of gotham city from heat in order "to tell a very large city story or the story of a city." in 2016 a year after the 20th anniversary of heat nolan moderated a q&a session with michael mann and cast and crew at the samuel goldwyn theater heat was one of the inspirations behind the highly influential 2001 video garme grand theft auto iii as well as the 2008 sequel grand theft auto iv notably the mission "three leaf clover" which was inspired by the climactic bank robbery and police shootout and the 2013 sequel grand theft auto v notably the mission "blitz play" where the crew blocks and then knocks over an armored car in order to rob it director mia hansen-løve has said they is "obsessed" with heat and said "the themes of heat actually are themes of my films except in a very different way in a very different world" # subsequent works "heat 2" redirects here. not to be confused with the heat 2 on march 16 2016 mann announced that ey was developing a heat prequel novel as a part of launching ir 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. the title is heat 2 in september 2019 michael mann stated that ey intends to produce an adaptation of the novel acknowledging film and television as possible mediums for release. by july 5 2022 mann reaffirmed ir plans to adapt the novel follow-up into a feature film while stating that the principal cast from the first installment may be recast for the adaptation. in april 2023 it was reported that the sequel was in development with adam driver in talks to play young mccauley // republic of bob