Heat

Deserves a higher rating than 82%. This movie is perfection in motion. Great cast, great direction, great music, great dialogue, great cinematography, I could go on and on... Just see it. Just love it. Just watch it over, and over, and over, and over...

Heat has so many iconic scenes, it's impossible. The _"How about I buy you a coffee"_ scene. Two of the biggest stars face-to-face in one shot. Perhaps the best bank robbery to be seen in film with an absolutely unreal shootout. The _"Do we have time for this?"_ scene where Neil's journey goes the wrong way and of course the final _"I told you I'd never go back"_ scene and handshake. **Never gets old.** And I agree, Michael Mann's best film.

I never truly got the fascination with these two actors, and that was after seeing Taxi Driver + The Godfather i&ii, until this film. Brilliant on both ends, which is why the ending was going to shatter my heart regardless of the outcome. And it did.

Michael Mann delivers a very satisfying heist thriller. The main plot is engaging but there were a few sub plots that could of been cut to make this a perfect movie. All the shootouts and heists are incredibly tense and were shot well. De Niro and Pacino both give fantastic performances at the height of their careers. The diner scene with them just talking is one of the best scenes and needs no action to make it tense. Both are fully realised characters and makes it hard to pick which side to root for. A little bit of over acting from Pacino, especially in that scene with Hank Azaria, but I love it.

The shootout scene is as visceral as it gets. The coffee shop scene is as legendary as it gets. The cast is as deep as it gets. Heat is epic on every level, especially in its tragic expression of self-destructive loneliness.

The tension and style of the bank heist scene felt Nolan-esque to the point where my head cannon now believes the Fichtner casting at the beginning of The Dark Knight is a referential acknowledgement to a film that inspired him and the scene.

God I cannot describe how *much* I love the opening 15 minutes of this movie; ***perfectly*** establishes the professionalism of Neil and his crew, minus the new wildcard Waingro, while also establishing how badly on the ropes Vincent and Justine's marriage is because of how addicted to his job he is, showing that Vincent actually cares about his mentally unstable stepdaughter, capping it off with a perfectly executed armored car robbery...until Waingro gets his rocks off, setting up the *entire* cat-n-mouse game between Vincent and Neil. All of that *perfect* exposition in 13 minutes with almost *zero* dialogue; the opening act is a masterclass in "show, don't tell" storytelling.

Nate: A million six. Forty cents on the dollar, that's $640,000 to you. Here's 150 front money. Get you the rest in two, three days. Know who owned these?

Neil: "Malibu Equity and Investments?"

Nate: Roger Van Zant. Owns banks in the Caymans, runs investment portfolios for offshore drug money. Stuff like that.

Neil: So?

Nate: So, you ripped off his bearer bonds.

Neil: He's got insurance.

Nate: That's the point. He collects 100 percent from the insurance, he's a player. Maybe he buys his bonds back from us for 60 percent of their value? Make 40 percent on top of the 100 percent. Sell it back to him instead of going to the street, that's an extra 320,000 to you.

***This*** exchange is what prompted me to start thinking up a wild fan theory about Nate: if you've seen this before, [spoiler]you know *exactly* how this "deal" goes down for Neil and his crew: Van Zant tries to kill them for robbing him, starting an all-out war between Neil's crew and Roger Van Zant. Now, I have *no* idea why Nate would intentionally sabotage Neil and his crew, but Nate is the ***one*** character that Neil unquestionably trusts. Which makes you wonder, how in the hell did a thrill-seeking psychopathic serial killer like Waingro wind up on Neil's crew? The entire movie is a testament to Neil's cautious instincts, so I can't imagine Neil sat down with Waingro for a formal interview for the armored car robbery, so who the fuck recommended Waingro be their fifth man, someone whose judgement Neil doesn't question? Nate. Waingro murdering that armored car guard is what sets off the entire LAPD MCU investigation into Neil's crew, and Nate's suggestion to sell Van Zant his own bearer bonds back to him for extra cash is what sets off Waingro going to work with Van Zant and eventually torture Trejo enough to get the name, date, and location of the epic bank robbery later... so it makes you wonder how someone as connected as Nate could make two of the *worst* calls for Neil's crew?[/spoiler] Unless it was intentional?

Vincent taking a calculated risk to pull over Neil so the two could have one of the *greatest* fête-à-têtes in film history is always so fucking fun to watch, especially with the harder cover of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" accompanying the "chase"; I will **never** forget how heavily marketed Pacino and De Nero being on-screen "together" again for the first time since The Godfather Part II this scene was, even though neither actor interacted with each other in that movie, since Vito (De Niro) died at the end of The Godfather, and Michael (Pacino) was Vito's son. ***This*** was such a huge fucking deal that these two *massive* film veterans sharing a scene together in a mostly unrehearsed scene set expectations to such high levels that there's no way this movie would be so venerated 30-ish years later if this scene was a giant nothing burger. The mutual respect Neil and Vincent have for each other, both in the writing and their performances, is what makes this scene *so* fucking memorable; they both recognize each other as equal adversaries and respect their commitment to their professionalism, to the point that they feel "safe" enough to open up with things they'd never tell anyone else, let alone their lovers. Proving how much each of them are in *desperate* fucking need of therapy, but they'd only be *that* honest with a recognized equal, not some "pussy liberal" PhD doctorate psychologist who *might* report their law-breaking actions.

Waingro's "moves" come to fruition. And all it was that started the firefight was one veteran Major Crimes Unit cop misjudging the timing of a bus putting him in full view of Chris' over-developed trigger finger. RIP Bosko and Donald Breedan.

The look of panicked grief on Vincent's face when he sees Lauren in that tub is so fucking heartbreaking, as are his "What a fucking waste! Assholes shoot themselves all fucking day. Not you, baby. Not you!" lines to her while he's trying to wrap up her wounds. She may not have been his biological daughter, and his marriage with her mother was almost certainly over, but he still cared for his stepdaughter and wanted her to be okay. And Vincent refusing to let his anger with Justine push him away from her while her entire world is falling apart after her daughter's suicide attempt is such a classy move on his part. Justine later realizing the significance of Lauren choosing Vincent's hotel for this is also heartbreaking; she didn't want her mother to find her and her father clearly didn't give a shit, but she knew Vincent did.

Neil just couldn't let it go. Now that he knew *exactly* where Waingro was, he just couldn't let Waingro's treachery slide; ***everything*** that's gone wrong for Neil and his crew began the second Waingro pulled that trigger during the armored car robbery, and he's responsible for Michael's and Trejo's deaths. That just couldn't slide for Neil now that he knows where he is. "Look at me!" Waingro getting the Mozambique Drill -- two in the chest, one in the head -- is so fucking satisfying; even beyond selling Neil and his crew out, he's a serial killing Nazi that preferred killing underage girls who deserved what he got just for that alone.

And now Neil's ultimate credo is tested; he's already broken his own rules by caring so much for Eady, but now that he can see Vincent coming, he remember Jimmy MacAwain's advice and runs: "Have no attachments, 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." And there's dumb luck again fucking Neil over; he had no way of knowing when the runway lights would turn on again, allowing Vincent to see his shadow and spin to hit Neil with his shots. "I told you I'm ever going back." The hunter takes the hand of his dying prey, a show of mutual respect for another consummate professional who'd been the hardest armed robber to capture/kill in his entire career.

Fuck, now I gotta go and find a copy of the novel Heat 2 that Michael Mann wrote and is currently adapting into a prequel/sequel for this movie.

For me the sun rises and sets with [Heat (1995)], man.

"Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner."

What a delightful rewatch this was! This is Michael Mann's best film. And it always a good sign if a three hour film doesn't feel like three hours right?

Ps. She had a great ass!!

That's cause she's got a.. GRRRREAT ASSSSS...and you've got your head...ALL the way UP IT!!!