Rewatchables Reference

• The first armored truck robbery – 'the truck feels like it's going through from the right side of your living room all the way through to the left side.' The shape charge blowing out all the back windows of the car lot.
• Big Boy's diner – Waingro eating pie after killing three people, Neil slamming his head into the counter, and the plastic-lined murder trunk in the parking lot.
• Neil and Edie meeting for the first time – 'Lady, why you so interested in what I read or what I do?' The best chemistry De Niro has ever had with an actress.
• Neil's gang debating the bank heist – 'the bank is worth the risk' and Sizemore's 'for me, the action is the juice' heat check against De Niro.
• The LAPD realizing the criminals have made them – 'you know what? They're looking at us. The LAPD Police Department. We just got made.'
• The diner scene between Pacino and De Niro – 'one of the most famous scenes in the last 40 years in movies.' Take 11, never rehearsed per De Niro's request. A split decision, 115 to 114.
• The bank robbery shootout – 'probably the GOAT bank shootout.' Nobody has figured out how to do a bank robbery scene since this movie.
• Neil killing Waingro and walking away from Edie at LAX.
• Vincent vs. Albert – Pacino ad-libbing 'give me all you got' and 'by the time I get to Phoenix' while the editing can't keep up.

• 'For me, the action is the juice' – Sizemore's heat check against De Niro, going for it like Reggie Miller against Jordan.
• Ashley Judd – 'the sun rises and sets with her, man.'
• Dennis Haysbert quitting the diner and beating the shit out of his boss.
• The electronic surveillance pre-digital age – wire taps, pay phones, losing somebody by going to the airport and coming out in a different car.
• Moby's 'God Moving Over the Face of the Waters' and the Elliot Goldenthal score.
• Vincent Hanna's gold chains and bracelets jewelry.
• Michael Mann's version of Los Angeles – only 10 of the 85 locations had ever been used in movies before. The LA locations take on new life when you actually move there.
• 'I'm talking to an empty telephone because there's a dead man on the other end of this fucking line' – the best threat ever on a phone in the history of cinema.

• Neil's apartment – no furniture at all. 'Can't get a couch?'
• House of Pain's 'Jump Around' at the nightclub – 'one of the worst moments in the movie.'
• Pay phones as an integral character in the movie.
• Jeremy Piven's hair – 'rough times. Didn't have the Entourage toupee yet.'
• Pacino beating up Henry Rollins – a late-50s Pacino stone cold Steve Austining a guy seven times bigger than him.
• The very beginning with Pacino making out – 'when I see you making out in a movie, it's just fucking gross.'
• Justine's remarkably sophisticated description of Vincent – 'you don't live with me, you live among the remains of dead people.'

• Michael Mann sent the script to Walter Hill to direct. If the news had come out that Walter Hill and Michael Mann were collaborating on a bank heist movie, Bill 'would have had to have been carried out of my dorm room.'
• Keanu Reeves was originally signed to play Chris (Val Kilmer's character), but lost the part when Kilmer squeezed it into his 'Batman' Forever schedule.
• Michael Madsen was originally cast as Michael Cheritto, ultimately replaced by Tom Sizemore for 'unknown reasons.'
• Don Johnson was briefly considered for the part of Michael Cheritto and also discussed as a possible backup for both De Niro and Pacino.
• William Petersen allegedly turned down the role of Michael Cheritto.
• Ted Levine (Buffalo Bill) was originally offered the part of Waingro but turned it down – felt he was being typecast. Asked to play Bosko instead.
• Jon Voight initially turned down the part of Nate, told Mann several actors could perform the part better.
• Gong Li was offered the role of Justine – she refused unless the script was translated into Mandarin. Mann later worked with her on 'Miami Vice'.
• James Caan lamented during a 1998 DVD commentary for Thief that he didn't have a role in Heat.

• Waingro (Kevin Gage) – the ultimate 'that guy.' Went to prison for two years in 2003 and was universally addressed by inmates and guards as 'Waingro.'
• Dennis Haysbert's diner boss – 'three scenes and you're just like, oh, fucking punch that guy.' The consensus Dion Waiters pick over Waingro.
• Also nominated: Wes Studi (Last of the Mohicans guy), Ted Levine (Buffalo Bill), Mykelti Williamson (Bubba from 'Forrest Gump'), Tom Noonan ('Manhunter' guy), Brian Libby (Silent Rage and Shawshank), William Fichtner, Tone Loc.

• Al Pacino retires the award – renamed the 'Vincent Hanna Over-Acting Award' for the next 100 episodes. 'Give me all you got.'
• Runner-up: Natalie Portman – 'Mom! My barrettes aren't on the couch!'

• Laurence Fishburne in the Mykelti Williamson role – Tarantino raved about Fishburne as the Brando of his generation. Chris could also see Fishburne as Neil.
• Ed Norton as Van Zandt – 'a year before 'Primal Fear', early Ed Norton.'
• For a 10-episode streaming remake: Brad Pitt as Neil McCauley, Leonardo DiCaprio as Vincent Hanna, or Robert Downey Jr. as Neil with Brad Pitt as Vincent.

• The cast spent time at Folsom Prison and with real-life LAPD detectives for preparation.
• Kevin Gage went to prison for two years in 2003 and was universally called 'Waingro' by inmates and guards. The real Waingro was a Chicago criminal who ratted out influential criminals – his body was found nailed to the wall of a shed in northern Mexico.
• Kate Mantolini's, the famous diner where the De Niro/Pacino scene was filmed, closed in 2014. It was on Wilshire Blvd, Table 71.
• Xander Berkeley (Ralph) played Waingro in the TV movie LA Takedown, the precursor to Heat.
• Michael Mann said Neil's signature gray suits were designed to help him blend into a crowd, and his shirt collars were starched because that's how they do it in prison.
• The diner scene took 11 takes and was never rehearsed, per De Niro's request.
• The 1997 North Hollywood shootout – the longest and bloodiest police event of its type in American history – was partly blamed on the film Heat.

• Michael Mann – yes. 'The best movie he's ever made. I think he probably thinks that.'
• Late prime/post-prime Al Pacino – yes. The run from 'Scent of a Woman' through 'Any Given Sunday', but Heat is the crown jewel.
• Character actor Jon Voight – yes. 'This is when the journey starts for him.' His makeup artist gets Dion Waiters.
• Kate Mantolini's restaurant.
• LA bank robbery movies.
• Amy Brenneman – NYPD Blue and Heat back to back, leading to Judging Amy.
• Not Val Kilmer's Apex Mountain (probably 'Tombstone'), not Ashley Judd's (probably Double Jeopardy), not Tom Sizemore's (probably 'Saving Private Ryan').

• How does Waingro escape when Neil is standing over him with a gun to his head? He somehow rolls 50 yards away.
• Kilmer's walk out of the bank takes too long – in the time it takes him to walk 25 yards, Pacino pulls in with a car and they go four blocks. The editing doesn't add up.
• The entire investigation hinges on a witness hearing someone say 'slick' – and Tone Loc knowing exactly one person in all of LA who uses that word.
• Pacino commandeering an LAPD helicopter just to take Neil to coffee.
• Michael Mann's refusal to acknowledge that LA locations are far away from one another – Venice is right next to downtown, there's never any traffic.
• All the criminals going to a fancy dinner together immediately after pulling off a huge heist.
• Neil hiring a fry cook as a getaway driver – 'you remember the drill? Yeah, I'm good. OK, great, here's a gun.'

• Is there a more evil act by a bad guy in a movie than using a little kid as a human shield?
• Did Tom Noonan invent the Internet? 'It's just out there. You just got to know to grab it.'
• Would Pacino really be able to catch De Niro in a sprint? 'Not on cocaine and probably 2 packs a day.'
• What happened to Chris Shiherlis? 'Dead within two years – killed by somebody he owes money to in Las Vegas.'
• Was Neil a hypocrite? He preaches walking away in 30 seconds but goes back for Chris during the bank robbery, falls in love with Edie, and hires a fry cook for a heist.
• What is 'Heat 2'? Generational sequel with Natalie Portman's character as a detective, Dominic grown up, and Neil and Edie's illegitimate son.

Yes – 'it IS a 10-episode Netflix show.' It has an antihero you're not supposed to root for, it's the template for prestige TV from The Wire to Breaking Bad. Bill officially announced he's ready for a Heat streaming series with Michael Mann as executive producer.

Chris: Pacino – 'the engine of this movie, brings energy in every single scene.' Bill: Michael Mann – 'he pulled it off. He got these two awesome actors to basically do their thing. It's almost perfectly cast. It holds up beautifully. It creates the antihero template.'