A stellar cast sizzles in Heat, a taut psychological drama about an obsessive detective and a brilliant thief whose fates are linked in the aftermath of a high-stakes securities heist.
Brilliant LAPD robbery/homicide cop Lt. Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) follows the trail from an armoured car robbery which left three people dead and becomes fixated on deadly but equally brilliant master thief Neil McCauley (Robert DeNiro) and his crew who are taking Los Angeles to the cleaners.
Vincent is on his third marriage, though judging from the dissatisfied state of mind of his Prozac-gobbling wife, Justine (Diane Venora) he’s soon about to be in the market again.
Neil, on the other hand, believes you should never become involved with anything you can’t walk away from in 30 seconds – he doesn’t even have any furniture in his apartment. But when graphic artist Eady (Amy Brenneman) comes on to him, he finds himself falling in love for the first time.
Both men have surrogate “families” outside their homes. For Vincent, it’s his squad of hard-nosed cops with whom he inevitably spends more time than with his wife and emotionally unbalanced step-daughter. For Neil, it’s his gang of fellow crooks including the unstable Chris (Val Kilmer) and the shady Nate (a creepy-looking Jon Voight), his silent partner in crime.
When Neil catches Chris’ wife, Charlene (Ashley Judd) in an extramarital tryst, he becomes a de facto marriage counsellor, and despite Neil’s short temper, his affection for his partners is always unmistakable.
Heat includes one of the most spectacular shoot-outs in film history as DeNiro and Kilmer rip through downtown Los Angeles with both guns blazing in an all-out firefight when the cops interrupt a bank robbery.
Lt. Vincent Hanna
Al Pacino
Neil McCauley
Robert De Niro
Chris Shiherlis
Val Kilmer
Nate
Jon Voight
Michael Cheritto
Tom Sizemore
Justine
Diane Venora
Eady
Amy Brenneman
Charlene Shiherlis
Ashley Judd
Sergeant Drucker
Mykelti Williamson
Casals
Wes Studi
Bosko
Ted Levine
Donald Breedan
Dennis Haysbert
Roger Van Zant
William Fichtner
Lauren Gustafson
Natalie Portman
Kelso
Tom Noonan
Director
Michael Mann