History YMMV / Heat

** The film is known for the climactic bank robbery scene, where Neil and his gang get into a gunfight with the police and shoot up Downtown LA with automatic rifles. Then, two years after the movie's release, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Hollywood_shootout North Hollywood shootout]] happened as two gunmen armed with automatic rifles robbed a bank, then were killed after a ''44 minute'' shootout with the Los Angeles Police Department. No police officers were killed in the North Hollywood shootout, but some were badly wounded, and remember, this shootout was six times longer than the film's shootout, which lasts just under seven minutes. It's also of note that the robbers of the North Hollywood Shootout reportedly watched this film numerous times.

* TheWoobie: Lillian is a good person who tells Don she's proud of him for getting parole and working at a job he hates rather than fall back into his old ways. She's completely unaware of the larger plot, and the next thing she knows, she's finding out ''from the news'' that he participated in a bank robbery and was shot and killed by the police.

* RetroactiveRecognition: A young Creator/NataliePortman as Hanna's stepdaughter Lauren Gustafson.

** The bank shootout is almost as iconic as the above for it's excellent cinematography and blistering energy, perfectly replicating the tension of a real-life shootout.

!!''Heat 2'', by Creator/MichaelMann & Meg Gardiner
* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Otis Lloyd Wardell]] is a [[AxCrazy psychopathic animal of a man]] who proves to be the worst kind of criminal that Neil [=McCauley=] and Detective Vincent Hanna ever faced. The boss of a gang of home invaders, Wardell stages his break-ins when the occupants of the homes are present so that he can terrorize them all, always raping the women and ferociously beating the men. With a trail of [[SerialRapist rapes]] and [[SerialKiller murders]] behind him, Wardell [[EstablishingCharacterMoment introduces himself]] planning to rape a teenage girl before forcing the most hesitant member of his gang [[RapeByProxy to do it instead]] while Wardell rapes and tortures the girl's mother, then beats her father to death. With a penchant for [[CigaretteBurns putting out lit cigarettes on his victims]], [[TortureTechnician Wardell]] graduates in his torturous ways by impaling and suspending a man with a hook before [[CripplingCastration burning off the man's genitals]] and torturing him to death. Catching a whiff of Neil [=McCauley's=] latest heist, Wardell beats one of Neil's allies to death before torturing and murdering Neil's lover Elisa after promising to let her go in exchange for Neil's loot. Using Neil's riches to finance his own [[HumanTrafficking trafficking operation]] of underage girls who Wardell personally rapes--and sometimes murders--on a routine basis, Wardell continues to torture and kill anyone who crosses him before initiating a massive shoot-out in the middle of a crowded freeway, casually gunning down several civilians in the way of his goal to rape and kill Elisa's daughter out of spite.

** The bank shootout.

* SpiritualSuccessor: To Mann's earlier films ''{{Film/Thief}}'' and ''{{Film/Manhunter}}''.

** Unusually, it's a one scene ''pairing''. The two lead characters spend the whole movie plotting against one another, but never meet and aren't on screen together except for one great scene where they sit down and have coffee and the final showdown. Notable, because it's the first time Creator/AlPacino and Creator/RobertDeNiro ever did a scene together.

* JustHereForGodzilla: For many people, the main draw of this film is seeing Robert [=DeNiro=] and Al Pacino go head to head for the first time ever. Which is somewhat unfortunate as it's a terrific film with some excellent performances from the supporting cast.

* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Otis Lloyd Wardell]] is a [[AxCrazy psychopathic animal of a man]] who proves to be the worst kind of criminal that Neil [=McCauley=] and Detective Vincent Hanna ever faced. The boss of a gang of home invaders, Wardell stages his break-ins when the occupants of the homes are present so that he can terrorize them all, always raping the women and ferociously beating the men. With a trail of [[SerialRapist rapes]] and [[SerialKiller murders]] behind him, Wardell [[EstablishingCharacterMoment introduces himself]] planning to rape a teenage girl before forcing the most hesitant member of his gang [[RapeByProxy to do it instead]] while Wardell rapes and tortures the girl's mother, then beats her father to death. With a penchant for [[CigaretteBurns putting out lit cigarettes on his victims]], [[TortureTechnician Wardell]] graduates in his torturous ways by impaling and suspending a man with a hook before [[CripplingCastration burning off the man's genitals]] and torturing him to death. Catching a whiff of Neil [=McCauley's=] latest heist, Wardell beats one of Neil's allies to death before torturing and murdering Neil's lover Elisa [[ILied after promising to let her go]] in exchange for Neil's loot. Using Neil's riches to finance his own [[HumanTrafficking trafficking operation]] of underage girls who Wardell personally rapes--and sometimes murders--on a routine basis, Wardell continues to torture and kill anyone who crosses him before initiating a massive shoot-out in the middle of a crowded freeway, casually gunning down several civilians in the way of his goal to rape and kill Elisa's daughter out of spite.

* HollywoodHomely: Eady's looks are never addressed in the film, but she talks a lot about being lonely and having trouble finding other people to connect with. In the real world, it's hard to imagine a woman who looks like Creator/AmyBrenneman lacking attention.

* CompleteMonster: Waingro is a PsychoForHire initially brought in as a newcomer to [[NobleDemon Neil McCauley's]] team to assist in an armored truck robbery. During the job, Waingro murders one of the guards [[DisproportionateRetribution for looking at him funny]], necessitating the deaths of the other two guards to eliminate witnesses. His cohorts, [[EvenEvilHasStandards disgusted by his actions]], try to kill him, only for Waingro to escape and begin working for their enemy, Roger Van Zant. Waingro and Van Zant tip off the police in the middle of the crew's newest job, resulting in a massive shootout in the streets of LA. Waingro got this information by holding [[spoiler:Trejo's]] wife hostage, only to viciously rape and murder her afterwards, then mortally wound [[spoiler:Trejo]] and leave him for dead. Waingro is also a SerialKiller who solicits underage prostitutes then bashes their skulls in.

* MagnificentBastard: Neil [=McCauley=] is a master thief who organizes masterful heists to keep his lifestyle going. Pulling off a daring heist against an armored car to steal bearer bonds and then sell them back to their original owner, things go wrong when the psychotic Waingro executes a guard and escapes Neil's attempt to kill him in retribution. Neil then plans a masterful bank heist, executing it almost flawlessly if not for Waingro and his arch-nemesis Steve van Zant tipping off the cops. After losing his friends and comrades, Neil even forsakes a chance to get to safety [[RevengeBeforeReason in order to avenge them]] by killing van Zant and Waingro before facing off with his nemesis, LAPD cop Vincent Hanna with whom he shares [[WorthyOpponent an incredible respect]] despite being on the opposite ends of the law.

* JerkassWoobie: Both Hanna and Shiherlis could count. Granted, they have issues with their wives cheating on them.

* AwardSnub: Number of UsefulNotes/AcademyAward nominations: '''ZERO'''.

* EvilIsCool: Neil [=McCauley=] in general. An incredibly badass bank robber who masterminds the heist.

* MoralEventHorizon: The audience already knows that Waingro is an unstable and violent character after he shoots the first guard during the armored car robbery at point-blank range for no good reason, but the scene where he kills the prostitute, then the scene where Hanna visits the crime scene of another one of Waingro's victims, exists solely to push him into this in order to demonstrate how Neil and his friends, while still violent criminals, are [[EvenEvilHasStandards much better people than him]], even though Neil and his crew members use assault rifles during the bank robbery shootout and bring down several cops, and kill at least one detective. This also serves to make a distinction, however; Neil and his crew take no pleasure in killing, viewing it as an unpleasant but necessary possibility of what they do, while Waingro is nothing but a massive HateSink who actively takes pleasure in sadistic killings.

* EvilIsCool: Neil [=McCauley=] in general. An incredibly badass bank robber who masterminds the heist. In fact, the bank's shooting is among one of the film's best-known scenes.

* CompleteMonster: Waingro is a PsychoForHire initially brought in as a newcomer to [[NobleDemon Neil McCauley's]] team to assist in an armored truck robbery. During the job, Waingro murders one of the guards [[DisproportionateRetribution for looking at him funny]], necessitating the deaths of the other two guards to eliminate witnesses. His cohorts, [[EvenEvilHasStandards disgusted by his actions]], try to kill him, only for Waingro to escape and begin working for their enemy, Roger Van Zant. Waingro and Van Zant tip off the police in the middle of the crew's newest job, resulting in a massive shootout in the streets of LA. Waingro got this information by holding [[spoiler:Trejo's]] wife hostage, only to viciously murder her afterwards, then mortally wound [[spoiler:Trejo]] and leave him for dead. Waingro is also a SerialKiller who solicits underage prostitutes then bashes their skulls in.

* FoeYay: Not hard to see between Neil and Vincent, who share a mutual obsession with each other are able to open up to each other more than either of them are to their respective female partners. At times it seems that they can almost sense each other's presence.

* AwardSnub: Number of Oscar nominations: '''ZERO'''.

** Seeing Shiherlis' marital issues throughout the film become this due to Creator/ValKilmer going through similar issues of infidelity within his own marriage which eventually led to his divorce the following year.

** Unusually, it's a one scene ''pairing''. The two lead characters spend the whole movie plotting against one another, but never meet and aren't on screen together except for one great scene where they sit down and have coffee (see NotSoDifferent) and the final showdown. Notable, because it's the first time Creator/AlPacino and Creator/RobertDeNiro ever did a scene together.

** The film is known for the climatic bank robbery scene, where Neil and his gang get into a gunfight with the police and shoot up Downtown LA with automatic rifles. Then, two years after the movie's release, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Hollywood_shootout North Hollywood shootout]] happened as two gunmen armed with automatic rifles robbed a bank, then were killed after a ''44 minute'' shootout with the Los Angeles Police Department. No police officers were killed in the North Hollywood shootout, but some were badly wounded, and remember, this shootout was six times longer than the film's shootout, which lasts just under seven minutes. It's also of note that the robbers of the North Hollywood Shootout reportedly watched this film numerous times.

* SpiritualAdaptation: ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' is probably the closest we'll come to a ''Heat'' video game. The ''[[VideoGame/PaydayTheHeist Payday]]'' games are a close second, with several heists in game outright evoking this movie.