Heat

Career thief Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) leads a team of criminals, including longtime friends Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer), Michael Cheritto (Tom Sizemore), and Trejo (Danny Trejo), who carry out a carefully planned armored car heist, stealing US$1.6 million in bearer bonds from Malibu Equity Investments, a shell company run by Roger Van Zant (William Fichtner) that launders drug money through offshore bank accounts. The robbery is complicated by new member Waingro (Kevin Gage) impulsively murdering a guard, forcing the team to execute the remaining guards—potential witnesses—and escape. After the robbery, McCauley meets with his fence, Nate (Jon Voight), who suggests selling the bonds back to Van Zant for 60% of their value instead of laundering them at 60% cost; since the bonds were insured for 100% of their value, Van Zant would make 40% of 1.6 million above his bond insurance while McCauley and his team would gain an additional 20% on top of their expected take. Later, McCauley and his crew meet at a diner to discuss dividing the money from the robbery. Enraged about the robbery, escalated to capital murder by Waingro, McCauley and his crew attempt to kill Waingro, but when a passing police car distracts them, Waingro escapes. Meanwhile, Van Zant agrees to buy the bonds back, but instructs his men to ambush McCauley at the meeting and take the bonds back. With help from his crew, McCauley escapes the ambush and vows revenge. Investigating the armored car heist, Lieutenant Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) of the elite LAPD Robbery-Homicide Division learns through informants and surveillance McCauley and his crew are planning to rob a precious metals warehouse. Hiding inside a parked truck, Hanna and his team stake out the warehouse and prepare to arrest McCauley and his crew, but a restless SWAT team member clumsily bumps the side of the truck, alerting McCauley to the stakeout. McCauley warns his crew, and they abandon the robbery. Realizing he cannot arrest the crew for robbery unless they have stolen the metals, Hanna allows them to escape. McCauley meets with his crew and warns them of the surveillance, and tells them they must decide if their next robbery—a bank holdup with an estimated $12 million payoff, which would allow McCauley to retire—is worth the risk. Each crew member agrees to the robbery, and the investigation and subsequent planning highlight how each character's commitment to his profession has severely damaged his personal life: Hanna's third marriage to wife Justine (Diane Venora) is in the early stages of a breakdown, due to his grueling work schedule and troubled stepdaughter Lauren (Natalie Portman), Justine's child from a previous marriage; Shiherlis' relationship with his wife Charlene (Ashley Judd) is hampered by his crippling gambling addiction, pushing her into an extramarital affair with another man (Hank Azaria). Only McCauley, who lives a solitary existence that forbids attachments and stresses mobility, finds his life renewed from a budding relationship with Eady (Amy Brenneman), a kind, naïve graphic designer who believes him to be a metal salesman. Hanna deliberately intercepts McCauley and invites him to coffee at a local diner. During their tense meeting, McCauley tells Hanna that he won't go back to prison, no matter the cost. Hanna talks about a recurrent dream he has, where he is at a banquet surrounded by dead people he once knew, and they stare at him with empty eyes, in silence. McCauley speaks about how he usually dreams that he is drowning and must wake up to take air before he dies. They talk about their relations, and McCauley says that his rule is "never let yourself get attached to anything that you can't leave behind in thirty seconds if you feel the heat around the corner". The two professionals examine each other; despite their positive impressions, each reveals that he would not hesitate to kill the other if the situation demands it. Meanwhile, Waingro approaches Van Zant and offers him a way to get rid of McCauley. The next day McCauley and his unit move erratically around L.A. in an effort to shake Hanna's tails and arrange to meet up at a pre-determined location, a small cafe. Trejo, however, does not turn up and we are led to believe he could not shake his tail due to Hanna putting two tails on him in effort to consolidate his losses. In the cafe McCauley recognises an old inmate, Donald Breeden (Dennis Haysbert), McCauley approaches him with the offer of being the getaway driver in their heist. Donald, frustrated in his job where he is treated poorly due to his criminal record, accepts the job. Donald walks out on his job despite the fact that he risks losing his current lover. The robbery already in progress, Hanna and his team (augmented by uniformed police officers) arrive at the bank, surprising McCauley and his crew as they are leaving. An intense gunfight breaks out in downtown L.A., the robbers blasting their way past police blockades in a bid for freedom. Cherrito and Breeden are killed in the shootout; on the other side, several police officers are slain, including Bosko (Ted Levine), one of Hanna's teammates. McCauley escapes, and takes a wounded Shiherlis to an illegal doctor (Jeremy Piven). Realizing he has been betrayed, McCauley visits Trejo's house and finds Trejo near death and his wife dead, they have been tortured and brutalised by Waingro. With his last breaths, Trejo reveals Waingro and Van Zant leaked news of the robbery to the police. At his request McCauley shoots the dying Trejo and drives to Van Zant's house, where he demands to know Waingro's whereabouts. Van Zant is ignorant of his location, and McCauley executes him. Learning about Van Zant's death, Hanna realizes McCauley will next seek revenge against Waingro, now hiding in a hotel room under a false name and monitored by police, and orders his team to spread information about Waingro's location to bait McCauley. Meanwhile, the police move Charlene Shiherlis and her son Dominic to a safe house where Sgt. Drucker (Mykelti Williamson) explains Charlene will be charged as an accessory to her husband's crime and her son relocated to a foster home if she doesn't surrender Chris to the police. Chris appears hours later with an altered appearance to disguise his identity. Despite their marital problems, Charlene surreptitiously warns him about the police presence, the two sharing one last emotional look before Chris returns to his car and inconspicuously departs. McCauley returns to Eady and breaks his longstanding creed, compelling her to flee with him to New Zealand. As he finalizes his plans, Nate reveals Waingro's whereabouts to McCauley. Confident with his escape plan, McCauley impulsively takes the bait and infiltrates the hotel, activating the fire alarm to vacate the hotel. With the hotel security and police distracted, McCauley barges in and murders Waingro before beginning his escape. Moments later, Hanna arrives at the hotel and from a distance observes Eady waiting in McCauley's car. As he approaches, McCauley emerges from the building and noticing Hanna, hesitantly defaults to his "thirty seconds" rule and abandons Eady, disappearing into the crowd with Hanna in pursuit. Following a tense cat-and-mouse chase in the darkness of the LAX freight terminal, McCauley nearly gets the drop on Hanna, but when a plane pass by above them, Hanna sees McCauley's shadow and manages to shoot him first, leaving McCauley clinging to life in the fields of the adjoining runways. McCauley tells Hanna "I told you I'm never going back". Hanna answers "yeah". Hanna holds McCauley's hand as a mark of mutual respect. Together, the two share a final, quiet moment of reflection and understanding as McCauley dies. Hanna looks at the horizon. There is nothing surrounding them, except city lights and darkness.