Professional thief Neil McCauley and LAPD detective Vincent Hanna watch and track each other across Los Angeles. Each one sees his own discipline and loneliness in the other. This is Michael Mann's biggest and best film, a crime story about what it costs to commit to something completely.
Heat is a 1995 crime, drama and thriller film directed by Michael Mann. This breakdown covers 8 techniques (1 psychology, 2 sound, 3 cinematography, 1 narrative and 1 editing), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Raiders of the Lost Ark uses several of the same techniques.
Pairing the main character with a second character who mirrors them. The double shows what the hero wants, fears or secretly is.
How this film uses it
McCauley and Hanna are the same man on opposite sides of the law. Both gave up their close relationships for their work. Both define themselves by what the job demands, and both are more comfortable on the job than off it. Mann insists they are equals. The 1 conversation they share is where the film lays out its main ideas.
Where to see it
The coffee shop scene. Cop and thief sit across a table. The 2 men understand each other completely and cannot exist in the same world.
Inventing a consistent set of sounds for the film, sometimes a whole non-human language. Over time, you learn to read those sounds as clearly as the images.
How this film uses it
Mann recorded the gunfire for the downtown Los Angeles shootout live on location, and it sounds unlike any crime film before it. You hear exactly how those streets sound: deafening rounds that thump and echo between tall buildings. Foley is sound effects added in a studio afterward, and the usual foley can't do this. You feel the violence in your body in the theater.
Where to see it
The downtown bank robbery shootout. You hear the gunfire the way it really sounds on Los Angeles streets, and the sound is as precise as the staging.
Shooting and editing action so you always know where each character is in relation to the others and the space. Even in chaos, you can follow what each blow or move leads to.
How this film uses it
Mann shoots the downtown shootout so you always understand the layout. The bank's entrance, the parking structure, the streets and the alleys always sit in the same place in relation to each other. You follow the geography of the fight as precisely as the people in it. That makes the action something you think through as well as feel in your gut.
Where to see it
The bank robbery and the street battle that follows. McCauley's team and Hanna's unit move through downtown LA, and you always know where everyone is.
Introducing a character by showing them in action or at work before any explaining dialogue. You learn their skill, fears, humor and values by watching what they do.
How this film uses it
Major characters in Heat are introduced through what they do. You first see McCauley in a paramedic's uniform, stealing an ambulance from a hospital, and you first see Hanna waking up beside his wife Justine before he heads to work. The film holds back their backstories. Mann trusts that how a person acts tells you pretty much everything important about who they are.
Where to see it
McCauley walking through the hospital and driving off in the ambulance in the opening sequence. You learn who he is entirely from how he does his job, and nobody explains him to you.
Using camera angles and framing to show who has power. A low angle makes a character look bigger and a high angle makes them look small. The balance can shift between shots.
How this film uses it
One man is a cop and the other is a criminal, but Mann keeps framing Hanna and McCauley the same way. He uses similar angles, similar distances and gives each the same weight in the shot. That is, the camera refuses to put cop above criminal or criminal above cop. The film judges them on the same terms.
Where to see it
The coffee shop conversation. The 2 men are framed identically across the table. The law puts them in unequal positions, and Mann's shots make that gap disappear on screen.
Building tension from scenes where 2 characters, or a character and the answer they want, come close and never meet. The dread comes from how near they get.
How this film uses it
Mann follows Hanna and McCauley side by side for nearly 3 hours. The detective is always a step behind and the thief is always a step ahead. The only time they choose to meet is the diner scene, where both admit they are bound to collide. Every sequence before it is about the distance between them. It keeps shrinking, and neither man is able to stop it.
Where to see it
The parallel surveillance sequences. Hanna watches McCauley's crew and McCauley watches Hanna's team. Each man knows the other is watching him.
Mixing battle sound the way a soldier would hear it, with chaotic, physical noise coming from every direction. Nothing is tidied up for your comfort, so you feel inside the fight.
How this film uses it
The downtown bank robbery shootout was shot with blanks and recorded live on location, and the sound was not replaced afterward. It came out so accurate that the US Army has used parts of the film to train new soldiers. The echo off downtown Los Angeles's buildings is specific and real, because the gunfire is bouncing off actual architecture. No film before it had made gunfire sound this real.
Where to see it
The downtown shootout. The M16 fire echoes off concrete buildings. The sound helps you follow where the fight is happening, and it is physically overwhelming at the same time.
Shooting a city with washed-out color, heavy shadow, rain-slick streets and decaying buildings, often at night. The city looks corrupt and threatening, and it dwarfs the people in it.
How this film uses it
Dante Spinotti photographs Los Angeles at night with the kind of awe usually saved for natural landscapes. He shoots the freeways, the ocean and the airport as grand architecture. Mann's criminal world sits inside this landscape. That stops it from feeling sleazy and makes it feel epic.
Where to see it
The nighttime freeway sequences. You see Los Angeles at speed. Against the city's roads and structures, the characters feel important and short-lived at once.
Questions
Heat: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Heat use?
CineCode breaks down 8 techniques in Heat (1995): Psychological Doubling, Constructed Sound Language, Spatial Action Clarity, Character Through Action Introduction, Asymmetric Power Framing, Near-Miss Tracking Structure, Immersive Combat Sound Design and Urban Gothic Cinematography.
Who directed Heat?
Michael Mann directed Heat, released in 1995. CineCode also covers Collateral (2004).
What films are similar to Heat?
Films that share techniques with Heat include Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Das Boot (1981), The Lighthouse (2019), American Gangster (2007).
