Script To Screen: “Heat”
The face-to-face diner scene confrontation between Neil (Robert De Niro) and Hanna (Al Pacino).
The 1995 movie Heat, written and directed by Michael Mann, is super entertainment. Here’s an IMDB plot summary:
Hunters and their prey — Neil and his professional criminal crew hunt to score big money targets (banks, vaults, armored cars) and are, in turn, hunted by Lt. Vincent Hanna and his team of cops in the Robbery/Homicide police division. A botched job puts Hanna onto their trail while they regroup and try to put together one last big ‘retirement’ score. Neil and Vincent are similar in many ways, including their troubled personal lives. At a crucial moment in his life, Neil disobeys the dictum taught to him long ago by his criminal mentor — ‘Never have anything in your life that you can’t walk out on in thirty seconds flat, if you spot the heat coming around the corner’ — as he falls in love. Thus the stage is set for the suspenseful ending….
Hanna is played by Al Pacino. Robert DeNiro portrays Neil. In this great scene, the two meet for the one and only time in the movie — and as far as I know, it’s the only time they’ve ever shared the screen at the same time in their entire acting careers.
The dialogue drips with subtext, but what is perhaps most interesting is the journey the scene takes. They start off with a bit of cat-and-mouse, prodding and probing each other. Then they strip away the veneer and take a good honest look at each other — and realize they’re really quite similar in terms of their place in life. Then it feels like they’re truly trying to see if there’s a way out of a confrontation. But it ends up pretty much where it started — they know they’re going to be at each other down the road.
Here’s the scene as it’s scripted.
EXT. FOOD STAND - HANNA + NEIL - NIGHTat a table. Headlights stream by to and from the airport:
business people, families going on vacations, people living
normal lives who have never used guns to kill people, never
experienced physical violence, some who have never been
stolen from and never steal. Surrounded on all sides by
this flow of normalcy: HANNA
Seven years in San Quentin. In
the hole for three. McNeil before
that. NEIL
Yeah. HANNA
Was McNeil as tough as they say? NEIL
You looking to become a
penologist? HANNA
You looking to go back? I chased
some crews, the guys were lookin'
to fuck up and get busted back. NEIL
You must have worked some dipshit
crews. HANNA
I worked all kinds. NEIL
(pause)
You see me doing thrill-seeker
liquor store holdups with a "Born
to Lose" tattoo on my chest? HANNA
No, I do not. NEIL
Right. And I...
(low threat)
I am never going back.The adversarial intensity is eye-to-eye. HANNA
Then don't take down scores. NEIL
I do what I do best. I take
scores. You do what you do best
trying to stop guys like me.
(shrugs) HANNA
You never wanted a normal-type
life? NEIL
What the fuck is that? Barbecues
and ballgames? HANNA
That's part of it. NEIL
That's nice. That your life? HANNA
No. My wife spends half her
time on the couch. My
stepdaughter's got problems 'cause
her real father's a world class
asshole. And every moment I
got, I'm chasing guys like you. NEIL
A man told me once: you want to
make moves? Don't keep anything
in your life you're not willing
to walk out on in 30 seconds
flat if you feel the heat around
the corner.
(pause)
So if you're chasing me and you
gotta move when I move, how do
you expect to keep a family? HANNA
What are you, a monk? NEIL
No.
(pause)
I got a woman. HANNA
What do you tell her? NEIL
She thinks I sell swimming pools. HANNA
And if you spot me around the
corner. You gonna walk out on
her? Leave her flat? Like that?
Not even say goodbye? NEIL
That's the discipline. HANNA
What you're left with is pretty
empty. NEIL
Yeah?
(beat)
Then maybe you and me, we should
both go do somethin' else, pal. HANNA
I don't know how to do anything
else. NEIL
(the shared
confession)
...neither do I. HANNA
And I don't much want to. NEIL
Neither do I.Both of these guys look at each other and recognize the
mutuality of their condition. Hanna's light laughter: HANNA
We're sitting here like a coupla
regular fellas. You do what you
do. I do what I gotta do. What
happens if I am there and I got
to put you away?
(pause)
I won't like it. But, if it's
between you and some poor bastard
whose wife you're going to make
into a widow, brother, you are
gonna go down. 'Cause you don't
have to be there. You coulda
gone and been a... a mailman. NEIL
There's a flip side to that coin.
What if you got me boxed in and
I gotta put you down?
(beat)
'Cause no matter what, you will
not get in my way.
(beat)
But now that we been face to
face, I would not feel good about
that. But I won't hesitate.
Not for one second. HANNA
(smiles)
Maybe it'll happen that way. Or
who knows ... NEIL
...maybe we'll never see each
other again.They look at each other for a moment. Neil's wry smile. HANNA
(to waitress)
Can we have the bill.
Here’s the movie version of the scene:
If you watch the movie version and compare it to the script, you’ll note that there is a middle section, presumably added by Michael Mann. And that dialogue exchange is this:
HANNA: You know I have this recurring dream. I’m sitting at this big banquet table and all the victims of all the murders I ever worked are sitting at this table and they’re staring at me with these black eyeballs because they got 8-ball hemorrhages from the head wounds. And there they are, these big balloon people, because I found them two weeks after they’ve been under the bed. The neighbors reported the smell. And there they are, all of ’em, just sitting there.
NEIL: Whadda they say?
HANNA: Nothing.
NEIL: No talk?
HANNA: No. Just… they don’t have anything to say. They just look at each other. They look at me. And that’s it, that’s the dream. (snaps fingers)
NEIL: I have one where I’m drowning. And I gotta wake myself up and start breathing or I’ll die in my sleep.
HANNA: You know what that’s about?
NEIL: Yeah. Havin’ enough time.
HANNA: Enough time? To do what you wanna do?
NEIL: That’s right.
HANNA: You doin’ it now?
NEIL: Nah, not yet.
And that segues into “You know we’re sitting here like a coupla of regular fellahs.” It’s interesting to conjecture: Why did Mann add these two ‘confessions,’ both men sharing a secret about their recurring dreams? I’ve got a couple of ideas, but I’m curious to hear what you have to say, so please feel free to weigh in with your comments.
In any event, I think I’m not diving off the deep end to assert that this is a great scene.
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