The life of a film buff is fraught with heartache these days, but every once in a while, you come across a story that makes it worthwhile.
Prime example: The legendary conversation between Hanna and McCauley in Heat was taken word-for-word from real life!
H/t Twitter user EvilTomHanks
Here’s the whole fascinating, tragic story:
Sixteen years before it would become a blockbuster movie, Mann wrote the original script while working as a film and TV writer. The true story involves a Chicago detective in the 1960s named Chuck Adamson (Pacino would play a version of him in the film named Vincent Hanna), who ironically would collaborate with Mann on Thief and then later go on to become a TV screenwriter and producer himself.
In the ’60s he was handed a case about an ex-convict from Alcatraz named Neil McCauley (later played by De Niro with the same name). In 1962, McCauley had been released from prison after a 25-year sentence, over half of his 48 years on Earth. Eight of those years were spent at Alcatraz, with four of them being in complete isolation. Adamson began watching him, not at all convinced that McCauley was a reformed man who wouldn’t begin his life of crime again. He was right. McCauley began putting a crew together to conduct more heists, with many of their crimes recreated in the film. The most accurate portion of the film, however, is one without any violence or bloodshed.
Heat has its share of thrilling action moments, but the most powerful part is when Al Pacino and Robert De Niro sit down at a diner together to make film history. This wasn’t just a fun way to put two Hollywood heavyweights together though. That moment occurred in real life between Adamson and McCauley. Even more impressive, the dialogue doesn’t come from Screenwriting 101 or the masterful imagination of Michael Mann, but was taken from Adamson himself, and recreated almost word for word. There’s no dramatization here. The real life story didn’t need it. It was thrilling enough on its own.
Gonna be honest. The diner scene is one that I’d have thought least likely to have happened in real life.
Yet according to Adamson, it did.
In the book, Michael Mann: Crime Auteur, the director talks about the connection between cop and criminal. “Chuck had respected the guy’s professionalism — he was a really good thief, which is exciting to a detective, and he tried to keep any risks to a minimum — but at the same time he was a cold-blooded sociopath who’d kill you as soon as look at you — if necessary … Chuck was going through some crises in his life, and they wound up having one of those intimate conversations you sometimes have with strangers. There was a real rapport between them; yet both men verbally recognized one would probably kill the other.”
The scene in real life and as recreated in the film shows the respect Adamson and McCauley have for one another, but they also speak to the tragic end that they know is most likely waiting, with Pacino telling De Niro in the film, “If I’m there and I gotta put you away, I won’t like it, but I’ll tell ya, if it’s between you and some poor bastard whose wife you’re gonna turn into a widow, brother, you are going down.”
De Niro hears this and responds with his own sinister threat. “There’s a flip side to that coin. What if you do got me boxed in and I gotta put you down? Because no matter what, you will not get in my way. We’ve been face to face, but I won’t hesitate, not for a second.”
You may not be surprised to learn that McCauley’s real fate didn’t play out as depicted on film. Not exactly.
The end was the same, but Mann took some dramatic license with the details.
It’s shocking to know that this scene, which is meant to build tension and foreshadow their eventual bloody showdown, truly happened. In the film and in real life, however, it goes down in different ways, but with the same conclusion. Heat sees Pacino and De Niro on an airport tarmac at night, guns drawn, seeking each other out, before Pacino shoots De Niro dead. The good guy wins and the bad guy loses in a classic action movie trope finale.
Real life played out a bit differently. McCauley and his crew had been researching a heist for weeks that involved robbing the National Tea grocery store in Chicago after an armored car made its money drop. Little did they know that Detective Adamson and a group of cops were watching them the entire time. McCauley’s gang committed the robbery, stealing around $13,000, but on their way out, Adamson and company were waiting, blocking every single exit. A shootout commenced, with two of McCauley’s men killed. McCauley himself tried to run, but Adamson shot him six times, leaving the thief dead.
Keeping the final shootout as close to real life as the diner scene would have cut down on the movie’s three-hour run time.
Just sayin’.
Anyway, now you know the real Heat story.
Art does indeed imitate life.
So far, my epic robot saga is right on track in predicting the coming global collapse.
Get a head start on the post-future. Read it now:
“Because she had a GREEEEATTTT AAASSSSSS!!!!!”
I’m sorry, I had to.