heat 2 - michael mann & meg gardiner

Michael Mann’s Heat remains one of the best films of the 90s - a sprawling, operatic cops & robbers epic, virtually without peer, that captures the almost symbiotic duality between the police and the criminals they chase. The climax, played out between Al Pacino’s hardwired LAPD detective Vincent Hanna and Robert De Niro’s ice-veined professional thief Neil McCauley, had a blunt force emotional impact; it was one of the most satisfying denouements of the decade, a cinematic mic drop. What more possibly needed to be said?

Nonetheless, Mann - feeling nostalgic, perhaps, or simply unable to shake these characters - elected to revisit his magnum opus with this prequel/sequel hybrid he constructed with the help of Edgar-winning novelist Meg Gardiner. The book picks up in the immediate aftermath of the film, as a desperate and grievously wounded Chris Shiherlis (played by Val Kilmer on-screen) - the only member of McCauley’s crew still drawing breath - seeks to escape Los Angeles as Hanna closes the net. This opening prologue pulses with a particular level of narrative electricity; it’s almost like an extended cut, a cache of post-credit deleted scenes.  

From there we shift back to the late-80s, which finds both Hanna and McCauley working out of Chicago. Hanna is investigating a string of particularly brutal home invasions (perpetuated by one Otis Lloyd Wardell - one of the most staggeringly repellent antagonists in recent memory, and a character who shares more than a little DNA with original scumbag Waingro), while McCauley is alerted to the potential of a once-in-a-lifetime score - assuming his crew has the cajones and nerves of steel to blindside the cartel near the Mexican border. In present day 1996, Chris resurfaces in Paraguay, working security for a Taiwanese crime family… but as he takes on greater responsibilities within the organization, he must grapple with the question of whether he’s willing to sever ties with wife Charlene and son Dominick forever. Finally, in the year 2000, events come full-circle as Hanna and Chris’s orbits collide once more on the urban battleground of LA, as past, present and future merge into one.

Regardless of how collaborative responsibilities were divided, what’s clear is that the novel does a fantastic job of translating Mann’s visual poetry onto the page - the prose is terse yet muscular, laser-focused, propulsive… the language high-tensile tempered. It’s impossible to read Hanna’s lines without picturing Pacino’s edgy, gum-chomping attitude. The attention to technical detail is impressive (Mann has always been fixated on the process of how things are done, the practical nuts and bolts - the literal tools and technique of safecracking, or robbing a bank beyond pulling on a ski mask, for instance). The action sequences unfold like blueprints for large-scale cinematic set pieces. You can almost envision Mann’s on-screen choreography (ideally accentuated by a Brian Eno score).

Did Heat really warrant this sort of expansive universe? Debatable. Hanna was an open book in the film - a nocturnal predator-lawman, driven by the addictive endorphin rush of the job (as his soon-to-be-ex-wife Justine notes “You sift through the detritus, you read the terrain, you search for signs of passing, for the scent of your prey…. and then you hunt them down. That’s the only thing you’re committed to”). There’s nothing further to be gleaned about him. The same could be said for McCauley, though the events of 1988 do at least explain the origins of his iconic “Don’t let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you spot the heat around the corner” ethos. Chris, on the other hand, was more inscrutable in the film… and he’s really the driving force of the novel. From his initial courtship of Charlene in Vegas to his time spent in Paraguay - in which he emerges from the fog of his post-film system shock (the effects psychological as much as physical) to reconnect his razor-edged synapses one-by-one - he comes into far sharper focus as a character. He has the deepest, most fully realized arc. It’s just a shame Val Kilmer won’t be able to build on his initial portrayal - he’d almost certainly slay the role.​

Heat 2 does have some fun flourishes in terms of fan service (not surprisingly, Justine wants nothing to do with Hanna’s ass, but we learn that he’s still very much in contact with his former stepdaughter Lauren, played by Natalie Portman in the film). It also has a pretty remarkable swath of narrative coincidences and contrivances that accumulate over its twelve-year span. But that’s okay - just go along for the ride, you’ll enjoy yourself more. Mann has seen his directing career sputter somewhat in recent years (he brought little of his signature touch to the Tokyo Vice pilot, while his only feature between 2010 and 2020 was the critically panned techno-thriller Blackhat)… though hopes are high for his upcoming release Ferrari, which could pave the way for this project realizing cinematic form. The novel already feels like a detailed roadmap. All we need is for Mann to pull the trigger.