The M.O. is that they're good
“Does this look like gangbangers working the local 7-11 to you?”
The level of criminal craftsmanship is immediately evident to Hanna. As he exits his car, he says very little: mere nods and gestures indicating questions to his team. They respond in what is clearly a well-practiced routine, their answers providing data for Hanna’s crime scene analysis.
Hanna’s leadership method echoes Macauley’s in that the team works around him as the muscle to his mind. This is also someone who is an expert at his craft, but most importantly, recognizes the same characteristics in the crime scene. This is shown by his admiration at how the score was conducted:
Vincent Hanna: “They had no time, cause they were on a clock. Which means they knew our response time to a 211, had our air, immobilized it, entered… escaped in under three minutes.”
A key point here is that Hanna echoes the criminal mindset, specifically the reason for undertaking the job at this location - notice the use of the word ‘we’, placing himself in Macauley’s team:
Vincent Hanna: “It’s a good spot here, we’ve got good escape routes, two freeways within a quarter of a mile.”
While there is a sense of appreciation for Macauley’s craft, there is something else contained within his analysis - an insightful understanding of their motive. It’s the rare occasion of a master identifying an equal:
Sgt. Drucker: “You recognize the MO?”
Vincent Hanna: “MO is that they’re good. Once it escalated into a murder one beef for all, after they killed two guards, they didn’t hesitate, popped guard no. 3 because… what difference does it make? Why leave a living witness? Drop of a hat, these guys will rock and roll.”
It’s here where a deeper idea looms under the surface, which connects back to the real-life meeting between Adamson and Macauley. Beyond their initial encounter, there was something else at play beneath their clash of ideologies. While their roles were diametrically opposed, they had a symbiotic relationship. The existence of one necessitated the other, and with the advancement of each side, it became more important for them to think like their adversary. What began as polar opposites: good versus bad, and right versus wrong, evolved into something much more complex. Within the high-stakes game was a looped behavior, in which both sides became more like the other in an ever-tightening ouroboros.
“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.”
- Friedrich W. Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil
To evade the police, Macauley must understand how they think. Conversely, for Hanna to capture Macauley, he must be in tune with the criminal mindset - similar to the morally dubious policing of Popeye Doyle in the French Connection.
This blurring of lines between cop and criminal is further demonstrated by Hanna:
Vincent Hanna: “The shape charge indicates that they are technically proficient. Proficient enough to go in on the prowl, so let’s start looking for recent high-line burglaries that have mystified us.”
Notice here that Hanna uses the phrase “on the prowl”, a term also used by Macauley, indicating understanding of criminal parlance. Hanna then outlines the plan to his team, replicating standard criminal methodology: “check the usual fences” (fences being those who provide scores to people like Macauley). This all denotes an intimate relationship with the criminal underworld. While this similarity in opposing sides has become a well-known trope in cinema, there is a deeper idea here, that of the duality of man:
The duality in Heat is best explained in one of Plato’s dialogues:
“But let us consider this further point: Is not he who can best strike a blow in a boxing match or in any kind of fighting best able to ward off a blow? ... And he who is most skillful in preventing or escaping from a disease is best able to create one? ... And he is the best guard of a camp who is best able to steal a march upon the enemy? … Then he who is a good keeper of anything is also a good thief? … Then if the just man is good at keeping money, he is good at stealing it. … Then after all the just man has turned out to be a thief.”
- Plato: The Republic
Even the music reflects this idea, there are no unique melodies to identify individuals, which is typical of operatic movies. Instead, we get a sonic tapestry: sounds and feelings flowing from one to the other without any identifiable theme. The result is an intertwining of fates and the creation of a world within a world, a recurring idea within the work of director Michael Mann: individuals existing both inside and outside normality.