There's a flipside to that coin

We want things to be simple, but they rarely are.

When watching Heat, the easy option is to define Hanna and Maculey as two sides of the same coin: good versus bad, right versus wrong, cop versus criminal. However, this binary thinking says more about the audience than it does about the film – in our haste to categorize the characters, it denies access to a deeper understanding of the human experience, one which is profound for two reasons:

1. It reveals the duality of the human condition; a topic avoided by most in favor of pigeon-holing the intangibles of reality.

2. It debunks the concepts that we see as undisputable: right versus wrong, good versus bad, free will versus fate.

Heat holds these two points up to the light, and makes us confront the illusion that things can be understood, categorized, and controlled.

To avoid these challenging thoughts, the simple solution is to label the film as a glossy cop thriller. However, like Colville’s Pacific, Heat is simple on the surface, but contains an ocean of meaning beneath its electric-blue vista.

In “I have one where I’m drowning”, we explored Alexander Colville’s wartime experiences as the catalyst for Pacific, (the painting which inspired Michael Mann’s Heat). As was typical for this generation, those returning from war encountered something beyond the limitations of human capacity. The result was a stretching of reality past the point of repair. Those that experienced these extremes in existence had their perspectives irrevocably altered, and struggled to reintegrate into civilian life. Their band of reality was unable to return to its original tautness, resulting in a sense of emptiness in the life they once knew. This gap in their lives needed to be filled by something else.

This is the engine which drives both Vincent Hanna and Neil Macauley on their journey throughout Heat. In examining this, we gain insight into a plane of existence which is off-limits to most, and accessible only for the briefest of moments. In experiencing this reality, there is an alteration in perspective, which has irreversible consequences.

Perceptive viewers of Heat may have detected this alteration, but remain unable to place their finger on exactly what it is. This analysis aims to uncover that deeper meaning within the film, and by the end of this series, readers will have a new perspective on Macauley’s final, enigmatic line:

“Told you I’m never going back.”

To begin with, it’s important to understand how Hanna and Macauley’s relationship progresses: from reflecting methodologies, to echoing mindsets, and finally, merging their purposes to create an exceptionally rare instance in the human experience.