If you feel the heat around the corner
McCauley highlights the impossibility of Hanna’s existence:
Neil McCauley: A guy told me one time, "Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner." Now, if you're on me and you gotta move when I move, how do you expect to keep a marriage?”
Key to note here, is that McCauley acknowledges the impossibility of normality for those who obsessively pursue their craft. This is a man with the same experience.
In response to this, Hanna turns the same question to McCauley, knowing full well the impossibility of this criminal lifestyle:
Vincent Hanna: “Well, that’s an interesting point. What are you, a monk?”
Neil McCauley: “I have a woman.”
Vincent Hanna: “What do you tell her?”
Neil McCauley: “I tell her I'm a salesman.”
What’s fascinating here, and in contradiction to McCauley’s earlier caution, is the amount of personal information he shares, including relationship details. (something which he doesn’t even share with Chris). These men open up to one another because they see the same issues in their opposite. The fact that they connect over the topic of women says a lot about their troubled existences. Both know the impossibilities of their lives, and their struggles become the fulcrum of the conversation.
Hanna then questions McCauley’s dedication to his craft:
Vincent Hanna: “So then, if you spot me coming around that corner... you just gonna walk out on this woman? Not say goodbye?”
Neil McCauley: “That's the discipline.”
Vincent Hanna: “That's pretty vacant, you know.”
What’s interesting to note here is Hanna’s criticism of McCauley’s mindset, despite the fact that it echoes his own methodology. While Hanna’s observation is correct, both men are guilty of this behavior.
McCauley acknowledges this:
Neil McCauley: “Yeah, it is what it is. It's that or we both better go do something else, pal.”
This is the only time in the film where McCauley addresses someone colloquially; tellingly, there’s a mischievousness to his smile. This scene echoes the earlier “go our separate ways” sequence, in which McCauley’s team contemplate a normal existence, only to quickly dismiss it and double down on their criminal enterprise. The same thing happens here. Echoing this earlier scene, there is a sense of mirth and excitement knowing that the game will continue:
Vincent Hanna: “I don't know how to do anything else.”
Neil McCauley: “Neither do I.”
Vincent Hanna: “I don't much want to either.”
Neil McCauley: “Neither do I.”
In the earlier scene, the discussion was among a tight knit crew, and here the same sense of togetherness is present. There’s a bond, a sense of camaraderie that is experienced solely by brothers-in-arms. Earlier they were testing their opponent for weakness, but now they have found an existential equal in each other – this is the magical moment which captivated Michael Mann, and gave birth to the film that became Heat.
Realizing the rarity of their situation, they open up at the most intimate level and share the things that trouble their innermost selves - their dreams:
Vincent Hanna: “I have this reoccurring dream. I'm sitting at this big banquet table: all of the victims of all the murders I've ever worked are sitting at this table and they're staring at me, they have these black eyeballs because they have eight ball hemorrhages from their head wounds and there they are these big balloon people because I found them two weeks after they've been found under the bed. The neighbors reported the smell and there they are: just sitting there.”
Aside from the intimate nature of what is being shared, what is key to note here is McCauley’s change in demeanour. He started the conversation apathetic to his adversary, then shifted to intrigue, and now displays a genuine curiosity at Hanna’s predicament. He even interjects at multiple points in the conversation:
Neil McCauley: “What do they say?”
Vincent Hanna: “Nothing.”
Neil McCauley: “No talk?”
Vincent Hanna: “None, just… they don’t have anything to say. See, we just look at each other. They look at me. And that’s it, that’s the dream.”
At this point, McCauley’s contributions to the conversation are noticeably quicker. Before he was measured and calm as he spoke, here he jumps in almost immediately. There is a sense of eagerness, and an opportunity to share his troubles with someone that can relate:
Neil McCauley: “I have one where I'm drowning. And I gotta wake myself up and start breathing or I'll die in my sleep.”
Vincent Hanna: “You know what that's about?”
Neil McCauley: “Yeah. Having enough time.”
Vincent Hanna: “Enough time? To do what you wanna do?”
Neil McCauley: “That's right.”
Vincent Hanna: “You doin' it now?”
Neil McCauley: “No, not yet.”
What’s incredible here is that McCauley not only shares a form of his plans, but he also divulges his innermost thoughts – what drives him, keeps him awake at night, and is the source of his malaise. This is something that he hasn’t even shared with Eady, yet here he is, openly discussing his ‘torschlusspanik’ with the man whose sole purpose in life is to capture him. This is the duality of man manifest.
“In contradiction and paradox, you can find the truth.”
-Denis Villeneuve
A key point here is that Hanna questions McCauley’s understanding of the dream, whereas McCauley doesn’t do the same in return – what we can see here is that both men know the deeper meaning, yet they refuse to acknowledge it.
After sharing their dreams, necessity demands a return to reality, and both men address the truth between them:
Vincent Hanna: “You know, we are sitting here, you and I, like a couple of regular fellas. You do what you do, and I do what I gotta do. And now that we've been face to face, if I'm there and I gotta put you away, I won't like it. But I tell you, if it's between you and some poor bastard whose wife you're gonna turn into a widow, brother, you are going down.”
Neil McCauley: “There is a flip side to that coin. What if you do got me boxed in and I gotta put you down? Cause no matter what, you will not get in my way. We've been face to face, yeah. But I will not hesitate. Not for a second.”
Notice here that Hanna uses a similar phrase to McCauley’s earlier “do what I do best” statement:
Vincent Hanna: “You do what you do, and I do what I gotta do.”
While it highlights the similarity in thinking, there is a slight difference here – Hanna describes doing what he ‘gotta’ – if anything, it’s the other way round – McCauley has to do his job out of necessity, as that’s how he generates income – Hanna has a legitimate career, untarnished by a criminal record, and could essentially work in a variety of fields, yet he has chosen the one that will destroy him.
Added to this, his justification for pursuing McCauley shows inconsistency within his character, and doesn’t ring true:
Vincent Hanna: “…if it's between you and some poor bastard whose wife you're gonna turn into a widow, brother, you are going down.”
While the widow speech seems noble and well-intentioned on the surface, this doesn’t match with Hanna’s actions throughout the film. He shows scant regard for the mother of the murdered teenager, and during the bank shootout, he opens fire on Cheritto while he is holding a child. This leads us to question his motives in pursuing these criminals. It’s more like the hazy justice of Popeye Doyle in the French Connection – Hanna is obsessed with bringing these people to justice. The ‘gotta’ in Hanna’s statement explains his MO – he has to do it, because it has consumed him.
As the conversation comes to a close, we experience one final point of profound meaning, and a demonstration of what has happened between these two human beings:
Vincent Hanna: “Maybe that’s the way it’ll be. Or, who knows…”
Neil McCauley: “…Or maybe we’ll never see each other again…”
The most telling point in this exchange is the dynamic that has formed between them. Initially, the conversation was a guarded, tense affair, but now we see McCauley finishing Hanna’s sentences for him. This type of behavior is reserved for those with such understanding of one another, that they know what the other is thinking. Both show a mischievous smile at this moment, tinged with excitement. They know the game that they are playing, and both are thrilled that it will continue between two men of matching ability. The irony of this moment is that despite being on opposite sides of the law, these men could very well be best friends.
“True friendship can exist only between equals.”
- Plato
It’s this dynamic which raises the stakes of the final showdown to an unbearable level – like Colville’s ‘horse and train’ – the collision is imminent, and we watch with a need to understand the obsession that burns inside these two men. Like the black eyeballs in Hanna’s dream, we won’t be able to look away.