Al Pacino plays Vincent Hanna, a top L.A detective. Robert De Niro plays Neil McCauley, a cunning, professional thief.
McCauley has pulled off many high-tech robberies with amazing success which has now grabbed the attention of top detective Vincent Hanna, whose obsession with his work is driven by no expense to his own private life.
McCauley lives by one motto, which inevitably is the key to his success thus far, that being 'become attached to nothing in life that you can't walk away from if the "Heat" is on'.
Now McCauley wants too pull off one more big high-tech robbery, and move on with his life with the first women he has met in years that he can actually connect with.
His professional crew are more then equipped to help him, but detective Hanna is no cop to be fooled, and does not give up easy in his quest to bring him to justice. No one, not even Hanna has been able to get near McCauley and his crew, but when one of their robberies goes wrong detective Hanna is hot on their trail.
Sensing that they may be in hot water, they regroup for one final job, big enough for them to all go their own separate ways. No expense is spared for the job, guns, high explosives, armed cars, are all thrown in to the frame work.
However, Neil McCauley is tempted to ignore his life long motto that has been the belief of his success for decades when his love for his new flame burns brighter, which in turn lets detective Hanna get closer to him than he ever has before.
Both are challenged by incredible minded men on both sides of the law, which are pitted against each other with explosive outcomes.

We are no stranger to the plot, we have seen it hundreds of times before. What made this movie work was the fact that director Michael Mann brought these two cinematic icons, De Niro and Pacino, together for the first time, alongside a hot supporting cast of big names.
In this movie, I thought the 'good guy, bad guy' cliché was completely thrown out the window which was great and welcoming to the plot itself. However the plot could have been much better, for reasons of the way it was shot. The movie itself to me was shot in a sequence of what seemed to be many brief moments, which although there were good moments I couldn't help thinking there were a lot of unnecessary scenes. I would have liked to have seen Michael Mann focus more on the main characters than that of all the less supporting characters over this almost three hour long film, never the less, Manns approach to this movie using the quick scene method doesn't manage too get you confused or loose you which is something not too snarl at. It being three hours long was not a disadvantage to the movie whatsoever as the character build up was what the film was all about.
The stronger parts of the film follow the main characters personal lives, and the effects all of their chosen professions have on their partners which in turn gives the movie more depth and realism than most cops and robbers action thrill movies. There is plenty of drama which compliments the action played out outstandingly well by both De Niro and Pacino.

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My Thoughts on the Characters
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The film also had a great supporting cast, Tom Seizemore played De Niro's right Hand man, and I have always been a fan of his acting, he is naturally calm and 'the cool guy', which really shows in this movie.

Then there are the love interests between the main characters. Amy Brenneman plays De Niros love interest. Her character is De Niros first women in decades to whom he has ever connected with and his one chance of living a normal happy life. She is unaware of what he does, but falls deeply for him and wants to be let in.
Pacinos marriage is also breaking down with his work driven obsession in catching De Niro. Diane Venora plays Pacino's wife and plays a good emotional part at feeling rejected due to a life style she can't understand.

The movie was always going to be about Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Getting these two to play alongside each other is eye candy for many movie goers.
Although they have appeared together in Godfarther part 2, they never actually shared the same scene due to the timeline in that story. So director Michael Mann would have been thrilled to be the first to grab this opportunity before anyone else did. However they only shared one major scene in this movie together, which of course being my favourite

Pictures of Heat (Special Edition) (DVD)

Pacino

'The Making Of Heat - Crime Stories': Mann, cast and crew discuss the twenty year origin of the script, the film's genesis and the complexity of the characters portrayed on screen

Cast: Al Pacino ; Robert De Niro ; Val Kilmer ; Ashley Judd ; Tom Sizemore ; Jon Voight ; Danny Trejo ; Tom Noonan ; Henry Rollins ; Hank Azaria ; Diane Venora ; Natalie Portman ; Amy Brenneman ; Wes Studi ; Dennis Haysbert ; Jeremy Piven ; Tone Loc