Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in diner scene from Heat
by Capucine · old hollywood: Al Pacino
In Heat from 1995, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro shared the screen together for the first time, like two massive stars colliding after years in separate lanes of their careers. Director Michael Mann transformed that into a tense, low-key exchange in a diner.
Transcript (en)
Seven years in Folsom, in the hole for three. McNeil before that. McNeil as tough as they say. You looking to become a penologist? You looking to go back? You know, I chased down some crews, guys just looking to fuck up, get busted back. That you? You must have worked some dipshit crews. I worked all kinds. You see me doing thrilled-seeker liquor store hold-ups with a Born to Lose tattoo on my chest? No, I do not. Right. I am never going back. Then don't take down scores. I do what I do best. I take scores. You do what you do best. Try to stop guys like me. So you never wanted a regular-type life? What the fuck is that, barbecues and ball games? Yeah. This regular-type life, that your life? My life? No, my life... No, my life's a disaster zone. I got a stepdaughter so fucked up because her real father's this large-type asshole, I got a wife We passing each other on the downslope of a marriage My third Because I spend all my time chasing guys like you around the block That's my life. 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 a corner. Now, if you're on me and you gotta move when I move, how do you expect to keep a... a marriage? Well, that's an interesting point. What are you, a monk? I have a woman. What do you tell her? I tell her I'm a salesman. So then if you spot me coming around that corner, you're just gonna walk out on this woman? Not say goodbye? That's the discipline. That's pretty vacant, you know. Yeah, it is what it is. It's that or we both better go do something else, pal. I don't know how to do anything else. Neither do I. I don't much want to either. Neither do I. You know I have this recurring dream I sitting at this big banquet table and all the victims of all the murders I ever worked are sitting at this table, and they're staring at me with these black eyeballs because they got eight-ball hemorrhages from the head wounds. And there they are, these big balloon people, because I found them two weeks after they'd been under the bed. The neighbors reported the smell. And there they are, all of them, just sitting there. What did they say? Nothing. No talk? No. Just, they don't have anything to say. We just look at each other. They look at me. and that's it. That's the dream. I have one where I'm drowning and I gotta wake myself up and stop breathing while dying in my sleep. You know what that's about? Yeah. Having enough time. Enough time to do what you want to do. That's right. You're doing it now. Not yet. You know we sitting here you and I are like a couple of regular fellows You do what you do I do what I gotta do And now that we been face to face if I'm there and I gotta put you away, I won't like it. But I'll 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. There's a flip side to that coin. What if you do got me boxed in? Then I gotta put you down. Because 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. Maybe that's the way it'll be. Or... who knows? Who knows? Well, maybe we'll never see each other again.