This article originally appeared on GQ.com
When Michael Mann’s Heat arrived in the waning days of 1995, audiences came for a showdown between two acting titans and walked away having watched a reinvention of the heist genre. Bigger, more sprawling, and more ambitious than the competition, Heat layered multiple subplots and fringe characters into its tale of a master thief hunted at every turn by a cop who’s just as obsessive as he is—a trope that has since become a staple of the genre.
Mann’s masterwork is known for its incredible action sequences and masterful performances from Robert de Niro and Al Pacino, who appeared on screen together for the first time. The two play opposite sides of the coin: de Niro’s Neil McCauley is a cold and calculated career criminal devoted to his craft above all else, while Pacino’s Lt. Vincent Hanna’s fixation on police work has left a trail of failed relationships in his wake. Naturally, both men respect the hell out of each other.
With its deep cast and story boiled down from Mann’s script for an aborted TV series, Heat quickly entered the pantheon of crime films as well as Los Angeles epics. While there are certain films whose directors have stated outright they were influenced by Heat, other choices on this list are more subtle in how they reference or subvert Mann’s work. So grab your rival and square up over a cup of coffee as we dive into the best Heat-like movies since Heat.
