Heat/Trivia

Actor Allusion: In both this movie and True Lies, Max Daniels plays a thug wielding a Steyr TMP who is shot and wildly fires his gun into the air as he goes down.
All-Star Cast: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Danny Trejo, Jon Voight, Ashley Judd, Wes Studi and Tone-Loc. Even Hanna's stepdaughter, who appears in all of three scenes, is played by Natalie Portman (although that one might only be a retroactive example).
The Danza: Danny Trejo as... Trejo.
Enforced Method Acting: Hanna's line "She's got a... GREAT ASS! And you got your head all the way up it!" was improvised: the surprise on Hank Azaria's face was genuine.
Hey, It's That Guy!:
- Hey, Tony Montana's breaking into this hotel room with Sagat! Maybe he can help by cutting the guns in half with his mind!
- Before joining the SFPD, Captain Stottlemeyer worked for Hanna in the LAPD's Robbery / Homicide Unit. Plus, that character lived in Los Angeles at one time.
- Sergeant Drucker loves shrimp, but he just doesn't admit it.
- Cheritto should have ditched the bank job. It was clearly FUBAR.
- Don't feel bad for Breedan. He not only became the President, but also became Allstate's spokesman.
- It's amazing that Neil McCauley even dared to even try the extortion scheme. I half expected Roger Van Zant to tell him "You have any idea who you're stealing from?! You and your friends are dead!"
- When does Black Flag's set start? The singer's right there.
Name's the Same: The 80s film with Burt Reynolds and Peter MacNicol is probably best remembered for having the same name as this film.
Throw It In:
- Reportedly, Pacino ad-libbed the "I hear she's got a GREAT ASS!" line when interrogating Marciano. The look of shock on Hank Azaria's face is genuine.
- Ted Levine also apparently ad-libbed the story his character tells about a classmate of his named Raoul.
What Could Have Been: Reading earlier versions of the script show that some things were changed significantly.
- Trejo's name was originally Towner.
- Earlier drafts do have Nate getting caught by Hanna and facing accessory charges for the armored car robbery and the bank robbery
- The armored car robbery in earlier scripts is a bit different. Its street location is much different, and the escape is a lot tighter as the crew actually rams several police cars while they're escaping after shooting the three guards.
- Bosko is the detective that is killed in the final film during the bank robbery shootout. Originally, this would have gone to Schwartz, who in the film is shot in the shoulder by Cheritto.
- The shooting at the drive-in movie theater differs in one way between the movie and script drafts: in the drafts, Neil's reflexes cause him to spot the assassin creeping up to the shotgun side window and react accordingly in the nick of time. In this version, Shiherlis is not stationed on the roof of the projection building, but is instead stationed with Cheritto by the exit gate to shoot the driver. Also, much like Trejo, Neil would have done a Mercy Kill on the assassin.