A famous action scene from the movie “Heat” is made so realistically that it has been used as a model in the training of US Marines.
Heat is a heist crime and action film from 1995. It is directed by the renowned director Michael Mann and revolves around the cat-and-mouse game of the notorious criminal Neil McCauley, who plans a major heist, and his adversary, the relentless police officer Vincent Hanna.
The movie remains one of the greatest and most influential films of the genre, influencing other films like The Dark Knight and games like GTA 5. However, a specific scene from the film also played an important role in the US military.
Here you can see a trailer for Heat:
“If you can’t reload as fast as this actor, get out of my army!”
Which scene are we talking about? In the film, McCauley and his crew have just robbed a bank and are now on the run. But they are intercepted by Hanna and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). The situation escalates on the open street: Both sides engage in a spectacular shootout.
The scene is one of the most iconic in the film, known especially for its high degree of realism.
Here you can watch the shootout scene:
How was the scene used by the military? In the training program of the US Marines, the scene was shown as an example of behavior under fire
to the trainees and served as a model for weapon handling.
Val Kilmer, the actor who plays the character Chris Shiherlis, spoke about it in a behind-the-scenes feature for the film.
He heard that at the moment his character reloads in the film, the Marine instructors would say to their recruits: “If you can’t reload as fast as this actor, get out of my army!” (via screenrant.com)
Heat is getting a sequel after all these years. Director Michael Mann has already confirmed Heat 2 as his next project, as you can read here from our colleagues at Filmstarts.
How did the director achieve such a high degree of realism? Mann had high expectations for the actors’ abilities and wanted them to be so well-prepared for their roles that they felt they could actually do what their characters do in the film.
Therefore, the director enlisted the help of former Special Air Service Sergeant Andy McNab and ex-Special Forces member Mick Gould. Together, they created a three-month plan for the actors and trained with them. They developed different curricula for the bank robbers and the police officers and allowed the latter to practice with real cops at shooting ranges.
Moreover, the actors first played the scene with real bullets at the shooting range before starting the filming with blank cartridges in downtown L.A.
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