Michael Mann's Heat Inspired One Of The Best Superhero Movies Of All Time

Mention Michael Mann's "Heat" to any cinephile, and they'll wax poetic about how it's one of the greatest films of all time. The 1995 crime thriller boasts an all-star cast, featuring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, and Ashley Judd, and knows that the action is the juice. Mann's film inspired a generation of other filmmakers, including Christopher Nolan, who learned all the right lessons from "Heat" for 2008's "The Dark Knight."

It isn't too difficult to see the blatant inspiration in the opening scene of "The Dark Knight," as Heath Ledger's Joker orchestrates the type of perfect bank robbery that would make Neil McCauley (De Niro) and his crew proud that the Clown Prince of Crime paid attention to every detail. In fact, this thrilling sequence — one of the best things about the movie — even features William Fichtner, who plays Roger Van Zant in "Heat," as the manager of the gangster-owned bank. Pretty obvious where Nolan got the concept from, isn't it? "Exactly!" Nolan told IGN. "It's a bit of a nod to that."

To make "The Dark Knight" scenes mean more, Nolan actually screened "Heat" for his team before they started making the film. "I always felt 'Heat' to be a remarkable demonstration of how you can create a vast universe within one city and balance a very large number of characters and their emotional journeys in an effective manner," Nolan said to Variety.

Despite "Heat" being a classic, Michael Mann doesn't think it would be an easy sell in modern-day Hollywood. "Heat" wasn't exactly a budget-friendly film, costing a reported $60 million to make and bringing in around $190 million at the box office. Comparing it to other 1995 films, "GoldenEye" cost the same amount of money but made $356 million, and "Jumanji" cost $65 million and raked in $263 million.

Additionally, Mann knows that "Heat" is a long movie at 170 minutes. Unless it's a tentpole comic book movie or James Cameron's 72-hour cut of "Avatar," most studios turn up their noses at films nearing the three-hour mark. Even in the '90s, Mann employed strongarm tactics to get Warner Bros. to open the studio coffers, showing the script, revealing the two leads attached, and giving the studio two days to make a decision. "I basically held them for ransom, and they were furious," Mann said at the Lumière Film Festival (via The Hollywood Reporter) in 2017.

Warner Bros. got some revenge, passing on releasing "Heat 2" – reportedly because the parties disagreed on the budget. United Artists landed the film thereafter. That said, it's mind-blowing to think that anyone could say no to a sequel to one of the best films ever made. Perhaps everyone — including Christopher Nolan — should be grateful that the movie's journey from a real-life heist to Hollywood history happened when it did, because it would be unlikely now.