Hollywood has churned out plenty of brilliant heist movies over the decades but the two films that often stand out are helmed by Spike Lee), stars Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jodie Foster, and Willem Dafoe.
Both films have a tied score of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes. Interestingly, their box office grosses are also somewhat tied. Heat made $187 million globally while Inside Man made $186 million, implying that viewer interest was high for both films. However, here are the areas where each film really trumps the other.
Inside Man: Intelligent Heist Leader
Dalton Russel (Clive Owen) is as smart and as intriguing as antiheroes get. He kicks off the events of the movie in attention-grabbing fashion by explaining who he is, what he is about to do, and when he's planning to do it. He only leaves out the "why," which serves as the movie's plot.
Russel proves to be many steps above law enforcement throughout the heist. It almost feels like The Professor from Money Heist was modeled after him. Russel is always calm when talking to the negotiators and he even makes them think he has killed a hostage yet it was just a fake video. The fact that he doesn't get caught at the end is proof of his brilliance.
Heat: Law Enforcement
While Denzel Washington gave a spectacular performance as the Chief Negotiator Detective Keith Frazier, Al Pacino's portrayal of Lieutenant Vincent Hanna was unrivaled. Hanna was a flawed but reliable cop. He yelled when talking and never hesitated to confront the robbers all by himself.
One of the best scenes in the movie came when Hanna pulled the villain Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) over and invited him for coffee just so he could read his mind. The two men then promised each other doom but it was Hanna who eventually came out on top when he shot Neil at an airport after a breathtaking chase.
Inside Man: Humorous Dialogue
The dialogue in Inside Man was superbly written. For example, when Detective Keith Frazier and his partner are interrogating a kid who had been held hostage, they ask him if he was scared, to which he responds: "No, I wasn't scared. I'm from Brooklyn."
And during one of the conversations between Russel and Keith, Russel confidentially says: "This time next week I'll be sucking down pina coladas in a hot tub with two girls named Emily and Tiffany," to which Keith replies: "More like taking a shower with two guys named Jamal and Jesus, if you know what I mean. And here's the bad news: that thing you'll be sucking on? It's not a pina colada."
Heat: Breathtaking Action Sequences
In the early scenes of Heat, viewers are treated to one of the best action scenes of all time. While wearing masks and holding automatic weapons, Neill and his crew ambush an armored car to steal $1.6 million in bearer bonds. The heist goes wrong when one of the trigger-happy robbers named Waingro kills a guard. The crew is also forced to kill another guard when he draws his weapon.
Since Neill planned for no murder to be committed, he becomes angry at Waingro and decides to kill him. However, he escapes and becomes a nuisance for the rest of the film. There is also a spectacular action scene when the robbers are ambushed by cops outside the bank and Neill barely manages to escape. The other best scene comes at the end of the film when Neill tries to flee the country after killing Waingro but Hanna spots him, hence a chase begins.
Inside Man: The Goal
In Inside Man, Russel made cops believe that he was intending to rob the bank but that wasn't really the case. They were only there to access an uned safe box belonging to the bank owner. When the police finally raided the bank, they discovered that nothing had been stolen. The weapons used by robbers had been toy guns too.
The twist includes the safe box containing incriminating evidence that proved the elderly bank owner had been a Nazi sympathizer. The box also contained a ring that the owner had taken from a Jewish friend. In Heat, the major motivations for the robberies were money, which made the film similar to many others of its kind.
Heat: Subplots
Inside Man mostly focused on the heist and nothing else. Viewers didn't really get to understand the main characters and their backgrounds. Heat, on the other hand, did a great job of serving mini-stories.
The love lives of both the protagonist and antagonist were explored. Hanna was in a bad marriage and his wife had just cheated on him. His stepdaughter was dissatisfied with life too, leading her to attempt suicide. Neill also fell in love with a woman despite promising himself to never get attached to something he couldn't leave behind at a moment's notice.
Inside Man: Pace
While it's easy to give up on Heat midway due to the slow pace at which the story is built, the same is unlikely to happen while watching Inside Man. Events move quickly, thus keeping the viewer glued the entire time.
Inside Man is a movie anyone can watch while Heat would basically only appeal to fans of the genre and the lead actors. In the Spike Lee film, it's never easy to tell what's going to happen next. The director holds back the payoff until the very end and the viewer is glad to sit and find out what it is.
Heat: ing Characters
Heat had strong ing characters compared to Inside Man which gave Keith and Russel 90% of the screen time. The most fascinating ing character was Waingro who went on to kill a guard despite his boss emphasizing a "no-kill " policy. He then fled and began hunting his own crew.
There was also Trejo (Danny Trejo kept his real name), the getaway driver. He ended up meeting the grim reaper at the hands of Waingro. Eady was great too as Neill's lover. She made him break his rule of never getting attached to something he couldn't leave behind. He was even willing to flee the country with her until Hanna spoiled the party.
Inside Man: It's An Anti-Crime Movie
Most movies of this kind are guilty of glorifying crime for the purposes of entertainment. The same can't be said of Inside Man. The architect of the heist doesn't kill a single person in the film. He also doesn't steal anything that belongs to the public.
Instead, Russel seeks to expose a man who got wealthy from dealing with the Nazis and bring justice to those he wronged. In the end, Russel comes off as the film's hero while Arthur Case—founder of the fictional Manhattan Trust Bank—is revealed to be the true villain.
Heat: Societal Impact
While it's not necessarily a good thing, a crime movie that influences real-life criminals is quite something. A couple of infamous future robberies would mimic scenes from the movie.
There was the robbery of an armored vehicle in South Africa which was conducted in the same manner as in the movie. There was also the bloody 1997 North Hollywood shootout in which several cops and bystanders were injured. Later on, the robber Larry Phillips was found with a copy of the movie.
