Michael Mann's Vision for Heat Needed a Different Kind of Movie Villain

In the documentary "The Making of 'Heat'", Mann says that its premise examines the notion that "each person is a universe unto themselves". “Everyone has a life,” he explains. "We tend to two-dimensionalize the antagonists in a film. To me, it's much more fascinating if me, the actors and everyone else has the ability to imagine and develop and inflate that into the dimensionality of a lifetime . So that was the idea. And 'Heat', when you do what I do, that's what keeps you going."

That definitely doesn't get you in the direction of stock market nastiness. Producer Art Linson adds, "[Mann] lets you see what's going on. And suddenly you realize that the cop's personal life is just as screwed up as the robber's personal life, and both, in as many times manners, must deal with exactly the same issues while dealing with the same integrity or lack of integrity as the other."