| Heat | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Dick Richards Jerry Jameson |
| Produced by | Cassian Elwes |
| Written by | William Goldman |
| Starring | Burt Reynolds Karen Young Peter MacNicol Howard Hesseman Neill Barry |
| Music by | Michael Gibbs |
| Cinematography | James A. Contner |
| Editing by | Jeffrey Wolf |
| Distributed by | New Century Vista Film Company |
| Release date(s) | November 12, 1986 |
| Running time | 101 min |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Heat is a 1986 action-thriller film about an ex-mercenary working as a bodyguard in Las Vegas. The film was written by William Goldman, based on his novel. It was directed by Dick Richards and Jerry Jameson, and stars Burt Reynolds, Karen Young, and Peter MacNicol.
A woman in a Las Vegas bar is annoyed by a flirtatious drunk (Burt Reynolds). Her date, a milquetoast named Osgood, wants to do something about it. The woman, D.D., begs him not to, but when the drunk turns mean, Osgood challenges him to step outside. Much to D.D.'s astonishment, Osgood wins the fight and even gets the tough-looking drunk to apologize. Next morning, it turns out that the drunk is Nick Escalante, known to his friends as Mex, who has been hired to make Osgood look tough in his lady's eyes.
Nick is a former soldier of fortune, lethal with his hands and an expert with weapons, in particular sharp objects. He now acts as a bodyguard for hire but is listed in the Yellow Pages as a "chaperone". Nick's goal is to make enough money to leave Vegas and move to Venice, Italy for good. Soon, he is approached by another meek young man. Cyrus Kinnick (Peter MacNicol) is wealthy and claims to want someone by his side while he gambles, but that's a ruse. He really wants Nick to teach him how to be tough.
Nick is distracted, meantime, by the savage beating of his friend, Holly (Karen Young). As a paid escort, she goes to the hotel suite of Vegas high roller named Daniel "Danny" DeMarco (Neill Barry) who has organized crime connections. There, she was sadistically abused by DeMarco, a small man backed by Kinlaw and Tiel, a pair of gigantic thugs.
Holly can't get her revenge over DeMarco without Nick's help. He reluctantly agrees and goes to DeMarco's hotel, dressed like a flamboyant pimp. He uses his friendship with a local crime boss, Baby (Joseph Mascolo) to get access to DeMarco's suite. When he asks DeMarco about Holly's suffering, DeMarco tells him that it was only the beginning of a great game. When Nick asks DeMarco to make financial restitution for Holly's injuries, DeMarco first offers $20,000 restitution, which Nick accepts. But DeMarco puts the money back into his desk and pulls a gun, demanding that Nick flatter him. Nick does so, but DeMarco says that Nick has "failed the test," but he will spare him because he likes him. DeMarco again points his gun at Nick, after which he asks him what is he thinking about, to which Nick answers, "Venice." After Nick's answer, DeMarco orders Nick to be taken out of his suite, apparently to be beaten, or maybe even killed outside. But before DeMarco's henchmen can take any action, Nick proceeds to dispense his own kind of justice, using sharp objects like a medallion and the side of a credit card to defeat DeMarco and his goons.
Later that night, Holly arrives in DeMarco's suite and threatens to slice off DeMarco's manhood. She relents by cutting only the top of his, apparently small, penis. DeMarco becomes even more scared because of his bleeding. He asks if the whole thing is about the money, to which Holly asks, "what money?" Nick tells her about DeMarco's $20,000 in his desk. Holly takes the money and gives it to Nick, after which she tells DeMarco that "it's not about money, it's about love." DeMarco tries to blame Holly's suffering on his henchmen, but the henchmen confront him by telling that DeMarco had planned and done everything by himself.
After this, Nick and Holly leave DeMarco's hotel. Nick has a car prepared for Holly to get out of Las Vegas, but Nick stays. Before they depart, Nick gives Holly the $20,000 which they took from DeMarco. He refuses Holly's suggestion to take half the money. After Holly leaves with the car, she gives $10,000 to a man and asks him to give the money to Nick and leaves.
Taking a liking to his new client, Nick agrees to give Kinnick a few pointers on how to defend himself. With the money Holly gave him, meanwhile, Nick begins to play blackjack in a casino where his friend Cassie is a dealer. Kinnick comes to realize what Cassie already knows, that the reason Nick has had so much difficulty leaving Vegas is because he is a compulsive gambler.
After he wins enough money to go to Venice as planned, Nick talks himself into believing that it wouldn't be enough to last him for the rest of his life and he needs more. He returns to the casino and proceeds to lose it all.
DeMarco goes to Baby, asking him to kill Nick, claiming that Nick killed his friends with their own guns. Baby organizes a meeting in his home with him as a mediator. By knowing that they will find his fingerprints on the guns from when he disarmed DeMarco's friends, Nick tells Baby that some part of DeMarco's story is true. Instead of telling the truth to Baby, Nick asks two questions, why would he need a gun, to which DeMarco says that it is a stupid question, but Baby answers that Nick never uses firearms, but always sharp objects and fighting skills, and that is a perfect alibi for Nick. Nick's second question is how he knows that DeMarco has a small penis, to which he answers that he knows because his friend (Holly) cut its top in front of Nick. With this question, Nick wants to prove that DeMarco abused Holly, to which Baby says that DeMarco will have to show them his penis in order to prove if Nick is right or not. DeMarco refuses, after which Baby concludes that it was not Nick who killed DeMarco's friends, but someone who looks like him, after which Nick is freed from DeMarco's charges.
DeMarco and his men are waiting to ambush Nick at his office. Nick manages to fight them off with a brave intervention by Kinnick, who steps in the path of a bullet. Nick manages to kill DeMarco's henchmen and the same night goes to DeMarco's suite. DeMarco arrives still scared of what might happen since he failed to kill Nick and tried to kill Kinnick. Nick has turned the power off in DeMarco's suite and talks to DeMarco from the darkness, asks him if he wants to know how he is going to die, tells him that what happened to Kinlaw and Tiel is nothing compared to what awaits him. DeMarco tries to locate and kill Nick. By climbing the stairs inside the suite, he gets closer to Nick's voice, but still fails to locate Nick. Nick tells DeMarco that he has only one bullet left in his gun and that if he misses, he will tear his small and beautiful face out. Powerless, DeMarco kills himself with his own gun instead of leaving Nick to finish him.
As his new friend Kinnick recovers in the hospital, Nick is seen on a gondola in Venice, beginning a new life.
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