Heat film locations
Film locations: Los Angeles
Heat location: The bank job: Flower Street, downtown Los Angeles
Stylemeister Michael Mann remakes his own 1989 TV movie LA Takedown six years on as a conscious love-letter to the architecture of Los Angeles.
The stylish overground rail station, at which Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) is seen arriving under the credits sequence, is Marine-Redondo Station, 2406 Marine Avenue in Redondo Beach, South Bay. It's the southern end of Los Angeles’ Metro Green Line, running east and west between Norwalk and Redondo Beach, curving south near the Los Angeles International Airport.
Heat location: McCauley heads to the hospital: Marine-Redondo, Metro Green Line, Los Angeles
Michael Mann seems to like this station. He returns to it for the final scenes of Collateral.
The hospital from which McCauley steals an ambulance, is St Mary Medical Center, 1050 Linden Avenue in Long Beach (seen also in the big-screen version of The X-Files) and, while Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer) seems to be buying dynamite in ‘Arizona’, he’s no further away than Whittier, southeast of Los Angeles.
The bearer bonds robbery, where the security guards are cold-bloodedly executed, is on Venice Boulevard at Convention Center Drive beneath the Santa Monica Freeway, behind the LA Convention Center, south of downtown.
In the fraught aftermath, loose cannon Waingro is lucky to escape the wrath of McCauley during a confrontation at Johnie’s Broiler, 7447 Firestone Boulevard, Downey. The classic 1958 restaurant, seen also in Reality Bites, Robert Altman’s Short Cuts and Tina Turner biopic What’s Love Got To Do With It is closed and has been under threat of demolition for some time.
Heat location: Amy Brenneman comes on to Robert de Niro: Broadway Deli, Third Street, Santa Monica, Los Angeles
McCauley buys a book on metallurgy at the now-closed Hennessey and Ingalls bookstore, which stood at 1254 Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. The nearby restaurant, where Eady (Amy Brenneman) comes on to McCauley while he’s studying ‘Stress Fractures in Titanium’, is the Broadway Deli, 1457 Third Street at Broadway at the pedestrianised Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica (don’t confuse it with the Broadway Bar and Grill on the opposite corner).
Not far away, on the Santa Monica sea front, was the now-closed Japanese restaurant staked out by Hanna, Zen Zero, which stood at 1535 Ocean Avenue.
The deserted drive-in, where Van Zant’s men set up a double cross, was the Centinela Drive-In, which stood at 5700 West Centinela Avenue, Inglewood, before being demolished and replaced by apartments.
Heat location: The confrontation between Hannah and McCauley: Kate Mantilini, Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills
McCauley and cop Vincent Hanna meet up (the legendary first appearance of de Niro and Al Pacino on screen together) in upscale Beverly Hills restaurant Kate Mantilini, 9101 Wilshire Boulevard.
Heat location: McCauley recruits Breedan: Bob's Big Boy, Riverside Drive, Burbank
Breedan (Dennis Haysbert) throws in his job as dishwasher, when he’s recruited by McCauley as a driver, in one of the few remaining original Bob’s Big Boy burger bars, at 4211 Riverside Drive in Burbank. A brass plaque by one of the tables commemorates the filming.
Heat location: the shootout: South Figueroa Street, downtown Los Angeles
The major bank job is at 444 South Flower Street at Fifth Street, downtown, (you can see its geometric silver sculptures on the forecourt again in Fight Club and in William Friedkin’s To Live and Die in LA) , and the subsequent mother of all shoot-outs spills out onto the stretch of South Figueroa Street between Fifth and Fourth Streets (I first saw this movie the night before I took off to the States to get photos for the book. The next day, looking for a parking space in downtown Los Angeles, I swung into South Figueroa only to find myself in the middle of the shoot-out location).
Heat location: McCauley calls Nate: The Blue Room, San Fernando Road, Burbank
McCauley calls Nate (Jon Voight) to get Van Zant’s address, at The Blue Room, 916 South San Fernando Road, Burbank (seen also in Christopher Nolan's Memento).
When his relationship falls apart, Vincent Hanna moves into the Holiday Inn, 170 North Church Lane, overlooking the freeway in Brentwood (Paul Giamatti drives past its circular tower at the beginning of Sideways).
Heat location: the airport hotel: Hilton Los Angeles Airport, West Century Boulevard, Los Angeles
The airport hotel at which Waingro finally gets his dues is the Hilton Los Angeles Airport, 5711 West Century Boulevard, and (in the days before airport security became such a big issue) it’s on the runways of (LAX), Los Angeles International Airport, that the final shoot-out is staged.
All material Copyright ©2008 The Worldwide Guide To Movie Locations
Designed by Intelligent Designing
Heat, 1995
Director
Cast
- Robert De Niro
- Al Pacino
- Val Kilmer
- Amy Brenneman
- Jon Voight
- Tom Sizemore
- Wes Studi
- Mykelti Williamson
- Diane Venora
- Dennis Haysbert
- Danny Trejo
- Hank Azaria
- Ted Levine
- Natalie Portman
- William Fichtner
visit the film locations
Los Angeles: Flights: Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
Need an airport hotel? Stay at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport, 5711 West Century Boulevard (tel: 310.410.4000)
Dine in style at Kate Mantilini, 9101 Wilshire Boulevard at Doheny Drive, Beverly Hills (tel: 310.278.3699)
Trivia
For two more widescreen love-letters to the architecture of Los Angeles, see Roman Polanski’s Chinatown and Curtis Hanson’s L.A. Confidential