Heat | 1995

Stylemeister Michael Mann remakes his own 1989 TV movie LA Takedown six years on as a conscious love-letter to the look and 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.

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 behind the LA Convention Center, south of Downtown.

It's on Venice Boulevard beneath the knot of freeways at the junction of the Santa Monica Freeway (I-10) and the Harbor Freeway (I-110). That's the rear of the Convention Center and its carpark you can see in the background.

In the fraught aftermath, loose cannon Waingro is lucky to escape the wrath of McCauley during a confrontation at Johnie’s Broiler in Downey, south LA. The classic 1958 restaurant, seen also in David Fincher’s The Game, Robert Altman’s Short Cuts, One Hour Photo, Ben Stiller’s Reality Bites and Tina Turner biopic What’s Love Got To Do With It, closed down and was largely – and illegally – demolished. Amazingly, it’s back from the dead and has been rebuilt as Bob’s Big Boy Broiler, 7447 Firestone Boulevard.

Now a slew of locations which have closed down, starting with the bookshop where McCauley buys a book on metallurgy. It was 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’, was the Broadway Deli, 1457 Third Street at Broadway at the pedestrianised Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica (not to be confused with the Broadway Bar and Grill on the opposite corner, which you might recognise as record store ‘Trax’ from Pretty In Pink). The deli is now Lululemon Athletica, a sports store.

Not far away, on the Santa Monica sea front, was the also-now-closed Japanese restaurant staked out by Hanna, Zen Zero, which stood at 1535 Ocean Avenue. The premises is now home to Ivy at the Shore, serving up Californian cuisine.

Even worse, demolished and replaced by apartments, is the deserted drive-in, where Van Zant’s men set up a double cross. This was the Centinela Drive-In, which stood at 5700 West Centinela Avenue, Inglewood.

Acting on a tip-off, Hanna and a SWAT team stake out a precious metals repository, which Macaulay and his crew are planning to rob. One small slip gives their presence away and Macaulay quickly aborts the robbery.

The repository was on Factory Place, running east from South Alameda Street in the industrial area east of Downtown which is now being developed as the city's Arts District.

There's been some redevelopment and some buildings have been demolished, including the one used as the 'repository', but you can still see the utility pole which Cheritto climbs to deactivate the security system.

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, which stood for 27 years at 9101 Wilshire Boulevard until being forced to close its doors in June 2014.

Only a couple of blocks west of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences HQ at 8949 Wilshire, the restaurant was a favourite with Academy members – and a certain amount of lobbying come Oscar time.

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 West Riverside Drive in Burbank.

At its peak in 1989, there were over 240 Bob's locations throughout the USA. As of September 2023, the company operates four locations in California – this one in Burbank, also Downey, Norco, and Northridge.

Designed by architect Wayne McAllister in a style now called Googie, "incorporating the 1940s transitional design of Streamline Moderne while anticipating the freeform 50s coffee shop architecture".

A brass plaque by one of the tables commemorated the filming. This Bob’s, with its spectacular towering sign, was built in 1949 and is the oldest remaining Bob's Big Boy in the USA.

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).

I first saw this movie the night before I took off to the States in 1996 to get photos for my first book, the Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations. 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).

There's recently been some serious remodelling. I was a bit confused, thinking the sculptures had gone, but they've simply been glassed in to become part of the building's lobby.

Hanna and the police arrive on West Fifth Street, triggering the mother of all shoot-outs, which spills out onto the stretch of West Fifth toward Figueroa Street.

Cheritto (Tom Sizemore) takes off on foot and suddenly finds himself a block north on the Union Bank Plaza, which must have involved lugging the loot up an escalator to the landscaped space atop a parking garage on the northeast corner of Fourth and Figueroa Streets.

McCauley calls Nate (Jon Voight) to get Van Zant’s address, at The Blue Room, 916 South San Fernando Road, Burbank, which you can see more of in Christopher Nolan's Memento.

When his relationship falls apart, Vincent Hanna moves into what was the Holiday Inn, now Hotel Angeleno, 170 North Church Lane, overlooking the freeway in Brentwood (Paul Giamatti drives past its circular tower at the beginning of Sideways).

The safe house, at which Shiherlis' wife, Charlene (Ashley Judd), is held by the police and forced to lead Shiherlis into a trap is a luxurious beachfront home, 117-119 Ocean Front Walk in Venice.

You can see the balcony from which she discreetly warns him off, on the corner of Navy Street.

On the verge of getting out of the city and starting a new life, Macaulay makes the fatal mistake of stopping off to settle the score with Waingro.

The 'Airport Marriott', at which Waingro finally gets his dues, is in reality the Hilton Los Angeles Airport, 5711 West Century Boulevard. Its sleek black glass tower block fits Mann's aesthetic perfectly.

As Eady sits waiting in the car, Macaulay sneaks in through the side entrance on the narrow service road leading north from from West Century Boulevard. The road can no longer be seen as in that aerial shot. It's now closely hemmed in by the two-storied Parking Spot Century.

Guests flee from the front entrance, and in the confusion Macaulay lets himself into the lobby and finally deals with Waingro.

Unfortunately for him, Hanna is close on his tail, catching up with him on that service road. Macaulay is forced to live up to his cardinal rule – leaving everything behind, including Eady.

The road doesn't really lead to the runways of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) – they're in the opposite direction, south across West Century Boulevard, but this is where the final confrontation is played out – back in the innocent days before airport security became such a big issue.

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