Robert De Niro’s 170-Minute Crime Epic Is Officially on Netflix

Los Angeles has never looked as dangerous, or sounded as loud, as it did when Michael Mann decided to host a shootout in the middle of the city back in 1995. Plopping Robert De Niro and Al Pacino into the middle of it all just added to the lore of the film. Now, more than 30 years later, with a long-awaited sequel finally moving forward, there’s never been a better time to revisit one of the greatest crime movies ever made.

Heat has officially arrived on Netflix in the United States, joining the streamer’s library in October 2026 as excitement continues building for Mann’s upcoming Heat 2. With Leonardo DiCaprio attached to star in the sequel, audiences now have another reason to revisit the movie that started it all. The film is a classic cat-and-mouse crime saga that follows professional thief Neil McCauley (De Niro) as he leads a crew of criminals across carefully planned robberies throughout L.A. But after a job goes fatally wrong, LAPD detective Vincent Hanna (Pacino) doggedly chases them down.

The cast is led by De Niro (Goodfellas) and Pacino (The Godfather), alongside Val Kilmer (Top Gun) as Chris Shiherlis, Ashley Judd (Double Jeopardy) as Charlene Shiherlis, Amy Brenneman (The Leftovers) as Eady, Diane Venora (The Insider) as Justine Hanna, Natalie Portman (Black Swan) as Lauren Gustafson, and Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan) as Michael Cheritto.

Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.

Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.

Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.

Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.

Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.

Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.

What Is ‘Heat 2’ About?

Speaking to Variety last year, DiCaprio, who is taking over the role of Chris Shiherlis from the late Kilmer, explained that Heat 2 won’t simply try to recreate the original movie, even if it remains heavily inspired by Mann’s crime classic. “This is very much its own movie,” he said, adding that “it tips its hat to Heat, but it’s an homage, and it picks up the story from there.” He also went on to describe the original as “the great crime noir film of my lifetime,” praising its enormous influence on Hollywood over the years. However, he was quick to stress that the new movie needs to stand on its own, admitting that “we can’t duplicate what Heat was,” and that the goal is to honor the original while creating something that feels fresh and different.

Heat is streaming now on Netflix in the United States.