Favorite Acting Monologues: Heat(1995)

Vincent Hanna Seven years in Folsom. In the hole for three. McNeil before that. McNeil as tough as they say?

Neil McCauley You looking to become a penologist?

Vincent Hanna You’re looking to go back? You know, I chase down some crews… guys just looking to fuck up, get busted back. That you?

Neil McCauley You must’ve worked some dipshit crews.

Vincent Hanna I worked all kinds.

Neil McCauley You see me doing thrill-seeking liquor-store holdups… with a “Born to Lose” tattoo on my chest?

Vincent Hanna No, I do not.

Neil McCauley Right. I am never going back.

Vincent Hanna Then don’t take down scores.

Neil McCauley I do what I do best, I take scores. You do what you do best, trying to stop guys like me.

Vincent Hanna So you never wanted a regular-type life?

Neil McCauley What the fuck is that? Barbecues and ball games?

Vincent Hanna Yeah.

Neil McCauley This regular-type life like your life?

Vincent Hanna My life? No, my life… No, my life’s a disaster zone. I got a stepdaughter so fucked up… because her real father is this large-type asshole. I got a wife. We’re passing each other on the down slope of a marriage… my third… because I spend all my time chasing guys like you around the block. That’s my life.

Neil McCauley A guy told me one time: “Don’t let yourself get attached to anything… you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat… if you feel the heat around the corner.” Now, if you’re on me, and you gotta move when I move… how do you expect to keep a marriage?

Vincent Hanna Well, that’s an interesting point. What are you, a monk?

Neil McCauley I have a woman.

Vincent Hanna What do you tell her?

Neil McCauley I tell her I’m a salesman.

Vincent Hanna So then, if you spot me coming around that corner… you’re just gonna walk out on this woman? Not say goodbye?

Neil McCauley That’s the discipline.

Vincent Hanna That’s pretty vacant, no?

Neil McCauley Yeah, it is what it is. It’s that, or we both better go do something else, pal.

Vincent Hanna I don’t know how to do anything else.

Neil McCauley Neither do I.

Vincent Hanna I don’t much want to either.

Neil McCauley Neither do I.

Vincent Hanna You know, I have this, uh, recurring dream. I’m sitting at this big banquet table… and all the victims of all the murders I ever worked are sitting at this table and they’re staring at me with these black eyeballs… because they got eight-ball hemorrhages from the head wounds. And there they are, these big balloon people… because I found them two weeks after they’d been under the bed. The neighbors reported the smell… and there they are, all of them just sitting there.

Neil McCauley What do they say?

Vincent Hanna Nothing.

Neil McCauley No talk?

Vincent Hanna None. Just… They don’t have anything to say. See, we just look at each other. They look at me. And that’s it, that’s the dream.

Neil McCauley I have one where I’m drowning. And I gotta wake myself up and start breathing, or I’ll die in my sleep.

Vincent Hanna You know what that’s about?

Neil McCauley Yeah. Having enough time.

Vincent Hanna Enough time to do what you wanna do?

Neil McCauley That’s right.

Vincent Hanna You doing it now?

Neil McCauley No, not yet.

Vincent Hanna You know, we’re sitting here… you and I, like a couple of regular fellows. You do what you do, and I do what I gotta do. And now that we’ve been face to face… if I’m there and I gotta put you away, I won’t like it. But I’ll tell you… if it’s between you and some poor bastard… whose wife you’re gonna turn into a widow… brother, you are going down.

Neil McCauley There’s a flip side to that coin. What if you do got me boxed in and I gotta put you down? Because no matter what, you will not get in my way. We’ve been face to face, yeah… but I will not hesitate. Not for a second.

Vincent Hanna Maybe that’s the way it’ll be. Or who knows?

Neil McCauley Or maybe we’ll never see each other again.