10 hit movies you didn’t know were based on real stories
‘Heat’
Michael Mann’s Heat is based on the true story of Neil McCauley (played by Robert De Niro), a criminal and ex-Alcatraz inmate who was tracked down by Detective Chuck Adamson, who largely inspired Al Pacino’s character, Lt. Vincent Hanna.
In 1961, McCauley was transferred from Alcatraz to the McNeil Island Corrections Center, and upon his 1962 release, he immediately started planning new heists. Detective Adamson began tracking McCauley around that time, and they even met for coffee once, just like that scene in the film, and their dialogue was based on McCauley and Adamson’s actual conversation. The burglary of the diamond drill bits manufacturer where McCauley and his crew used bolt cutters and drills and the armored car heist were real crimes recreated for the film. Adamson later became a film and TV producer, which is how he met Mann.