Director Michael Mann's Heat is regarded as one of the greatest-ever crime thrillers. Starring Al Pacino as a police officer and Robert De Niro as a robber, the film set a high standard for subsequent crime thrillers. One of the most iconic scenes from the film is a moment where Pacino and De Niro's characters meet and speak for the first time at a restaurant.

It has been mentioned numerous times by actors and filmmakers in Hollywood as being one of their favourite scenes of all time. For example, Tom Hiddleston once did his Heat diner scene rendition, impersonating both De Niro and Pacino's characters speaking their respective lines in the film. What makes the sequence special is how it serves as a mutual recognition of the two characters' powers and challenges, especially their loneliness, at opposite ends of the law enforcement spectrum.

While Robert De Niro called it one of his favourite scenes from the film in a recent interview with Jake Hamilton of Fox 32 Chicago, the actor also said that its filming left him a tad 'annoyed' at the time. Speaking about it, the legendary actor said that the shoot for the scene only began late at night following their rehearsals for it. "We did not start shooting till maybe 1:00 AM because there was a dinner break or something, and I was a little annoyed that we did it in such a way. We had to take all this time, and we were just sitting," De Niro said. The actor added that it took time for Mann to figure out the correct camera angle, adding to the delay. "It's a terrifically written scene. I hope we did the honour of what it deserves," De Niro added.

It is interesting that De Niro spoke about rehearsals for Heat, because many reports said that the scene was not rehearsed to ensure freshness and authenticity in the interaction between the characters.