Heat is a 1985 novel by William Goldman about a soldier of fortune in Las Vegas. The novel is about a man named Nick Escalante, nicknamed "the Mex" by his friends, who hires himself out in Las Vegas not as a mercenary or bodyguard but as a service listed in the Yellow Pages directory under "Chaperone." He eschews firearms but is particularly lethal with sharp objects. Escalante has one ambition, which is to save up enough money so that he can move to Venice, Italy, for the rest of his life. The trouble is, Nick is a compulsive gambler. When he comes into a large sum of money after coming to the aid of a woman friend who has been physically abused in a Vegas hotel suite by DeMarco, an arrogant mobster, Nick ends up losing it at the blackjack tables.
Adaptations (2)
Heat has been adapted into 2 films, from 1987 to 2015. The most recent is Wild Card (2015).
Heat1987 · film · 101 min · dir. Dick Richards, Jerry Jameson · IMDb ↗Reynolds plays an ex-soldier-of-fortunish character in Vegas, taking "Chaperone" jobs, fighting with the mob, and trying to get enough money together to move to Venice, Italy.
Wild Card2015 · film · 92 min · dir. Simon West · IMDb ↗When a Las Vegas bodyguard with lethal skills and a gambling problem gets in trouble with the mob, he has one last play… and it's all or nothing.
