Published Jun 22, 2026, 7:30 PM EDT
In over three years at Collider, senior author Jake has now penned over 3000 articles covering a wide range of TV and film for the resources, lists, utilities, news, and interview teams. Alongside interviewing stars such as Selin Hizli, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Harlan Coben, and Chelsea Peretti, Jake was lucky enough to visit the set of Aardman and Netflix’s Wallace and Gromit: A Vengeance Most Fowl in 2024, getting the chance to chat with four-time Academy Award winner Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham. Jake has also worked for other publications, including Agents of Fandom. You can also hear Jake every week as the resident film and TV journalist on Track Radio.
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Taylor Sheridan’s impact can be felt all over the streaming landscape. From the international success of his most famous series, Yellowstone, on Netflix, to his domination of Paramount+ courtesy of the likes of Landman, Tulsa King, Mayor of Kingstown, and* The Madison*, Sheridan’s streaming coverage is arguably unmatched. Right now, the *Yellowstone *spin-off Dutton Ranch, which Sheridan creatively oversees, is an unstoppable streaming force, with millions tuning in every week to catch the next installment in Rip (Cole Hauser) and Beth’s (Kelly Reilly) ranch rivalry.
Although Sheridan is one of the most influential men working in film and TV today, with many finding inspiration from his work, the man himself has also found inspiration from a wide variety of screen classics. One such film, the crime thriller masterpiece Heat, significantly influenced Sicario**, a modern gem penned by Sheridan and directed by the great Denis Villeneuve. Starring two of the finest actors to ever grace a set, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, Heat wasn’t the instant hit many today might assume, only earning moderate box office success and finding most of its praise from critics.
However, the film was completely shut out from the Academy Awards, with its zero nominations often cited as one of the worst oversights in the Academy’s history. Thankfully, Heat has aged like a fine wine and is considered today an undeniable masterpiece and the very best of director Michael Mann. Alas, if you’re looking to stream Heat, you might have to hurry, as the thriller will be leaving free streamer Plex on July 1**.
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.
Speculation of a sequel to Mann’s magnum opus has been rife for years, and, finally, it appears that ***Heat 2 ***is going ahead. Cast member **Christian Bale **confirmed back in February that shooting on the sequel would begin soon, saying, ”…I’ll be back in Chicago, I think, on Heat 2 soon.” Bale will reunite with Mann after starring as FBI agent Melvin Purvis in the 2009 crime drama Public Enemies, with **Leonardo DiCaprio set to star opposite Bale in Heat 2. The sequel is based on the bestselling 2022 novel of the same name, which Mann co-authored with Meg Gardiner, with the legendary **Jerry Bruckheimer **set to produce.
Heat is leaving Plex on July 1. Make sure to stay tuned to Collider for all the latest streaming news.
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