Onto-historical worlds

The two characters in the conversation are Neil McCauley (Robert Deniro's character) and Lt. Vincent Hanna (Pacino's character). Neil McCauley was actually a real professional criminal in the 1950s pursued by one of the co-writers of the film Chuck Adamson. Chuck Adamson was a Major Crime Unit (Robbery Homicide) detective in the Chicago area in the 1950s and Lt. Vincent Hanna is representative of Chuck Adamson. The real Neil McCauley and Chuck Adamson met in a similar situation (not as open as a diner) and apparently had a very similar conversation. At the end of the conversation, Pacino tells Deniro he will not hesitate to kill Deniro if he has to even though they have met face to face and shared a conversation. Deniro says "there is a flipside to that coin" and he will not hesitate to kill Pacino. According to Chuck Adamson, basically the same words were actually exchanged between him and the real Neil McCauley.
In relation to the history of the rest of the story (the context which the conversation is potrayed in) there is a part in the film where McCauley senses he is undersurveillance and calls a heist off in the middle of it.



This apparently did happen as well between Chuck Adamson and the real Neil McCauley. Neil McCauley attempted to rob a department store and unbeknownst to him he was being watched by a surveillance team of police officers. McCauley however seemed to feel something was not right and waited for a long time listening. One of the officers moved to go to the bathroom, McCauley heard it, and left the store. In 1964 Chuck Adamson killed the real Neil McCauley. Neil McCauley attempted to take down a supermarket that had just received a delivery from an armored car. The police had tailed McCauley to the market and waited for him to come out. When he did come out he saw Chuck across the street and a violent gun battle ensued including a long foot chase. The end result was the death of McCauley and his crew. A very similar situation happens in the major hesit scene of the film (the bank robbery) and at the end of the film where Pacino kills Robert Deniro's character.
Michael Mann, the director who grew up in the Late 50s in Chicago in an immigrant family and neighborhood. His family was from the lower middle classes as was Pacino's and the nieghborhood consisted of mostly southern Italian and Eastern European immigrants. MIchael Mann in the "Making of" extra on the DVD explains that his world growing up is what the idea of the "front page news" for crime came out of. A conception of folkloric outlaws and speak-easy poker rooms was the mood of the time.
Although much of the basis for this scene and the whole film is from the 1950s and 1960s the film is set in (at the time of its release) modern L.A. in 1995. Gang violence and crime in L.A. in the 1990s was rampant shown by the crackdown initiated by Bill Clinton due to the death of a 3 year old girl in a shootout. (wiki) Despite this, a resurgence for the need of tough actors with tough guy roles like Humphrey Bogart occured in Hollywood. The decade begins with the fall of communism and the Iraq war. This is relevant in the movie because after numerous viewings, it becomes apparent Pacino and Deniro's characters are both x-marines. When Deniro is getting intelligence on Pacino he is told that Pacino is an x-marine. In one scene where Deniro has his shirt off, a tattoo of the marine Eagle Globe and Anchor is exposed. Also quite interesting is the affirmation and encouragement of free-market capitalism in the U.S. simultaneous with the development of personal computers and the Internet. Technology and the intelligence/knowledge which can be gathered from it plays a crucial role in the film. The concept of free-market capitalism propogated at the time placed a high level of importance on making money and it could be said, put ethics on the back burnner.