Surely the inciting incident for Ne Diro’s character is when he meets Eady and for Pacino it’s when he takes on the case. These are the worst possible scenarios for both of them.

Thanks, Rune. By coincidence, I had just put the film on my watch list again when I saw your comment!

The inciting incident is simply the armored car robbery at the start. The Act 1 threshhold for the main character, Vincent, comes shortly after – when a cop asks Vincent if he is taking this case himself or letting division take it, and Vincent says he will take it (since he knows this crew must be experts, and therefore he is the expert cop to track them down). Vinceent enters the story then (end of Act 1)

All the main characters have been introduced by this point (even though the details of their own stories and subplots come after this point).

Other films have their inciting incident and Act 1 turning point close together – Rocky for example – Apollo Creed and his crew are tking about giving the Italian Stalion a chance at the title (inciting incident) and not too long after when Rocky is asked if he will accept that invitation, he does, and thus Rocky enters the story (Act 1 turning point)

I agree with you. The theme is set up in the first few scenes as ‘not having enough time’.

His mantra is about dropping everything, including unfinished business.

Neil’s undoing, according to the analysis above, has to do with returning to kill Waingro despite the fact the “heat is around the corner”. Neil is meticulous and views Wayngro as a loose end that must be addressed. His meticulous nature, in this scenario, trumps his mantra of remaining unattached to anything or any idea that could result in his demise. His demise however has nothing to do with Eady. In fact, the movie suggests that had Neil fled with Eady while en route to the airport instead of returning for Wayngro, Neil likely would have escaped.

Yup, agree. The message of the movie is that “for a man to be really great at his job, he can’t afford to have attachments.” Vincent always puts work first. (He’s been through three marriages and the current one doesn’t look too rosy). He wins. Neil develops an attachment for Eady and this proves to be his undoing – Vincent spots the girlfriend alone in the car, which tells him that Neil is nearby, and enables him to kill him. The Chris sub-plot mirrors the above. He survives, but only when he and Charlene realise they can’t maintain their relationship, and she waves him away.