Movie Plot of "Scarface"

So what’s the film Scarface all about ?

Scarface is a 1983 crime film directed by Brian De Palma, written by Oliver Stone and starring Al Pacino as Tony Montana. It tells the story of a fictional Cuban refugee who comes to Florida in 1980 as a result of the Mariel Boatlift.

Montana becomes a gangster against the backdrop of the 1980s cocaine boom. The film chronicles his rise to the top of Miami’s criminal underworld and subsequent downfall in Greek tragedy fashion. The film is dedicated to Howard Hawks and Ben Hecht, who were the writers of the original Scarface. The film is a loose remake of Hawks’s 1932 film of the same title.

The film begins with a description of how, in 1980, Cuban President Fidel Castro let the gates open on Mariel Harbor in Cuba allowing thousands of Cubans to immigrate to Florida on boatlifts. However, some of these immigrants were criminals or ex-convicts.

Enter Tony Montana (Al Pacino), one of the 125,000 Cubans that immigrated to Miami, Florida, and one of at least 25,000 whom has a criminal record. He and his best friend and former Cuban Army buddy Manny Ribera (Steven Bauer) are met with resistance, particularly because of their criminal records, and are placed in limbo (so to speak) in Freedomtown, a place where Cuban refugees without green cards are kept. Manny makes Tony aware of a deal, where a wealthy man, Frank Lopez, can give them access to Green Cards and be able to leave Freedomtown. But, they have to kill a former Cuban security agent named Emilio Rebenga, who tortured Frank’s brother to death in Cuba, in order to obtain it. Tony does this without much thought, stabbing Rebenga during a riot, and they receive their residency. Tony and Manny begin working in a small Cuban food stand to make money, but Tony soon grows restless. They both make a deal with drug dealer Omar Suarez (F. Murray Abraham) (the same man who made the “Rebenga deal”) to get paid for getting cocaine from Colombian dealer “Hector the Toad”. Tony dislikes Omar’s attitude, but obliges.

A few days later, Tony and Manny, as well as two other associates, Angel and Chi Chi, travel to a small hotel in Miami Beach to meet with Hector and his men for the drug deal. But the transaction soon turns bad when it’s apparent that Hector never intends to sell the cocaine he has, and only wants to steal the money that Tony have, going as far at torturing Angel to death with a chainsaw. But Tony, Manny, and Chi Chi escape alive and with the cocaine, killing Hector and his associates in the escape. Instead of allowing Omar to take the cocaine to his boss Frank Lopez (Robert Loggia), Tony takes it to Frank personally, already untrusting of Omar (it is never revealed if Omar was in league with Hector to kill Tony, or if it was just a coincidence that Omar set the drug deal up unaware that Hector planned to kill his buyers). Tony manages to win Frank over with his sense of humor and bold attitude, and he ends up getting a job under Frank in his drug dealing business (along with Manny). Meanwhile, Tony takes an interest in Frank’s girlfriend, Elvira Hancock (Michelle Pfeiffer). While Tony flirts with Elvira, she doesn’t show any interest in him (or anyone else for that matter).

A few months later, Tony pays a visit to his estranged family’s home. It is implied that Tony’s father, a U.S. Navy sailor, walked out on the family years ago, but his mother (Miriam Colon) and his younger sister Gina (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) are home. Gina is excited to see Tony (who hasn’t seen the family in five years), while his mother isn’t too thrilled, aware of his criminal history. When he offers his mother $1,000 (claiming he’s “made it”), his mother declines the offer. She believes he’s still up to no good, and wants him to leave because she doesn’t want him rubbing off on Gina. Tony leaves, but Gina runs after him. He slips her the $1,000 secretly, and tells her to spend it on whatever she wants and to give his mother a little from time to time. It is clear he cares for his sister greatly, but later on in the film gives proof that he is very overprotective of her, bordering on an obsession.

Some time later, while in Bolivia, Tony and Omar begin discussing business plans with plantation owner and drug kingpin Alejandro Sosa (Paul Shenar) on the behalf of Frank who couldn’t make it down. Tony begins making major decisions about distribution of the drugs (decisions that Omar believes Frank should be approving). Omar and Tony begin arguing over the matter, while Alejandro offers Omar a quick helicopter ride back home. However, Alejandro makes one of his henchmen hang and kill Omar, who was allegedly an informant for the police some years back. However, Alejandro believes that Tony is trustworthy and makes him one of his business partners. After returning to Florida, Tony comes under heat by Frank, who is angry at what had occurred in South America and about his new business arrangement with Alejandro. Tony and Frank end their business relationship, while Tony begins making bolder passes at Elvira, one of them right in front of Frank. At a nightclub, Tony is nearly shot and killed by two henchmen. Tony is convinced Frank is responsible for the hit, and he, Manny, Chi Chi, and a few others track Frank down to his car dealership place and kill him once he admits to it.

Afterwards, all seems to be going well for Tony. He marries Elvira, takes over Frank’s empire and becomes very wealthy. He purchesses a huge mansion, complete with countless luxury items, as well as many surveylence camera monitors. However, cracks in Tony’s “perfect life” begin to form. Both he and Elvira become addicted to cocaine. He becomes more paranoid and untrusting of those around him, and she becomes more bored and distant. Tony becomes more greedy and stingy with his wealth, while the bank that he launders his illegaly gotten cash wants increasingly large amounts of bribes to launder his money. Manny and Gina begin dating behind Tony’s back, afraid of what his reaction would be if he found out.

One evening, Tony is arrested for tax evasion, and faces up to three years in prison. Soon, Elvira becomes tired of the lifestyle, and leaves Tony after a fight at a restaurant.

Alejandro, not wanting to lose his major distributor, calls Tony and asks him for help to put a hit out on an anti-Bolivian Government activist (who went on a television talk show and mentioned Alejandro, his henchmen, and their drug dealing). In exchange, Alejandro will make impossible Tony’s imprisonment with his White House contacts. Tony and Alberto, Alejandro’s best henchman, travel to New York looking for the activist. Alberto plants a bomb under the activist’s car, planing to detonate it before he drives to the United Nations building to give a speach about his activist work. On the day the assasination is to take place, Tony orders Alberto not to set off the bomb underneath the activist’s car once he finds out his wife and children are in the car as well. When Alberto doesn’t listen, Tony grows angry and shoots him in the head.
Tony returns to Florida to find his mother upset over Gina’s new attitude (whom she believes Tony corrupted) and Alejandro threatening to kill Tony for not going through with the plan. Tony goes to find Gina at an unknown mansion, and sees her and Manny together in nightrobes. Realizing Manny has slept with his sister, he shoots and kills Manny in a cocaine-fueled rage (which he later regrets), and highly upsets Gina (who reveals they just married and were going to surprise Tony). Tony and his underlings take Gina back to his mansion. Meanwhile, Alejandro Sosa’s numerous henchmen are surrounding his mansion. Gina meanwhile enters Tony’s office who and begins shooting at him with a pistol to kill him. Then, Alejandro Sosa’s army of assasins attack Tony’s mansion, killing everyone there one by one, including Gina, until Tony is left to fight them off. He emerges from his office with an M16 assault rifle and grenade launcher, and begins shooting wildly at the attacking henchmen, killing dozens of them. Still under a cocaine-fueled rage, Tony believes he is victorious (as he is taking bullet after bullet from Sosa’s men, yelling at them that he can take their bullets), until Sosa’s lead assassin (the same assasin who killed Omar) slowly walks up behind Tony and shoots him in the back with a shotgun. Tony plunges off the second floor, over the balcony, and into the small pool in his living room. Tony Montana lies dead, floating face-down in the water as a statue ironically stands above him reading “The World Is Yours”.