'On The Waterfront': plot summary

This is a plot summary of Elia Kazan's film 'On The Waterfront' starring Marlon Brando.

The main theme throughout this film is that we are all threads in one common fabric and what affects one of us affects all of us.

The central story of this film involves a boxer having his career destroyed by his older brother. Terry Malloy was once an up-and-coming fighter on the fast-track to a title shot until his older brother who is mixed up with the mob gets him to throw a fight. Charley the Gent, Terry’s older brother, and his boss, Johnny Friendly, make a lot of money from the fight. Terry got a 1-way ticket to “palookaville,” meaning Johnny gave him a soft job on the shipping docks working as a snitch. In the beginning of the film, Johnny gets Terry to set up a dockworker named Joey Doyle who is scheduled to testify against Johnny before the Crime Commission. Terry has no idea he’s setting Joey up to be killed and afterwards Joey feels betrayed once again, as he’d been betrayed in taking a dive and throwing away his boxing career. 

Johnny’s goons throw Joey Doyle off the roof of a slum tenement on which Joey raises pigeons. The pigeons refer to snitches throughout the film. Spectators surround the body. Among them is Joey’s sister, Edie, and their father, Pops who warns an outspoken woman to keep her mouth shut when the police begin asking questions. The code in the neighborhood and on the docks is D&D—Deaf and Dumb. A clergyman kneels over Joey’s body crossing himself. Father Barry tries to console Joey’s sister, Edie, and she shames him:

“I’m in the church if you need me,” he says.Edie is furious. “In the church? Did you ever hear of a saint hiding in the church?”

Joey isn’t the 1st dockworker Johnny killed to keep from testifying. Even though Joey was well-liked by everyone in the neighborhood, no one will speak on his behalf. Terry Malloy takes over Joey Doyle’s pigeons and is idolized by the Golden Warriors, a gang of young boys. Terry comments that the pigeons have it made: “Eatin’ sleepin’ flying around like crazy. Raising gobs of squat,” which is exactly what he himself is, a pigeon and a snitch for Johnny Friendly down on the shipping docks. The pigeons in the film are referring to Joey and those like him who keep their mouths shut. And the Golden Warriors, like their older counterparts on the dock, don’t believe in snitching. 

Down on the docks, it’s dog-eat-dog as dozens of workers fight each other to get work tokens, without which you can’t get recruited for a day’s work.  A dockworker named Timothy “Kayo” Dugan makes a nasty remark about Johnny Friendly and is overheard by 2 of Friendly’s thugs who are much bigger than Kayo but Kayo answers their threats with a smirk. The thugs call Kayo a “big mouth” and walk away. Joey Doyle’s father, Pops, gives Kayo Joey’s windbreaker and Kayo pulls off his holey windbreaker and hands it to another dockworker. This gesture of giving Kayo Joey’s old windbreaker is symbolically handing down the torch to Kayo who seems destined to pick up where Joey Doyle left off. By the end of the film, when Terry Malloy confronts Johnny Friendly on the docks, Terry has on Joey Doyle’s coat meaning that he’s picked up the cause from Kayo Dugan. 

But not yet, the catalyst for getting everyone involved is Father Barry who is shamed by Edie into coming out of the church and making a public stand against Johnny Friendly. Father Barry visits the docks to see things for himself. A supervisor selects who will work from a mob of anxious men, anxious as there are so many work tokens to get passed out; everyone left goes home. Finally, the supervisor tosses a handful of tokens up in the air and the dockworkers scramble for them on the ground, screaming, punching and tearing at each other as the supervisor and Johnny Friendly’s men laugh from the sidelines. 

Joey’s father can’t fight with the younger dockworkers and is kicked out of the pile. When the dust finally settles, the only thing Kayo and other dockworkers are holding are sandwiches, or the lunch they would have eaten later if they’d gotten a token. Pops scolds Father Barry for bringing Edie to the docks to see the dockworkers degrade themselves so. Father Barry asks about the dockworker’s union but even the union’s owned by Johnny Friendly. Father Barry agrees to let the dockworkers meet in the basement of the church. 

At this point, Father Barry is halfway in by letting the workers meet secretly in the basement of the church. He isn’t fully-involved yet and is regarded by both sides as neutral. When Johnny’s men break up the dockworkers, shoving them away from the dock, a thug inadvertently shoves Father Barry and respectfully pardons himself. Father Barry hasn’t taken a stand yet but he’s taken the 1st step by letting the workers use the church. 

Johnny Friendly gets word of the church meeting and sends Terry to get information on whether anyone plans on testifying against him to the Crime Commission. Before this scene, there’s a scene showing Terry Malloy in a loft in one of the piers. Everyone else is working but he’s relaxing and reading a book. This scene is a parallel to the scene of the pigeon coop, where Terry makes the remark about the pigeons having it made. In that scene he is describing himself as he is here in a pen that is similar to the pigeon coop. Like the pigeons, Terry is well-fed and comfortable, looking out for number 1. The comparison is obvious. 

Back to the church meeting. Father Barry urges the dockworkers to tell him who killed Joey Doyle, however, everyone is D & D, Deaf and Dumb especially when Terry, Johnny’s ears, walks in, sitting by himself smirking all the way in the back where he can see everything. Terry is like the citizen who gives up and joins the other side. Black people would call him the sellout or the Uncle Tom being that he receives privileges and gets to live close to the master instead of working out on the docks and in the cold weather with the other workers. He’s a snitch but he’s on the right side. Later, once he comes to grips with his own pain and betrayal at the hands of his brother, Terry rebels against those responsible for depriving him of his promising boxing career, testifying against Johnny Friendly. 

As the church meeting comes to an end a brick crashes through a church window. Johnny Friendly’s thugs lure the dockworkers outside and beat them. Father Barry chases them away and promises to stand with Kayo who decides to assume Joey Doyle’s place by testifying against Johnny Doyle.

Afterwards, Terry walks Edie home. Along the way, a tramp begs Edie for a dime. When he recognizes her as Joey Doyle’s kid sister, the tramp’s eyes light up and he showers praise on Joey Doyle who once stood up for him. Terry shoves the tramp away from Edie. Terry tosses some change at the tramp in the same manner that the supervisor tossed the work tokens at the dockworkers. But unlike the dockworkers who scrambled to get the tokens off the ground, the tramp leaves Terry’s change where it is, calling Terry a bum and walking away. Terry laughs but later in the cab scene with his brother Charley the Gent, Terry calls himself a bum in the famous “I coulda been a contender” scene. 

Edie is attending college in a school ran by nuns and her father, Pops, doesn’t want her being around Terry Malloy who’s the brother of Charley the Gent, Johnny Friendly’s right hand man on the shipping docks. Edie’s weakness is taking in crippled strays like the stray cat she took in that is cockeyed with 6 toes. Edie is the film’s humanity or concern for fellow man. Her tenderness begins the melt the rough exterior Terry puts on for the world, which is really just insecurity. As their relationship deepens, her question as to who killed her brother arouses conflict within Terry’s conscience, torn between the neighborhood code of D & D and falling in love with Joey Doyle’s kid sister.  

Iconography related to Christ, particularly the cross, which represents goodness and sacrifice for others is planted here and there throughout the film. In Chapter 11 at the 34:24 mark on the DVD version, there is a cross over Edie’s right shoulder among the porcupine-like antennas sticking up on the tenement rooftops. This may seem insignificant but it’s important to remember that the cinematographer’s job is to capture the themes in the script visually and nothing is shot that does not add to the story’s texture, be it overt or subliminal. This is why films like these never get old; you find something you missed every time you watch them. A couple of minutes later, as Terry and Edie are by the chicken coop, there’s an over-the-shoulder shot at Edie and, again, there’s a crucifix over her right shoulder. Another more obvious reference to the crucifix is Terry’s and Edie’s implied love scene following the legendary taxicab scene. The crucifix is a recurring symbol that foreshadows the personal sacrifice Terry makes in going up against Johnny Friendly and violating the neighborhood’s snitching code. 

Terry begins to soften when he takes Edie to a bar for a beer and the bartender makes an offhand remark about Terry’s once-promising boxing career. Terry begins to share his past with Edie and how he became involved, through his brother, with Johnny Friendly. Then, as if coming out of a trance, Terry stops just short of telling Edie how his brother got him to take a dive in a fight that would have gotten him a shot at the world title. The film is summed up when he asks her the question: 

“Why should you care?” 
And she replies “I mean, isn’t everybody a part of everybody else?” 

‘Isn’t everybody a part of everybody else’ is the idea behind the woven cloth in the film's opening titles. Father Barry later rephrases this same idea in the Calvary speech he delivers following Kayo Dugan’s murder. Terry’s had to fight all his life, from the abuse he took at boarding school, to coming up in a poor neighborhood. He’s always had to keep his guards up. But Edie’s understanding, love, and tenderness are getting him to led down his guards and release some of the pain he has had to suppress throughout his life. 

Kayo Dugan agrees to testify against Johnny Friendly who’s steamed at the fact that Terry 1) didn’t tip him off to Dugan snitching and 2) that Terry is mixed up with Joey Doyle’s sister. Johnny Friendly arranges the murder of Kayo Dugan and punishes Terry by busting him down to the docks with the other workers. Terry is now forced to take a stand or else watch Kayo get killed. Remember, Kayo is wearing Joey’s windbreaker. 

Kayo and other dockworkers are in the hold of a ship unloading boxes of Irish whiskey, stacking them on slings that are raised out of the ship's hold by a crane. Terry tries to warn the Kayo not to stand under the slings but Kayo pushes Terry aside. No one trusts Terry because of his older brother, Charley the Gent, who’s the right hand of Johnny Friendly. A load of whiskey (and not just any whiskey, Irish whiskey as Dugan is Irish) accidentally tips and crashes down on Kayo, killing him instantly. Johnny and his goons on the deck above look down into the hold as Father Barry drags Kayo from underneath the pile of whiskey. Father Barry gives a speech comparing Dugan’s death to a crucifixion. Barry’s words hit home with Terry’s conscience when he says, 

“You want to know what’s wrong with our waterfront? It’s the love of a lousy buck. it’s making the love of a buck, the cushy job more important that the love of man.”

Terry punches one of Johnny's goons to keep him from throwing something at  Father Barry. Terry gets the attention of Johnny's other goons. Again, like previous instances in the film, the crucifix is referenced here. Also referenced is the film’s theme that we are all threads in a common cloth and that what affects one of us affects all of us. Father Barry summarizes this theme when he says: 

“And what they did to Joey, they’re doing to you. And you, and you—all of you!” 

Symbolically, Father Barry is lifted out of the hold of the ship by crane and into the light representing Kayo’s ascension to Heaven. 

Terry visits Father Barry at the church and confesses to setting up Joey. Father Barry persuades Terry to clear his conscience by telling Joey’s sister Edie. Terry realizes that he risks losing Edie by doing so but he goes through with it, in a powerfully designed scene where Terry’s confession is so powerful and devastating that the actual confession itself is drowned out by a nearby ship discharging steam. We never hear exactly what he tells Edie but we see how devastating it is by her facial reactions and the deafening roar of the ship’s smoke stack. After Terry confesses, Edie leaves him and the camera perspective is a wide-shot in such a way that he appears to be standing on a pile of rubble that’s actually in the foreground. Again, great cinematography designed to coincide with the fact that Terry’s confession has destroyed his relationship with Edie and also her idea of who he is. 

One of Johnny’s goons sees Terry talking to one of the crime investigators. Johnny is not happy about this and wants Terry killed to keep him from "eating cheese" and talking to the Crime Commission. Johnny gives Charley and ultimatum to shut Terry’s mouth or kill him. Johnny Friendly’s trial is tied to the facts that come out in the taxicab scene involving Terry and his older brother. In both cases, the truth is suppressed to hide a murder: in Johnny’s case, the murder of Joey Doyle and Kayo Dugan; in Charley’s case, the murder (in a sense) of his brother’s boxing career. But in facing the truth, Charley must atone for murdering his brother’s career as a boxer by sacrificing his own life. This has to happen within the religious context of the film. In other words, a life for a life. 

Next, we have the famous cab scene. Terry got a subpoena to testify against Johnny Friendly and Charley’s trying to talk him out of it before they reach 437 River Street. He draws a gun on Terry but Terry gently pushes the pistol away. Then, the scab over the past is peeled away and all the pain comes to the present as Terry blames Charley for destroying his boxing career. Charley gives his gun to Terry and tells the cab to let him out. Johnny took out insurance in case Charley backed out of killing Terry and the cab drives Charley to  a nearby garage where Charley is murdered. 

I want to look at the acting side of this scene 1st. In the documentary on the DVD edition, Rod Steiger, who plays Charley the Gent, describes the 4 minute scene as a heavyweight boxing match between 2 actors at the top of their craft. There are many things that make this scene work, 1 being that the director allowed the actors to improvise some of their lines. Another thing that makes this scene really click is the way that Brando brings out the “feminine” side of his character according to James Lipton, host of ‘Inside The Actor’s Studio’. When Charley draws his gun on Terry, Terry is neither intimidated or angered but pushes the gun away, almost tenderly. I want to add to James Lipton’s assessment by pointing out that Terry disarms his brother the same way that Edie disarms Terry, and that is by being submissive or, keeping this in a Biblical context, by being meek. This scene wouldn’t have worked if Terry tried to wrestle the gun away from Charley. 

Reportedly, the film’s producer, Bud Siegel, was too cheap to shoot in an actual cab or use rear-projection and got them to shoot the scene in a mock-up taxicab and had blinds installed in the rear window, using lights to look like the cab was moving through traffic. But without the blinds darkening the cab and closing off the outside world, this scene would not have the same intimate feeling. 

When the truth comes out, Charley has to take responsibility for his brother and he pays the ultimate price. In giving his gun to Terry, Charley sacrifices his own life for the life--so to speak--that he took from his brother by destroying his boxing career. Charley realizes that Johnny will kill him and he has given up the only means of defending himself. Immediately after his meeting with his older brother in the taxicab, Terry rushes over to see Edie. She resists him at first but finally gives in and they make love. On the wall and to Edie’s right is a crucifix, which is an omen and a symbol of Terry’s brother who has sacrificed his life so that Terry can live. The Biblical metaphor in this symbolism cannot be denied and is later supported when Charley’s body is discovered hanging on a wall to look like a crucifixion.

And when Terry testifies to the Crime Commission, he loses all respect among his former friends who label him a snitch. Johnny loses the backing of the owner of the dock who distances himself from Johnny’s illegal activities. Johnny announces that Terry won’t find any kind of job anywhere on the docks and when Terry appears at the docks looking for work, Big Mac recruits around him. Terry calls Johnny out of his office, telling him in front of everybody that he is glad that he snitched and would do it again. Terry is also wearing Joey Doyle’s windbreaker in this scene meaning that he is now carrying the torch. His personal transformation is complete as he goes from being self-centered to standing up for all dockworkers. Johnny calls him out and Terry rushes him. Johnny is no match for Terry and calls for his henchmen who beat Terry and leave him lying face down on the pier. The dockworkers rally behind Terry. Father Barry promised to stand behind Kayo if he stood up to Johnny. Now, it is Terry who must stand up against Johnny and when he does stand, Father Barry, Edie and the workers are behind him. Terry stumbles up the pier and into the warehouse leading all of the workers inside and Johnny Friendly, angry, bloody, and raging, outside as the overhead door comes down and the film ends.