Summary of Brian DePalma's 'Scarface'

Brian DePalma's 'Scarface'

This is a plot summary of Brian DePalma’s 1983 film Scarface starring Al Pacino. Enjoy!

In May 1980, Castro opened the harbor at Mariel, Cuba, with the apparent intention of letting some of his people visit their relatives in the US. Within 72 hours, 3,000 US boats were headed for Cuba. It soon became obvious that Castro was forcing the boat owners to carry with them not only their relatives, but the dregs of his jails. Of the 125,000 refugees that landed in Florida, 125,000 had criminal records. 

Opening Titles intercut with documentary footage of boats leaving Mariel headed to the United States. Refugees being processed at immigration centers.

Tony Montana is in a small room surrounded by investigators and answering their questions.

He got locked up for changing dollars, he tells them but they see right through his lies. He demands his rights and they send him to a detention center ironically called Freedom Town. Tony and his best friend Manolo are on the bus taking them to detention center. 

1 month later

Manolo pulls Tony out of a basketball game to give him some good news! They can get out of the camp in 30 days, get a job in Miami, and a green card in exchange for killing Emilio Rebenga, Castro’s former right hand man who tortured the brother of a rich guy in Miami. Castro distrusted Rebenga whom he jailed and released in the refugee camp. The tortured man’s rich brother in Miami wants Tony to execute Rebenga. Tony hates communists and agrees to do the job. Later, Tony, Manolo, and other friends receive green cards.

Tony and Manolo toil in a small sandwich kitchen in Miami. Tony is frustrated with washing dishes. He didn’t come to the US to bust his ass. They take a break to admire the beautiful women and fancy cars glittering in front of the club across the street.

Manolo’s friends from Miami pull up in a shiny Cadillac and offers them a job picking up 2 kilos of cocaine from some Columbian drug dealers. The drug deal goes bad resulting in the deaths of Tony’s friend Angel and the Columbian drug dealers. Tony delivers the drugs and the buy-money to Frank Lopez. Tony becomes obsessed with Frank’s wife, Elvira. Later, at the Babylon Club, 

Frank shares his wisdom with Tony: Lesson 1: Never underestimate the other guy’s greed and Lesson 2: Don’t get high on your own supply. Tony dances with Elvira. Later, at the beach, Manny is unsuccessful in picking up a woman and Tony tell him that he has to first get money and power before he can get the woman. 

Tony visits his mother whom he has not seen in 5 years. His sister is happy to see him but his mother believes that he’s mixed up in illegal activities. She refuses to accept his money and puts him out of her house. Tony gives the money to his little sister. 

Cochabamba Bolivia

Omar and Tony fly to Bolivia to negotiate a drug deal for Frank with Sosa. The meeting goes bad when Tony defies Omar and negotiates for Frank. One of Sosa’s men identifies Omar as an informer and Omar is killed. Sosa likes Tony but warns him not to cross him. 

Frank is angry with Tony for making the deal with Sosa without his permission. Tony and Frank argue, Tony wants to expand and Frank is cautious of stepping on the toes of rival drug dealers. The meeting ends on a bad note.

Tony pops up at Frank’s place uninvited to propose to Elvira and tells her that he’s no longer working with Frank. 

Tony sees Gina dancing with a man at the Babylon Club. Mel Bernstein, a narcotics detective, blackmails Tony for monthly payments. Tony sees Elvira there and sits with her. He and Frank clash over Elvira. Tony finds his sister in bathroom stall with a man snorting cocaine and slaps her to the floor. Later, 2 gunmen shoot up the club and Tony barely escapes and stops by Frank’s home, finding him and the police detective together. Frank had paid the gunmen to kill Tony over Elvira. Frank begs for his life but Tony kills him and the police detective, anyway. Tony sees a blimp in the night sky saying “The World Is Yours!”

Tony marries Elvira and replaces Frank and finds out that success is not all it is cracked up to be. Now he has to watch his back more by investing large sums on electronic surveillance. Elvira is a junkie and his relationship with his best friend is strained. 

An undercover cop pretending to be a banker busts Tony and Tony is charged with tax evasion. Tony faces prison time. But Sosa has a problem, also, and offers to help Tony with his tax problem in exchange for assassinating a journalist threatening to implicate Sosa and his powerful friends on 60 Minutes. Tony takes the job. 

Feeling pressured from all sides, Tony gets drunk at a restaurant and insults Elvira, telling Manny and everyone within ear-shot that she can’t have children. She leaves him.

He returns to New York to kill the journalist who is making a speech at the United Nations against Sosa and the Bolivian drug cartel. The night before, Albert, an explosives expert, plants a bomb on the car. The journalist is supposed to be alone in the car but when his wife and 2 daughters join him Tony calls off the hit. He and Albert argue and Tony shoots and kills Albert stopping him from blowing up the journalists' car. The journalist makes his speech and Sosa sends a hit squad to kill Tony who kills his best friend Manny whom he told before to stay away from his sister. Gina tells Tony that Manny had quit the business and that they had gotten married. 

Tony returns to his mansion and shortly after this, Sosa’s army of paid killers take out all of Tony’s men, his sister, and eventually, after a long hard shootout, Tony is shot dead, too.