| Director | Martin Scorsese |
|---|---|
| Budget | $25 million |
| Box office | $47.1 million |
In 1955, teenager Henry Hill becomes enamored by the criminal life and Mafia presence in East New York, a working class Italian American neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York City. He begins working for local caporegime Paulie Cicero and his associates Jimmy Conway, an Irish American truck hijacker and gangster, and Tommy DeVito, a fellow juvenile delinquent predisposed to violence. Henry begins as a fence for Jimmy, gradually working his way up to more serious crimes.
In 1965, Henry starts dating Karen Friedman, a Jewish American woman who is initially confused by Henry's criminal activities. She is soon seduced by Henry's glamorous lifestyle and marries him despite the disapproval of her parents. Henry, Tommy, and Jimmy manage to excel in carjacking and stealing cargo trucks from JFK Airport, and eventually, they commit the Air France robbery in 1967.
On June 11, 1970, Billy Batts, a made man in the Gambino crime family who was recently released from prison, incessantly insults Tommy at a nightclub owned by Henry. In response, Tommy and Jimmy brutally beat him to his apparent death. Realizing that the unsanctioned murder of a made man will invite retribution, Jimmy, Henry and Tommy bury the body in Upstate New York, stabbing and fatally shooting him when he is discovered to be alive. Six months later, Jimmy learns that the burial site is slated for development, prompting them to exhume and relocate the decaying corpse.
In 1974, Karen harasses Henry's mistress Janice and threatens Henry at gunpoint. Henry moves in with Janice, but Paulie insists that he return to Karen after collecting a debt from a gambler in Tampa with Jimmy. Jimmy and Henry are arrested after being turned in by the gambler's sister, an FBI typist, and they receive ten-year prison sentences. To support his family on the outside, Henry has Karen smuggle in drugs from Pittsburgh, which he sells to fellow inmates.
In 1978, Henry is paroled and expands his cocaine business with Jimmy and Tommy against Paulie's orders. Jimmy organizes a crew to raid the Lufthansa vault at JFK Airport, stealing six million dollars in cash and jewelry. After some members purchase expensive items against Jimmy's orders and the getaway truck is found by police, he has most of the crew killed. Only Henry and Tommy are spared, as Henry is making him money through his Pittsburgh connection and Tommy is about to become a made man. However, Tommy is killed when he arrives at the bogus initiation ceremony in 1979 in retribution for murdering Batts, much to Jimmy's dismay and anger.
By 1980, Henry has become a nervous wreck due to heavy cocaine use. He sets up another drug deal with his Pittsburgh associates but is arrested by narcotics agents and incarcerated. After bailing him out, Karen explains that she flushed $60,000 worth of cocaine down the toilet to prevent FBI agents from finding it during their raid, leaving the Hills penniless.
Feeling betrayed by Henry's drug dealing and realizing that he is a liability, Paulie gives him $3,200 out of pity and ends their association - which revokes Henry's protection from Jimmy, and makes him fair game. Henry meets Jimmy at a diner and is asked to travel to a hit assignment, but the request makes him suspicious.
Henry concludes that Jimmy plans to have him killed and decides to finally become an informant and enroll with his family in the witness protection program. Henry gives sufficient testimony and evidence in court to have Paulie and Jimmy convicted, and moves to a neighborhood in an undisclosed location, in accordance with the witness protection program. Henry describes his unhappiness by leaving his exciting and turbulent gangster life, feeling condemned to live a boring, average life as a "schnook".