Tony Montana

Tony Montana
File:Scarfaceinthefall.jpg Tony Montana in the dinner scene
Portrayed by	Al Pacino
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Drug lord
Family	Gina Montana-Ribera (sister) Georgina Montana (mother) Manolo "Manny" Ribera (brother-in-law)
Spouse	Elvira Hancock
Nationality	Cuban

Antonio Raimundo "Tony" Montana is the main character from the 1983 film Scarface. He is portrayed by Al Pacino in the movie, and is voiced by André Sogliuzzo in the 2006 video game Scarface: The World Is Yours. Tony Montana has become a cultural icon and is one of the most famous movie characters of all time, embodying the rise from the bottom to the top. In 2008, Montana was named the 27th greatest movie character by Empire Magazine. He is also based on the main character of the 1932 movie of the same name.

Overview

Antonio "Tony" Montana was born in the 1940s. He served as a soldier in the Cuban Army and was a prisoner in the 1970s for a series of unnamed criminal charges.

In May 1980, president Fidel Castro relaxes the stringent laws governing Mariel Harbor in Cuba, allowing departing Cubans, former convicts, and criminals to emigrate to Miami, Florida. Tony is one of the many 125,000 Cubans on the Mariel Boatlift to Miami, one out of five whom has a criminal record. When he gets to Miami he is questioned by U.S. officials; he lies about his whole life, telling them that his entire family is dead or stayed behind in Cuba and that he was a "political prisoner". However, because of a tattoo on his left hand, which indicates that he was an assassin, he is not granted a green card.

Tony and his friend Manolo "Manny" Ribera are sent to "Freedomtown," a refugee camp that held Cuban immigrants without green cards. After one month in the camp, Frank Lopez, head of a Miami drug cartel, offers to obtain them green cards in return for murdering Emilio Rebenga. Soon after Rebenga arrives at the camp, Manny and his accomplices cause a riot, where Tony stabs Rebenga in the confusion.

Tony and Manny are given green cards and released, and the two get jobs as cooks for a small food stand in Little Havana, Miami. In August 1980, after another month of working they are approached by Omar Suarez, Frank Lopez's right-hand man who contacted Manny for the Rebenga hit. He offers Tony and Manny $500 each to work for Lopez to help unload 500 kilograms of marijuana from a boat from Mexico. Tony is unsatisfied with this offer and demands at least $1,000, which angers Omar. Regardless, Omar offers Tony a cocaine deal with Colombians for him instead, for $5,000 each, which Tony accepts.

A few days later, Tony, Manny, and two associates — Angel and Chi Chi, Cubans who also spent time in Freedomtown — drive to a small hotel in Miami Beach to meet with the Colombians for the deal. While Manny and Chi Chi wait in their car, Tony and Angel go to the hotel room to meet with the Colombians. The head dealer, Hector "The Toad," says he doesn't have the cocaine with him; Tony replies that he doesn't have the money. Suddenly, the deal goes bad and Angel and Tony are handcuffed to a shower pole. Hector demands the money, implying that he intends to kill Tony instead of selling them the cocaine, but Tony refuses. Hector then kills Angel with a chainsaw. Manny — who was waiting outside — approaches the hotel, hears the commotion, and bursts through the door with a submachine gun. After a short gunfight in which Manny is shot in the arm, and Hector is killed by Tony along with Hector's associates, Tony, Manny, and Chi Chi escape with the cocaine and the money. Instead of allowing Omar to take the cocaine to Frank, however, Tony takes it to Frank personally. Frank and Tony take a liking to each other, but Tony later confides to Manny that Frank may be too "soft" to be a major player for long. Tony and Manny end up working under Frank in the drug dealing business. Meanwhile, Tony takes an interest in Frank's girlfriend, Elvira Hancock. Frank takes Tony, Manny, and his associates out to the Babylon Nightclub, a high-class venue that Frank frequents. Although Tony flirts with Elvira, she doesn't show any interest in him.

Three months later, Tony pays a visit to his mother, Georgina, and younger sister, Gina, neither of whom he has seen for five years. Gina is excited to see Tony, but his mother is ashamed of him, having long ago learned of his life of crime. When he gives his mother $1,000 while claiming he is a community organizer and involved in running an "Anti-Castro" pamphlet group, his mother angrily rejects the gift and throws him out. Tony leaves, but Gina runs after him; he slips her the $1,000 secretly, and tells her to give a little to their mother from time to time.

Later, while in Bolivia, Tony and Omar are organizing smuggling to the United States with a major drug cartel lord Alejandro Sosa on behalf of Frank, who couldn't travel due to a pending criminal trial. Tony begins independently making major decisions about the distribution of the drugs through Panama, angering Omar, who believes only Frank has authority to make such decisions. Omar and Tony begin arguing over the matter, while Sosa offers Omar a quick helicopter ride back home to talk over the transaction with Frank. Sosa then orders his enforcer, the Skull, to hang and assassinate Omar, and explains to Tony that he was a police informant. However, Sosa believes that Tony is trustworthy and makes him one of his business partners, sternly warning Tony never to "fuck him" (betray him in any way). After returning to Florida, Tony is berated by Frank, who is angry about what happened to Omar, as well as Tony's new setup with Sosa. Frank warns Tony that Sosa is a traitor and cannot be trusted. Tony and Frank subsequently terminate their business relationship, while Tony begins making bolder passes at Elvira, one of them right in front of Frank.

At the Babylon Nightclub, Tony is shaken down by a corrupt Miami narcotics detective, Mel Bernstein, who informs him he has evidence linking Tony to the murders of Rebenga and the Colombian drug dealers. Bernstein then proposes to "tax" Tony on his transactions in return for police protection and information. Bernstein immediately negotiates himself a large bribe and two first-class airline tickets to London. Tony is convinced Frank sent Bernstein because only Frank would know details about the murders. While talking to Bernstein, Tony is distracted by the sight of his sister Gina dancing with a low-level drug dealer. Tony sees him take her into the men's restroom to make out with her in the stall, prompting him to beat the man and berate Gina. When Gina tells Tony that she is old enough to do whatever she wants, Tony slaps her.

While at the Babylon, Tony is almost assassinated when two men attempt to kill him with submachine guns. He escapes, wounded but alive, and is convinced that Frank is responsible for the attempted murder. Tony instructs two of his men to call Frank at exactly 3 a.m. at his office with the words: "We fucked up. He got away." Tony and Manny track Frank down to his car dealership, and find Frank in the middle of a meeting with Bernstein. Using the phone call, Tony tricks Frank into confirming he was behind the attempted hit. Admitting what he did, Frank then begs for mercy at Tony's feet, even offering $10,000,000 he keeps in a safe in Spain (country which at that time used to be a tax haven due to recent Franco's death). Tony orders Manny to shoot Frank, and Tony proceeds to kill Bernstein. Afterward, Tony goes to Frank's house, telling Elvira that Frank is dead and that he wants her. Tony looks at the sky and sees a blimp with the words "The World Is Yours" on the side.

Over the next year, Tony makes $75 million off of 2,000 kilos of cocaine that he brings to America, and is soon making $15 million every month in profits from his business relationship with Sosa. He marries Elvira and takes over Frank's empire, creating a large number of lucrative business fronts and purchasing a huge mansion, complete with luxury items, such as a tiger, as well as multiple surveillance camera monitors. He makes Manny his second-in-command and in charge of security at his warehouses and mansion. However, cracks in Tony's "American dream" begin to form as both he and Elvira become heavily addicted to cocaine. As a result, Tony becomes more paranoid and violent, and Elvira becomes bored and distant. Tony becomes greedy and selfish with his wealth, while the bank that launders his drug money wants increasingly higher fees. Manny and Gina begin dating behind Tony's back, afraid of Tony's wrath should he find out.

In February 1983, Tony is arrested for tax evasion and money laundering $1,300,000 by Mel Seidenbaum, a local money launderer who turns out to be an undercover cop. Tony posts a $5 million bail and is out of jail while awaiting trial. Tony's lawyer, Sheffield, tells him that although he can plea bargain away most of the time Tony faces, he will still end up serving at least three years in prison for evading income taxes.

Sosa, not wanting to lose his main distributor, calls Tony down to Bolivia and asks him for help assassinating a Bolivian anti-government activist, who is exposing Sosa's dealings with Bolivian leaders on television. In exchange, Sosa will use his contacts in the US Justice Department in Washington, D.C, to keep Tony out of prison. Tony is clearly reluctant to assassinate a civilian, but seeing no other options, agrees to the deal. After returning to Miami, Manny tries to talk Tony out of going to New York, even though Tony doesn't tell him about the hit, because he has a bad feeling about it.

Not long after, Elvira leaves Tony for good after he insults her heavily in a local Miami restaurant. Minutes later, an intoxicated Tony starts yelling at the patrons for looking at him in disgust. He tells them that they need people like him — a "bad guy".

Tony and Alberto, Sosa's most senior associate, travel to New York to murder the activist. Alberto plants a bomb under the activist's car, planning to detonate it as he drives to the United Nations Building to give a speech about his activist work. On the day the assassination is to take place, Tony orders Alberto not to set off the bomb because the activist's wife and children are in the car as well. When Alberto tries to detonate the bomb anyway, Tony shoots him in the head, thus double-crossing Sosa in the process.

Tony returns to Florida to find his mother accusing him of corrupting Gina, and a furious Sosa threatening to kill him for not going through with the plan. During a heated telephone conversation, Tony and Sosa's relationship effectively breaks down. Tony attempts to locate Manny, and finds him and Gina together. Realizing Manny has slept with his sister, Tony shoots and kills him in a cocaine-fueled rage, before Gina reveals that they had just married. Tony and his men take a distraught Gina back to his mansion. Meanwhile, a large group of gun-toting assassins sent by Sosa surround the mansion. While Tony sits in his office, distraught at his actions and snorting vast quantities of cocaine, the gunmen begin quietly killing Tony's guards outside.

A grief-stricken Gina enters Tony's office wielding a gun, accusing him of wanting her for himself, before shooting him in the leg. Tony attempts to calm her down, before one of the assassins enters the office through the window and opens fire, accidentally killing Gina. Tony immediately throws the man out of the window, and shoots his body multiple times, creating a large commotion.

Robbed of the element of surprise, Sosa's gunmen launch an all-out assault on Tony's mansion. As Tony cradles Gina's body in his arms, Sosa's men fight their way through the mansion with ease. Tony bursts from his office wielding an M16 assault rifle with an M203 grenade launcher attachment, yells "Say hello to my little friend!" and begins shooting wildly at the henchmen, killing dozens of them despite being heavily wounded himself by return fire. The carnage continues until the Skull, who had quietly broken into the back of the mansion, shoots Tony in the back with a sawed-off shotgun, killing him. Tony falls from his balcony into a small pool in the lobby below, floating face-down in the water beneath a statue of the globe carrying the inscription "The World Is Yours" in red neon.

Scarface: The World Is Yours

The video game titled Scarface: The World Is Yours, a quasi-sequel to the film, features an alternate ending in which Tony survives the assassination attempt but still loses most of his possessions. Montana detects his would-be assassin and shoots him before escaping his mansion. The end of the first mission shows that he lost $65,884,703 and 2,500 kilograms of drugs.

For the next three months he went into hiding in a small shack near Virginia Key Beach Park in Miami where he only had basic necessities, his trademark Cadillac Series 62,$1,000, and a M1911 pistol. His mansion was seized by "Vice" (undercover vice squad police officers who resemble the co-stars of the 1980s television show Miami Vice), and he is able to move back in by bribing them $10,000 that he makes in a single day of drug dealing.

During this quest for vengeance, Tony has to take down several rivals who are eager to take over his empire after the assassination attempt. Gaspar Gomez and Alejandro Sosa have since teamed up to form a drug monopoly, and set their prices unreasonably high. George Sheffield (James Woods), his former lawyer, is indifferent to Montana and later betrays him to Gomez and Sosa.

Montana first reclaims Little Havana, which had been taken over by the Diaz brothers. This included the "Lopez Motors" dealership where he bought his Porsche 928 in the film, which the brothers since renamed "Diaz Motors". The game allows the player to venture outside Miami to the Caribbean, where he takes down Nacho Contreras. Montana also meets a bartender named Venus, who becomes his new wife at the end of the game. At the end of the game, Montana single-handedly takes on a small army at Sosa's home in Bolivia where he kills Sheffield, Gomez and Sosa.

In popular culture

Since the release of the film, Tony's quote: "Say hello to my little friend" has become one of the most famous movie lines of all time, it has become a cliché for being used or parodied many times.

• Hitman: Codename 47, the first game of the popular Hitman series, features a character named Pablo Belisario Ochoa. He is almost entirely based on Tony Montana, having similar appearance and even saying "Hello to my little friend" upon the first encounter with him. Pablo is a Colombian druglord who resides deep in the jungle, protected by his small army and is very strong.

• Carlos Mencia did a "sketch" on his show, Mind of Mencia where a man was inserted into a video game and, from there, entered other video games. The man was repeatedly shanked by a Carlos cameo, in the online games, for points, and was killed by Tony Montana via Tony challenging him to a coke-sniffing contest and shoving his head into a huge pile of it. He sniffed so much his head grew and eventually exploded. Tony said many lines from the movie.

• The Lonely Island did a music video entitled "Jack Sparrow" in which the ending features Michael Bolton as Tony Montana in the climatic shootout scene and snorting cocaine.

• American Dad Parodied Tony Montana in the episode Dope & Faith when Roger, dressed as Tony Montana snorts cocaine, then goes then kills Drug dealers that were looking for Steve.

• Tee shirts from various manufactures have appeared in the US and other countries, citing "The Rules" according the Tony Montana. They consist of:
  • 1. Everyday above ground is a good day.
    2. Never get high on your own supply.
    3. All you have in this world is your balls and your word. Don't break 'em for nobody.
    4. Always remember, this is business.
    5. Always tell the truth, even when you lie.
    6. Every dog has his day.
    7. You're always going to be the "Bad Guy."
    8. Never underestimate the other guy's greed.
    9. Never forget, the world is yours.
    10. Never trust nobody.

External links

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