Carlito's Way

In 1975, after serving 5 years of a 30-year prison sentence, Carlito Brigante is freed on a legal technicality exploited by his lawyer, Dave Kleinfeld. Upon release from prison, Carlito decides to return to his old neighborhood of Spanish Harlem. While in the neighborhood, he reconnects with old associates. Carlito vows to be through with crime but is persuaded to accompany his cousin Guajiro to a drug deal at a bar. Guajiro is betrayed and killed and Carlito is forced to shoot his way out. He takes Guajiro's money and uses it to buy into a nightclub, with the intent of saving $75,000 to retire to the Caribbean. Carlito declines a business partnership with an ambitious young gangster from the Bronx named Benny Blanco. Carlito also rekindles his romance with former girlfriend Gail, a ballet dancer who moonlights as a stripper. An old friend, Lalin, recently released from prison and now confined to a wheelchair, comes to see Carlito, but is caught wearing a wire. Carlito realizes that District Attorney Norwalk is determined to put him back behind bars. Kleinfeld develops a love interest with Benny's girlfriend, Steffie, a waitress at the club. Benny's frustration with being rejected boils over and he confronts Carlito at his table, then manhandles Steffie. Kleinfeld pulls out a gun and threatens to kill Benny, but Carlito intervenes. Despite being threatened, Carlito lets Benny go, which alienates Carlito's bodyguard Pachanga. Kleinfeld, having stolen one million dollars from his Italian mob-boss client, "Tony T" Taglialucci, is coerced into providing his yacht to help Tony T break out of the Rikers Island prison barge. Kleinfeld begs for help and Carlito reluctantly agrees. At night, Carlito, Kleinfeld, and Tony T's son, Frankie, sail to a floating buoy outside of the prison barge where Tony T is waiting. As they pull Tony T aboard, Kleinfeld unexpectedly bludgeons him to death, then slits Frankie's throat and dumps both bodies in the East River. The next day, Kleinfeld barely survives a retaliatory assassination attempt. Carlito is apprehended by police and taken to Norwalk's office, where he is played a tape of Kleinfeld cutting a deal and offering to testify to false criminal allegations against Carlito. Norwalk is aware of Carlito being an accomplice to the Taglialucci murders and tries to leverage him into betraying Kleinfeld to save himself. Carlito refuses, but visits the hospital, where Kleinfeld confesses to selling him out. Having noticed a suspicious man dressed in a police uniform, Carlito deftly unloads Kleinfeld's revolver and leaves. The man is Tony T's other son, Vinnie, who sneaks into Kleinfeld's room and executes him. Carlito buys train tickets to Miami for himself and Gail, now pregnant. When he stops by his club to get the stashed money, Carlito is met by a group of mobsters led by Vinnie. The Italians plan on killing Carlito, who slips out through a secret exit. The Italians pursue him throughout the city's subway system and into Grand Central Terminal, where they engage in a gunfight. Carlito kills all of his pursuers except Vinnie, who is shot by police attracted by the gunfire. As Carlito runs to catch the train where Gail and Pachanga are waiting for him, he is ambushed by Benny, who shoots Carlito several times. Pachanga admits to Carlito that he is now working for Benny, only to be shot as well. Carlito hands Gail the money and tells her to escape with their unborn child and start a new life. As he is wheeled away on a gurney, Carlito stares at a billboard of a woman on a Caribbean beach. The billboard comes to life, and the woman, who is clearly Gail, starts dancing as Carlito dies.