Tony Montana

For the Serbian rock musician see Toni Montano

Antonio "Scarface" Montana
File:Scarfaceinthefall.jpg Tony Montana in the Final Movie Scene
Portrayed by	Al Pacino
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Drug lord
Family	Gina(Qasim) Montana (sister) Georgina Montana (mother) Joseph Spanich Stokich (father) Manolo "Manny" Ribera (brother-in-law)
Spouse	Elvira Hancock
Nationality	Cuban

Antonio "Tony" Montana is the main character from the film Scarface. He is portrayed by Al Pacino in the movie and is voiced by André Sogliuzzo in the video game Scarface: The World Is Yours.

Overview

Tony Montana was born in Havana, Cuba, and served as a soldier in the 1970s. In 1980, Cuban President Fidel Castro relaxed the stringent laws governing Mariel Harbor in Cuba, allowing thousands of Cubans, many of them former convicts, to emigrate to Florida. Tony is one of the many who travels to Florida, and upon arrival he is questioned by U.S. officials; he lies about his life, telling them that his entire family is dead and that he is a "political prisoner". However, because of a tattoo on his left hand which indicated that he was once an assassin, he is not granted a green card.

Tony and his friend Manny Ribera are then shipped to "Freedomtown", a refugee camp that holds Cuban immigrants without green cards. Whilst there, Manny explains to Tony that he knows a man, Frank Lopez, that could get them out of the camp and acquire green cards for them. In return, Lopez wants Emilio Rebenga, a former politician who worked for Fidel Castro and gave information to U.S. authorities, killed. Manny and his accomplies cause a riot, and Tony stabs Rebenga in the confusion.

Tony and Manny are released, and Manny gets them jobs as cooks for a small foodstand. Soon a man named Omar Suarez, who works for Frank Lopez, arrives and explains to Tony and Manny that they could make $500 working for Lopez. Tony, however, wants more money and insults Omar, leading to Omar threatening Tony's life. Eventually, Omar says that for more money, Tony could do a cocaine deal for him, for $5,000, an offer Tony accepts.

A few days later, Tony and Manny, along with Angel and Chi Chi, two other associates from Cuba who spent time in Freedomtown, drive to a small hotel in Miami Beach to meet with a man named Hector for the drug deal. Tony meets with Hector, but Hector 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, but Tony refuses. Hector then kills Angel with a chainsaw. Manny approaches the hotel, and upon hearing the commotion bursts through the door with a submachine gun. After a short gunfight, Tony, Manny, and Chi Chi escape with the cocaine and the money after killing Hector and his associates. Instead of allowing Omar to take the cocaine to Frank, however, Tony takes it to Frank personally. Frank takes a liking to Tony, but later points out to Manny that he 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 which Frank frequents. Although Tony flirts with Elvira, she doesn't show any interest in him.

A few months later, Tony pays a visit to his estranged family's home. It is implied that Tony's father left the family years ago, but his mother and his younger sister Gina are home. Gina is excited to see Tony, who has been away from them for five years, but his mother isn't as thrilled, aware and ashamed of his criminal history. When he offers his mother $1,000 while claiming he is involved in running an "Anti-Castro" group, his mother angrily rejects the gift, believing he's become a criminal, and asks him to leave. Tony leaves, but Gina runs after him; he slips her the $1,000 secretly, and tells her to spend it on whatever she wants and to give his mother a little from time to time.

Some time later, while in Bolivia, Tony and Omar begin discussing business plans with plantation owner and major drug kingpin 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, 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 kill Omar, explaining to Tony that he was a police informant some years back. However, Sosa believes that Tony is trustworthy and makes him one of his business partners, warning Tony never to cross him. 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. Forced to talk with Bernstein, the crooked cop 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. Gina tells Tony that she is old enough to do whatever she wants, including going into the men's restroom with a man, which prompts Tony to slap her.

While at the Babylon, Tony is nearly killed by two hitmen. He escapes, wounded but alive, and is convinced that Frank is responsible for the hit. 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. Tony orders Manny to shoot Frank, and Tony proceeds to kill Bernstein. Afterward, Tony goes to Elvira's house, telling her that Frank is dead and that he wants to be with her. Stepping out onto Elvira's balcony, Tony looks into the sky and sees a blimp with the words "The World Is Yours" on the side.

Tony immediately makes $75,000,000 off of 2,000 kilos of cocaine, and is soon making 10-15 million dollars a month in profits from his business arrangement 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 "perfect life" begin to form as both he and Elvira become heavily addicted to cocaine; he becomes more paranoid and distrusting of those around him, and she becomes bored and distant. Tony becomes greedy and selfish with his wealth, while the bank that launders his illegal money wants higher and higher fees. Manny and Gina begin dating behind Tony's back, afraid of what his reaction would be if he found out.

Tony is arrested for laundering $1,300,000 and tax evasion by Mel Seidenbaum, a local money launderer who turns out to be an undercover cop. Tony posts bail and is out of jail while awaiting trial. Tony's lawyer 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 to keep Tony out of prison. Tony is reluctant to kill a civilian, but seeing no other options, agrees to the deal. 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 restaurant. Later, an intoxicated Tony starts yelling at the patrons for looking at him in disgust. He tells them that they need to look down on a man like him — a "bad guy" — in order to feel better about themselves. After his tirade, Tony storms out of the restaurant with Ernie in tow.

Tony and Alberto, Sosa's most senior associate, travel to New York looking for the activist. Alberto plants a bomb under the activist's car, planning to detonate it before 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 once he finds out 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 Tony 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 he cradles Gina's body in his arms. Sosa's men fight their way through the mansion with ease, as Tony bursts from his office wielding an M16 assault rifle with an M203 grenade launcher attachment and begins shooting wildly at the henchmen, killing dozens of them despite being mortally wounded himself. 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. Tony falls from his balcony into a small pool in the lobby below, floating face-down in the water beneath a statue carrying the inscription "The World Is Yours".

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 escapes Sosa's assassins only to see his mansion seized by the "Vice". In the opening scene of the game — the original "ending" scene of the movie — Montana detects his would-be assassin and shoots him before escaping his mansion. He then spends the next three months hiding before beginning a quest to rebuild his empire and get revenge on Sosa.

During this quest for vengeance, Tony has to take down several rivals who are eager to take over his empire after the assassination attempt, among them Gaspar Gomez, the Diaz brothers and other figures from the movies.

In popular culture

File:TonyMontana.jpg

Al Pacino as Tony Montana in a publicity still from Scarface.

• Since the release of Scarface, the Tony Montana character has been widely referenced and parodied in popular culture. In the world of hip hop, particularly gangsta rap, Montana is widely seen as a role model for his "outsider" status, rise from poverty to wealth and power and appetite for violence.
• 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, being used or parodied many times.
• Each DVD release inspired the largely Hispanic population in Hudson County, New Jersey to "camp out" in front of retail stores such as Best Buy in Secaucus, as well as Circuit City in Union City. Both stores indicated record high sales on the release dates.
• In the popular animated series, The Batman, the classic Batman villain The Ventriloquist is featured with a revised design for his puppet. The puppet in the show is dressed in Tony Montana's trademark white suit, rather than a wardrobe reminiscent of Al Capone, which he wore in the original comic books.
• 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. Ironically, Tony Montana states in the movie that he dislikes Colombians.
• Lines from the film are also frequently sampled in hip-hop songs. The Houston-based Geto Boys were one of the earliest rap groups to sample the lines and dialogue. During Public Enemy's "Welcome to the Terrordome", Flavor Flav recites several lines from the film. Also on Wu-Tang Clan member, Raekwon's classic debut album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..., at the intro of the song "Criminology". There are samples of dialog used from the scene where Sosa yells to Tony over the phone "I told you a long time ago you fuckin little monkey not to FUCK ME!". Followed by Tony fumingly yelling back "Hey hey, who the FUCK you think you talkin to huh??!" "Who the fuck you think I am your fuckin dough-boy?" "You wanna go to war?.... Wanna go to war, OK?". Music from the movie has also been sampled in the instrumentals for hip-hop songs such as Mobb Deep's "G.O.D. Pt. III", Esham "Bolivia" and "It's Mine". Nas' "The World is Yours" takes its title from the motto Montana lived by. One hip-hop artist, Brad Jordan (later a member of the Geto Boys) has even gone so far as to name himself Scarface after the film, and another goes by the name Tony Montana. Jay-Z's 1996 debut album, Reasonable Doubt, also features rapper Pain in da Ass performing a monologue of Omar's lines to Montana regarding the deal with the Colombian's on the intro to the song "Can't Knock the Hustle". In A Milli by Lil Wayne he says, "Tony told us this world was ours." which is a reference to the globe above the fountain that says the world is yours. The rap group G-Unit also uses lines from the film in their song "My Buddy". There are also quotations from the song "Love Missile F1-11" by pop group Sigue Sigue Sputnik.
• Various Latin rap artists such as Fat Joe, Big Pun, Cuban Link and The Beatnuts have sampled lines from the movie.
• Sampled in songs by Klashnekoff, a British rap artist.
• Serbian psychobilly musician Toni Montano chose his pseudonym after Tony Montana.
• In the third episode of Code Monkeys, an 8-bit version of Tony Montana is shown, renamed Tony Dakota, and is a drug lord that Dave and Jerry end up owing $30,000 to.
• In the movie Reno 911!: Miami there is a character named Ethan, the drug lord who dresses like Tony Montana and pretends to be Cuban.
• Many of the villains from the Grand Theft Auto video and computer game series have been inspired by the bad guys in Scarface, especially in GTA Vice City and Vice City Stories.
• 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. All you have in this world is your balls and your word. Don't break 'em for nobody. 3. Never get high on your own supply. 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.

• In the American animated series The Boondocks, created by Aaron McGruder for the Adult Swim programming block of Turner Broadcasting's Cartoon Network, based upon McGruder's comic strip of the same name, one of the main characters, Riley Freeman, is highly influenced by Tony Montana, as he quotes several lines from the movie, and even wears a white suit similar to the one Tony Montana wears in the movie.

External links

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