During Prohibition, Treasury agent Eliot Ness sets out to stop ruthless Chicago gangster Al Capone, and assembles a small, incorruptible team to help him.During Prohibition, Treasury agent Eliot Ness sets out to stop ruthless Chicago gangster Al Capone, and assembles a small, incorruptible team to help him.During Prohibition, Treasury agent Eliot Ness sets out to stop ruthless Chicago gangster Al Capone, and assembles a small, incorruptible team to help him.
- Won 1 Oscar
- 11 wins & 18 nominations total
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAn envelope is dropped on the desk of Eliot Ness in one scene. It is assumed to be a bribe, but the amount inside is never revealed. In real life, Al Capone promised Eliot Ness that two $1,000 bills would be on his desk every Monday morning if he turned a blind eye to his bootlegging activities (an enormous amount of money then; more than $30,000 today). Ness refused the bribe, and in later years struggled with money. He died almost broke at the age of fifty-four.
- GoofsAt one point Eliot Ness says that drinking alcoholic beverages is illegal. Drinking itself was never illegal during Prohibition. The 18th Amendment only made the manufacturing, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages illegal. People who had bought alcohol before January 16, 1920, could and did continue to drink and serve it privately.
- Quotes
Malone: [talking privately in a church] You said you wanted to get Capone. Do you really wanna get him? You see what I'm saying is, what are you prepared to do?
Ness: Anything within the law.
Malone: And *then* what are you prepared to do? If you open the can on these worms you must be prepared to go all the way. Because they're not gonna give up the fight, until one of you is dead.
Ness: I want to get Capone! I don't know how to do it.
Malone: You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. *That's* the *Chicago* way! And that's how you get Capone. Now do you want to do that? Are you ready to do that? I'm offering you a deal. Do you want this deal?
Ness: I have sworn to capture this man with all legal powers at my disposal and I will do so.
Malone: Well, the Lord hates a coward.
[jabs Ness with his hand, and Ness shakes it]
Malone: Do you know what a blood oath is, Mr. Ness?
Ness: Yes.
Malone: Good, 'cause you just took one.
- Alternate versionsIn Belgium the first release in the theaters omitted the scene where Al Capone hits one of his henchmen with a base-ball bat. Two weeks after its release the scene was restored. Cinemas announced this to be the 'uncensored version'.
- ConnectionsEdited into Public Enemies (1996)
- SoundtracksMOOD INDIGO
Written by Duke Ellington, Irving Mills and Barney Bigard
Arranged by Bob Wilber
Courtesy of Wilkes College Jazz Archives
Connery's performance remains one of my all-time favorites. His first meeting with Ness is very enjoyable. His death scene never fails to move me every single time I watch it. Great musical score as well.
DeNiro's Capone is too one-dimensional (no fault of his), Martin-Smith's is entirely cartoonish. Garcia is good, as is Costner, the earnestness which always characterizes his performances finding a perfect match in the character of Ness.
The bridge scene is so bad that it almost ruins the whole film. Connery manages to provide some saving grace with his interrogation tactics and opposition to running.
It seems as if this film is composed of nothing but caricatures, from the photographer to the police trainee, but the performances are so good and there are so many strong scenes that they somehow balance out the crude (read banal) writing. A friend of mine saw an interview with Mamet in which he said that the best stuff was actually edited out of the final product. Ya gotta hate studios. The Untouchables really could have been much better than it already is.
- MrsRainbow
- Mar 1, 1999
Everything New on Paramount+ in August
Everything New on Paramount+ in August
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Nesalomivi
- Filming locations
- Roosevelt University - 430 S. Michigan Avenue, Downtown, Chicago, Illinois, USA(front entrance and main lobby used as Lexington Hotel, where Al Capone lives)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $25,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $76,270,454
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $10,023,094
- Jun 7, 1987
- Gross worldwide
- $76,272,360
- Runtime1 hour 59 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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![Sean Connery, Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro, Andy Garcia, and Charles Martin Smith in The Untouchables (1987)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYTVjYWJmMWQtYWU4Ni00MWY3LWI2YmMtNTI5MDE0MWVmMmEzL2ltYWdlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQxNzMzNDI@._V1_QL75_UX90_CR0,3,90,133_.jpg)