GoodFellas

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. Henry begins as a fence for Jimmy, gradually working his way up to more serious crimes.

Throughout the 1960s, the three men excel at carjacking, stealing cargo trucks from JFK Airport, and eventually commit the Air France Robbery. They spend most of their nights at the Copacabana nightclub, carousing with women. Henry starts dating Karen Friedman, a Jewish woman who is initially confused by Henry's criminal activities. She is soon seduced by Henry's glamorous lifestyle, and marries him, despite her parents' disapproval.

In 1970, Billy Batts, a made man in the Gambino crime family who was recently released from prison, insults Tommy at a nightclub that is owned by Henry. In response, Tommy and Jimmy beat, stab and fatally shoot Billy. Realizing that the unsanctioned murder of a made man will invite retribution, Jimmy, Henry and Tommy bury the body in Upstate New York. 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 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 retribution for murdering Batts, much to Jimmy's dismay.

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 and ends their association. Henry meets Jimmy at a diner and is asked to travel to a hit assignment, but the request makes him suspicious. Realizing that Jimmy plans to have him killed, Henry 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".