History Film / Goodfellas

->''"It ain't the first hole I ever dug! Where are the shovels?"''

Creator/PaulSorvino plays Paul Cicero, boss of Henry's outfit. Creator/SamuelLJackson, then just hitting the big time, has a small part as a crook named Stacks Edwards. Creator/DebiMazar is Sandy, Henry's moll. Creator/TobinBell can be seen for about two seconds as Jimmy's parole officer.

The film is also considered rather notable for being a major influence on ''Series/TheSopranos'' (widely viewed as its SpiritualSuccessor), which went on to become one of the most acclaimed and influential television series of all time. Multiple cast members in ''The Sopranos'' (including Creator/LorraineBracco, Creator/MichaelImperioli, Creator/FrankVincent, Creator/VincentPastore, and Creator/TonySirico) previously appeared here, and the show's gritty and unglamorous portrayal of the Mafia was pretty clearly influenced by the film. The parallels between the two were originally going to be even ''more'' blatant: Creator/{{HBO}} originally wanted Creator/RayLiotta and Lorraine Bracco to play Tony and Carmella Soprano, effectively reprising their roles as Henry and Karen Hill; Liotta turned down the role, and Bracco requested the role of Dr. Melfi because she felt that Carmella was too similar to her role in ''[=GoodFellas=]''.

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: In the aftermath of the Lufthansa heist, Jimmy turns almost overnight from being an AffablyEvil guy who tips generously and even shoves a twenty-dollar bill into the pocket of a truck driver he's robbing, to a murderous FauxAffablyEvil paranoid asshole who seems to not want to pay any of the guys who did the heist. This is not explained in the film. The explanation is that, in real life, Jimmy Burke (Jimmy's original) thought that the heist would yield about $2m but was stunned to find that it actually yielded around $6m. Burke was very reluctant to give the guys who'd carried out the heist any of the surplus money over the amount they'd agreed; it wasn't that he didn't want to give anyone their share, he just didn't want to spread any of the good luck. Rather than deal with their demands for extra money, he killed them. This explained a little differently in the film, where Jimmy is shown to be on edge because his crew do the stupid thing and draw attention to themselves by buying expensive items right after the heist, which next to his extreme greed, is alluded by Henry as a big reason why he has them all whacked in the end.

* BigApplesauce: All of the movie was shot in (and takes place in) New York City and environs. In a twist, we barely see the stereotypical Manhattan sights as most of the movie's action happens in Queens near JFK Airport.

* ActorAllusion: Tommy [=DeSimone=]'s name is changed to Tommy [=DeVito=] in the film. One of Creator/JoePesci's best friends is the R&B musician Tommy [=DeVito=].

* AdaptationalAttractiveness:
** Henry Hill was fairly average looking in reality - real-life mobster Michael Franzese mentioned in [[http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1uq5bw/iam_michael_franzese_a_former_made_boss_in_the/ceklie3/ his Reddit AMA]] that Hill "never looked so good in real life" as Liotta does in the movie.
** Even Paul Sorvino is significantly better-looking than the real Paul Cicero.
* AdaptationalUgliness: The real Tommy was 6'2", had long hair and a moustache, was built like a boxer and was described as very good looking. In the film, he is played by the short and portly Joe Pesci.

* ActorAllusion: Tommy {{DeSimone}}'s name is changed to Tommy {{DeVito}} in the film. One of Creator/JoePesci's best friends is the R&B musician Tommy {{DeVito}}.

* TheCameo: Assistant U.S. Attorney Ed McDonald, AsHimself; [[spoiler:the prosecutor who handled Henry Hill and sponsored him into witness protection.]]

** One of the mobsters introduced in the bar scene is Mikey Franzese. However, the real Franzese is a member of the Colombo family, not the Lucchese that Henry belongs to, and thus shouldn't be introduced as part of Henry's crew. When asked about this by Franzese himself, the real Henry Hill and the writer of the book just admitted that they namedropped him because he had name value.

* BadassBoast: After killing Spider, Tommy ''tries'' to use the line "I'm a good shot" as one. It doesn't fly, as there is nothing badass to brag about. Another mobster even says: "How could you miss at this distance?"

* ClickHello: Happens to Henry inside of his car. He immediately realizes he's been halted by the police instead of being dealt with by the wiseguys because the latter don't do this kind of courtesy and kill quietly on the spot. ''"If they'd been wise guys, I wouldn't have heard a thing."''

** Henry Hill is a deconstruction of a mob soldier in pretty much every way. He is handsome, well dressed and quite wealthy like his contemporaries, but he is not smart, eloquent, honorable, or sophisticated, being from a poor immigrant family who didn't even finish high school. Much of Henry's life in the mob is spent on him desperately trying to placate his "friends", either by defusing Tommy before he kills people or helping Jimmy with various scams to keep them both afloat. He's an AbusiveParent, a drug addict, an adulterer, a murderer, a thief, a racist and a thug, and by the end of the film, [[spoiler: he's a rat.]]
** Numerous mob practices are explored and illuminated in such a way that makes them come across less as FriendlyNeighborhoodGangster or intelligent criminals, and more as egotistical and pigheaded buffoons who constantly stir up trouble during big important moments or jobs. Tommy continually pushes peoples buttons and starts more trouble than he fixes, [[spoiler:eventually getting to the point where he kills a made man (a huge no-no in mob culture) and is marked for death because of it.]] Henry also initially comes across as suave and intelligent, but later demonstrates that his lack of education and formal learning are a huge problem for him when he starts getting into the drug trade and begins making dozens of mistakes, like sampling his own supply and involving his wife.

--->'''Henry Hill:''' No more letters from truant officers. No more letters from school. In fact, no more letters from anybody. How could I go back to school after that and pledge allegiance to the flag and sit through good government bullshit. Hundreds of guys depended [[TheMafia on Paulie]] and he got a piece of everything they made. It was tribute, just like the old country, except they were doing it in America. All they got from Paulie was protection from other guys looking to rip them off. That’s what it's all about. That's [[GoodCannotComprehendEvil what the FBI can never understand]], that what Paulie and the organization [[NeighborhoodFriendlyGangsters does is offer protection for people]] who [[DirtyCop can't go to the cops]]. They're like the police department for wise guys.

* TheDitz: Lois Byrd, the babysitter. And Frankie Carbone, who seems to take every word literally and is stupid enough to buy a fur coat with the money he had stolen right after the Luftansa heist.

** "Nigger stickup men get caught because they fall asleep in the getaway car," which should give you a hint about Stacks' murder.

** Henry knows Jimmy is going to whack Morrie the moment Jimmy asks him, "Think he tells his wife anything?" after Morrie keeps badgering Jimmy for his cut of the Lufthansa money. Later, after Henry gets busted for drug trafficking, Jimmy asks Karen "Know what kind of questions they've(the cops) been asking him? Did he tell you?" It's not shown that Karen knows as well as Henry what that kind of questioning means, but the audience is clued in to exactly what Jimmy has decided to do.

* FreudianTrio: Tommy is the Id, Henry is the Ego and Jimmy is the Superego.

** Paulie Cicero is depicted as AffablyEvil and a likable capo. Henry Hill explains him away as "protection for wise guys among themselves". Mobster Paul Vario - his RealLife counterpart - had more direct involvement in the nastier (and bloodier) crimes committed by his crew. In ''Wiseguy'' (the book the film was based on), Hill recalled seeing Vario attack a barmaid with a baseball bat after she informed his wife they were having an affair. ''Wiseguy'' author Nicholas Pileggi writes, "He abhorred unnecessary violence (the kind he hadn't ordered), [[PragmaticVillainy mainly because it was bad for business]]."

** In the film, Hill says that Jimmy had never asked him to kill anybody. Though Hill is an accomplice after the fact on several murders, he never personally kills anyone. In RealLife, Henry Hill did personally kill at least three people, so this crosses over with UnreliableNarrator.

* HowWeGotHere: The film starts with Jimmy, Henry and Tommy driving on a dark country road in the middle of the night. They hear a noise coming from the trunk, so they stop and take a look. Turns out their [[NotQuiteDead package]] in the trunk is the bloodied Billy Batts, who is still alive. Henry pops the trunk. Tommy stabs the man eight times and Jimmy shoots him four times. Then we flash back to Henry's childhood and the first half of the movie documents the events leading up to Batts's death.

* LuxuryPrisonSuite: Wise guys live a privileged existence even in prison, using their money and influence to get themselves housed separately from other prisoners and having more or less free run of the place without interference from the guards. They even continue to eat gourmet food while inside, maintaining an extravagantly luxurious pantry packed with steaks, lobsters, and the like, as well as contraband liquor and wine (red ''and'' white).

** Topped by [[spoiler:what happens to Tommy. Becoming a Made Man is set to be the greatest honor of Tommy's life, and the day of the ceremony is all triumphal and celebratory, with both Jimmy and Henry gleefully excited for him, and for the implicit raised standing they'll have by being best friends with an official member. Tommy himself is uncharacteristically respectful and softspoken, and even awestruck at the mafia big wigs who are bringing him in... until it turns out Tommy is being led to his execution.]] The entire mood of the movie from that point on is all tragedy.

** The wise guys get thrown in jail when they attempt to extort a man whose sister happens to work as a typist for the FBI.
* MurderIsTheBestSolution: Jimmy gives up all pretensions and decides the best way to make sure conspirators don't attract law enforcement is to simply murder them all (save his best buds Henry and Tommy.)

** A lesser one of seventy seconds happens when the secondary wise guys are introduced at the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD3y43cyddI Bamboo Lounge]].

* RealMenCook: The wise guys take cooking very seriously during their incarceration. The real Henry Hill published a cookbook in 2002, ''The Wiseguy Cookbook'' detailing the recipes for all the meals seen in the film and many more, including recipes he picked up in Witness Protection and the healthy diet he adapted later in life.

* ShootTheMessenger: The wise guys are about to lose the young Henry as an associate due to his truancy issues, so they solve the problem by roughing up the mailman who delivers the troublesome non-attendance school letters to Henry's house and father.

** To make it even better, Henry could have sold off the stash he still had, left the drug trade, would never have to worry about getting busted, and Paulie would never have found out. Instead, he becomes a full-time dealer, [[GettingHighOnTheirOwnSupply gets hooked on the coke he's dealing,]] and all but guarantees his days in the Mob are numbered.

* {{Ubermensch}}: The wise guys are above the local laws and look down on the average Joe, who is viewed as a chump, what with having to do honest hard work for a living.

* VerbalSaltInTheWound: Spider is shot in the foot by Tommy over a minor misunderstanding, and at their next card game, the unfortunate bartender turns up with his foot in a cast; Tommy ''immediately'' starts trolling him over the foot - eventually leading to Spider telling Tommy to go fuck himself [[spoiler: and Tommy gunning down the poor bastard in a fit of rage.]]

** Louis Cafora (renamed Johnny Roastbeef) and his wife are shown to be found dead in the Pepto Bismal-pink [[CoolCar 1979 Cadillac Coupe DeVille]] by kids playing in a parking lot. In actuality, their bodies were never found, and the the car was a Fleetwood (it really was pink, though, and he actually drove it to a meeting near an FBI investigation). It was Joe "Buddha" Manri and Tom [=McMahon=] ("Frenchy") who were instead found in a car.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Morrie's wife panicks because Morrie is missing, and then she's never seen again in the film. The woman she's based on, Fran Krugman, simply sold the wig store and left New York.

** Even Paul Sorvino is significantly better-looking than the real Paul Cicero

* AlliterativeName: Henry Hill. Jimmy "the Gent." Billy Batts.

* BadassBoast: After killing Spider, Tommy ''tries'' to use the line "I'm a good shot" as one. It doesn't fly, as there is nothing badass to brag about. Another mobster even says : "How could you miss at this distance?"

* BeingGoodSucks: The gangsters more or less see regular people as "losers" who work honestly in a system that offers no reward for hard work and agency, while they can live like Kings by breaking the law. Henry Hill notes that at the age of 11 he was [[EvilPaysBetter making more money as a crook]] than most honest people in his neighborhood. This is the main reason why Henry Hill resents his final fate as a "schnook," where he has to wait in line like all the others he felt contempt towards for most of his life.

** When Karen asks Henry what he does for a living, he replies "I'm in construction." Karen feels his soft hands and points out that they don't look like the hands of a construction worker, so he elaborates and tells her that he's [[LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub a union delegate]]. Karen, [[DistractedByTheLuxury obviously enchanted by the lavish lifestyle]], doesn't press the matter.

** Then, later, [[spoiler:when Tommy gets whacked]].

* BrokenPedestal: While Henry doesn't expect much help from Paulie, he still bitterly laments [[spoiler: the meager 'severance pay' he is given after a lifetime of service and tutelage.]]

** Jimmy knows well that antagonizing Billy Batts — a made man who is protected by default — is not a brilliant idea and tries to defuse the situation. The guy is killed anyway, but the gang is very aware that his death should remain a secret.

* TheCameo: Assistant U.S. Attorney Ed Mcdonald, AsHimself; [[spoiler:the prosecutor who handled Henry Hill and sponsored him into witness protection]].

* ClickHello: Happens to Henry inside of his car. He immediately realizes he's been halted by the police instead of being dealt with by the wiseguys because the latter don't do this kind of courtesy and kill quietly on the spot. "''If they'd been wiseguys, I wouldn't have heard a thing.''"
* ClingyJealousGirl: Karen is steadily driven to this after years of Henry's bullshit. At one point ''pointing a cocked and loaded gun'' in Henry's face when she found out he's been cheating on her during their marriage (which is still almost minor in the context of the film, given the relatively trivial matters ''other'' people around Henry will kill over.)
* ClusterFBomb:

** Numerous mob practices are explored and illuminated in such a way that makes them come across less as FriendlyNeighborhoodGangster or intelligent criminals, and more as egotistical and pigheaded buffoons who constantly stir up trouble during big important moments or jobs. Tommy continually pushes peoples buttons and starts more trouble than he fixes, [[spoiler: eventually getting to the point where he kills a made man (a huge no-no in mob culture) and is marked for death because of it.]] Henry also initially comes across as suave and intelligent, but later demonstrates that his lack of education and formal learning are a huge problem for him when he starts getting into the drug trade and begins making dozens of mistakes, like sampling his own supply and involving his wife.
** People turn to the mob because of superficial appearance and status, not because of anything like "loyalty" or "needing a family". Henry becomes a mobster due to taking numerous small jobs from Paulie, eventually working his way up to a big earner, and he states numerous times that the power and wealth that came from that position was the best part of being in the mafia. However, it's also shown that this power and wealth also put Henry in numerous bad positions, such as having to bury the body of a made man and dig it up later, or get into the drug trade to survive in prison.
** Henry Hill's final narration was intended by Scorsese as a TakeThat to the idea of DoNotDoThisCoolThing or at least the idea that Hill squealing on his buddies to get out of prison implies that he's TheAtoner when all he regrets is getting caught. Indeed the song that plays over the end, the Music/SidVicious cover of ''My Way'' implies that for him the entire life was WorthIt.
** The mafia's practice of YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness becomes a serious problem during the last third of the film. After [[spoiler: Tommy gets fooled into thinking he's getting made, when he's instead whacked at his supposed induction ceremony]], Henry devolves into a nervous wreck and his relationship with Jimmy becomes increasingly strained, both of them coming to believe the other is plotting their downfall for different reasons- Jimmy for his involvement in the Lufthansa heist, and Henry for his recent run-in with the narcs. The majority of the Lufthansa guys end up spending copious amounts of money [[TooDumbtoLive right after one of the biggest heists in American history]], which ends up causing all of them to get whacked by Jimmy, and only increases Henry's paranoia about remaining in the mob. [[spoiler: As a matter of fact, its heavily implied that Jimmy tried to get Henry killed by putting him up for phony hit, while later seemingly attempting to get Karen assassinated as well. This proves to be the last straw, and Henry gladly walks in to witness protection to rat on Paulie and Jimmy in order to save his own skin.]]

---> '''Henry Hill:''' No more letters from truant officers. No more letters from school. In fact, no more letters from anybody. How could I go back to school after that and pledge allegiance to the flag and sit through good government bullshit. Hundreds of guys depended [[TheMafia on Paulie]] and he got a piece of everything they made. It was tribute, just like the old country, except they were doing it in America. All they got from Paulie was protection from other guys looking to rip them off. That’s what it’s all about. That’s [[GoodCannotComprehendEvil what the FBI can never understand]], that what Paulie and the organization [[NeighborhoodFriendlyGangsters does is offer protection for people]] who [[DirtyCop can’t go to the cops]]. They’re like the police department for wiseguys.

-> ''"It ain't the first hole I ever dug! Where are the shovels?"''

* DontMakeMeTakeMyBeltOff: Henry's father when he finds out the young Henry has been playing hooky to do mob errands. Dad is only seen again in the movie — and with a long face — during his son's wedding, as Henry basically places himself in a new "family."

--> '''Tommy:''' In this day and age, what the fuck is this world coming to? I can't believe this, prejudiced against — [[HypocriticalHumour a Jew broad]] — prejudiced against Italians!
--> '''Girl:''' Unbelievable. You could see how a white girl could fall for him.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Three guys are on the road in the middle of the night, there seems to be a problem with the car so they pull up. It turns out they have a [[NotQuiteDead live package]] in the trunk. When Henry opens it, Tommy stabs a man eight times and Jimmy shoots him four times. They are annoyed by the package's resilience, but at the same time, they [[TheSociopath enjoy finishing the task]]. Henry doesn't join in and just watches them doing their thing with a slightly concerned look before locking his trunk. He's an accomplice, but he is not as hardened as they are. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckPHBJWQvpE Cue the title screen]]. Doubles as [[EstablishingSeriesMoment establishing movie moment]].
* EstablishingCharacterMusic:

** Jimmy cries when [[spoiler:his best friend Tommy is murdered]].

** Henry's a jerk and lifelong criminal, but draws the line at murder. He is visibly disturbed when [[spoiler:Tommy and Jimmy brutally beat up Billy Batts]], and even more so when [[spoiler:Tommy shoots Spider dead in response to a petty insult]]. As he says in narration, the unwritten rules of the mob were what kept you from getting whacked.

* FateWorseThanDeath: [[spoiler:Henry Hill himself]], who has to live the rest of his life as both "a rat" and "a schnook."

-->'''Henry:''' "They must really feed each other to the lions down there because the guy gave the money right up."
* FiveSecondForeshadowing: Tommy is getting made! It's a nice morning, and he is joking with everyone. Tommy goes to the house with a couple of wiseguys who take him inside. He enters a room...[[spoiler:to find it's empty and is killed a few seconds later, once it hits him what's about to happen.]]

--> "Tommy's a bad seed, what do you want me to do, shoot him?" [[spoiler:Paulie later arranges Tommy's murder.]]

--> "Do you know why Jeannie's husband went to the can? Because of Jeannie! Because he wanted to get away from her, that's why!"

** Henry knows Jimmy is going to whack Morrie the moment Jimmy asks him "Think he tells his wife anything?" adter Morrie keeps badgering Jimmy for his cut of the Lufthansa money. Later, after Henry gets busted for drug trafficking, Jimmy asks Karen "Know what kind of questions they've(the cops) been asking him? Did he tell you?" It's not shown that Karen knows as well as Henry what that kind of questioning means, but the audience is clued in to exactly what Jimmy has decided to do.
** After Henry gets out of jail, Paulie warns him to put some distance between himself and Jimmy and Tommy. By now it's 1978, and Paulie has likely [[spoiler: already agreed to get rid of Tommy; he just needs to find the right time to have it done. He probably knows that without Tommy, Jimmy will be completely unfettered and will end up even more dangerous than Tommy ever was]].

** Paulie Cicero is depicted as AffablyEvil and a likable capo. Henry Hill explains him away as "protection for wiseguys among themselves." Mobster Paul Vario - his RealLife counterpart - had more direct involvement in the nastier (and bloodier) crimes committed by his crew. In ''Wiseguy'' (the book the film was based on), Hill recalled seeing Vario attack a barmaid with a baseball bat after she informed his wife they were having an affair. ''Wiseguy'' author Nicholas Pileggi writes, "He abhorred unnecessary violence (the kind he hadn't ordered), [[PragmaticVillainy mainly because it was bad for business]]."

** Jimmy has Henry bring Morrie to a poker game with the intention of whacking him, but ends up in too good a mood to feel like going through with it, and Henry marvels at how Morrie is sitting there with them not knowing how close he was to being killed. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, Morrie continues to press the issue of when he'll receive his cut after they leave the bar, prompting Tommy to stab him through the back of the neck at Jimmy's unspoken behest.]][[note]]According to real-life Henry: "Now I know why Jimmy wanted to whack Marty. It's a matter of half a million bucks. No way Jimmy was going to deny himself half a million dollars because of Marty Krugman [the character Morrie was based on]. If Jimmy killed Marty, Jimmy would get Marty's half a mill."[[/note]]
** Another example, during the notorious Billy Batts bar scene - Billy makes a few seemingly good-natured jabs at an increasingly angry Tommy, who curtly tells him off. An affronted Batts insists he didn't mean anything serious and was just ''"breakin' your balls a little bit"'' out of affection and familiarity, and outright apologizes to Tommy, who actually cools off and returns the apology. Things appear to have blown over.... [[spoiler: then Batts venomously tells Tommy to [[BerserkButton "go home and get [his] fuckin' shine box"]].]]

** [[spoiler:Morrie]]. Unavoidable; "I thought he'd never shut the fuck up. What a pain in the ass."

* LuxuryPrisonSuite: Wiseguys live a privileged existence even in prison, using their money and influence to get themselves housed separately from other prisoners and having more or less free run of the place without interference from the guards. They even continue to eat gourmet food while inside, maintaining an extravagantly luxurious pantry packed with steaks, lobsters, and the like, as well as contraband liquor and wine (red ''and'' white).

* TheMafia: The movie focuses specifically on the "working-class" side of La Cosa Nostra as opposed to the bosses. It's also somewhat of a subversion since despite being one of the most famous and iconic mob movies of all time, it's specifically a story about mob ''associates'' - the titular "goodfellas" or "wiseguys" - and none of the main trio ever get "made" and become ''official'' members of the Mafia. Moreover, Henry and Jimmy both have non-Italian/Sicilian heritage (they're half-Irish), so they know they're never even eligible. Only Tommy, who has Sicilian/Italian parents, is told he's about to be made (after over twenty years as an associate and good earner) [[spoiler:but is whacked for his murder of Billy Batts instead]].

* {{Montage|s}}: The whole film is basically this, to the point there is no incidental score for the film at all, but rather wall-to-wall licensed music. Scorsese said he was trying to make "The first film ever made that was a long trailer."

** The wiseguys get thrown in jail when they attempt to extort a man whose sister happens to work as a typist for the FBI.

** After Henry, Tommy, and Jimmy supposedly kill Billy Batts and shove his body in the trunk to dispose of it, they begin to hear strange banging sounds as they drive. Then they all collectively realize that ''Billy Batts is still alive and trying to escape the trunk.''

** A lesser one of seventy seconds happens when the secondary wiseguys are introduced at the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD3y43cyddI Bamboo Lounge]].

* PrecisionFStrike: Too many straightforward examples to count, but Billy Batts' ''"Now go home and get your fuckin' shine box."'' is the precise moment when his conversation with Tommy drops its air of camaraderie and becomes openly insulting and hostile. [[spoiler: This leads to Tommy having a meltdown on the spot and later savagely murdering Batts.]]
** Teenage bartender Spider gets fed up with Tommy's verbal and physical abuse and calmly tells him to go fuck himself. The wiseguys are shocked into silence and then applaud the youth for standing up for himself, but then try and goad an uncharacteristically-silent Tommy into one of his trademark explosions of profanity. [[spoiler: Tommy instead unloads his .45 into the kid, making the PrecisionFStrike Spider's actual last words]].

** Averted with [[spoiler:Tommy's murder]]. Henry even notes that they shot him in the head so that his mother couldn't give him an open casket at the funeral. Overlaps with NotInTheFace.
** Also averted with [[spoiler: Stacks]], who is shot in the head from behind and the room is immediately splattered with brain matter and blood.
* ProperlyParanoid:
** While being hooked on drugs makes him overly manic, a lot of Henry's paranoia [[spoiler: towards Jimmy and the Cops]] turns out to be valid.

** Martin Scorsese refused to believe that the prisoners were as well treated as they were in the book and later depicted in the film, but the prison guards assured him it quite real and not exaggerated. Not mentioned in the film, however, was that the prisoners had to pay the guards $3000 a month for the privileges, which is why Henry starting dealing drugs in prison -- to pay for it.
* RealMenCook: The wiseguys take cooking very seriously during their incarceration. The real Henry Hill published a cookbook in 2002, ''The Wiseguy Cookbook'' detailing the recipes for all the meals seen in the film and many more, including recipes he picked up in Witness Protection and the healthy diet he adapted later in life.

* SacrificialLamb: Spider's murder at the hands of Tommy doesn't add any foreshadowing or any symbolism. Apparently, his death only serves another highlight or reminder of [[AxCrazy Tommy's murderous rage]] [[HairTriggerTemper and poor temper control,]] and just adds another AndThisIsFor justification for his execution.
* SanitySlippage:

* SelfFulfillingProphecy: [[spoiler: When Henry is busted for drug dealing, his mob friends begin to cut ties with him in fear that he's going to rat them out to the police. Feeling cornered and fearing that his former friends will try to have him killed, Henry has no choice but to join the federal Witness Protection Program.]]

* ShoeShineMister: The film features a scene in which Tommy [[spoiler: brutally beats and knifes Billy Batts to death]] for insulting him about being a shoeshine boy in Tommy's younger days.
* ShootTheMessenger: The wiseguys are about to lose the young Henry as an associate due to his truancy issues, so they solve the problem by roughing up the mailman who delivers the troublesome non-attendance school letters to Henry's house and father.
* ShoutOut:

** ''The Oklahoma Kid'' and ''Film/{{Shane}}'' are part of the dialogue during [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8wJt59Q6So "The Spider Situation".]]
** At one point, Lois is seen reading an issue of ''Tales of the Zombie'', a 70s [[Creator/MarvelComics Marvel]] horror comic.

* SoundtrackDissonance: A number of songs, including "WesternAnimation/FrostyTheSnowman," as Jimmy angrily scolds his men for spending their heist money way too early.

* StealthInsult: Billy Batts tells everyone about Tommy's past as a shoe shiner (already a [[OldShame sore spot]] of his), complimenting his skills and saying that he "made a lot of money", implying the latter was dirt poor and working for a pittance. [[invoked]]

** It's implied this is a major reason Tommy is such a problem in the organization; even for a group of murderers and hard-core criminals, Tommy is such a trigger-happy sociopath he ultimately causes more problems than he solves. [[spoiler: Unlike most examples, Paulie recognizes that Tommy is a danger to the operation, and after Tommy goes too far and kills the wrong man, Paulie has him executed.]]

** [[spoiler: No, Tommy, you don't kill a made man without the go-ahead from the boss.]] Sorry.

* {{Ubermensch}}: The wiseguys are above the local laws and look down on the average Joe, who is viewed as a chump, what with having to do honest hard work for a living.

* VerbalTic: "And then there was Jimmy [[MeaningfulName Two-Times]], who got that nickname because he said everything twice, like 'I'm gonna go get the papers, get the papers.'"

* WhamShot: Tommy enters the room for his induction ceremony [[spoiler:to see nobody is in the room. [[GenreSavvy He knows what's up a split-second before it happens]]. [[BoomHeadshot He's right]].]]

** We never find out what happened to Henry’s father and other than a throwaway line on the day Henry gets busted there’s no mention of his mother either. This is likely deliberate as other than a quick photo at their wedding his parents are not seen again and the wedding serves as a somewhat symbolic transition to his new “family”. However it is clearly shown that he remains close to his younger brother Michael (the one in a wheelchair).
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: The end titles relate the fate of the characters as of 1990. It's accompanied by the half-ironic, half-unapologetic Music/SidVicious' version of "My Way."

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Jimmy does this to [[spoiler:everyone involved in the Lufthansa heist except Henry and Tommy]].
* YouRemindMeOfX: When the three protagonists stop at Tommy's mother's place intending to get a shovel, only to end up staying for dinner, a painting there joyfully reminds them of Billy Batts, [[spoiler: who at that moment is lying in the trunk of their car, half-dead]].

* BerserkButton:
** Bringing up Tommy [=DeVito's=] humiliating past as a shoe-shine boy. He doesn't need much of an excuse to go berserk, but this is one easy way to do it.
** Hurting Karen is a guaranteed way to catch a beatdown from Henry; when he pistol whips Karen's neighbor for getting fresh with her and shoving her out of a car when she resisted is one of the few times he gets violent in the film.
** One way to get on Jimmy's bad side is to not pay him money when you owe him. He also has no patience for people who are sloppy and could pose as a liability to his operations. This particular paranoia becomes more and more apparent as the film progresses, and anyone who leaves too many clues or in any way slips up will find themselves getting whacked.

* ActorAllusion: Tommy DeSimone's name is changed to Tommy DeVito in the film. One of Creator/JoePesci's best friends is the R&B musician Tommy DeVito.

* ActorAllusion: Tommy DeSimone's name is changed to Tommy DeVito in the film. One of Creator/JoePesci's best friends is a musician named Tommy DeVito.

* SpiritualSuccessor:
** ''Film/{{Casino}}'' is sometimes summed up as ''[=GoodFellas=]'' [[RecycledInSpace in Las Vegas!]].
** ''Series/TheSopranos'' isn't subtle in its attempts to pick up where ''[=GoodFellas=]'' leaves off in its demythologising of the Mafia. A truly impressive amount of the cast of that show had parts of varying significance in this film. In case it wasn't obvious enough, their first choice to play Tony Soprano was Creator/RayLiotta and the part of Carmine Soprano was offered to Lorraine Bracco, who turned it down specifically because it was too close to Karen Hill and instead asked to play therapist Jennifer Melfi.
** Scorsese noted that ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet'' does for white-collar crime what ''[=GoodFellas=]'' and ''Casino'' do for organized crime.

* VertigoEffect: During the last, tense meeting between Jimmy and Henry in the diner.

%%* VillainProtagonist: Henry Hill.

* WitnessProtection: [[spoiler: Where Henry ends up. The real Henry Hill left witness protection some time after the film was released. He says that everyone who would want him dead is long gone, and now gangsters who do contact him want him to read their screenplays. Hill died in June 2012 from heart-related health issues.]]

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: In RealLife, there was no mystery who did the job. Tommy [=DeSimone=] ([=DeVito=] in the film) ''took off his mask'' when leaving the heist, and several employees fingered his mug shot as the perp.[[note]]An employee [[PistolWhipping pistol whipped]] by Angelo Sepe recognized him, too.[[/note]]

%%* BlackComedy

* ForTheEvulz: Jimmy is into crime not out of greed but for the mere thrill of it all. More explicit in the book.
-->'''Henry:''' He loved to steal. He ate and breathed it. I think if you ever offered Jimmy a billion dollars not to steal, he’d turn you down and then try to figure out how to steal it from you.

* GreaterScopeVillain: Paul Cicero. The Lucchese Family in the original book.

Creator/PaulSorvino plays Paul Cicero, boss of Henry's outfit. Creator/SamuelLJackson, then just hitting the big time, has a small part as a crook named Stacks Edwards.

-->'''Henry:''' Anything I wanted was a phone call away. Free cars. The keys to a dozen hideout flats all over the city. I bet twenty, thirty grand over a weekend and then I'd either blow the winnings in a week or go to the sharks to pay back the bookies. ''(to the audience)'' Didn't matter. It didn't mean anything. ''(gets up from the witness stand)'' When I was broke, I'd go out and rob some more. We ran everything. We paid off cops. We paid off lawyers. We paid off judges. ''Everybody had their hands out. Everything was for the taking.'' ''(beat)'' And now it's all over...

* ContrivedCoincidence: Henry and Jimmy end up in prison when they beat up Johnny Ciacio, a gambler in Tampa who owes a considerable debt to them and refuses to pay up. It just so happens that Ciacio's sister is a typist for the FBI, and she tells her coworkers everything, leading to Henry and Jimmy's arrests. Lampshaded by the narration.

* DeathByAdaptation: In the film, Frankie Carbone is one of the people who gets "whacked" in the aftermath of the Lufthansa Heist. However, his real life counterpart Angelo Sepe was spared Jimmy's wraith. He was eventually whacked by the mafia 5 years later, but for unrelated reasons. As indicated above, Frankie Carbone was also based on Richard Eaton, who was indeed found dead, hogtied and hanging in a meat freezer truck. [[note]] Ironically, he was largely uninvolved with the actual heist, but was skimming some of the money from the heist while it was laundered. [[/note]]

* DemotedToExtra: One of the most infamous college sports scandals, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1978%E2%80%9379_Boston_College_basketball_point_shaving_scandal the Boston College point shaving scandal]], is reduced to a single throwaway line in the film. Henry Hill's later book about the Lufthansa Heist actually devotes ''six chapters'' to the scandal.

The film is also considered rather notable for being a major influence on ''Series/TheSopranos'' (widely viewed as its SpiritualSuccessor), which went on to become one of the most acclaimed and influential television series of all time. Multiple cast members in ''The Sopranos'' (including Creator/LorraineBracco, Creator/MichaelImperioli, Frank Vincent, Vincent Pastore, and Tony Sirico) previously appeared here, and the show's gritty and unglamorous portrayal of the Mafia was pretty clearly influenced by the film. The parallels between the two were originally going to be even ''more'' blatant: Creator/{{HBO}} originally wanted Creator/RayLiotta and Lorraine Bracco to play Tony and Carmella Soprano, effectively reprising their roles as Henry and Karen Hill; Liotta turned down the role, and Bracco requested the role of Dr. Melfi because she felt that Carmella was too similar to her role in ''[=GoodFellas=]''.

** The mafia's practice of YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness becomes a serious problem during the last third of the film. After [[spoiler: Tommy gets fooled into thinking he's getting made, when he's instead whacked at his supposed induction ceremony]], Henry devolves into a nervous wreck and his relationship with Jimmy becomes increasingly strained, both of them coming to believe the other is plotting their downfall for different reasons- Jimmy for his involvement in the Lufthansa heist, and Henry for his recent run-in with the narcs. The majority of the Lufthansa guys end up spending copious amounts of money [[TooStupidToLive right after one of the biggest heists in American history]], which ends up causing all of them to get whacked by Jimmy, and only increases Henry's paranoia about remaining in the mob. [[spoiler: As a matter of fact, its heavily implied that Jimmy tried to get Henry killed by putting him up for phony hit, while later seemingly attempting to get Karen assassinated as well. This proves to be the last straw, and Henry gladly walks in to witness protection to rat on Paulie and Jimmy in order to save his own skin.]]

* ExactWords: After [[spoiler:the mob kills Tommy]], note what they say to Jimmy over the phone. They avoid any mention of what actually happened, merely indicating that things didn't work out and that there was "Nothing (they) could do," playing it off as more of a simple dispute than [[spoiler:Tommy's planned execution.]] Makes a lot of sense for a group concerned about being wiretapped.

* DealWithTheDevil: A restaurant owner partners up with Paulie in order to get protection from Tommy, who attacks him after refusing to pay his bar tab. The wiseguys [[StealingFromTheTill rob the man blind]], then, when he's no longer of any use to them, burn the restaurant down for the insurance money.

** The mafia's practice of YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness becomes a serious problem during the last third of the film. After [[spoiler: Tommy gets whacked during his induction ceremony]], Henry devolves into a nervous wreck and his relationship with Jimmy becomes increasingly strained, both of them coming to believe the other is plotting their downfall for different reasons- Jimmy for his involvement in the Lufthansa heist, and Henry for his recent run-in with the narcs. The majority of the Lufthansa guys end up spending copious amounts of money [[TooStupidToLive right after one of the biggest heists in American history]], which ends up causing all of them to get whacked by Jimmy, and only increases Henry's paranoia about remaining in the mob. [[spoiler: As a matter of fact, its heavily implied that Jimmy tried to get Henry killed by putting him up for phony hit, while later seemingly attempting to get Karen assassinated as well. This proves to be the last straw, and Henry gladly walks in to witness protection to rat on Paulie and Jimmy in order to save his own skin.]]