History Main / TheUntouchables

** Even worse, a reporter notes that Prohibition, the law that enabled Capone to build up his criminal empire, may be getting repealed soon (historically, it was repealed two years after Capone's arrest), meaning that Congress had figured out the law was a mistake, and that the whole thing was a mistake. So [[spoiler: Malone and Wallace died]] for almost nothing.

* ShoutOut: The baby carriage rolling down the stairs in Union Station is a direct homage to the famous "Odessa Steps" sequence in Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 masterpiece TheBattleshipPotemkin.

->''"He pulls a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue!"''

--->'''Malone''': Just like a wop: bringing a knife to a gunfight!

* IncorruptiblePurePureness: The whole point and played totally without irony in the series. Doesn't stop the criminals from making routine offers, though.

* [[TheFilmOfTheBook The Show of the Book]]: Ness's semi-fictional autobiography.

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** It's even more impressive when you know that the sequence was a last-minute alternative to the original scene, a car/train chase that was prohibitively expensive. (The chase did make the novelization.) The benefits of knowing one's film history...

A live action television series aired between 1959 and 1963 (later adapted as a movie in 1987, directed by BrianDePalma and written by DavidMamet. It starred KevinCostner, SeanConnery and RobertDeniro. The film itself inspired a second television series in 1993, with Tom Amandes) based on the exploits of (RealLife) [[TheRoaringTwenties 1920s]] Chicago treasury department agent Eliot Ness and his group of loyal agents, nicknamed "The Untouchables" because of their refusal to be bribed by the Mob as many others were at the time. Most notable for pursuing bootleggers and gangster AlCapone (and eventually arresting him--[[JusticeByOtherLegalMeans on tax evasion charges]]!)

* BondOneLiner: Delivered in typical hardboiled fashion, Ness uses these with enough subtly to avoid {{narm}}.

* {{Narrator}}: Each episode was narrated by gossip columnist Walter Winchell.

* DidNotDoTheResearch: Sometimes painfully so.
** The most infamous is [[spoiler:the way Frank Nitti dies in the movie. In RealLife Nitti lived years after Capone was put away, and committed suicide in a train depot when facing his own criminal charges]].
** Nitti as a character also qualifies. In the movie he is portrayed as an assassin, while in real life he was more a brains behind Capone's bootlegging operation.
** It's very debatable how much Elliot Ness was responsible for Capone's arrest and conviction. The most popular view is that Elliot Ness had really only helped build publicity against Al Capone, but the IRS put him away without Ness's help.
** Another thing, the Treasury Department did not have any casualties. They were just that {{Badass}}.

* ByTheBookCop: No anti-heros here.

* {{Workaholic}}: Implied. Although we see the criminal of the week's personal lives, the show never follows the Untouchables home. Judging by late-night hours Ness pulls, he certainly is one (not to mention the [[MarriedToTheJob real Ness]]).

* NoSenseofHumor: "Don't you ever smile, Mr. Ness?"

* TheWindyCity

* BadAssBookWorm: Oscar Wallace.
* BadAssMustache: Malone.

* BerserkButton: Eliot Ness [[spoiler: flips and throws Frank Nitti off a building when he gloats about killing Jim Malone.]]
*** This came after [[spoiler:Eliot refused to shoot Frank on the principle of upholding the law and common decency.]] [[TooDumbToLive This is why you shouldn't taunt the cops while you're getting arrested.]]

* CarCushion: [[spoiler:Frank Nitti after being thrown off the roof by Eliot Ness]].

** The most infamous is [[spoiler:the way Frank Nitti dies in the movie. In RealLife Nitti lived years after Capone was put away, and committed suicide in a train depot when facing his own criminal charges.]]
** It's very debatable how much Elliot Ness was responsible for Capone's arrest and convistion. The most popular view is that Elliot Ness had really only helped build publicity against Al Capone, but the IRS put him away without Ness's help.
** Another thing, the Treasury Department did not have any casualties. They were just that BadAss.

* DisneyVillainDeath: [[spoiler: Nitti]]

* DoomedMoralVictor: [[spoiler:the death of Jim Malone.]]
* TheDragon: Frank Nitti
* DyeingForYourArt: [=DeNiro=] gained 30 pounds for his role as Capone, and even insisted on wearing the same clothes Capone did, right down to his silk underwear.

* GoingByTheMatchBook: Frank Nitti has the address of Jim Malone (Sean Connery) written on a book of matches. Unfortunately he forgets to dispose of it after killing Malone, so when Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) searches him later it leads to their final shootout.
* HeyItsThatGuy: Recognize the alderman who present's Capone's bribe to Ness early in the film? That would be Chicago teacher/actor/improv superhero Del Close.

* PutDownYourGunAndStepAway: Subverted

* ShurFineGuns: The tommy gun of one gangster jams during a fight. (TruthInTelevision: a problem real tommy guns were frequently subject to, which is one of the many reasons it was never as popular as gangland movies would have you believe.) To the gangster's credit he tries repeatedly to clear the jam, but it gives the mousy accountant among the Untouchables time to get close enough to KO him with the butt of his shotgun.
* TheSquad. Also a BadassCrew.

* ThrowItIn: Costner ad-libbed the line "He's in the car," after [[spoiler:throwing Nitti off of the roof]].
* TookALevelInBadass: Oscar, the federal accountant assigned to Ness's team. More an office worker than a field agent, he takes to wielding a shotgun pretty quickly and gets a few Crowning Moments of asskickery during the Canadian border raid.

-->'''Eliot Ness''': ''Yeah well... You're not from [[CrapsackWorld Chicago.]]''

* LucaBrasiSleepsWithTheFishes: "Touchable."

A live action television series aired between 1959 and 1963 (later adapted as a movie in 1987, directed by BrianDePalma and written by DavidMamet. It starred KevinCostner, SeanConnery and RobertDeniro. The film itself inspired a second television series in 1993, with Tom Amandes) based on the exploits of (RealLife) [[TheRoaringTwenties 1920s]] Chicago treasury department agent Eliot Ness and his [[{{Nakama}} group of loyal agents]], nicknamed "The Untouchables" because of their refusal to be bribed by the Mob as many others were at the time. Most notable for pursuing bootleggers and gangster AlCapone (and eventually arresting him--[[JusticeByOtherLegalMeans on tax evasion charges]]!)

** TheAce: Stone. He's the best shootist promoted from the police force, and proves it during the train station shootout. He can also be considered TheBigGuy.

* HollywoodLaw: When they discover the jury has been bribed, they switch Capone's jury with the jury next door. This is nothing compared with Capone's lawyer attempting to enter a plea without his client's consent, which in real life is a good way to have a mistrial, an overturned conviction and disbarment for the attorney

** Even worse, a reporter notes that Prohibition, the law that enabled Capone to build up his criminal empire, may be getting repealed soon (it historically, it was repealed, two years after Capone's arrest), meaning that Congress had figured out the law was a mistake, and that the whole thing was a mistake. So [[spoiler: Malone and Wallace died]] for almost nothing.

* CompletelyMissingThePoint: Capone tells Eliot Ness, "You talk to me like that in front of my son? Fuck you, and your family!" In front of his son...