The Untouchables poster & wallpaper
Get movie widget Recommend it Add to Favorites

Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Charles Martin Smith, Andy Garcia, Robert De Niro ... see more see more... , Richard Bradford , Jack Kehoe , Brad Sullivan , Billy Drago , Patricia Clarkson , Peter Aylward , Mike Bacarella , Patrick Billingsley , Larry Brandenburg , Michael Byrne , Clem Caserta , Valentino Cimo , Del Close , Vito D'Ambrosio , Tim Gamble , Steve Goldstein , Joe V. Greco , Clifton James , Louie Lanciloti , Robert Miranda , Chelcie Ross , Lynn Stalmaster , Robert Swan , Will Zahrn , Mali Finn , Jennifer Anglim , Colleen Bade , John Bracci , Kevin Michael Doyle , Sean Grennan , James Guthrie , Aditra Kohl , Bob Martana , Eddie Minasian , Tony Mockus , Kaitlin Montgomery , Greg Noonan , Meldoy Rae , Basil Reale , Sam Smiley , Vince Viverito Sr. , John J. Walsh , Charles Keller Watson , Don Harvey , Steven Goldstein

Like the TV series that shared the same title, The Untouchables (1987) was an account of the battle between gangster Al Capone and lawman Eliot Ness, this time in the form of a feature film boasting b... read more read more...ig stars, a big budget, and a script from respected playwright David Mamet. Kevin Costner stars as Ness, a federal agent who has come to Chicago during the Prohibition Era, when corruption in the local police department is rampant. His mission is to put crime lord Capone (Robert De Niro) out of business, but Capone is so powerful and popular that Ness is not taken seriously by the law or the press. One night, discouraged, he meets a veteran patrolman, Jimmy Malone (Sean Connery), and discovers that the acerbic Irishman is the one honest man he's been seeking. Malone has soon helped Ness recruit a gunslinger rookie, George Stone (Andy Garcia), and, joined by nebbish accountant Oscar Wallace (Charles Martin Smith), the men doggedly pursue Capone and his illegal interests. At first a laughingstock, Ness soon has Capone outraged over his and Malone's sometimes law-bending tactics, and the vain mobster strikes back in vicious style. Ultimately, it is the most unexpected and minor of crimes, tax evasion, which proves Capone's undoing. All of the credits for The Untouchables boasted big names, including music from Ennio Morricone and costumes by Giorgio Armani. Director Brian De Palma continued his tradition of including a homage to past masters of the cinema with a taut stairway shoot-out reminiscent of a similar sequence in Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin (1925). ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Flixster Users

87% liked it

189,416 ratings

Critics

81% liked it

42 critics

R, 1 hr. 59 min.

Directed by: Brian DePalma

Release Date: June 2, 1987

Keywords: action, mafia, mob, gangster, crime, cop

Invite friends to see

DVD Release Date: January 16, 2001

Get It:

Stats: 8,918 reviews

report incorrect info

Photos

Sean Connery with Oscar for The Untouchables Sean Connery with Oscar for The Untouchables The Untouchables Sean Connery The Untouchables Jimmy Malone Sean Connery in The Untouchables Al Capone's mugshot Bruce Gordon as Frank Nitti The Untouchables Bruce as Gangster Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti The Untouchables The Untouchables Brian DePalma Barbara Nichols Kevin Costner in The Untouchables Sean Connery in The Untouchables Sean Connery in The Untouchables
Upload a Photo | View All The Untouchables Photos

Your Rating


clear rating

Flixster Reviews (8,918)

  • jmanard52
    May 13, 2008
    jmanard52
    One of the best gangster movies made.
  • TheGame90
    September 18, 2011
    TheGame90
    This was a good movie. Everybody does there thing the way they should. I would probably have give it 4 stars if I had watched it at another time. It just wasn't the right time to see it...

    I saw it again during the right time....hence the 4 stars
  • FilmFanatik
    August 11, 2011
    FilmFanatik
    I am, and have always been, a self-confessed DePalma addict. Never has the man failed to disappoint me. Even his weakest work is like gold to me. Of course, The Untouchables is anything but weak. People like to classify it as a gangster film, but I disagree. This is about the cop... read mores fighting the gangsters and to me that declassifies it. Everything about this film is perfect. The tone, the script, the outcome, the score, the performances - everything is just top notch all the way down the line. In other words, I love this film. Thank you Brian DePalma.
  • fb732260458
    May 12, 2011
    fb732260458
    A skillfully directed Prohibition-era gangster flick, The Untouchables is violent, stylish, and extremely entertaining. Featuring great performances from the entire cast, the film is a very satisfying ride with great attention to detail and an excellent
  • TheDudeLebowski65
    April 8, 2011
    TheDudeLebowski65
    The crime genre is one of my favorite films genres aside from horror and action. I had read things about this film and I was slightly confused, I originally thought it was a tv series or something. But I was wrong. The Untouchables is an entertaining but inaccurate film detailing... read more the investigation and subsequent capture of Al Capone during the Depression era. The filmmakers have obviously taken a few creative liberties to make the film more entertaining. The scene where Elliott Ness murders gangster Frank Nitti never happened, but was put in the film for an even more dramatic effect. This is a good film, and it is interesting to see a film based on Al Capone who is played by Robert De Niro. I thought De Niro, considering his impressive resume in previous crime films could have delivered a slightly better performance. Brian DePalma is a good filmmaker, but he could have strived to make this film more accurate, considering the terrific subject of this picture. I did not hate the film, but I'm just saying that there is room for improvement. The Untouchables is an entertaining film with a good enough cast to make this film watchable. Sean Connery, for me at least was the best actor in the film, De Niro would be second and third would be Costner. De Niro was good as Capone, but thinking that he played in such gangster classics as The Godfather Part II and Once Upon A Time In America, you'd expect something truly terrific on screen. He gives an entertaining performance, but like I've said, he could have been better. The Untouchables is an average gangster film that is purely designed for entertainment, substituting fact for fiction.
  • emilebond007
    March 12, 2011
    emilebond007
    Classic..
  • xXGiNoBiLiPRXx
    December 29, 2010
    xXGiNoBiLiPRXx
    Very good movie! Old school baby, that's how it was done in the days! Love the cast and love the story, great acting!!!

    Prohibition in the United States has led to an organized crime wave in the 1920s and early 1930s. Various gangs bootleg vast amounts of alcohol and control the... read moreir businesses with violence and extortion. The problem is most serious in Chicago, where gang leader Al Capone (Robert De Niro) has almost the whole city (even the Mayor of Chicago) under his control, and supplies poor-quality liquor at high prices. Treasury Department agent Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) is put in charge of leading the crusade against Capone and his empire. Ness's initial strategy is to conduct raids using a large squad of uniformed officers, but his first attempt fails when he breaks into a warehouse storing umbrellas (although it is implied by Capone's reaction to the newspaper headline about Ness' mistake that it was indeed a liquor warehouse, but his men had been tipped off by one or more corrupt officers).

    Embarrassed over the fiasco and seeking ideas for a change of tactics, Ness has a chance encounter with Jimmy Malone (Sean Connery), an incorruptible Irish beat cop who understands the way Capone does business, and decides to ask for his help. Malone urges Ness to become as ruthless as the gangsters he wants to take down: "He pulls 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." With corruption running rampant throughout the Chicago police force, Malone suggests that Ness recruit directly from the police academy in order to find team members who have not yet had a chance to come under Capone's influence. Italian-American trainee George Stone, formerly Giuseppe Petri (Andy García), is enlisted for his superior marksmanship and calm reactions under pressure. Joined by Treasury accountant Oscar Wallace (Charles Martin Smith), detailed to Chicago from Washington, Ness has built an incorruptible team, capable of combating Capone.

    Their first raid takes place in a local post office whose storeroom is used to house Capone's illegal liquor. Malone and most of the police know where the alcohol is, but they leave it alone because no one wants to provoke Capone and his gang. The raid succeeds without incident, though Capone later kills the man who had been in charge of the storeroom with a baseball bat. As the four pick up steam and become noted by the press, Wallace begins to probe the finances of the Capone organization. He believes that a feasible method of prosecution is through a tax evasion charge, if nothing else. At one point, Ness is visited by a Chicago alderman who is also under Capone's control. The alderman tries to bribe Ness into dropping the investigation, but Ness angrily rejects the offer and throws him out in full view of the team. As he leaves, he mockingly refers to them as "untouchable" and says that Capone, who is known as a cop-killer, can get to anyone he chooses, one way or another.

    The alderman's words prove to be true when Capone's chief hit man, Frank Nitti (Billy Drago), makes veiled threats toward Ness and his family outside his house, and drives off before Ness can capture him. Realizing that Capone has targeted him, Ness orders his wife and daughter moved to a safer place; Malone and Stone then bring word of a large whiskey shipment coming in from Canada, and the team flies north to set up a raid at the border.

    During the raid, Ness's team and a squad of Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers intercept the shipment, arresting or killing everyone involved. Malone captures one of Capones bookkeepers, George (Brad Sullivan), and the team tries to persuade him to provide evidence against Capone. George initially refuses to cooperate, even after Malone assaults him. However, he changes his mind once Malone shoots a thug (who was actually already dead) in the mouth to frighten him. Enraged even further, Capone orders his men to hunt down and kill Ness (even Ness' family), knowing that with Ness dead, the Untouchables will be finished. Ness's wife, meanwhile, has just given birth to their second child.

    At the police station, where the Untouchables are being congratulated, Wallace prepares to escort George into protective custody. However, they are both shot and killed by Nitti, disguised as the policeman operating the elevator; when the bodies are found, the word "TOUCHABLE" has been written on the wall in their blood. Ness is left with insufficient evidence to press charges, and the frustration drives him into challenging Capone in public to a physical fight in front of his son and several armed henchmen. Malone intervenes and forces Ness to back down, defusing the confrontation.

    Malone tells Ness to stall the district attorney from dropping the case while he searches for information regarding Walter Payne, another of Capone's bookkeepers. A subpoena is issued for Payne, prompting Capone's men to make plans to get him out of town. After a brutal fistfight with Mike Dorsett, the corrupt police chief who sold out Wallace and George, Malone learns of the intended escape. Returning home and calling Ness to arrange a meeting, Malone is stalked by a knife-wielding thug, but quickly drives him out the back door at gunpoint. The stalker proves to have been bait for an ambush by Nitti, who shoots Malone repeatedly with a tommy gun. He is barely alive when Ness and Stone find him, and he shows Ness which train Payne will be taking before dying in his arms.

    Ness and Stone arrive at Union Station and find Payne guarded by several gangsters. After a fierce shootout (an homage to the famous Odessa Steps scene from The Battleship Potemkin), the two succeed in killing all of the other gangsters and taking Payne alive.

    Payne testifies in court against Capone, admitting his role in channeling money to Capone over the last three years. Ness, however, notices Capone relaxed and even smiling, despite the probability of serving a long prison sentence, and also sees Nitti carrying a gun in court. He takes Nitti out of the courtroom with the bailiff and discovers that Nitti has permission from the corrupt mayor of Chicago to carry the weapon. Ness then identifies Nitti as Malones murderer after finding Malone's address on a matchbook in Nitti's pocket.

    Panicking, Nitti shoots the bailiff and runs up to the roof, exchanging gunfire with Ness all the way. Eventually, Ness gets Nitti in his sights, but cannot bring himself to shoot the man in cold blood. Nitti gives himself up to Ness, stating that Malone died "screaming like a stuck Irish pig" and that Ness should think about that when he, Nitti, is tried and convicted for the murder but set free anyway. Enraged at the thought that Nitti will escape punishment for his crimes, and provoked to revenge, Ness pushes Nitti off the roof. He shouts to the screaming thug, "Did he sound anything like that?" before Nitti dies on impact with a parked car.

    Back inside the courthouse, Stone shows Ness a document from Nittis jacket that shows bribes paid to the jurors, explaining Capone's relaxed mood. The judge has no intention of using it as evidence and is fully prepared to let Capone go free, inadvertently revealing his own corruption or fear of the crime boss. In a last ditch effort, Ness talks the judge into doing the right thing, bluffing him into believing that the judge's name is among those in the bookkeeper's ledger of payoffs. As a result, the judge decides to switch this jury with the one in another courtroom. Before the trial can continue, Capone's lawyer changes the plea of "not guilty" to one of "guilty" without Capone's consent. Capone is sentenced to 11 years in prison. Ness taunts Capone, who pretends not to hear as he is taken into custody.

    As he packs up his office, Ness contemplates the Saint Jude medallion that Malone had carried with him for many years (linked to his call box key), and which Malone had given to him before dying. Ness gives the medallion to Stone, reasoning that since Jude is the patron saint of police officers, Malone would have wanted him to have it. Out on the street, a reporter wishes to have a word from Ness, but Ness modestly downplays his role in the showdown. When the reporter mentions that Prohibition is due to be repealed and asks what Ness might do then, Ness responds, "I think I'll have a drink."
  • flixsterman
    November 25, 2010
    flixsterman
    Stylized and revisionist in its approach but still fun and entertaining.
  • danperry17
    October 12, 2010
    danperry17
    An enjoyable and exciting film with some great scenes (i.e. De Niro's baseball speech, the reference to Battleship Potemkin - Odessa Steps - in the climactic shootout). The film starts as a seemingly realistic gangster film, pushing all the right noir buttons, but as it goes on i... read morets flaws start to weigh on the viewer. Costner, for one, is wooden (as always) and can't seem to commit to his (allegedly) Chicagoan accent. And maybe I'm biased, but the references to Canada were completely clueless: for one, why would the "liquor" cases have red maple leaves on them, 37 years before Canada adopted its maple leaf flag? And for another, in the border scene: Capone's liquor came by plane, boat and train. Were it to come by truck, over a bridge, it would have most likely come through the border in Michigan - with either Sault Ste. Marie, Sarnia or Windsor. Windsor borders Detroit, which would have been booming with the auto industry at the time; Sault Ste. Marie has been miines and industriial land forever, and Sarnia borders Port Huron, a small city that, though it may not have been urbanized yet, certainly did not replace A MOUNTAIN.

    A final complaint is that the once-believable film gets a bit comic booky before the end. I just couldn't buy the character crawling with 10-20 machine gun holes in him, or the awful blue background (on green screen, I think) as the character falls off the building.

    I've said a lot about the problems with this film, but only for one reason: to defend not calling this film as great as many people think it is. Despite the above, I found it entertaining and for the most part an enjoyable visual experience - just lower your expectations, this isn't De Palma's best.
  • theylovealexis
    September 13, 2010
    theylovealexis
    Such a great story, great cast, great (over) acting. The music is weird, but it's the 80's and the dialog is a bit off too. The suits and wardrobe is beautiful.. that's Armani for you. The film is pretty bad ass and teaches you the meaning of "team work", I loved it and I think I... read more have a crush on Kevin Costner now.

View All The Untouchables Reviews

Critic Reviews

Jonathan Rosenbaum
May 21, 2008
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

The results are watchable enough, with a particularly adept use of Sean Connery, Chicago locations, and period details. Full Review

Vincent Canby
May 20, 2003
Vincent Canby, New York Times

It's vulgar, violent, funny and sometimes breathtakingly beautiful. Full Review

James Berardinelli
November 28, 2002
James Berardinelli, ReelViews

An unqualified triumph. Full Review

February 13, 2001
Variety

The Untouchables is a beautifully crafted portrait of Prohibition-era Chicago. Full Review

Hal Hinson
January 1, 2000
Hal Hinson, Washington Post

...only marginally entertaining. Full Review

Roger Ebert
January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

...it does not have a great script, great performances or great direction. Full Review

Desson Thomson
January 1, 2000
Desson Thomson, Washington Post

...an entertaining but incongruous mix of class and pulp. Full Review

May 21, 2008
Film4

A perfectly adequate Hollywood movie, even classy and entertaining at times, but, despite De Palma's brilliant set piece which reworks the Odessa steps sequence from Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, ... Full Review

Jeffrey M. Anderson
May 26, 2006
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid

The film mostly revels in nostalgia and feels numb. Full Review

Chuck O'Leary
February 18, 2006
Chuck O'Leary, FulvueDrive-in.com

De Palma's masterpiece is an exhilarating, moving and larger-than-life cops vs. crooks epic. Connery and De Niro steal the show in charismatic supporting turns. The best film of 1987.

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Cast

More Like This

Click a thumb to vote on that suggestion, or add your own suggestions.

  • Casino
    Casino (89%)
  • Once Upon a Time in America
    Once Upon a Time in America (95%)
  • GoodFellas
    GoodFellas (83%)
  • Saw III
    Saw III (21%)

More Movies like The Untouchables

Facts

Submit a Fact | View All
    • Al Capone: There's was an old saying in my neighborhood that you would get further with a kind word and a gun then you would with a kind word.
    • Jim Malone: Enough of this running shit!
    • Al Capone: [sneering] Get out, you're nothing but a lot of talk and a badge.
    • Reporter: They say they're going to repeal Prohibition. What will you do then?
    • Catherine Ness: I think I'll have a drink.
    • Al Capone: I want him dead!
  • The scene in the stairs with the baby car is a tribute to a scene with these elements in Battleship Potemkin (1925), by Sergei Eisenstein
Submit a Fact | View All

The Untouchables : Watch Free on TV

The Untouchables Trivia

  • Which Actor won the 1987 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor?  Answer »
  • What Brian De Palma film tells the story of Elliot Ness and his group of crime fighters?  Answer »
  • 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.  Answer »
  • In which gangster Robert DeNiro film does his character exclaim, "I want this Elliot Ness guy dead. I want his family dead. I want his house burned to the ground!"  Answer »
More The Untouchables Trivia

Movie Quizzes

Create a Quiz |

All Quizzes

Video Clips

Upload a Video |

All The Untouchables Videos

Meet Other Fans

Add The Untouchables to favorites

Recent News

No recent headlines. Got one?

Recent Lists

Make a List |

View All Lists

Most Popular Skin

kpn666 Skin by kpn666
244 Profiles
Add to Profile

More Skins