In New York City in 1975, after serving only five years of a 30-year prison sentence, Carlito Brigante is freed on a legal technicality exploited by his lawyer, Dave Kleinfeld, infuriating the district attorney. Brigante returns to his old neighborhood of Spanish Harlem, where he reconnects with old associates. Although he vows that he is finished with crime, Brigante is persuaded to accompany his cousin Guajiro to a drug deal at a bar. Guajiro is betrayed and killed while Brigante is forced to shoot his way out. He takes Guajiro's money and uses it to buy into a nightclub, with the intent of saving $75,000 to retire to the Caribbean.
The film opens at a convenience store early in the morning. Juan, a con artist, successfully scams the cashier, but later messes up by attempting the same scam again on the next shift. Marcos, who has been observing the whole time, steps in pretending to be a police officer and takes Juan away. As soon as they are far enough from the shop, Marcos tells Juan he is not actually a cop but a fellow con man. Juan asks Marcos to show him the ropes, because his father, also a con man, is in jail and he needs to raise money quickly to bribe a judge to reduce his father's sentence from 10 years to 6 months.
Three men meet in a foxhole during the waning days of World War I: Eddie Bartlett (James Cagney), George Hally (Humphrey Bogart) and Lloyd Hart (Jeffrey Lynn), and experience trials and tribulations from the Armistice through the passage of the 18th Amendment leading to the Prohibition period of the 1920s and the violence which erupted due to it, all the way through the 1929 stock market crash to its conclusion at the end of 1933, only days after the 21st Amendment brought an end to the Prohibition era.
In 1960, Lorenzo Anello (Robert De Niro) is raising a family: he lives in the New York City Italian American neighborhood borough of The Bronx with his wife Rosina (Katherine Narducci), and his young son Calogero (Francis Capra), who takes a fascination with the local mobsters led by Sonny LoSpecchio (Chazz Palminteri). One day Calogero witnesses a murder committed by Sonny in defense of an assaulted friend in his neighborhood. When Calogero chooses to keep quiet when questioned by NYPD detectives, Sonny takes a liking to him and gives him the nickname "C". Sonny's men offer Lorenzo a better paying job. Lorenzo, preferring a law-abiding life as an MTA bus driver, politely declines. Sonny, however, befriends Calogero and introduces him to his crew. Calogero earns tips amounting to $600 working in the Mafia bar and throwing dice, and is admonished harshly by Lorenzo when he discovers it. Lorenzo speaks severely to Sonny, returns the money, and angrily warns him to keep away from Calogero.
During Prohibition in 1930s, Al Capone (De Niro) has nearly the whole city of Chicago under his control and supplies illegal liquor. Bureau of Prohibition agent Eliot Ness (Costner) is assigned to stop Capone, but his first attempt at a liquor raid fails due to corrupt policemen tipping Capone off. He has a chance meeting with Irish-American veteran officer Jimmy Malone (Connery), who is fed up with the rampant corruption and offers to help Ness, suggesting that they find a man from the police academy who has not come under Capone's influence. They recruit Italian-American trainee George Stone (Andy García) for his superior marksmanship and intelligence. Joined by accountant Oscar Wallace (Charles Martin Smith), assigned to Ness from Washington, D.C., they conduct a successful raid on a Capone liquor cache and start to gain positive publicity, with the press dubbing them "The Untouchables." Capone later kills the henchman in charge of the cache as a warning to his other men.
Un baron de la drogue britannique (Matthew McConaughey) désire se retirer. Il souhaite revendre son « affaire » à des millionnaires américains originaires d'Oklahoma.
In 1968, Frank Lucas, the limo driver-turned-right-hand man of Harlem gangster Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, inherits Johnson's gang when Johnson dies of a heart attack. Disliking the new, flashy gangsters of the neighborhood, Lucas decides to take control of Harlem's crime scene.
Depuis sa maison de retraite, Frank Sheeran se remémore sa vie. Vétéran de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, « The Irishman » officie à Philadelphie comme chauffeur de camion dans les années 1950. Accusé de vol, il est défendu par l'avocat Bill Bufalino. Ce dernier lui présente son cousin, Russell Bufalino. Frank se lie rapidement avec Russell et se rapproche peu à peu de la mafia italienne locale. Il devient un homme à tout faire et un tueur à gages efficace. Russell lui présente alors l'un des hommes les plus puissants des États-Unis, Jimmy Hoffa, président du puissant syndicat International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Malik El Djebena, a 19-year-old French youth of Algerian descent, is sentenced to six years in prison for attacking police officers. Alone and illiterate upon his arrival, he falls under the sway of Corsican mobsters, led by Cesar Luciani, who enforces a brutal rule.
The story revolves around two brothers, Kishen (Jackie Shroff) and Karan (Anil Kapoor), who have spent their childhood growing up alone on the streets of Mumbai. In order for Karan to have a better upbringing and education, Kishen joins Anna Seth (Nana Patekar). Anna owns an oil factory, but that's a mere prop to cover up his dealings within the underworld. Karan is unaware of the fact that his brother is working for a gang. Inspector Prakash (Anupam Kher), Karan's best friend, is aware of Anna's gang activities and wants to bring him to justice. Anna knows that Karan and Prakash are best friends, so he sets up the murder of Prakash when Prakash and Karan are supposed to meet after Karan's arrival from America. Karan witnesses the murder of his friend Prakash, who dies in his arms.
Fernand Naudin (Lino Ventura) is an ex-gangster, who now deals in agricultural machinery and lives in Montauban. His modest, quiet life is disrupted when his childhood friend, nicknamed "The Mexican", who has become the Boss of a gangster organisation, summons him to his death bed. He has to take care of his friend's "business" and of his daughter, Patricia, who only thinks about having fun and has never been kept in a college for more than six months. Mister Folace (Francis Blanche) watches after "The Mexican"'s camp followers with a benevolent neutrality, as he don't feel really concerned by the upcoming quarrel about the succession, like Jean (Robert Dalban), butler and former housebreaker.
Tom Reagan is the advisor and right hand man for Leo O'Bannon (Albert Finney), an Irish American mob boss who runs an unspecified eastern city during Prohibition. When Leo's Italian rival Johnny Caspar (John Polito) announces his intent to kill bookie Bernie Bernbaum (John Turturro), Leo goes against Tom's advice and extends his protection to Bernie. Bernie is the brother of Verna Bernbaum (Marcia Gay Harden), who has begun a relationship with Leo while carrying on an affair with Tom.
Michael Sullivan Sr. (Hanks) is an enforcer for Irish mob boss John Rooney (Newman) in Rock Island, Illinois during the Great Depression. Rooney raised the orphan Sullivan and loves him more than his own biological son, the unstable Connor (Craig). Connor snaps and kills disgruntled associate Finn McGovern when meeting him with Sullivan, resulting in Sullivan gunning down McGovern's men. Sullivan's twelve-year-old son Michael Sullivan, Jr had hidden in his father's car and witnesses the event. Despite Sullivan swearing his son to secrecy and Rooney pressuring Connor to apologize for the reckless action, Connor murders Sullivan's wife Annie and younger son Peter, mistaking him for Sullivan, Jr. He then sends Sullivan to an ambush at a speakeasy but Sullivan realizes and escapes to Chicago with his son to seek Al Capone, for work and to discover the location of Connor, who has gone into hiding.
In 1920s Chicago, Italian immigrant Antonio "Tony" Camonte (Paul Muni) acts on the orders of Italian mafioso John "Johnny" Lovo (Osgood Perkins) and kills "Big" Louis Costillo (Harry J. Vejar), the leading crime boss of the city's South Side. Johnny then takes control of the South Side with Tony as his key lieutenant, selling large amounts of illegal beer to speakeasies and muscling in on bars run by rival outfits. However, Johnny repeatedly warns Tony not to mess with the Irish gangs led by O'Hara who runs the North Side. Tony soon starts ignoring these orders, shooting up bars belonging to O'Hara, and attracting the attention of the police and rival gangsters. Johnny realizes that Tony is out of control and has ambitions to take his position.
The entire film takes place over the course of three days.
Max, a decent and principled gangster, has dinner at Madame Bouche's restaurant, a hangout for criminals, with his longtime associate Riton, their burlesque-dancer girlfriends, and his protege Marco. A newspaper is seen to mention eight bars of stolen gold. The group goes to Pierrot's nightclub, where the girls perform. Max gets Marco a job as a drug dealer working for Pierrot. After the show, Max finds Riton's girlfriend Josy making out with Angelo, another gangster.