Tony Montana

Antonio "Tony" Montana is a fictional character and the villain protagonist of the 1983 film Scarface. This character is portrayed by Al Pacino in the film and is voiced by André Sogliuzzo in the 2006 video game Scarface: The World Is Yours. Embodying the possibility of a person rising from the bottom of society to the top, Tony Montana has become a cultural icon, as well as one of the most iconic film characters of all time.

In 2008, Montana was named the 27th Greatest Movie Character by Empire magazine. The character is partly based on Tony Camonte, the protagonist of the 1932 film; Camonte was, in turn, an adaptation of Tony Guarino from the 1929 novel, which in turn was a loose fictionalization of real-life Italian-American gangster Al Capone, who was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1899. In contrast to Guarino and Camonte, who were Italian immigrants, Montana is a Cuban immigrant. According to Oliver Stone, Tony's last name was inspired by then-NFL quarterback Joe Montana, Stone's favorite player. A prequel novel, Scarface: The Beginning, written by L. A. Banks, was published in 2006. Montana has a large scar on his face, which explains why he is known as Scarface. This is the same type of scar that Al Capone received from a bar fight in 1917 at the Harvard Inn.

Pacino insisted on taking the lead role in Scarface. Pacino worked with various trainers for the role, including experts in knife combat and boxer Roberto Durán. Durán also helped inspire the character, who had "a certain lion in him", according to Pacino. Meryl Streep's immigrant character in Sophie's Choice (1982) also influenced Pacino's portrayal of Tony Montana. His co-star Steven Bauer, and a dialect coach, helped him learn aspects of the Cuban dialect and pronunciation.

Before the events of the film, Tony grew up in a poor Havana neighborhood of Spanish immigrants, his maternal grandparents having been Isleños, while his father's side of the family were of Italian descent. He obtained his signature scar fighting a Cuban army officer, whom he killed with a shotgun when he was 13. After being arrested as a young man, Tony joined the Cuban army and served in Angola, where he went AWOL and boarded a cargo ship to France. There, he was arrested for shoplifting and deported back to Cuba in the late 1970s, where he was imprisoned.

In May 1980, Tony is among the 125,000 Cubans on the Mariel boatlift to Miami. When he arrives, he is questioned by U.S. officials and says that he is a "political prisoner". Tony claims that because he has an American father, he has the right to a green card. However, his request is denied because of a trident-style tattoo on his right hand, which indicates that he was an assassin in prison.

Tony and his friend Manolo "Manny" Ribera are sent to "Freedom town", a refugee camp that holds Cuban immigrants without green cards. After one month in the camp, Frank Lopez, head of a Miami drug cartel, offers to obtain green cards in return for murdering Emilio Rebenga, a one-time Cuban official who had tortured people to death (Lopez's brother among them), only to have Castro turn on him. Soon after Rebenga arrives at the camp, a riot breaks out in Freedom town on August 11, 1980. Manny and Angel Fernandez take advantage of the bedlam to stalk Rebenga, who leaves his tent. Tony is waiting outside and stabs Rebenga in the stomach, killing him. Tony and Manny are reconsidered and granted green cards, later being released. The two get jobs as dishwashers for a small food stand in Little Havana. Sometime later, Frank sends his right-hand man, Omar Suarez, to offer them a job that pays $500 each for a few hours of work unloading smuggled marijuana from a boat. While Manny is impressed with the offer, Tony is enraged about being offered less than the minimal pay for such a job, and he and Omar quarrel. On the advice of his companion, Omar then offers Tony and Manny $5,000 to buy cocaine from a new supplier, which is riskier than the marijuana deal, as it requires dealing with Colombians who are notorious for being violent and dishonest.

A few days later, Tony and Manny, and their associates Angel and Chi Chi, drive to a hotel in Miami Beach to make a deal with the group of Colombians. The deal goes badly. A couple of Colombian enforcers handcuff Tony and Angel to a shower pole at gunpoint, threatening to kill them with a chainsaw if Tony doesn't reveal the location of the drug money. Tony refuses to talk, causing Hector, the enforcers' leader, to dismember Angel. Before Hector can do the same to Tony, Manny bursts into the room, shooting a machine pistol. A short gunfight ensues, in which Manny is shot in the arm, and Tony kills the Colombians. Tony, Manny, and Chi Chi escape with the cocaine and the money. Tony, who no longer trusts Omar, takes it to Frank personally. Frank is impressed by this act and offers Tony and Manny the opportunity to work for him. During this time, Tony becomes interested in Frank's girlfriend, Elvira Hancock.

Three months later, Tony pays a visit to his mother, Georgina, and younger sister, Gina, neither of whom has seen him for five years. Gina is excited to see Tony, but his mother is ashamed of him, having been aware of his life of crime. When he gives his mother $1,000, she angrily rejects the gift and makes him leave her house. Tony leaves, but Gina runs after him and hugs him, telling him that she has been going to hairdressing school and helping out Mama. Tony says a poor girl like Gina deserves a little fun. He secretly slips her the $1,000 and orders her not to tell Mama about it, only that Mama gets a little bit of it occasionally, through using some of it for grocery shopping or paying a utility bill. Manny, who had been waiting for Tony in the car, is taken with Gina, only for Tony to tell Manny to stay away from her.