Pacinoplays Carlito Brigante, a Nuyorican criminal who vows to go straight and to retire in paradise. However, his criminal past proves difficult to escape, and he unwittingly ends up being dragged into the same activities that got him imprisoned in the first place. The film is based mainly on After Hours, but used the title of the first novel to avoid it being confused with Martin Scorsese's 1985 film of the same name. This is the second film collaboration between Pacino and De Palma, after Scarface (1983).Pacinoplays Carlito Brigante, a Nuyorican criminal who vows to go straight and to retire in paradise. However, his criminal past proves difficult to escape, and he unwittingly ends up being dragged into the same activities that got him imprisoned in the first place. The film is based mainly on After Hours, but used the title of the first novel to avoid it being confused with Martin Scorsese's 1985 film of the same name. This is the second film collaboration between Pacino and De Palma, after Scarface (1983).
In 1975 New York, after having served five years of a thirty-year prison sentence, career criminal Carlito Brigante is freed on a legal technicality exploited by his close friend and lawyer, Dave Kleinfeld. Carlito vows to end his unlawful activities but is persuaded to accompany his young cousin Guajiro to a drug deal at an illegal speakeasy. Guajiro's suppliers betray and kill him, forcing Carlito to shoot his way out. Later, Carlito takes Guajiro's $30,000 from the botched deal and uses it to buy a stake in a nightclub owned by a gambling addict named Saso, intending to save $75,000 to retire to the Caribbean.
Carlito declines several offers for a business partnership with a hot-headed young gangster from the Bronx named Benny Blanco. Carlito also rekindles his romance with his former girlfriend Gail, a ballet dancer moonlighting as a stripper. Dave develops a love interest with Benny's girlfriend, Steffie, a waitress at the club. Benny's frustration with Carlito's rejections boils over and he confronts Carlito at his table. Carlito publicly humiliates Benny, who reacts by manhandling Steffie. Fueled by his now-extensive use of alcohol and cocaine, Dave brazenly pulls out a gun and threatens to kill Benny, but Carlito intervenes. Despite being personally threatened by Benny himself, Carlito lets him go unharmed, a decision that alienates him from his friend and bodyguard Pachanga.
Dave, who stole $1 million in payoff money from his client, Mafia boss Anthony "Tony T" Taglialucci, is coerced into providing his yacht to help Taglialucci break out of the Rikers Island prison barge. Dave begs for Carlito's assistance in the prison break, and Carlito reluctantly agrees. That