Goodfellas Scene 20 Summary

Noodles & Ketchup

  • Henry and Karen sit in an office discussing their Witness Protection Program options with an official. Henry doesn't want to go someplace cold. The official doesn't care.
  • Cut to Jimmy being arrested.
  • Karen doesn't want to leave her parents. The official points out that, if she doesn't go and Henry is hiding out, the family will go after her. And their kids. Duh, Karen.
  • Cut to Paulie being arrested.
  • The official levels with Karen. It looks like she's going to change her mind.
  • Cut to Henry on the stand in court. He rats on Jimmy. He rats on Paulie.
  • Through voice-over, Henry explains that the hardest thing for him about the whole mess is leaving the gangster life—and all of the power and perks that it entails.
  • Mid-speech, Henry breaks the fourth wall, gets off the stand, and starts addressing the audience directly, still waxing nostalgic for his extravagant, exciting life in the mob.
  • As the voice-over continues, we see a suburban neighborhood. Henry tells us that today, everything is different. He's a nobody. He can't even get a decent plate of spaghetti.
  • Then, we spot Henry coming out of the front door of one of the suburban houses. He's in a baby-blue bathrobe. He stoops to pick up the newspaper, then smiles at the camera.
  • Cut to Tommy firing several shots straight into the camera.
  • This shot may seem out of place, but it's actually an homage to The Great Train Robbery, which ends with a similar scene.
  • We cut back to Henry. He strolls back into the house as Sid Vicious's punk-rock version of "My Way" plays.
  • On-screen text tells us that the real Henry Hill is still in the Witness Protection Program. He was busted in Seattle in 1987 on narcotics conspiracy charges and got five years' probation. He's been clean since.
  • What else? In 1989, Henry and Karen broke up. Paulie died in jail in 1988 at age 73. Jimmy is serving 20-to-life; he won't be eligible for parole until 2004, when he's 78.
  • And that's it.
  • Roll the credits, wiseguy.