Foil

Character Role Analysis

Tommy DeVito and Henry Hill

If Henry is the moral center of the movie, Tommy is the debauched ball of rage orbiting it, just waiting to explode. Don't get us wrong: they're both crooks. But while Henry is regularly shocked by the mob's violence, Tommy celebrates it. He doesn't think twice about shooting off his mouth or his gun.

They're also polar opposites when it comes to observing, and understanding, the mob's grisly code of conduct. When Henry realizes his fate—that he'll never come back from Florida alive thanks to his little sojourn into drugs—he knows what he has to do: get the heck out of there. Tommy, on the other hand, has zero qualms about breaking one of the mob's biggest rules—don't whack a made man—and never sees revenge coming.

Ultimately, these two pals present contrasting approaches to being a gangster. One weighs his decisions and their consequences. The other is a devil-may-care hothead. One ends up in an ugly blue bathrobe. The other ends up in a pine box.