"It's no laughing matter." Aspiring comic Rupert Pupkin wants to achieve success in showbiz, by resorting to stalking his idol, a late night talk show host who craves his own privacy.

"No one stays at the top forever." Greed, deception, money, power, and murder occur between two mobster best friends and a trophy wife over a gambling empire.

"As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a gangster." -- Henry Hill, Brooklyn, N.Y. 1955. Henry Hill and his friends work their way up through the mob hierarchy.

An emotionally self-destructive boxer's journey through life, as the violence and temper that leads him to the top in the ring, destroys his life outside it.

"On every street in every city, there's a nobody who dreams of being a somebody." A mentally unstable Vietnam war veteran works as nighttime taxi driver in a city whose perceived decadence and sleaze feeds his urge to violently lash out.