MovieChat Forums > Donnie Brasco (1997) Discussion > Was Lefty going to kill Donnie before th...

Was Lefty going to kill Donnie before the FBI showed up at the end?

posted 9 years ago by Matthew7819
4 replies | jump to latest

When Lefty took Donnie to do the hit on Bruno Red near the end of the movie, he says that Donnie has to do it and has a gun in his hand as his is pushing Donnie to shoot Bruno, this is when the power to Bruno's boat has been turned off, then suddenly the FBI showed up out of nowhere and escorted Donnie away and arrested Lefty.

Later on Lefty might have realized that Donnie was an agent because he was not handcuffed and walked off with the agents, but it appeared that Lefty might have been about to whack Donnie unless Donnie went through with his request to kill Bruno.

How bad would it have been if the FBI had showed up a few minutes later and Lefty got pissed off at Donnie and whacked him after it was obvious that Donnie wouldnt kill Bruno before the FBI could get there to intervene?

And what would happen to Donnie if he had agreed to kill Bruno because he liked Lefty and Bruno was trying to kill Lefty and his faction during the mafia war?

[–] micirisi 9 years ago

My take was that Lefty had no intentions of killing Donnie in that scene but more-so testing Donnie. Lefty had already made known his awareness of the FBI yacht. Now it was Donnie's turn to perform. As far as what would have happened if? Who knows?

He killed sixteen Czechoslovakians. Guy was an interior decorator.

[–] Justice5 9 years ago

I agree with you. It did appear that Lefty would have used Donnie to assist with the hit and then kill him as they did with Nicky on the hit with Sonny Red. Lefty appeared upset with Donnie; convinced that he was a rat.

[–] notspecial 9 years ago

That's not how it happened in real life. They were never there. Donnie was already in safety and Sonny Black knew about the FBI yacht but believed a story that Donnie made up. Donnie had been told he was going to have to kill someone and the plans at first were going to be that the FBI were going to arrest the guy and fake pictures. But a civil war was going on and Sonny gave Donny a gun to protect himself b/c Sonny had killed his boss. Even though Donnie was going to become a made man the FBI decided the risk was too great and ended the case. The entire crew was in danger. Also Lefty was arrested at the end by the FBI before he was killed. Sonny Black was killed and his hands were chopped off 17 days after Donnie was pulled out. He did have a chance to turn himself in but refused knowing he would be killed.
The ending was all Hollywood. The were never there and Donnie never ended his undercover operation like that. He just went in, was put into protection and then the FBI informed everyone. Donnie was in constant contact with the FBI. There's a lot of the true story versions out there. The show Mafia's Greatest Hits just aired on AHC with a brand new episode titled "Donnie Brasco". There's plenty of documentaries that give the true story. Hope that helps. I just got through watching the one I mentioned just now.

[–] NotForMeThanks 9 years ago

I don't think he would have killed him. He said "don't tense up, some guys tense up" or something along those lines. So he already knew that Donnie killing someone for the first time would be hard for him.

He seemed more there for moral support and to actually watch Donnie's back in case something went wrong.

At first they tried to make it seem like Lefty was planning to kill Donnie when walking behind him but after Lefty walked in front of him, everythung points to Lefty being there to help Donnie go through with the hit.

He really wanted Donnie to be made, yes in part because he vouched for him but also because he really did care about him.

Even at the end, he says if it was going to be anyone that brought his demise, hes glad it was Donnie. That shows that he still cared for the guy despite everything.

So it is possible a guy with 26 hits under his belt would still kill him? Sure. But the movie implies that the direction is leaning towards him not killing him.