Goodfellas has its fair dose of foreshadowing, and it subtly teased the death of Frankie Carbone in the first half of the movie – here’s how and when. Martin Scorsese has become one of the most respected and beloved filmmakers in the industry, and while he has explored a variety of genres over the years, he’s still best known for his gangster movies – and the one still considered as his best from this genre is Goodfellas.
Based on the book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, Goodfellas tells the story of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), from his days as a teenager running errands for Paul Cicero (Paul Sorvino) and his crew to his full involvement with the Lucchese crime family and his decision to become an FBI informant. During his time working for the mob, Henry met many important gangsters, such as Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) and Jimmy “The Gent” Conway (Robert De Niro). Many others were only briefly seen or mentioned, and some of them, while only on-screen for a couple of minutes, left an impression due to what happened to them, as is the case of Frankie Carbone.
Among the many crimes depicted in Goodfellas is the infamous Lufthansa Heist, planned by Jimmy along with many others, and as Henry wasn’t involved in it, the audience got to see everything through his perspective. In order to avoid getting caught, Jimmy was very careful and gave strict orders to the crew, which they didn’t follow. One of those orders was to not buy anything expensive right away as it could draw the attention of the police, but many didn’t listen to Jimmy, as was the case of Frankie Carbone (Frank Sivero), who bought a fur coat for his wife. Jimmy took extreme measures after that and got rid of anyone who could put them at risk of getting caught, and Frankie’s body was found in a meat truck, frozen.
This was foreshadowed earlier in Goodfellas in a scene where Frankie Carbone wasn’t even involved, and it’s easy to miss as it happens fast. When Henry arrives at the restaurant where the crew and more used to hang out, he comes across Sonny, the owner of the place, who tells him about some fur coats as he doesn’t know what to do with them. Sonny then tells Henry that he wants the coats, so they’ll “hang them in the freezer with the meat”, and the scene continues its course. The connection between the scene with Sonny and the one where Frankie’s body is discovered is very easy to miss during the first view but is yet another example of the clever and subtle foreshadowing found throughout Goodfellas.
Once you’ve rewatched Goodfellas a couple of times, it does seem strange that the fur coats at the restaurant are shown and Sonny casually comments on them, and while all the murders that happened as a consequence of the heist were brutal, there’s something especially disturbing in how Frankie Carbone’s body was found, frozen, in a meat truck, like Sonny wanted to do with the coats.