Spielberg shot only one scene in this film, and it left its mark on an entire generation of viewers.

“He’s going to spit on my old sister”! Those who discovered Scarface in theaters in French or on VHS will all remember this line, one of the last spoken by Tony Montana in Brian De Palma’s film. But did you know that a scene from the cult film about a Cuban gangster was filmed by Steven Spielberg?

dream plan

Brian De Palma and Steven Spielberg have always been friends, each working at different major Hollywood studios in the 1970s and early 1980s, and each visiting the other’s sets. And on Scarface, while not exactly the ET director type, De Palma let Spielberg take a second shot of the assailants climbing the stairs at Tony Montana’s villa at the end of the film:

Obviously, the climb doesn’t go smoothly, and many lives are lost, especially when the landing is underway, where Montana, armed with a Colt AR-15 equipped with a grenade launcher, played by a brutal Al Pacino, blasts open the door the attackers are stationed in front of, then mercilessly machine-guns several survivor.

De Palma and Spielberg, a friendship made in a gay sauna

as told Vanity FairSpielberg met De Palma when he wanted to adapt the novel Cruising By Gerard Walker. He was planning to scout a gay sauna with a producer when he met Margot Kidder, De Palma’s partner at the time, who introduced the two men. Then a small group went to the sauna to spend the evening.

Spielberg eventually left Cruising to make Sugarland Express, his first film, and Cruising was remade a few years later with William Friedkin directing.