A car full of gangsters is being chased by a police car in modernish - ish New York. The gangster car goes into the river and sinks to the bottom.
The camera then moves from the car, along the river bed, and each car it passes, it gets older and older, until the camera comes back out of the water to reveal the old New York.
Some say that this was inspired by a tale of Harry Grey's concerning how he had once eluded the mob by driving his car into the Hudson river and pretending to kill himself. The camera could follow the driver of the car as he plummets underwater and dwell upon the wrecks lining the river bottom, modern sports cars and a slow dissolve to antique cars.
According to Frayling, initially whenever Leone was discussing the project to prospective backers, he would begin with this scene. Two men have dragged a heavy corpse to the edge of a wharf at night. The feet of the corpse are set in concrete - he is the victim of a gangland execution. The camera follows the corpse as it sinks to the bottom of the river. There we see other corpses: men chained to cars; women still wearing jewels. Then the camera travels through a sewer to another underwater cemetery - this time with more impoverished-looking corpses: one tied to a cart; another in rags. Clearly the bottom of the river has neighborhoods just like New York. Finally the camera rises to the surface again and reveals the Statue Of Liberty, reflected in the moonlight. Title: Once Upon A Time in America.
An adapted version of this scene was used in the opening of Frankenheimer's 99 and 44/100% Dead (1974) and the idea was dropped.
