To get a 16 rating in West Germany, most of the violence and profanity were toned down.

ABC edited 32 minutes from this film for its 1987 network television premiere.

When originally released in theaters the film featured an intermission which is absent from subsequent home video and theatrical releases.

Network TV version deletes or edits all violent scenes for censorship reasons and adds some extra footage:

• the introduction text about Cubans fleeing from Mariel is slightly different from the text shown in the theatrical version (a disclaimer stating that the events are fictitious has been added);
• extended Freedom Town scene: Tony in a phone booth trying to call his sister Gina; Angel looking in a phone book for his brother Pablo by dialing every Fernandez name and getting hung up on; extended conversation between Tony, Manny and Angel about getting out of Freedom Town; Tony and Manny watching television in their tent.
• Tony's first visit to his mother's house is longer. Tony opens a bottle of champagne and makes a toast to America.
• before Tony's first visit to Sosa, the onscreen text has been changed from "Cochabamba, Bolivia" to "South America";
• during that visit, Tony is introduced to Sosa's wife Gabriela who is riding on horseback;
• Tony's first meeting with his lawyer George;
• when Alberto is planting the bomb under the car in New York, Tony sees a police car nearby and distracts the cops by pretending to be looking for his missing dog.

Much of the chainsaw murder and the shootout at the end of the movie was cut in Norway before its cinema release; later video versions are uncut.

The BBFC requested cuts (totalling 25 seconds) to the chainsaw killing before passing the film with an 18 certificate. All cuts were waived in 1994.

In 2003, the film was given a limited 20th anniversary theatrical re-release. Footage wise, the only difference was that the re-release replaced the original "Van Allen belts" Universal logo with the newer 3D logo. The audio however, was significantly different from the original 1983 mix. Most of the incidental music was remixed, and all of the film's gunshot sounds were replaced with newer ones. The audio in the film's final sequence in Tony Montana's mansion was completely revamped, deleting some sound effects that were previously incorrectly placed. In addition, Tony's dialogue during the gunfight was easier to hear, and some of the henchmen had alternate groans dubbed in. The 20th anniversary DVD, released shortly after, only has a Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS track of the original mix, but the 2006 Platinum Edition DVD re-release and the Blu-ray edition included the audio remix in both DD 5.1 and DTS formats. Though the original mix is also available on the Blu-ray release.