“You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. *That’s* the *Chicago* way! And that’s how you get Capone. Now do you want to do that? Are you ready to do that? I’m offering you a deal. Do you want this deal?”

– Sean Connery as “Malone” in “The Untouchables”

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – The Skinny couldn’t help but think about “The Untouchables” and Sean Connery’s memorable “Chicago way” line when word broke Thursday about just what Lenovo is doing to its Motorola work force in Chicago.

Not a literal massacre, of course.

But 25 percent job cuts?

That’s a gun doing the cutting, not a knife.

500 people being sent into exile.

Not the morgue, but jobs aren’t easy to find.

A reorganization of Lenovo’s smartphone operations in June included the ousting of its top mobile executive. On Thursday, Lenovo went much further:Motorola will take over as the lead on smartphone development but at the same time its Chicago headquarters work force is being gutted. Lenovo is making other cuts, too, but those include 7 percent in the Triangle and 10 percent overall across corporate white collar jobs.

So why so many cuts in Chicago?

Just a year ago, Motorola moved into the posh Merchandise Mart, leasing a huge amount of space (600,000 square feet). Now …

Chair and CEO Yang Yuanqing declared to analysts in an earnings conference call when the more than 3,000 layoffs were announced that Lenovo had to get costs in line.

“[W]e think the Motorola cost structure is way too high. So when the business is not growing, so it becomes even more [work].,” Yang said. “So if we don’t take action, so we will meet our commitment to turn round this business in four to three — six quarters after the acquisition.”

People don’t work cheaply in Chicago. All job cuts are “white collar.”

And that real estate is no doubt pricey as well.

So to get costs down, Motorola is paying the price.

But it’s even worse elsewhere within the Motorola ranks, a spokesperson told Crain’s Chicago Business.

“We will maintain a substantial employee base there, as well as our labs and design facilities,” spokesman Will Moss said.

But what’s substantial?

Purchased just last year for nearly $3 billion by Lenovo, Motorola Mobility had some 3,500 employees. The group finished the year strongly, reporting improving sales.

Then came a collapse, which triggered the leadership changes in June.

Lenovo acknowledged that Motorola was responsible for a $291 million quarterly loss with phone shipments plunging 31 percent.

New phones were introduced in July. But the wheels were already in motion for the big layoffs.

Where else within Motorola will big hits take place? Who knows outside of Lenovo, but there apparently are bigger blows.

“Chicago is not as badly impacted as some of our other sites,” Moss told Crane’s.

Egad.