Complete listed story — includes the ending
The Godfather
In the mid-1940s, Michael Corleone is a World War II veteran and the youngest son of Don Vito Corleone. Vito is head of the Corleone mafia family and runs it with his eldest son Santino a.k.a. Sonny and adopted son Tom Hagen, a lawyer who is the family's consigliere. At his sister Connie's wedding to Carlo Rizzi, Michael introduces his family to his girlfriend, Kay Adams. Michael tells Kay stories of his family but makes it clear that he wants no part in his family's business.
Vito fulfils the Sicilian tradition of granting favors on his daughter's wedding day to a succession of hopeful visitors. One is his godson, singer and actor Johnny Fontane, who cannot get an upcoming film role because studio owner and producer Jack Woltz has a grudge against Fontane. Vito sends Hagen to LA to persuade Woltz to relent but Woltz will not budge. Hagen departs and the next morning, Woltz wakes to find the severed head of his prized $600,000 racehorse Khartoum in his bed with him. A terrified Woltz relents and Fontane gets the role.
Approaching Christmas, Michael becomes embroiled in family affairs when Vito is gunned down by two assailants. Vito had earlier refused to offer protection to drug baron Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo for dealing narcotics in the city. Sollozzo has the support of the Tattaglia family, who garrote notorious Corleone enforcer Luca Brasi when he attempts to become a mole in Sollozzo's operation. While Vito survives the attempt and recovers at the hospital, hot-tempered Sonny takes over the family as acting boss. He has Michael live at the house for his protection, as his successful revenge hit on Tattaglia's son Bruno has led to war between the two gangs. Michael visits his father in hospital to be told that NYPD Captain McCluskey has had Vito's bodyguards ejected from the hospital, clearing the way for a second attempt on Vito's life. Michael visits his father and, realizing his jeopardy, moves him to another hospital room then stands guard outside the hospital. He scares Sollozzo's assassins off but an angry McCluskey returns and breaks Michael's jaw for defying him. Soon after, Hagen arrives with more bodyguards and McCluskey backs down to the lawyer's demands. Being an outsider to the family business and seen as harmless, Michael later proposes a meeting between himself, Sollozzo and McCluskey at which he'll kill them both to keep his father safe. Initially amused, the family approve his plan and have a gun planted at the meeting place: a restaurant. At the meeting, Michael shoots both men dead then flees the country. He takes refuge in his family's native Sicily to escape the NYPD and the ire of the other gangs until the heat dies down. He falls in love with a local woman, Apollonia Vitelli, and marries her.
Back in New York, war has broken out between the Five Families. Sonny discovers that Connie was being abused by Carlo. At first, Sonny pummels Carlo in public and warns him never to touch Connie again. However, after a fierce beating from Carlo, Connie appeals to her family. A furious Sonny sets off for her house but is ambushed and murdered at a highway toll booth. The recovering Vito is told of Sonny's death and orders an end to hostilities with no vengeance. He calls a meeting with the heads of the other New York families and negotiates peace between them all, conceding to a controlled drug trade in return for an end to all vendettas and for Michael's safe return to the US. Meanwhile, Michael survives a hit in Sicily, which instead kills Apollonia via car bombing. He returns to the US, slowly taking over the family business from his father. He marries Kay and promises to legitimize the family's operations within five years.
Michael visits Las Vegas to negotiate a deal with Jewish mobster and casino mogul Moe Greene, under whose protection Fredo has been living. Michael offers to buy out Greene's stake in the family casinos, but Greene refuses and flaunts his support from Barzini. After Moe leaves, Michael reprimands Fredo for defending Greene and warns him never to side against the Family ever again.
After the peace meeting, Vito realizes that Barzini is the mastermind behind Sonny's death, not Tattaglia. He predicts to Michael that a Corleone traitor will reveal himself by offering to broker a meeting between Michael and the Barzinis but will use it to have Michael assassinated. Vito dies of a heart attack while playing with his grandson, Michael's son Anthony. At his funeral, Corleone caporegime Salvatore Tessio asks Michael to meet with Barzini, revealing his betrayal. Michael attends his nephew's baptism to be anointed as his godfather while Michael's hitmen carry out orders, simultaneously assassinating Greene and the heads of the other New York Families. Tessio is led off to be executed for his treachery. Michael extracts a confession from Carlo that he conspired with Barzini to kill Sonny and had abused Connie to lure Sonny into his fatal ambush. Michael berates Carlo, then sends him on an apparently safe car journey where instead Clemenza garrotes him.
At their house, Connie accuses Michael of having Carlo killed. To Kay's relief, Michael denies the accusation, but as she leaves the room to get drinks, the Corleone family capos approach Michael and offer him their allegiance. Kay watches Clemenza kiss Michael's hand and address him as "Don Corleone" before Neri closes the door on her.
The Godfather Part II
=== Vito ===
In 1901, nine-year-old Vito Andolini escapes from Corleone, Sicily, in the Kingdom of Italy to New York City after mafia chieftain Don Ciccio kills the rest of his family. An immigration officer registers him as Vito Corleone. By 1917 Vito is married in Little Italy and has an infant son, Sonny. Black Hand extortionist Don Fanucci preys on the neighborhood, costing Vito his grocery store job. He begins stealing for a living with his neighbor Peter Clemenza and has two more children: Fredo and Michael.
Vito, Clemenza and Salvatore Tessio sell stolen dresses door-to-door. Fanucci demands payoffs from them of $200 each. Vito doubts Fanucci's muscle and decides to offer less. He meets Fanucci and offers $100, which Fanucci grudgingly accepts. Emboldened, Vito tracks Fanucci back to his apartment and kills him. Vito's reputation spreads, and neighbors ask him to defend them from other predatory figures.
In 1922, Vito and his family travel to Sicily to start an olive oil importing business. He and business partner Don Tommasino visit an elderly Don Ciccio. He obtains Ciccio's blessing for their business, then reveals his identity and slices Ciccio's stomach, killing him and avenging the Andolini family.
Michael
In 1958, Don Michael Corleone has several meetings at his Lake Tahoe compound during the first communion of his son Anthony. Johnny Ola, representing Jewish Mob boss Hyman Roth, promises support in taking over a Las Vegas casino. Corleone capo Frank Pentangeli asks for help defending Bronx territory from two Roth affiliates known as the Rosato brothers. Michael refuses, frustrating Pentangeli. Senator Pat Geary demands a bribe to secure the casino license and insults Michael's Italian heritage. That night, Michael and his pregnant wife Kay narrowly escape an assassination attempt. Suspecting a traitor in the family, Michael puts consigliere Tom Hagen in charge and leaves the compound.
Michael separately tells Pentangeli and Roth that he suspects the other of planning the hit, and arranges a peace meeting between Pentangeli and the Rosatos. At the meeting the brothers attempt to strangle Pentangeli. A police officer drops in, forcing the brothers to flee. Hagen blackmails Geary into cooperating with the Corleones by having him framed for the murder of a prostitute.
Roth invites Michael to Havana to invest in his activities under the Batista government. Michael expresses reservations, given the growing Cuban Revolution. Later Roth becomes angry when Michael asks who ordered the Rosatos to kill Pentangeli, reminding Michael he did not question his order to kill his friend, Moe Greene. Michael and Ola attend a New Year's Eve party where Fredo pretends not to know Ola but later slips. Michael realizes that Fredo is the traitor and orders both Roth and Ola killed. He sends an assassin to the hospital where Roth resides to suffocate him with a pillow. The assassin fails and is killed by Roth's guard. Batista resigns and flees amid rebel advances, and Michael, Fredo and Roth separately escape Cuba as the communist rebels seize Havana. Back home, Hagen tells Michael that Kay miscarried.
Roth uses his connections to arrange a Senate committee on organized crime to investigate the Corleone family. Pentangeli agrees to testify against Michael and is placed under witness protection. On returning to Nevada, Fredo tells Michael that he did not realize Roth was planning an assassination, then lashes out over being excluded from the family business. Michael disowns Fredo but orders that he should not be harmed while their mother Carmela is alive. Michael attends the committee hearing with Hagen and Pentangeli's brother Vincenzo. Pentangeli, upon seeing Vincenzo, retracts his testimony, and the hearing dissolves in an uproar. Kay tells Michael that she actually had an abortion and intends to leave him and take their children. Michael strikes her in rage and banishes her.
A year later, Carmela passes away. At her funeral, a mourning Fredo embraces Michael and befriends Anthony over fishing, seemingly being forgiven. While Michael is away, Kay visits her children with his sister Connie's help but she takes too long to leave and is discovered by Michael; he coldly closes the door in her face without a word. Roth returns to the United States after being refused entry to Israel. Corleone capo Rocco Lampone assassinates him at the airport and is shot dead trying to escape. Hagen visits Pentangeli at the army barracks where he is held and remarks that conspirators against a Roman emperor could commit suicide to save their families. Pentangeli is later found dead in his bathtub, having slit his wrists. Corleone enforcer Al Neri takes Fredo fishing on the lake and shoots him as Michael watches from the compound.
A flashback depicts Vito's 50th birthday party on December 7, 1941. While the family waits for Vito, Michael announces that he has dropped out of college and joined the Marines, angering Sonny and surprising Hagen. Only Fredo supports his decision. When Vito is heard arriving, Michael remains at the table while the others welcome him in surprise.
In the present, Michael sits alone by the lake at the family compound.
The Godfather Part III
In 1979, Michael Corleone is approaching 60 years of age. Plagued with guilt over his ruthless rise to power, especially for having ordered his brother Fredo Corleone's murder, he donates millions to charitable causes.
Michael and Kay Adams are divorced; their children Anthony and Mary live with Kay. At a reception in Michael's honor at St. Patrick's Old Cathedral that follows a papal order induction ceremony, Anthony tells his father that he is leaving law school to become an opera singer. Kay supports Anthony's decision, while Michael eventually agrees to let him go his own way. Kay reveals to Michael that she and Anthony know the truth about Fredo's death.
Vincent Mancini, the illegitimate son of Michael's long-dead older brother Sonny by his mistress Lucy Mancini, arrives at the reception. Michael's sister Connie arranges for Vincent to settle a dispute with his rival Joey Zasa, but Zasa calls Vincent a bastard, and Vincent bites Zasa's ear. Michael, troubled by Vincent's temper yet impressed by his loyalty, agrees to include Vincent in the family business.
The head of the Vatican Bank, Archbishop Gilday, has accumulated a massive deficit of $769 million. Michael offers $600 million in exchange for the Vatican's shares in an international real estate company, Internazionale Immobiliare, which would give him a controlling interest. Immobiliare's board approves the offer, pending ratification by Pope Paul VI.
Don Altobello, a New York Mafia boss and Connie's godfather, tells Michael that his partners on The Commission want to be involved with the Immobiliare deal. However, wanting finally to become legitimate, Michael pays them his sold Las Vegas holdings instead. Zasa receives nothing and, declaring Michael to be his enemy, storms out. Don Altobello, assuring Michael that he can diplomatically resolve the matter, leaves to speak to Zasa.
Moments later, a helicopter hovers outside the conference room and opens fire. Most of the mafia's bosses are killed, but Michael, Vincent, and Michael's bodyguard Al Neri escape. Michael realizes that Altobello is the traitor, but suffers a diabetic stroke before he can act. As Michael recuperates, Vincent and Mary begin a romance, while Neri and Connie permit Vincent to retaliate against Zasa. During a street festival, Vincent kills Zasa. Michael berates Vincent for his actions and insists that Vincent end his relationship with Mary because it is dangerous and they are first cousins.
The family goes to Sicily for Anthony's operatic debut in Palermo at the Teatro Massimo. While Michael and Kay tour Sicily, Michael asks for Kay's forgiveness, and they admit that they still love each other. Michael visits Cardinal Lamberto, anticipated to become the next pope, to discuss the deal. Lamberto persuades Michael to make his first confession in 30 years, during which Michael tearfully confesses that he ordered Fredo's murder. Lamberto says that Michael deserves to suffer for his sins, but can be redeemed. He gives him sacramental absolution.
Michael tells Vincent to pretend to defect from the Corleone family to spy on Altobello. Altobello introduces Vincent to Licio Lucchesi, Immobiliare’s chairman. As a result, Michael learns from Vincent that the Immobiliare deal is an elaborate swindle, arranged by Lucchesi, Gilday and the Vatican City's accountant Frederick Keinszig, and that Altobello has hired someone in Sicily to assassinate Michael.
Mosca, the veteran hitman who was hired, kills the Corleone family's friend Don Tommasino after the latter recognizes Mosca in his priest disguise. At Tommasino's funeral, Michael vows to sin no more. Following the pope's death, Cardinal Lamberto is elected to succeed him, choosing as his name Pope John Paul I. Subsequently, the Immobiliare deal is ratified.
Gilday kills the new pope with poisoned tea. Michael names Vincent the new Don of the Corleone family in return for ending his romance with Mary. The family sees Anthony's performance in Cavalleria rusticana in Palermo while Vincent exacts his revenge. Keinszig is killed, and his murder is staged as a suicide; Connie poisons Altobello via a birthday cannoli and watches him die from the opera box; Calò, Tommasino's former bodyguard, kills Lucchesi; and Neri travels to the Vatican, where he shoots and kills Gilday.
At the opera house during Anthony's performance, Mosca overcomes two of Vincent's men but is unable to get an opportunity to kill Michael. As they leave after the show at the opera house, Mosca shoots at Michael, wounding him; a second bullet hits Mary, killing her. Vincent shoots and kills Mosca. Michael cradles Mary's body and screams in agony and horror.
Seventeen years later, a depressed and elderly Michael, sitting alone in the courtyard of Don Tommasino's villa, suffers a stroke. He slumps over and falls to the ground, dead.
In the mid-1940s, Michael Corleone is a World War II veteran and the youngest son of Don Vito Corleone. Vito is head of the Corleone mafia family and runs it with his eldest son Santino a.k.a. Sonny and adopted son Tom Hagen, a lawyer who is the family's consigliere. At his sister Connie's wedding to Carlo Rizzi, Michael introduces his family to his girlfriend, Kay Adams. Michael tells Kay stories of his family but makes it clear that he wants no part in his family's business.
Vito fulfils the Sicilian tradition of granting favors on his daughter's wedding day to a succession of hopeful visitors. One is his godson, singer and actor Johnny Fontane, who cannot get an upcoming film role because studio owner and producer Jack Woltz has a grudge against Fontane. Vito sends Hagen to LA to persuade Woltz to relent but Woltz will not budge. Hagen departs and the next morning, Woltz wakes to find the severed head of his prized $600,000 racehorse Khartoum in his bed with him. A terrified Woltz relents and Fontane gets the role.
Approaching Christmas, Michael becomes embroiled in family affairs when Vito is gunned down by two assailants. Vito had earlier refused to offer protection to drug baron Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo for dealing narcotics in the city. Sollozzo has the support of the Tattaglia family, who garrote notorious Corleone enforcer Luca Brasi when he attempts to become a mole in Sollozzo's operation. While Vito survives the attempt and recovers at the hospital, hot-tempered Sonny takes over the family as acting boss. He has Michael live at the house for his protection, as his successful revenge hit on Tattaglia's son Bruno has led to war between the two gangs. Michael visits his father in hospital to be told that NYPD Captain McCluskey has had Vito's bodyguards ejected from the hospital, clearing the way for a second attempt on Vito's life. Michael visits his father and, realizing his jeopardy, moves him to another hospital room then stands guard outside the hospital. He scares Sollozzo's assassins off but an angry McCluskey returns and breaks Michael's jaw for defying him. Soon after, Hagen arrives with more bodyguards and McCluskey backs down to the lawyer's demands. Being an outsider to the family business and seen as harmless, Michael later proposes a meeting between himself, Sollozzo and McCluskey at which he'll kill them both to keep his father safe. Initially amused, the family approve his plan and have a gun planted at the meeting place: a restaurant. At the meeting, Michael shoots both men dead then flees the country. He takes refuge in his family's native Sicily to escape the NYPD and the ire of the other gangs until the heat dies down. He falls in love with a local woman, Apollonia Vitelli, and marries her.
Back in New York, war has broken out between the Five Families. Sonny discovers that Connie was being abused by Carlo. At first, Sonny pummels Carlo in public and warns him never to touch Connie again. However, after a fierce beating from Carlo, Connie appeals to her family. A furious Sonny sets off for her house but is ambushed and murdered at a highway toll booth. The recovering Vito is told of Sonny's death and orders an end to hostilities with no vengeance. He calls a meeting with the heads of the other New York families and negotiates peace between them all, conceding to a controlled drug trade in return for an end to all vendettas and for Michael's safe return to the US. Meanwhile, Michael survives a hit in Sicily, which instead kills Apollonia via car bombing. He returns to the US, slowly taking over the family business from his father. He marries Kay and promises to legitimize the family's operations within five years.
Michael visits Las Vegas to negotiate a deal with Jewish mobster and casino mogul Moe Greene, under whose protection Fredo has been living. Michael offers to buy out Greene's stake in the family casinos, but Greene refuses and flaunts his support from Barzini. After Moe leaves, Michael reprimands Fredo for defending Greene and warns him never to side against the Family ever again.
After the peace meeting, Vito realizes that Barzini is the mastermind behind Sonny's death, not Tattaglia. He predicts to Michael that a Corleone traitor will reveal himself by offering to broker a meeting between Michael and the Barzinis but will use it to have Michael assassinated. Vito dies of a heart attack while playing with his grandson, Michael's son Anthony. At his funeral, Corleone caporegime Salvatore Tessio asks Michael to meet with Barzini, revealing his betrayal. Michael attends his nephew's baptism to be anointed as his godfather while Michael's hitmen carry out orders, simultaneously assassinating Greene and the heads of the other New York Families. Tessio is led off to be executed for his treachery. Michael extracts a confession from Carlo that he conspired with Barzini to kill Sonny and had abused Connie to lure Sonny into his fatal ambush. Michael berates Carlo, then sends him on an apparently safe car journey where instead Clemenza garrotes him.
At their house, Connie accuses Michael of having Carlo killed. To Kay's relief, Michael denies the accusation, but as she leaves the room to get drinks, the Corleone family capos approach Michael and offer him their allegiance. Kay watches Clemenza kiss Michael's hand and address him as "Don Corleone" before Neri closes the door on her.
The Godfather Part II
=== Vito ===
In 1901, nine-year-old Vito Andolini escapes from Corleone, Sicily, in the Kingdom of Italy to New York City after mafia chieftain Don Ciccio kills the rest of his family. An immigration officer registers him as Vito Corleone. By 1917 Vito is married in Little Italy and has an infant son, Sonny. Black Hand extortionist Don Fanucci preys on the neighborhood, costing Vito his grocery store job. He begins stealing for a living with his neighbor Peter Clemenza and has two more children: Fredo and Michael.
Vito, Clemenza and Salvatore Tessio sell stolen dresses door-to-door. Fanucci demands payoffs from them of $200 each. Vito doubts Fanucci's muscle and decides to offer less. He meets Fanucci and offers $100, which Fanucci grudgingly accepts. Emboldened, Vito tracks Fanucci back to his apartment and kills him. Vito's reputation spreads, and neighbors ask him to defend them from other predatory figures.
In 1922, Vito and his family travel to Sicily to start an olive oil importing business. He and business partner Don Tommasino visit an elderly Don Ciccio. He obtains Ciccio's blessing for their business, then reveals his identity and slices Ciccio's stomach, killing him and avenging the Andolini family.
Michael
In 1958, Don Michael Corleone has several meetings at his Lake Tahoe compound during the first communion of his son Anthony. Johnny Ola, representing Jewish Mob boss Hyman Roth, promises support in taking over a Las Vegas casino. Corleone capo Frank Pentangeli asks for help defending Bronx territory from two Roth affiliates known as the Rosato brothers. Michael refuses, frustrating Pentangeli. Senator Pat Geary demands a bribe to secure the casino license and insults Michael's Italian heritage. That night, Michael and his pregnant wife Kay narrowly escape an assassination attempt. Suspecting a traitor in the family, Michael puts consigliere Tom Hagen in charge and leaves the compound.
Michael separately tells Pentangeli and Roth that he suspects the other of planning the hit, and arranges a peace meeting between Pentangeli and the Rosatos. At the meeting the brothers attempt to strangle Pentangeli. A police officer drops in, forcing the brothers to flee. Hagen blackmails Geary into cooperating with the Corleones by having him framed for the murder of a prostitute.
Roth invites Michael to Havana to invest in his activities under the Batista government. Michael expresses reservations, given the growing Cuban Revolution. Later Roth becomes angry when Michael asks who ordered the Rosatos to kill Pentangeli, reminding Michael he did not question his order to kill his friend, Moe Greene. Michael and Ola attend a New Year's Eve party where Fredo pretends not to know Ola but later slips. Michael realizes that Fredo is the traitor and orders both Roth and Ola killed. He sends an assassin to the hospital where Roth resides to suffocate him with a pillow. The assassin fails and is killed by Roth's guard. Batista resigns and flees amid rebel advances, and Michael, Fredo and Roth separately escape Cuba as the communist rebels seize Havana. Back home, Hagen tells Michael that Kay miscarried.
Roth uses his connections to arrange a Senate committee on organized crime to investigate the Corleone family. Pentangeli agrees to testify against Michael and is placed under witness protection. On returning to Nevada, Fredo tells Michael that he did not realize Roth was planning an assassination, then lashes out over being excluded from the family business. Michael disowns Fredo but orders that he should not be harmed while their mother Carmela is alive. Michael attends the committee hearing with Hagen and Pentangeli's brother Vincenzo. Pentangeli, upon seeing Vincenzo, retracts his testimony, and the hearing dissolves in an uproar. Kay tells Michael that she actually had an abortion and intends to leave him and take their children. Michael strikes her in rage and banishes her.
A year later, Carmela passes away. At her funeral, a mourning Fredo embraces Michael and befriends Anthony over fishing, seemingly being forgiven. While Michael is away, Kay visits her children with his sister Connie's help but she takes too long to leave and is discovered by Michael; he coldly closes the door in her face without a word. Roth returns to the United States after being refused entry to Israel. Corleone capo Rocco Lampone assassinates him at the airport and is shot dead trying to escape. Hagen visits Pentangeli at the army barracks where he is held and remarks that conspirators against a Roman emperor could commit suicide to save their families. Pentangeli is later found dead in his bathtub, having slit his wrists. Corleone enforcer Al Neri takes Fredo fishing on the lake and shoots him as Michael watches from the compound.
A flashback depicts Vito's 50th birthday party on December 7, 1941. While the family waits for Vito, Michael announces that he has dropped out of college and joined the Marines, angering Sonny and surprising Hagen. Only Fredo supports his decision. When Vito is heard arriving, Michael remains at the table while the others welcome him in surprise.
In the present, Michael sits alone by the lake at the family compound.
The Godfather Part III
In 1979, Michael Corleone is approaching 60 years of age. Plagued with guilt over his ruthless rise to power, especially for having ordered his brother Fredo Corleone's murder, he donates millions to charitable causes.
Michael and Kay Adams are divorced; their children Anthony and Mary live with Kay. At a reception in Michael's honor at St. Patrick's Old Cathedral that follows a papal order induction ceremony, Anthony tells his father that he is leaving law school to become an opera singer. Kay supports Anthony's decision, while Michael eventually agrees to let him go his own way. Kay reveals to Michael that she and Anthony know the truth about Fredo's death.
Vincent Mancini, the illegitimate son of Michael's long-dead older brother Sonny by his mistress Lucy Mancini, arrives at the reception. Michael's sister Connie arranges for Vincent to settle a dispute with his rival Joey Zasa, but Zasa calls Vincent a bastard, and Vincent bites Zasa's ear. Michael, troubled by Vincent's temper yet impressed by his loyalty, agrees to include Vincent in the family business.
The head of the Vatican Bank, Archbishop Gilday, has accumulated a massive deficit of $769 million. Michael offers $600 million in exchange for the Vatican's shares in an international real estate company, Internazionale Immobiliare, which would give him a controlling interest. Immobiliare's board approves the offer, pending ratification by Pope Paul VI.
Don Altobello, a New York Mafia boss and Connie's godfather, tells Michael that his partners on The Commission want to be involved with the Immobiliare deal. However, wanting finally to become legitimate, Michael pays them his sold Las Vegas holdings instead. Zasa receives nothing and, declaring Michael to be his enemy, storms out. Don Altobello, assuring Michael that he can diplomatically resolve the matter, leaves to speak to Zasa.
Moments later, a helicopter hovers outside the conference room and opens fire. Most of the mafia's bosses are killed, but Michael, Vincent, and Michael's bodyguard Al Neri escape. Michael realizes that Altobello is the traitor, but suffers a diabetic stroke before he can act. As Michael recuperates, Vincent and Mary begin a romance, while Neri and Connie permit Vincent to retaliate against Zasa. During a street festival, Vincent kills Zasa. Michael berates Vincent for his actions and insists that Vincent end his relationship with Mary because it is dangerous and they are first cousins.
The family goes to Sicily for Anthony's operatic debut in Palermo at the Teatro Massimo. While Michael and Kay tour Sicily, Michael asks for Kay's forgiveness, and they admit that they still love each other. Michael visits Cardinal Lamberto, anticipated to become the next pope, to discuss the deal. Lamberto persuades Michael to make his first confession in 30 years, during which Michael tearfully confesses that he ordered Fredo's murder. Lamberto says that Michael deserves to suffer for his sins, but can be redeemed. He gives him sacramental absolution.
Michael tells Vincent to pretend to defect from the Corleone family to spy on Altobello. Altobello introduces Vincent to Licio Lucchesi, Immobiliare’s chairman. As a result, Michael learns from Vincent that the Immobiliare deal is an elaborate swindle, arranged by Lucchesi, Gilday and the Vatican City's accountant Frederick Keinszig, and that Altobello has hired someone in Sicily to assassinate Michael.
Mosca, the veteran hitman who was hired, kills the Corleone family's friend Don Tommasino after the latter recognizes Mosca in his priest disguise. At Tommasino's funeral, Michael vows to sin no more. Following the pope's death, Cardinal Lamberto is elected to succeed him, choosing as his name Pope John Paul I. Subsequently, the Immobiliare deal is ratified.
Gilday kills the new pope with poisoned tea. Michael names Vincent the new Don of the Corleone family in return for ending his romance with Mary. The family sees Anthony's performance in Cavalleria rusticana in Palermo while Vincent exacts his revenge. Keinszig is killed, and his murder is staged as a suicide; Connie poisons Altobello via a birthday cannoli and watches him die from the opera box; Calò, Tommasino's former bodyguard, kills Lucchesi; and Neri travels to the Vatican, where he shoots and kills Gilday.
At the opera house during Anthony's performance, Mosca overcomes two of Vincent's men but is unable to get an opportunity to kill Michael. As they leave after the show at the opera house, Mosca shoots at Michael, wounding him; a second bullet hits Mary, killing her. Vincent shoots and kills Mosca. Michael cradles Mary's body and screams in agony and horror.
Seventeen years later, a depressed and elderly Michael, sitting alone in the courtyard of Don Tommasino's villa, suffers a stroke. He slumps over and falls to the ground, dead.
Sources and content license
Source and revision history ↗ · Exact listed stories combined in catalog order. Sources retain their stated license; formatting and headings adjusted. Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, The Godfather. Section headings and formatting adjusted. Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, The Godfather Part II. Section headings and formatting adjusted. Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, The Godfather Part III. Section headings and formatting adjusted. · Content license