Vito Corleone rises from a Sicilian orphan to head one of New York's five Mafia families, and his youngest son Michael, a war hero who wanted no part of it, becomes his ruthless successor. Michael moves the family into Las Vegas casinos and kills his own brother to hold onto power. In Part III, an ageing Michael tries to make the family legitimate through the Vatican, and the attempt ends with his daughter Mary dead on the steps of the opera house.
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- 1990
No. 01 · 1972 · Film
The Godfather recap
In 1945, at his daughter Connie's wedding, Vito Corleone, head of a powerful New York crime family, grants favours to those who ask. His youngest son Michael, a Marine back from the war, brings his girlfriend Kay Adams and tells her he wants nothing to do with the family business. Drug dealer Virgil Sollozzo, backed by the Tattaglia family, asks Vito to protect his narcotics business; Vito refuses, and Sollozzo has him shot. Vito survives. Michael, visiting the hospital, finds Vito unguarded and saves him from a second attempt. He then volunteers to kill Sollozzo and his protector, a corrupt police captain, and does so in a restaurant. He hides in Sicily, where he marries a local girl, Apollonia, who is killed by a car bomb meant for him. In New York, his hot-headed brother Sonny is gunned down at a toll booth.
How The Godfather ends
Michael returns, marries Kay and takes over the family. Vito dies of a heart attack in his garden. During his nephew's baptism, Michael's men kill the heads of the other families and the traitor Moe Greene, and Michael has Connie's abusive husband Carlo, who set up Sonny, murdered. Michael lies to Kay, saying he had nothing to do with it, and she watches the door close as his men pay him respect.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 02 · 1974 · Film
The Godfather Part II recap
The film tells two stories. In 1901, nine-year-old Vito Andolini flees Sicily after the local don kills his family, and arrives in New York, where he is named Vito Corleone. As a young man in Little Italy in the 1910s and 1920s, he kills Fanucci, the neighbourhood's Black Hand extortionist, and earns the respect of the community, building the family business with Clemenza and Tessio. In 1958, Michael, now running the family from Lake Tahoe, survives an attempt on his life in his own bedroom. He suspects Hyman Roth, a Jewish gangster and old partner of Vito's, and travels to Havana for a business deal with Roth just as the Cuban revolution breaks out. There he learns that his older brother Fredo helped set up the hit. A Senate committee investigates the family, and Frank Pentangeli, a capo who believes Michael betrayed him, agrees to testify.
How The Godfather Part II ends
Pentangeli recants after Michael brings his brother from Sicily to the hearing. Kay reveals that her miscarriage was really an abortion and leaves Michael. Michael has Roth killed at the airport and Pentangeli kill himself, and has Fredo shot dead while fishing on the lake. The young Vito returns to Sicily and kills the don who murdered his family. Michael sits alone, remembering the day he told his family he had enlisted.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 03 · 1990 · Film
The Godfather Part III recap
In 1979, an ageing Michael Corleone has sold his casinos and is trying to make the family legitimate through a charitable foundation, which honours him at a ceremony at the Vatican. He seeks to buy a controlling stake in Immobiliare, a real estate company tied to the Vatican Bank. Archbishop Gilday, who runs the bank and is in debt, is part of the deal. Vincent Mancini, Sonny's illegitimate son, is quick-tempered and ambitious, and Michael takes him in. Vincent starts a romance with Michael's daughter Mary, his own cousin. Joey Zasa, who took over the family's New York business, opposes Michael, and a helicopter attack kills most of the bosses at a meeting. Michael suffers a diabetic stroke. He confesses Fredo's murder to Cardinal Lamberto, who becomes Pope John Paul I.
How The Godfather Part III ends
Michael names Vincent as head of the family on the condition that he ends things with Mary. At the opera in Palermo, where Michael's son Anthony sings, assassins kill Michael's enemies across Italy, including Gilday, but the new Pope is poisoned. On the opera house steps, an assassin shoots at Michael and kills Mary. Years later, the elderly Michael dies alone in a garden in Sicily.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
Common questions
What is the Godfather story so far?
Vito Corleone rises from a Sicilian orphan to head one of New York's five Mafia families, and his youngest son Michael, a war hero who wanted no part of it, becomes his ruthless successor. Michael moves the family into Las Vegas casinos and kills his own brother to hold onto power. In Part III, an ageing Michael tries to make the family legitimate through the Vatican, and the attempt ends with his daughter Mary dead on the steps of the opera house.
Where did Godfather leave off?
The Godfather Part III (1990) is the latest. Michael names Vincent as head of the family on the condition that he ends things with Mary. At the opera in Palermo, where Michael's son Anthony sings, assassins kill Michael's enemies across Italy, including Gilday, but the new Pope is poisoned. On the opera house steps, an assassin shoots at Michael and kills Mary. Years later, the elderly Michael dies alone in a garden in Sicily.
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