The Godfather Part II Roth secretly plans to assassinate Michael, partly to avenge Moe Greene's murder (as depicted in The Godfather). Roth instructs Ola to befriend Michael's brother Fredo, who provides Ola (and Roth) information about Michael that enables them to make an attempt on his life.
Hyman Roth agrees to the hit. This was done by Michael to give Roth a sense of security and superiority that Michael was wrong about who ordered the hit. Michael then goes to Frankie to reveal that he knows it was actually Roth behind the hit.
Woodcut of Al Pacino. When Francis Ford Coppola and Paramount Pictures set out to cast the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather, they had a disagreement. The studio wanted Robert Redford, Warren Beatty or Ryan O'Neal.
Enraged, Sonny speeds towards Connie's apartment in Hell's Kitchen ahead of his bodyguards. At the Long Beach Causeway toll plaza, Barzini's men trap Sonny and shoot him to death. During a meeting with the other crime family dons to establish peace, Vito realizes that Barzini masterminded Sonny's murder.
A rift grows between Pentangeli and Michael, however, that eventually results in Pentangeli betraying the family.
While Tom Hagen initially suspected Clemenza of being the one who would betray Michael to Don Emilio Barzini's alliance, Michael reasoned that the more cunning Tessio was the culprit. Clemenza's strongest attribute to the Corleones was his stubborn loyalty, not his intelligence.
Fredo betrayed his brother to rival gangster Hyman Roth, who used him as a pawn in a plot to destroy the Corleone Family. Fredo provided unspecified information on the Corleone family in return for receiving compensation (what kind is never specified) independently of the family.
Connie (who was unaware of her husband's role in Sonny's murder), hysterical after Carlo's death, blames Michael, denouncing him in front of his wife, Kay.
Don Philip Tattaglia then arranges a meeting between Brasi and Sollozzo. Sollozzo, not fooled by the ruse, impales Brasi's hand into a table while one of his men strangles Brasi to death with piano wire.
2. Michael and Vito might have placed some of the blame for Sonny's assassination on Tom. Though it turns out that Carlo Rizzi plotted with Barzini to set Sonny up, Michael and Vito probably believed that Tom didn't do enough to stop Sonny from leaving the safety of the family compound that day to find Carlo.
Paulie has seemingly betrayed Vito—and thus the family—by selling him out. In The Godfather, this kind of betrayal is the worst of all sins.
"The studio didn't want Al Pacino at all," Keaton said, noting that she was cast before him in the Francis Ford Coppola classic. She then explained what caused the studio to change their opinion: their chemistry read.
Vincent is the illegitimate son of Sonny Corleone and his mistress Lucy Mancini. He eventually succeeds his uncle Michael as head of the Corleone family. In Mario Puzo's original 1969 novel Lucy did not conceive a child with Sonny.
Roth secretly plans to assassinate Michael, partly to avenge Moe Greene's murder (as depicted in The Godfather). Roth instructs Ola to befriend Michael's brother Fredo, who provides Ola (and Roth) information about Michael that enables them to make an attempt on his life.
“I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse.” – Don Vito Corleone. Sideshow and Damtoys present The Godfather 1972 Edition of Vito Andolini Corleone as a 1:3 scale, full-body statue!
Fredo pulled open the drapes that allowed the hitmen to see into Michael's bedroom the night of Anthony Corleone's first communion, when Michael and Kay were almost killed.
Vito warns Michael that Barzini will set Michael up to be killed under the guise of a meeting; Barzini will use one of the Corleone family's most trusted members as an intermediary. Shortly afterwards, on July 29, 1955, Vito dies of a heart attack in his garden while playing with his grandson, Michael's son Anthony.
In the sequel novel The Godfather's Revenge, Hagen is murdered in 1964 by traitorous Corleone henchman Nick Geraci, who ties him up in a car that he sinks into a swamp.
The Godfather Returns
Most noteworthy, the novel depicts Clemenza's fatal heart attack (mentioned in The Godfather Part II), and the many conspiracy theories that he had actually been murdered by the Rosato Brothers, former Corleone soldiers who had formed their own gang after a dispute over the future of the family.
Connie is angry with Michael for having Rizzi killed, despite his abuse and role in Sonny's death, and resents her brother for many years afterward. In the novel, Connie quickly recovers from Rizzi's death and, a few weeks later, apologizes to Michael for accusing him.
She married him at a lavish old-style Sicilian ceremony in 1945. Carlo and Connie agreed to the ceremony due to her father's displeasure in her choice of groom (he was not only a hoodlum, but half-northern Italian). They moved into an apartment in Hell's Kitchen.
At the very end of the movie, Michael lies to his wife, Kay, about having Carlo killed. This shows that he's set his course: she won't be able to be a part of his real world and will be shut out from seeing his true, ruthless nature in action.
Michael removes Hagen as consigliere in favor of having Vito fill the position, restricting Hagen to handling the family's legal business in Nevada, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Michael and Vito explain that the Corleones risk inciting a fight with the planned move to Nevada, and they need a "wartime consigliere".
Death. Fredo, moments before his death at Lake Tahoe. Upon their mother's death, and at the urging of their sister Connie, Michael relented toward Fredo and seemingly offered reconciliation. However, it was only a deception to draw Fredo in so as to have him murdered by Al Neri.
The kiss is known as "Il bacio della morte," meaning "the kiss of death." In this instance, it was to signify to Fredo that he was marked for death for betraying his brother to Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg) and his right-hand man Johnny Ola (Dominic Chianese) in The Godfather Part II.