Michael made Carlo confess to solidify his guilt for setting up Sonny's murder, gain absolute certainty (not just suspicion), demonstrate his calculated control as the new Don, and uncover who else (specifically Barzini) orchestrated the plot, ensuring complete family business closure and preventing future betrayals by exposing the broader conspiracy. He needed the confession to justify killing his brother-in-law and to prove he was a more strategic leader than his impulsive brother Sonny, showing patience and thoroughness to his family.
In 1954, Michael became acting head of the family, and, with Connie's encouragement, began treating Carlo as a trusted lieutenant, sending him to help the family with union troubles and promising to make him his "right-hand man" once the family moved to Carlo's home state of Nevada.
Why did Michael lie? Because he didn't want to confess to murder, because he didn't want to put his own life - or Kay's - in danger, because he knew it was something he was required to do as head of the Family. Beyond that, he did it, not just to keep her from walking, but to get her back.
Michael's killing of Carlo was not only motivated by revenge for Sonny, and a desire to eliminate another enemy, but also to protect Connie, who he knew he would support and provide for.
He decided to marry Apollonia because she would produce a fully Sicilian heir to the family. He was only in a relationship with Kay before because he wasn't yet in a position where he would need to take over the family (Vito was still healthy and not shot, Sonny was still alive) when they started dating.
It also doesn't help that Apollonia was pregnant when she died, while Kay didn't just live, but chose to abort her third pregnancy.
They travel together to Sicily for Anthony's operatic debut. There, Michael asks Kay's forgiveness and says he had a different destiny planned for them; he regrets losing her and confesses he still loves her. Kay tearfully admits that she will always love him.
In a deleted scene of The Godfather Part II (later restored in The Godfather Saga), Michael avenges Apollonia's death by killing Fabrizio with a bomb placed in his car at his pizzeria in Buffalo.
With Part III, many viewers felt that the film lacked the clear narrative structure and compelling character arcs that made the first two films so successful.
In the film trilogy, however, Connie continues to resent Michael for many years after, and finally reconciles with him after their mother becomes terminally ill and she learns of Fredo's accidental betrayal of the family, begging Michael to forgive him.
Then she immediately says she was reminded how he told her when they got married that he would become completely legitimate (but hadn't). That scene really sets up her decision and reasons to later have an abortion. She didn't want to bring another child, especially a boy, into the family business.
While Clemenza was urinating, Rocco shot Paulie in the back of the head three times. Rocco succeeded Paulie as a button man and Don Corleone's new driver before becoming a Soldato.
Vito also knew it was Carlo but he didn't have the heart to kill his daughter's husband because he loved her so much so he let Michael take action. Tom didn't know what Carlo did. Just like he didn't realize that Tessio would be the traitor.
In the script for The Godfather Part II, it is revealed by Roth's bodyguard that his sickness is not real, and he has actually been faking it for 20 years.
Michael had lingering physical effects as a result of the punch. Not only was his jaw broken, but his sinuses were damaged and he had a perpetual runny nose. In Sicily, this is evidenced by his continual need to carry a handkerchief and wipe his nose and also by the dark mark on his cheek.
With Brasi dead, Sollozzo's men were free to attempt a hit on Don Corleone without fear that Luca would hunt them down later. After Vito is shot, Sonny and the rest of the Corleones are unable to make contact with Luca, but assume that this means that the brutal enforcer is already out looking for reprisal.
He famously mortgaged everything from his Napa home to his car to pay for “Apocalypse Now” in 1979 — a gamble that paid off both critically and commercially. He did it again with his San Francisco properties while filming “One from the Heart” in 1981, a misfire that plunged him into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Paramount Pictures originally didn't want Al Pacino in the lead role. Studio executives had envisioned someone more conventionally charismatic, like Robert Redford or Warren Beatty. Coppola insisted on Pacino, going as far as to threaten walking away from the film if his casting wasn't honored.
Vincent was the illegitimate son of Sonny Corleone and Lucy Mancini. He was born shortly after Sonny's death. During his childhood, he lived with his mother in Arizona and later Newark, New Jersey, before moving back to New York City. He was the grandson of Jimmy Mancini, a longtime member of the Corleone crime family.
Michael loved both Apollonia and Kay, but in different ways. Apollonia was innocent and naive, not bothered by the guns and danger in Michael's life. She never questioned his work, making her a good match for him.
A rift grows between Pentangeli and Michael, however, that eventually results in Pentangeli betraying the family.
Marlon Brando wasn't in The Godfather Part II because he failed to show up for his single scheduled day of filming for a flashback scene, reportedly due to a financial dispute and feeling mistreated by Paramount Studios, leading director Francis Ford Coppola to rewrite the scene on the fly. Brando was supposed to reprise his role as Vito Corleone in a birthday flashback, but his no-show forced Coppola to create the iconic "Vito Corleone at Ellis Island" sequence with Robert De Niro playing young Vito instead.
Michael's pursuit of Kay was partly motivated by the fact that she was free-spirited, she was the humanity in Michael in which he lacked. Michael was desperate to have a white-Americanized life. Ironically, Michael himself would be used in the same way, when he married Apollonia Vitelli.
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.
Apollonia was only 16 when she died? Wow! That means she was only 15 or 16 when she married Michael.