Michael Corleone - The Godfather Part II

In The Godfather Part II, set in 1958-1959, Michael is now in his late-30s. Frank Pentangeli, head of the former Clemenza regime, now runs the family's business in New York. Although Michael is now firmly established as the most powerful Mafia leader in the nation, he is still determined to make the family legitimate. His efforts at redeeming the family have been largely unsuccessful, however, because his many enemies (and his own growing obsession with revenge) have kept him involved in the criminal underworld. He has begun to work out a deal with Hyman Roth, his father's former business partner, over control of casino operations.

The night of his son Anthony's First Communion, an attempt is made on Michael's life. Michael concludes that Roth was behind the assassination attempt, but suspects that he had help from a mole in the Corleone family. He decides to make Roth think they still have a good business relationship as a ploy to find out who Roth paid to set up the hit. As part of this subterfuge, he orders Pentangeli to settle a dispute with Roth's business partners, the Rosato Brothers. Pentangeli reluctantly meets with his former adversaries, who try to kill him; Pentangeli deduces that Michael was behind the attempt on his life, and swears revenge.

Meanwhile, Michael, Roth and Michael's brother Fredo travel to Cuba to forge a partnership with Fulgencio Batista that will allow them to be free to conduct their operations in Cuba without interference from the authorities, in return for generous payments to the Cuban government. While in Cuba, Michael sends his bodyguard to eliminate Roth on New Year's Eve, but the bodyguard is killed by soldiers in the midst of the attempt. That night, Michael discovers that Fredo is the traitor within the family, and informs him of this fact at the stroke of midnight. During the New Year's Eve festivities, victorious rebel forces enter Havana, forcing Batista into exile and the crime bosses out of the country, their plans in Cuba ruined. Fredo, afraid of his brother, refuses to flee back to America with Michael. Roth, meanwhile, escapes to Miami.

Meanwhile, Pentangeli had been persuaded to testify against Michael in the Senate's investigation of organized crime, which could potentially send Michael to prison. However, Michael arranges for Pentageli's brother Vincenzo to travel from Sicily to attend the hearings. Vincenzo and Frank exchange a glance just before the hearing comes to order. Understanding the threat, Pentageli renounces his earlier sworn statements, throwing the hearings into chaos and effectively ending the government's case against Michael.

Michael meets with Fredo, who reveals that Roth's right-hand man, Johnny Ola, had promised to make him rich independently of the family if he informed on Michael, and that he withheld key information about the Senate investigation. He also reveals that he resents having been "stepped over" in favor of his brother; he feels that he should have taken over the family after their father's death. Michael disowns Fredo, and tells bodyguard Al Neri that nothing is to happen to his brother while their mother is alive — the implication being that once she dies, Neri is to murder Fredo.

Kay finally accepts that Michael will always live in a world of crime and violence, and decides to leave him and take the children with her. Michael asks her to reconsider, but Kay reveals that what she had initially told Michael was a miscarriage was in fact an abortion; she tells Michael that she does not want to bring another child into the Corleone family. Michael flies into a rage, hits Kay in the face, and banishes her from the family. They divorce later that year, with Michael keeping custody of the children.

Following the death of their mother, and at the behest of his sister Connie, Michael appears to reconcile with Fredo. It is only a ploy to draw him in, however; soon afterward, Neri murders Fredo on Michael's orders. At the same time, Michael sends Hagen to convince Pentageli to commit suicide in order to spare his family, and sends capo Rocco Lampone to kill a heavily-guarded Roth at John F. Kennedy International Airport upon his return to the U.S.

The film ends with Michael's recollections of a surprise birthday party for his father on December 7, 1941. Prior to his father's arrival, Michael told the family that he had dropped out of college and enlisted in the Marines. Fredo had been the only one in the family to support the decision. When Vito arrives off-screen, everyone leaves the table to greet him except for Michael, who sits by himself. The parting shot in the film is of Michael sitting outdoors at the Corleone Lake Tahoe compound, alone.