Coda has an entirely new ending too. In the original cut, Michael retires to his Lake Tahoe estate after Mary's murder – then one day slumps over in his chair and dies. In the new cut, everything is set up the same; but Michael is denied an on-camera death.
At the end of Part III, Michael dies alone in the yard of his Sicilian villa. The death of his daughter, Mary, has sealed his fate, severing his ties forever with the rest of the family, the family that he tried to save and bring to legitimacy.
What's the difference between The Godfather 3 and the death of Michael Corleone?
Changes to the final ending shot of The Godfather Part III deny Michael Corleone redemption, adding profoundness to the new ending and enhancing his spiritual anguish. However, some issues with the original film still remain.
Alternate ending: Coppola stated in an interview that he wanted the new ending to be more heartbreaking. Here, old Michael doesn't die physically as shown in the original version's ending. The flashback removes Michael's dancing with Apollonia and Kay.
The Godfather Part II Deleted Scene - Michael talks with Gardener Shaw
What happened to Michael Corleone after Godfather III?
In an epilogue scene set in 1997, an elderly Michael dies in the same courtyard where he married Appollonia. In the December 2020 release of The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, a recut of the third film, the final scene is re-edited to portray Michael sitting alone in the courtyard.
According to The Godfather Part III, Hagen has already died before the time frame of the film, which is 1979–1980. There is no specific indication in the film as to when or how he died, except that it was prior to his son, Andrew (John Savage), being ordained a Roman Catholic priest.
Who ordered the killing of Michael Corleone in Godfather 3?
Immediately, Calo himself is killed by Lucchesi's bodyguards. Mosca, the assassin hired by Don Altobello to kill Michael, descends upon the opera house during Anthony's performance, killing two of Vincent's men who delay his opportunity, and the opera ends before he has the chance to kill Michael with his rifle.
Toward the end of the film, Michael names Vincent as his successor, on condition that he break off his relationship with Mary. After her brother's debut concert, the assassin Mosca tries to kill Michael. One bullet grazes Michael's shoulder, but the other accidentally hits Mary in the chest, fatally wounding her.
The bulk of the criticism focuses on The Godfather 3's Sofia Coppola casting and performance, which is admittedly quite stilted at times. All those factors added up to the movie's regrettable reception as a lackluster ending to the saga.
She then stands at Michael's side when he retires and names Vincent his successor. She attends the opera, along with the entire Corleone family. Upon discovering that her godfather Don Altobello is the mastermind of the plot against their family, she kills him by giving him a gift of poisoned cannoli.
He is also mentioned many times throughout the film; the dialogue makes it clear that Michael is tormented with guilt over ordering his brother's death, and that it has alienated him from his ex-wife, Kay (Diane Keaton), and his son, Anthony (Franc D'Ambrosio), both of whom know the truth about Fredo's death.
In the original ending, Michael dies alone, but the new ending curses him with a long life where he can never forget what he did and what it cost him. He doesn't get the benefit of death (albeit a darkly comic one that sought to diminish the power Michael accrued throughout his life).
He would do this because he wouldn't want it to look like he was at all involved in Fredo's death. Fredo drowned while fishing and his body was never recovered.
By The Godfather Part II, Kay has decided that Michael is a cold, distant, inattentive husband and father, but only after an attempt is made on his life in the family home does she resolve to rebel against him.
The third film in The Godfather trilogy was meant to serve as an epilogue to the first two. Its purpose was to wrap up the story of Michael Corleone that had begun in the first film. When the film begins, Michael is making an attempt to legitimize the criminal empire that he has run as his father's successor.
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.
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.
Tom Hagen was originally going to return for The Godfather: Part III, and the central plot was going to be a split between Tom and Michael. The character was killed off when the film's producers refused to accommodate Duvall's salary demands.
However, one integral name refused to be part of it: Robert Duvall. As the famous story goes, Duvall wanted to be paid a comparable sum to what Pacino was getting, and when he received word that he wasn't, he declined.
The main reason behind The Godfather Part III's long journey to the big screen is Coppola's reluctance to make it. After finishing up with his epic 1974 sequel, Coppola was content to leave the Corleone story alone, with no burning desire to revisit that world again.
