Bruno, who arrives at the funeral with his loyal bodyguard Massimo and other loyal soldiers, prepares for an attack, and engages Trapani in a shootout. Trapani is victorious, wounding Tattaglia, who continues to taunt him until he is eventually flung into the cremation oven burning him alive.
In retaliation, Sonny Corleone orders the death of Don Tattaglia's son, Bruno. This leads, eventually, to Sonny's murder at the hands of Tattaglia's men.
He did not care who he angered, as long as he was feared, and he deliberately cultured such a fearsome reputation that even the top crime boss of New York, Giuseppe Mariposa, was afraid of directly retaliating against Brasi for buying his stolen alcohol shipments, to the point where Mariposa demanded that the Corleone ...
After Sonny's death, Don Corleone agrees to lend his political protection to the enterprise and forgive the other families for having his son killed. Although it initially appears that Don Philip Tattaglia is responsible for organizing the anti-Corleone alliance, Vito soon realizes that Barzini is the true mastermind.
Philip Tattaglia (Victor Rendina) was loosely based on Gaetano “Tommy” “Three Finger Brown” Lucchese. The Lucchese family was the smallest of the Five Families and his associate, Vincent Papa, was part of the French Connection heroin distribution ring.
They know his reputation and they fear him, and they know with what they where proposing that Luca would be the tool used by Vito to shut them down. So in order to start moving on the Corleone's they had to get rid of Luca.
Luca Brasi is Don Vito Corleone's personal enforcer and the only man Vito himself fears. While slow-witted and brutish, Brasi is fiercely loyal with a reputation as a savage and remorseless killer.
Hours later, Michael confronts Rizzi, saying he knows Rizzi set Sonny up to be murdered. He assures Rizzi that his life will be spared, but that he is being exiled from the family. Rizzi, believing he is safe, confesses that he conspired with Barzini.
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.
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. We see the matter discussed, in the Corleone family office, just before the viewer spends time in front of Clemenza's cozy abode.
However, Paulie didn't know that the family had several phone company employees on the payroll, one of whom alerted Sonny. When Sonny found out, he ordered Clemenza to have Paulie – "that stronz" (Italian for «turd»), as Sonny called him–killed on the spot.
Clemenza's strongest attribute to the Corleones was his stubborn loyalty, not his intelligence. Thus, regardless of his complaints about Michael, he would never have betrayed the Corleones. Clemenza was known as a superb judge of talent.
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.
He then flees to Sicily, where he falls in love with Simonetta Stefanelli's Apollonia. Tragically, she's later killed in a car bomb planted by Michael's bodyguard Fabrizio (Angelo Infanti), who betrayed him to his enemies. While Michael gets revenge on those who ordered the hit, Fabrizio is never seen again.
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. Connie is distraught when her niece Mary is killed by an assassin who intended to kill Michael.
A rat is another word for snitch or informant. These four rats betrayed the Corleone family: Salvatore “Sal” Tessio, Paulie Gatto, Fabrizio and Carlo Rizzi.
A rift grows between Pentangeli and Michael, however, that eventually results in Pentangeli betraying the family. Pentangeli's character was created in The Godfather Part II by Coppola and Puzo due to actor Richard Castellano not reprising his role as Clemenza in the sequel.
Fredo's decision is most likely a result of resentment toward Michael, by whom he felt he had been passed over. Michael was Fredo's "kid brother," and the fact that their father chose for Michael to take over the "family business" came as a great insult to Fredo, who was neither as intelligent nor as strong.
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.
It's explained quite clearly and logically in the book. Even as he recognized that Luca Brasi was one of his most important tools, Don Corleone viewed the man as inherently dangerous to handle “like dynamite, not truly subject to control” if I remember his thoughts correctly.
“I believe in America.” These four words — spoken in a clipped, lilting rush over a pitch-black screen — are the first thing you hear in “The Godfather” after a short moan of music. The words hover over the imageless screen, demanding your attention and priming you for what's to come.
At the opera house during Anthony's performance, three of Vincent's men search for Mosca, but he overcomes them. After the show, on the opera house steps as they leave, Mosca shoots at Michael, wounding him; a second bullet hits Mary, killing her. Vincent shoots and kills Mosca.
Sollozzo's men then attempted to murder Vito Corleone, assuming that Vito's oldest son Sonny, who seemed to want to go into the heroin trade, would take over the family.
It seemed easy because Vito Corleone and Luca Brasi made it easy for Sollozzo to murder Luca. A number of mistakes were made which led to Luca's death. Vito and Luca underestimated the enemy and how well they understood the situation. They mistakenly assumed Sollozzo would shoot him.
