52 Years Later, The Godfather Part II Still Has The Greatest Ending In Gangster Movie History

Published Oct 4, 2026, 2:55 PM EDT

Shawn S. Lealos is an entertainment writer who is a voting member of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle. He has written for Screen Rant,  CBR, ComicBook, The Direct, The Sportster, Chud, 411mania, Renegade Cinema, Yahoo Movies, and many more.
 

Shawn has a bachelor's degree in professional writing and a minor in film studies from the University of Oklahoma. He also has won numerous awards, including several Columbia Gold Circle Awards and an SPJ honor.

He also wrote Dollar Deal: The Story of the Stephen King Dollar Baby Filmmakers, the first official book about the Dollar Baby film program. Shawn is also currently writing his first fiction novel under a pen name, based in the fantasy genre.

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The Godfather Part II ​​​​​​had a huge legacy to live up to. The first movie in the franchise was released two years earlier and went on to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards, while Marlon Brando won Best Actor. The Godfather remains considered one of the best films in history, much less in the gangster genre. That put a lot of pressure on the sequel to live up to the brilliance of the original.

What is impressive is that The Godfather Part II was not only up to the first movie, but it surpassed it in almost every way. The difference between the two movies is that the sequel continues the story of Michael Corleone's rise in the ranks of the mafia and contrasts it with a new flashback format that shows Vito Corleone's rise in the past, with Robert De Niro playing a young Vito.

The second movie also features a shocking ending that shows the downfall of Michael Corleone's morality, which might not be as poetic as the first Godfather movie's baptism scene but is just as much of a gut punch. Both Godfather movies feature incredible ending moments, but the second one just hits that much harder.

The Godfather Part II Is Better Than Part I

The Godfather Part II is a better movie than The Godfather for several reasons. Both movies are masterpieces and sit near the top of the gangster genre. However, the new format of the second movie and the pacing are much better than how the first movie was laid out. Both movies are long, but The Godfather seems more of a sprawling story that often feels like a never-ending epic tale. The Godfather Part II just flows better.

The first movie has a young Michael Corleone coming home as a war hero and then being pulled into his family's mobster life, although he wanted to avoid that. After committing his first hit for the family, he goes on the run, and the family's grasp on their power falls apart. It is still a great story, but it often meanders at times when it should have kept the story rolling.

The second movie does not have this problem. The flashback scenes with Robert De Niro playing a young Vito Corleone are so masterfully done that the action keeps rolling, even as the present-day scenes show Michael continuing to grow into his role as a ruthless and brutal gangster in ways that his father attempted to avoid over the years. Showing Vito's rise worked perfectly to show why Michael's actions were so tragic.

Why That Ending Is So Special

The first Godfather movie ends with a baptism scene where Michael Corleone was at a church with his sister while his men executed hits to eliminate all the family's enemies and rivals. It is a brilliantly staged scene. However, the scene that ends The Godfather Part II is even more devastating. That is because the hit that Michael ordered here was more personal.

The lead-in to the final ending saw Michael trying to bring his brother Fredo back home, but Fredo went on the run. Fredo had betrayed his family and brother, although he claimed he didn't know it would cause an attempt on Michael's life. By the end, Michael waited patiently, as he promised that Fredo would not be harmed as long as his mother was alive. When his mother died, Michael ordered Fredo's death.

The first Godfather ended with Michael breaking his promise to his wife to stay clean, and the movie ended with the door closing and separating him from his family. The second movie saw him losing his wife, and after his brother's murder, there was a flashback scene that showed Michael saying he was leaving the family for the military to get away from the crime.

That led to the final shot of the movie, when Michael sat alone in his family compound. Michael wanted to escape the family's life of crime, and by the end of The Godfather Part II, he had ordered his own brother's death, and his wife hated him. He was all alone, and it showed that he could never escape his family. He was alone, and his downfall was complete.