Michael Corleone's death in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather saga highlights the most important difference between Al Pacino's character and his onscreen father, Marlon Brando's Vito Corleone. The Godfather movies follow Michael Corleone from the moment he enters the mafia as a young man to his sad demise as a wrinkled veteran of the crime business. These events span three separate movies, but The Godfather should really be considered a two-part story with an epilogue dubbed The Death of Michael Corleone.

That thread of continuity across the entire trilogy creates an ongoing narrative where the "Godfather" title passes from father to son when Michael replaces Vito as the Corleone family's don. Still, The Godfather's story is as much about life and death as it is crime and violence. The tale begins with Vito in his prime, then Brando's character dies and life continues with Pacino's Michael steering the ship.