The Entire Godfather Timeline Explained

Few genres delve deeper into the mythos of the American dream like the mafia drama, and no Italian-American mafia tale is more iconic than "The Godfather" saga. Adapted from Mario Puzo's bestselling novel by the same name and premiering in 1972, the first "Godfather" film was the highest-grossing film of all time until supplanted by "Jaws" in 1976. Ultimately becoming a three-film series, the saga focuses on the Corleone crime family's rise to power after its patriarch flees mafia violence in Sicily as a child.

Although the first film begins in Don Corleone's twilight years (played by Marlon Brando), his Sicilian roots and ascension are documented in the sequel "The Godfather Part II," interwoven and juxtaposed against his own son Michael's ascension after his death, with the third film detailing his efforts to legitimize the family. Due to the epic scope of the film series and a few details from the novel series omitted due to narrative constraints, the Corleone family can sometimes be hard to follow. Hang onto your cannoli because we're drawing a straight line from Vito's childhood in Sicily to the real Five Families who worked to halt the film's production with this complete timeline of "The Godfather."

Young Vito somehow makes it aboard a crowded ship bound for America, and after sailing to the United States, he and the other immigrants find themselves standing in awe in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. Upon arriving at Ellis Island, he is registered under the name "Vito Corleone" by the immigration clerk and made to quarantine for three months due to a smallpox infection. As a child, he is taken in by the Abbandando family and raised alongside his friend Genco as a brother. He grows up and marries Carmela in 1915, working for the Abbandando family's Lower East Side grocery, to support his wife Carmela and infant son, Santino (Sonny). The family struggles to get by while living in their small New York City apartment.

The neighborhood is menaced by Don Fanucci, the local arm of the extortion racket Black Hand. One day, Fanucci complains to Abbandando that no one pays their fees and he has to double his fees, demanding the grocer hire his nephew Sandiago and pushing Vito out of a job. But Vito's money problems are temporarily solved when his neighbor Peter Clemenza asks him to hide a bag of guns for him. In repayment, Clemenza brings him in on a job as the pair steal a high-end rug from an even higher-end apartment, a moment that marks Vito's official entry into New York's criminal underbelly. Vito gifts the first rug to Carmela, and he and his pals Clemenza and Salvatore Tessio make a business of selling the rugs they steal door-to-door. After Vito goes into the rug business, life improves for the Corleones, who add three more children — Fredo, Connie, and Michael — to their brood.

At some point during Don Corleone's rise to power, his young son Sonny convinces him to take in the homeless orphaned 11-year-old Tom Hagen, who is raised as a member of the Corleone family but never formally adopted. Although not depicted in the films, the period between Vito Corleone's initial rise to power and his family's ultimate dominance is detailed in the Mario Puzo novel "The Godfather" as the Olive Oil Wars. The novel establishes that Genco Pura is primarily meant to serve as a shell corporation for the Corleone crime family's less legal operations, making it that much more fitting that Genco Pura Olive Oil was used as the ruse to get to Don Ciccio. Like many organized crime families, the Corleones benefit from the 1933 prohibition of alcohol, which creates a thriving black market. Around that time, Vito reaches out to mob bigwig and Tattaglia crony Salvatore Maranzano, offering to trade part of his gambling operation in exchange for access to Maranzano's law enforcement and political connections in "The Godfather Part II."

Not wanting to play ball, Maranzano asks his buddy Al Capone to intervene, and things quickly escalate into a full-scale war. When Maranzano finally sends his emissaries to Corleone seeking an armistice, he ends up dying violently in the Brooklyn restaurant he agreed to meet Corleone in at Vito's behest, leaving his empire ready for the resilient Sicilian to pick up the pieces and rocketing the boss to the zenith of his power. 

After his daughter's wedding in the first "Godfather" film, Don Corleone gets to work answering all of the requests for favors he heard during the wedding celebration. On behalf of his godson Johnny Fontaine, Corleone sends Tom Hagen to intimidate a Hollywood director into giving the singer a major role by placing the severed head of the bigwig's prized racehorse in his bed with him in it. Later on, the Corleones meet with Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo (Al Lettieri), a man known for his heroin empire and backed by the Tattaglia family, about Sollozzo's proposal to bring Vito in on his business in exchange for influence and financial support.

Although Sonny (James Caan) speaks against his father during the meeting, Don Corleone flatly refuses, stating that his influence would be jeopardized if he got into the drug trade, but sends his enforcer Luca Brasi to infiltrate the Sollozzo-Tattaglia operation and gain information. Sollozzo and Tattaglia see through the ruse, stabbing and garroting Brasi during the initial meeting and arranging an assassination attempt on Corleone. Corleone's bodyguard Paulie calls in sick to work, leaving the don under the protection of his less-than-competent son Fredo (John Cazale) when he is gunned down in the street near his office while shopping for Christmas oranges. Meanwhile, Sollazzo kidnaps Tom Hagen and tries to persuade him to negotiate with Vito's heir apparent, Sonny, as Vito fights for his life in the hospital. 

To lay low during the Five Families War, Fredo heads out to Las Vegas under the cover of Moe Greene, whose hotels were bankrolled by Vito Corleone, and Michael heads to Sicily, where he meets and marries the lovely Apollonia. But his happiness is short-lived when his bride is killed by a car bomb the Five Families meant for him. When Sonny beats his sister's husband Carlo Rizzo for abusing the pregnant Connie, Rizzo retaliates by plotting a successful hit on the eldest Corleone son with a rival family. The ambush is successful when Sonny is gunned down by a waiting hit squad while passing through a toll booth.

Having recovered and devastated by the loss of his son, Vito meets with the other families to negotiate a ceasefire, telling them the Corleones will provide protection for their drug business as long as they refuse to sell to children and promising not to pursue further vengeance. As the new heir apparent, Michael returns to the States and marries Kay, who has two children with him. He begins to take his rightful place as Don Corleone with his father remaining as a figurehead, aware that Barzini was behind the Five Families War as well as Sonny's execution but not of Carlo's role in it. Around the same time, Michael sends Tom Hagen to Las Vegas, where it soon becomes clear Fredo's loyalties to Moe Greene now exceed his commitment to his family.

With Michael still in charge, the Corleone family has relocated to Lake Tahoe. Just as Vito Corleone used Connie's wedding to conduct business, Michael takes meetings at his son Anthony's first communion. One of those meetings includes a tense discussion with Senator Pat Geary regarding the family's failed efforts to acquire licensing for their recent casino purchase. Connie declares her intention to marry someone Michael disapproves of, and Corleone capo Frank Pentangeli relays his trouble with Hyman Roth and the Rosato Brothers back in the Bronx. Later that night, a pair of hit men rain bullets into Michael's bedroom and are killed in the process. Michael charges Tom with keeping his family safe in his absence and takes off to escape the heat.

Michael meets with Hyman Roth to deceptively assure him the Corleones believe Frank Pentangeli tried to kill him, and Pentangeli himself is nearly killed while attempting to meet with the Rosatos, with the assailant claiming to work for Michael Corleone. Meanwhile, Senator Geary is set up for the murder of a sex worker at Fredo's brothel, with Tom Hagen stepping in to "rescue" him — at a Corleone cost, of course. Michael travels to Cuba with Roth and others to discuss business amid rising tensions from Castro's guerillas, with things falling apart when the president abdicates. While there, Michael realizes his own brother Fredo is Roth's mole, revealing the fact to him just as the rebels advance, with Fredo fleeing in the ensuing chaos. Michael orders a failed hit on Roth that also falls apart as the men flee the country.

Many a mob boss dreams of going legit, and Michael Corleone is no exception. In his middle age, he regrets the way he has lived his life and is ready to leave a better legacy for his children, Mary and Anthony, who now live with his ex-wife Kay, with Michael having relented and given her custody despite their initial power struggle in "The Godfather Part III." Tom Hagen is long dead, having been killed in 1964 by Corleone capo Nick Geraci as part of the fallout from the Hyman Roth affair, according to the Mark Winegardner novel "The Godfather's Revenge." The Corleone's compound in Tahoe has also fallen into disrepair, symbolizing Corleone's failure as a father and husband despite his immense wealth and power.

As public sentiment has turned against the mafia, Michael has worked to legitimize his family's holdings by pouring his money into the corporate world and creating the non-profit charity The Vito Corleone Foundation. The Corleones' illegal ops are now under the leadership of enforcer Joey Zasa but are plagued with drama due to a rivalry with Sonny's illegitimate son Vincent Mancini. At a reception following Michael's knighthood into the papal Order of St. Sebastian, Kay criticizes his hypocrisy, Anthony announces his plans to leave school and pursue a career in the opera, Zasa and Mancini get into a fight, and Michael agrees to include Mancini in the family business. Afterward. Zasa sends hitmen to kill Vincent, but Mancini reacts quickly, killing them both.

Fans of "The Godfather" who long for more of the Corleone saga were given a treat when Paramount+ released the 2022 10-episode series "The Offer," which recounts the events surrounding Francis Ford Coppola's efforts to produce "The Godfather." Created by "Deep Impact" and "Changing Lanes" writer Michael Tolkin and starring Miles Teller, Giovanni Ribisi, Colin Hanks, Dan Fogler, and Juno Temple, to name a few, the biographical drama emphasizes the Italian-American community's outrage at Mario Puzo's depictions of the mafia in his bestselling novel. The series also portrays the real mafia's campaign of intimidation aimed at shutting down the film's production, which involved a dead rat getting sent to the studio as well as a car getting shot up, among other various terrors.

Besides the production's problems with the Five Families and later, the Italian mafia, "The Offer" details the producers' many frustrations with studio politics, scriptwriting, casting, and even filming location, emphasizing just how close the masterpiece of American cinema came to not being finished.