The Hidden Detail that Changes EVERYTHING... | The Godfather 2 Explained

it's 1958 michael corleone is entering a historic deal with hyman roth a deal worth over 100 million dollars but in reality both michael and roth were playing an extremely high level high-stakes game of chess the godfather 2 is full of mystery and intrigue and some of the biggest questions we all have surround the havana deal up until now these questions have remained a mystery but today we will finally answer all your questions and more the godfather michael corleone had uplifted the corleone empire from a somewhat small yet powerful mafia family somewhat confined to the streets of new york to the most powerful organization in the country running his vast empire as if it were a fortune 500 company as michael was exponentially rising in status and power becoming more sophisticated entering a whole new level in the game of power so were his enemies he was no longer dealing with local mob bosses or sicilian chieftains he was now dealing with a completely different kind of gangster and so his new enemies were far more dangerous than anyone had previously faced he needed to adapt quickly but even so for a man as ambitious as michael corleone why would he just stop here why not see how far he can go wouldn't you so what's next how was he going to get to the next level that's where hyman roth comes in roth was cunning and probably the most machiavellian character in the godfather and he understood two vital things about michael what he wants and how he thinks roth carefully analyzed michael from afar and realized that he desperately wanted to shake off his family's criminal reputation and rebranded into one of america's wealthiest and most established families not even your father would dream that such a thing could be possible michael wholeheartedly believe that there are literally no limits to what he could achieve so why not aim at reaching the most powerful position in the country a man that wants to be president of the united states having the cash to make it possible so roth played on this and so made him an offer he couldn't refuse and this is how the havana deal came into place his vision hyman roth even at his old age was extremely ambitious and what he envisioned was truly something extraordinary and captured the imagination of all the top bosses of the criminal underworld including the one who had now become the most powerful and wealthy don michael corleone roth envisioned creating a new and improved las vegas a monte carlo of the caribbean and having a partnership with the cuban president himself would mean that they would essentially be above the law and so no one could even compete with them plus the fact that it was only 90 miles from the u.s mainland made it perfect to become a base of operations as it was far enough from the reach of the law but close enough to their operations in the country especially that they were beginning to feel pressured by law enforcement so this would be the safe haven they've always wished for to continue to operate their criminal empires although hotels and casinos themselves will be extremely profitable surpassing any and all of their current operations in vegas the real money and what could be their biggest source of income and the whole appeal of this deal comes from something else money laundering with these new ventures and legitimate income sources they then use them to launder all their ill-gotten gains from across the country and even the world allowing them to have access to clean money and not to raise too much suspicion but this very audacious vision came with a hefty price tag so it was by no means going to be cheap and roth understood this completely the venture would cost over 100 million dollars which for context would be worth around 1.1 billion dollars today what was the deal a deal of this magnitude was somewhat complex with many people and interests involved but here's what you need to know roth and associates were going to build and purchase a series of hotels and casinos in cuba specifically in havana but the genius of this deal was that they were not going to put up all the money themselves and they were still going to have the controlling interest so how were they going to get the 100 million needed where the money was coming from well that's where bribing the cuban president comes in you see the cuban government was going to invest 50 million into the venture as for the other half they were going to use their influence on the teamsters union to fund the other 50 million but here's how michael's 2 million dollars comes into play the price to enter this deal with roth and become a partner michael would need to put up the initial two million dollars that was going to be used to bribe the cuban president so he could allow the deal to commence which was quite a large amount but michael understood that having the actual president on your payroll comes with a lot of benefits in return for putting such a large amount of cash michael was to not only then become an official partner in the havana deal but also take over all of roth's interests specifically all of roth's operations in south florida and now the hotels and casinos in cuba but at the time of roth's death or retirement i turn over all my interest in the havana operation to his control so this was quite a large gamble for roth he had a lot of faith in this deal michael was basically going to inherit most of his businesses and assets and so you can probably tell this was one hell of a deal it makes it much more clear why michael did not want this deal to be disturbed or at risk in any way the important thing is that nothing interferes with our plans for the future [Music] who was involved the key players so this deal was not exactly just between michael and roth but actually involved many other powerful entities and individuals most notably the cuban president other mafia families the teamsters union as well as a few senators and governors michael and roth just had a side deal alongside the main one why did roth want michael's 2 million why he needed him to remain in the deal so why did roth want michael's 2 million dollars we all know that roth was wealthy enough to put up the money himself so why was he so angry at michael firstly you have to understand the reasons behind why he even allowed michael to enter the deal to start with having michael as part of the deal would make the other partners more confident and comfortable in getting involved michael at the time was extremely powerful and had many connections to some extremely influential people therefore he was going to leverage michael's name and reputation but when michael began to question the venture's likelihood of success directly contradicting roth's assessment he feared that michael was going to put the deal in jeopardy the other reason was that he let's just say he didn't want to be mo greened but probably the most important reason that roth wanted michael to be part of the deal was to as i'm sure you know get his revenge his revenge would come in two forms the first is by stealing as much money from michael who was supposedly to be completely oblivious to the fact that he was being played and we'll get to that very soon the next and final reason was to finally take him out and crush the corleone family therefore his primary goal was to use this deal to lull michael into a false sense of security making him ease his guard and when he least expects it strike but as we know things would end up quite differently therefore roth initially wanted to use this as a smoke screen to hide his real intentions we'll get to the strategy a bit more in our video discussing law three of power with that out of the way the question you have now is why did michael hold the money back you know the obvious answer but what if i told you we finally found the final missing piece to this puzzle and it's something that will shock you why did michael hold the money back what actually happened to the two million dollars most people think that it was on purpose that since michael was suspicious of wroth he then held back the money which makes sense but is not actually true this will shock you but it was not michael holding the money back he only became uncertain of the deal itself only after witnessing the rebel situation firsthand he still wanted to play along and so had no reason not to send money even if he knew roth was after him in fact here's what exactly michael was scheming michael wanted to finally land the deal secure his new money maker and only then take out roth and ola which is why he made fredo personally bring the money which i'm sure you would agree that sending fredo with two million dollars in cash doesn't seem like a smart move on michael's part you imagine that huh two million dollars in the seat next to me in the plane but he did however trust him and at the time that was all he needed of course after seeing the rebel situation he knew the deal was not going to pass so he put all of his focus on getting rid of roth and ola i've already made my move i'm in roth i'll never see the name which was when he actually held the money back not before so it's not as simple as we thought and now the question becomes if it wasn't michael then who was it take a moment and quickly comment who you think was responsible here's what happened michael actually sent the money to cuba a few days before however the courier that he sent was then betrayed by roth and ola who then took him out stole the money and blamed it on michael this was just the icing on the cake for roth he wanted to squeeze as much out of the corleone family before burning it to the ground slightly quenching his thirst for revenge at the same time enjoy watching michael who seemed totally oblivious to what was going on and putting michael on the defensive just shows how cunning and machiavellian he truly was so what actually had happened was that michael only began thinking of holding the money back after the money didn't arrive and had realized that the rebels situation was not under control and was certain without a shadow of a doubt that it was roth all along [Music] after it's over you take me home in a military car alone for my protection before i reach my hotel i'll be assessing how did michael know he was to be assassinated in cuba michael seemed quite certain that this was going to take place so who told him was michael just testing fredo did the president inform michael or was it someone else it's actually a lot more straightforward after roth confirmed michael's suspicion slightly breaking the whole wise mentor persona it became quite obvious that roth was the one after him he understood that the only reason he was still alive was the fact that roth wanted more money from michael and now the money was in cuba he literally had no use for him everything else was all set roth had the deal in place and ready to go all that was left was to remove michael from the picture michael understood that was the smartest move roth could make he could assassinate him while he's vulnerable outside his own territory and then blame it on the rebels a truly masterful move and with michael gone even if they realized he was responsible he wouldn't need to worry too much about any retaliation from the corleone family since it would be in complete disarray but michael was three moves ahead of roth and had organized an escape route i have a question for you do you think fredo informed the cuban authorities about michael attempting to assassinate roth we'll cover it in an upcoming video but i'm very curious to know what you think roth's original plan of course roth had no real intention of actually fulfilling his end of the deal but when michael survived he needed to play along we mentioned this earlier the deal was almost too good to be true and it actually was but other than the fact that michael was still in the picture the deal and the vision was exactly the same he was adamant on building something that had never been done before why did michael continue to work with roth something that may seem quite strange is that we know michael knew roth was the one behind his assassination attempt not pentagonally so why would michael continue working with roth if he knew without a shadow of a doubt that roth was after him why would someone like michael who proved to be a capable strategist and a top player in the game of power make what seems to be an illogical move the answer can be found after we identify who michael decided to bring with him as you know he didn't bring any of his top enforcers neither rocco or al-neri were involved instead of michael sen's busetta a highly skilled and experienced assassin who was specifically hired directly from sicily essentially he was michael's luca brazzi michael didn't want to risk putting his top guys on this task in case something went wrong especially that they were entering what is considered roth's turf but there's also another reason it was so he could lure out the traitor as he had to solve the mystery before taking out roth and at the time he still had no idea who it was so this is why in the beginning he just wanted to keep roth at ease making roth completely relaxed gives him the opportunity to strike and as we mentioned earlier before actually foreseeing the revolution in cuba he also wanted the deal to go through and inherit roth's fortune what if michael was taken out finally something that we've all thought of a question with no clear answer is that what if michael had not survived what if roth's plan had actually succeeded from the very beginning well to start with the havana deal would continue as roth had wanted from the beginning now having avenged his longtime friend basking in the glory of his victory but then the question becomes who would take over the corleone family and what would be its fate and that's exactly what we uncover in this video and if you want to know more about roth discover the answers to all the mysteries questions and all of the other intricacies of the godfather 2 watch this playlist thank you for watching and make sure you're subscribed so that you can be part of the culture mafia

Channel: The Culture Mafia

Views: 552,161

Keywords: the godfather, al pacino, michael corleone, fredo corleone, the godfather part 1, the godfather clip, the godfather theme, mafia, marlon brando, mafia documentary, families of the mafia, godfather, the culture mafia, don corleone, lucky luciano, cosa nostra, mafia boss, the real life godfather, Hyman roth, real life mobsters, entrepreneur, mafia business, francis ford coppola, don vito corleone, Meyer lansky, hyman roth, havana deal, the godfather part 2

Id: 0QjXWh_o7Z4

Length: 14min 38sec (878 seconds)

Published: Sun May 15 2022