Al Pacino has portrayed more infamous gangster characters during his illustrious career than most, but none of those roles match the renown and acclaim of Michael Corleone in The Godfather. Across two timeless classics and a not-so-timeless threequel, Pacino charts Michael’s journey from mild-mannered war hero to the pinnacle of mafia power.

Pacino’s second-most iconic gangster role came 11 years later with Brian De Palma’s Scarface. While both stories involve Pacino’s character building a criminal empire, Michael Corleone and Tony Montana could not be further apart in their personalities. Where Michael is collected, understated and calculating, Tony is brash, H๏τ-headed and openly materialistic.

These conflicting personas are reflected by each story’s ending, but while Michael Corleone and Tony Montana suffer very different fates, Scarface essentially recreates the nuts and bolts of The Godfather‘s finale.

Scarface’s Ending Is The Opposite Of The Godfather’s, But Also The Same

On the surface, Michael Corleone’s last bow looks like the anтιтhesis of Tony Montana’s. Scarface famously concludes in bombastic fashion, as Pacino’s character exchanges fire with dozens of ᴀssᴀssins in an invasion of his luxurious mansion. Montana takes down numerous enemies, makes full use of a grenade launcher, and is still screaming obscenities after taking enough damage to fell any ordinary man.

Eventually, a blast from behind sends Montana plummeting from his upstairs balcony into the pool of water below – a dramatic and overblown end to a dramatic and overblown man.

When Michael Corleone dies in The Godfather Part III, he is alone in a silent Sicilian garden surrounded by cats. Without so much as a whisper, Michael slips away in a peacefully solemn final scene. No blood, no cursing, no grenades.

Under close examination, however, Scarface‘s ending is really a recreation of how The Godfather Part III brings Michael Corleone’s story to a close.

Strip away the bells and whistles, and Scarface‘s finale is really about a man whose lust for power, money, and status costs him his family, his friends, and his lover. Tony’s sister is ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. His best friend is ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. His wife has left him. His allies are all gone.

Tony Montana may go down swinging, surrounded by foes, but the important point is that he dies knowing he either destroyed or pushed away every person he loved. During his last breath, Tony is surrounded only by those looking to kill him, not those who knew him. For all the screaming and fighting, Tony’s reaction to Gina’s death proves this realization is not lost on him at the very end.

Tony Montana’s last stand isn’t heroic or valiant – it’s tragic, almost pathetic, in its futility. Scarface‘s ending isn’t designed to elicit sympathy or admiration, but pity.

Michael Corleone’s death is exactly the same. Pacino’s mobster spends his final moments alone. His daughter is ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. His brothers are ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. His wife and son have left him. Michael may be surrounded by cats instead of ᴀssᴀssins in his twilight minutes, but the sense of crushing, self-caused isolation is identical to Scarface.

As with Tony Montana, there’s a tragic quality to Michael’s death. The great Don Corleone slumping to his death unnoticed and unloved, steeped in wealth but torn from the people he cares about. Michael may be more accepting of his demise than Tony Montana, but both scenes are, at their cores, about men flying too close to the sun and losing people as a result.

Scarface Highlights The Common Thread Of Gangster Protagonists Over The Past 100 Years

One must acknowledge that Scarface‘s ending is a close adaptation of the original 1932 movie starring Paul Muni as Tony Camonte (the original Tony Montana). Camonte’s ambition culminates in a standoff against police at his own home, while he too causes his best friend and sister to die in quick succession.

Rather than Scarface recreating The Godfather, then, perhaps the reverse is true. Indeed, a common thread of the gangster genre since its inception has been the conflict between love and greed. Gangsters like Michael Corleone, Tony Montana and Tony Camonte aren’t entirely heartless, and value family connections highly, even if they don’t always demonstrate such feelings overtly.

This inner turmoil is what makes gangster movies so appealing from a cinematic perspective. Gangsters devoid of empathy and morals – think Joe Pesci’s character in Goodfellas – make for poor central protagonists, but those who walk a тιԍнтrope between wanton criminality and cherishing their families inspire stories that spoke as loudly to audiences in the 1930s as they do today.

The Al Pacino Gangster Movie That Has A Completely Different Ending Compared To The Godfather & Scarface

While The Godfather and Scarface (both versions) share the same ending at heart, not all of Al Pacino’s great gangster movies follow suit, and Donnie Brasco is a perfect example.

Like Michael Corleone and Tony Montana, Lefty Ruggiero in Donnie Brasco is a violent mobster with strong emotional ties to his family and friends. And while Lefty does die at the end, there’s a strange dignity to it. Pacino’s character says goodbye to his wife, prepares his personal effects, is clearly still thinking about Joe Pistone – the friend who betrayed him – and then walks calmly to meet his fate.

Lefty is paying for his crimes, certainly, but his greed never eclipses his sense of loyalty or the bonds forged with others. For that small virtue, the gangster genre seems to reward Lefty with an ending that isn’t quite as lonely and miserable as some of his contemporaries.

The Godfather does something similar with Michael’s father. Marlon Brando’s Vito Corleone balances the interests of the Corleone business with the interests of his family, and would never execute a member of his own clan like Michael does with Fredo. As a consequence, Vito’s death is very different to Michael’s, and the original don’s last moments are spent playing happily with his grandson. Like Lefty in Donnie Brasco, The Godfather rewards Vito’s ability to prioritize people over power.