I know this has probably been beaten to death too by all the members here, but i wanted to know how you think the relationship between Mike and Tom would have played out.

Had Duvall signed on, I think that would have been one of the best plot lines ever to expand on in the trilogy.

Do you think Hagen would have remained loyal to the Corleones for the rest of his life, or do you think there would have been a different outcome?

As you know, Duvall was approached about being in III, but wanted too much money for Paramount to pay. So they put in Hamilton , and he was basically a cipher in the movie--much the best course of action for the Melanoma Poster Boy.

But, if Duvall had accepted, the script treatment would have had to be vastly different. In another thread you raised an early script treatment showing Tom skimming from the hotels. Probably there were others. The point is: Duvall would have been at least as important to the Trilogy in III as were Pacino, Keaton and Shire. I'm guessing that, given his declining role in the family at the end of II, the Hagen character would have been given some denouement in III--possibly a to-the-death struggle with Neri, and even a betrayal of Michael. Any way you conjure it, it'd be a big improvement over what we got in III.

I can imagine a scenario where Tom commits suicide in the end. Or is being talked into suicide.

I dont know. That sounds too much like Frankie's death scene with Tom from Pt. II

I envision Tom as being loyal to the end, and having a chance to betray Michael (and we wouldn't have blamed him since Mike was a prick to Tom), but he doesn't, and it results in his death at the hands of the assassin or someone else in an alternate Pt. III plot.

Great idea, DBCH!

Tom sacrificing himself for a totally unappreciative Michael would have been far superior to him simply betraying Michael. And the sadness and futility of that subplot would have been much more in line with the themes of GFIII.