Originally Posted By: TahoeShooter
Didnt Sonny want to kill all the heads of the families?

That was a good idea and an idea that Michael actually carried out. They never saw him coming.

They would have seen Sonny coming a mile away. But it was still a good idea, right?


Yes, per novel that was Sonny's idea, his master stroke. The other Family heads went underground and did not surface until after Sonny's death. It was a good idea but he didn't have quite the tools to pull it off.

Sonny wanted to kill everyone who opposed the Family.
It's alluded to in the film when after the Don comes home Sonny tells Tom to help him find "that old pimp Tattaglia". Tom demurs and sarcastically notes Sonny's growing reputation for violence.

I wondered if Sonny's character was at least somewhat inspired by Albert Anastasia or Lilo Galente, two bosses known more for violence than brains...

"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives."
Winter is Coming

Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.