Although in practice I don't think a Godfather IV would be very successful, given how lackluster Part III was compared to the first two, I do have an idea for it. The film would begin around 2000 (Michael died in 1997, according to the Godfather DVD collection). Vincent (played by Andy Garcia) would still be the don. The main plotline would be the Corleones struggling against an attempt by the Russian mob, steadily growing in the U.S. since the fall of the Soviet Union, to muscle in on their operations, particularly in New York City.

The Russian mob has a well deserved reputation for extreme ruthlessness, and many say they make the U.S. Cosa Nostra look like a bunch of pussycats. This could result in Part IV having a dark tone not seen in any of the previous films, not even Part II. In Colombia, Pablo Escobar instilled fear by often targeting people's family members for execution. In order to break his power, a vigilante group named Los Pepes did the same thing. For example, the teenage son of one of Escobar's lawyers was murdered. Similarly, Part IV would feature the Russians targeting noncombatants in their war against the Corleones--not only relatives of Corleone family members, but even those of people such as casino owners and "legitimate" union officials who remain loyal to the Corleones, and shopkeepers who pay the Corleones protection money and refuse to pay the Russians instead. The purpose of these killings would be to make the Russian mob more feared than the Corleones and thereby cause people to switch their allegiance to the Russians. In the face of this onslaught, Vincent would reluctantly decide he needs to fight fire with fire, and would respond by using similar tactics himself on people connected to the Russians.

Part IV would have many of the trademark Godfather characteristics. Like the first three, it would begin with a celebration where Vincent would hold court. The main story would begin with an almost successful assassination attempt on him (by the Russians), as happened to Vito and Michael in Parts I and II. And as in the previous three films, the Corleones would emerge victorious. The film would end with a sequence featuring the executions of top Russian mob leaders. In the climactic scene, the most powerful of them all, Sergei Solovyov, the leader of an international syndicate, would be traveling on a plane. Unbeknownst to him, the other people aboard would include agents of the Corleones. They would seize control and throw Solovyov out of the plane, sending him falling thousands of feet to his death. This would be based on the pushing of people out of helicopters over the Andes under Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet.

Thoughts?