The final scene in The Godfather Part II, with the family gathered around the dinner table, was originally going to include Marlon Brando, but he pulled out at the very last minute. Coppola had to rewrite a whole new ending the night before the shoot. He explains:
“It’s a very interesting story, because I had written this scene that we go back to, around the period just before the first Godfather, when they were all young…
My idea was that they would come together, finally, at the end, as a family. And the end of the movie would be a big, beautiful scene with Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, sort of summing up the whole saga that had gone down.
And I was negotiating with Marlon Brando right up to the last minute saying, “Marlon, please, just one day. We’ll give you this money.” But Marlon was so mad at Paramount - for ultimately not paying him any money on the first picture, or whatever he was mad about - And although I didn’t know it until the last day, ultimately, it wasn’t going to be possible to have him in the picture.
So I went to bed that night really worried. I had lost the end of my movie. I had to shoot it the next day. I had no idea what to do. I was sleeping in the Chateau Marmont Hotel. I had this scene. I had paid all this money to get Jimmy Caan to come back and some of the other actors to be in the last scene.
And in the middle of the night, I just had this idea. And I wrote it - which is that they were all gathered for a surprise birthday party for the Don.
And so after this scene plays out, in which Michael’s decision to join the Marines is kind of examined relative to really what all we know is going to happen, and what this young, beautiful, collegiate man who’s a war hero, who goes straight, is going to end up to be: this man without a heart, who’s killed his own brother and alienated his wife… And I thought there could be one beautiful scene with him and Don Corleone as we remember him from the first movie.
Since Marlon didn’t come, I made it the surprise party, and I built it up to the point where they all said, “Oh, he’s here. He’s here.” And they all run out of the room. And as you’re waiting for Marlon to come into the room, you just stay on Al…
And I came up with the solution at, like - three in the morning. And the next day they said, “Well, Marlon’s not coming.” And I said, “That’s all right. I’ve got a scene we can do without him.” And it was this one.
Also, I like that staging kind of, especially about families who ultimately dissolve in front of your eyes, the idea that you have a table full of people. And one by one, someone argues or someone goes off, and then you’re just left with one …
And everything else now is just sound. The father comes, and you know he’s there, and you feel he’s there, but you’re left with Michael alone.”
This quote comes from the director's commentary track off the Godfather Part II Blu-ray