It's not personal!

DISSOLVE TO: Corleone mall, during the day. Tom, Clemenza and Michael get out of the

car and walk through the gate, noticing armed men all over the mall. Tessio greets them.

-day

CLEMENZA

What's with all the new faces?

TESSIO

We'll need'em now. After the hospital thing, Sonny got mad. We hit Bruno Tattaglia 4

o'clock this morning.

CLEMENZA

Jesus Christ...

(then, motions to Michael to come on)

It looks like a fortress around here...

CUT TO: Inside the Corleone office -day

SONNY (to Tom)

Tom-anuch! Hey, a hundred button men on the street twenty-four hours a day; that Turk

shows one hair on his ass, he's dead --

TOM (going to sit down)

Yeah?

SONNY

-- believe me...

(then, to Michael, whose face is bruised from McCluskey's punch)

Hey, Michael, come're, let me look at you. You look beautiful! Beautiful! Just gorgeous!

(then, to Tom)

Hey, listen to this -- the Turk wants to talk. Eh gosh -- imagine the nerve of the sonofabitch,

eh? Craps out last night, and wants a meetin' today...

TOM

What did he say?

SONNY

What did he say -- Badda-beep, badda-bap, badda-boop, badda-beep -- He wants us to send

Michael here to proposition. And the promise is, that the deal is so good, that we can't

refuse. Eh...

TOM (as Tessio enters the room)

What about Bruno Tattaglia?

SONNY

That's part of the deal -- Bruno cancels out what they did to my father...

TOM

Sonny, we ought to hear what they have to say...

SONNY (standing in front of Tom, who's seated)

No; no; no! No more! Not this time, consiglieri. No more meetin's, no more discussions, no

more Sollozzo tricks. You give'em one message: I want Sollozzo -- if not, it's all-out war --

we go to the mattresses...

TOM (stands)

Some of the other families won't sit still for all-out war!

SONNY

Then they hand me Sollozzo!

TOM

Your father wouldn't want to hear this! This is business, not personal, Sonny!

SONNY

They shot my father -- that's business? Your ass...

TOM

Even the shooting of your father was business, not personal, Sonny!

SONNY (now seated behind the desk)

Well, then, business will have to suffer, alright? And listen -- do me a favor, Tom -- No

more advice on how to patch things up. Just help me win, please, alright?

TOM (after they settle down)

I found out about this Captain McCluskey who broke Mike's jaw...

SONNY

What about 'im?

TOM

Now he's definitely on Sollozzo's payroll, and for big money. McCluskey has agreed to be

the Turk's bodyguard. What you have to understand, Sonny, is that while Sollozzo is being

guarded like this, he is invulnerable. Now nobody has ever gunned down a New York police

captain -- never. It would be disastrous. All the Five Families would come after you, Sonny.

The Corleone Family would be outcasts! Even the old man's political protection would run

for cover! So do me a favor -- take this into consideration.

SONNY

Alright. We'll wait.

MICHAEL

We can't wait.

SONNY

Huh?

MICHAEL (who's seated with his arms on the chair's arms)

We can't wait. I don't care what Sollozzo says about a deal, he's gonna kill Pop, that's it.

That's the key for him. Gotta get Sollozzo.

CLEMENZA

Mike is right...

SONNY

Lemme ask you something, Professor, I mean -- what about McCluskey? Huh? What do we

do with this -- cop here?

MICHAEL

They wanna have a meeting with me, right? It will be me -- McCluskey -- and Sollozzo.

Let's set the meeting. Get our informers to find out where it's gonna be held. Now, we insist

it's a public place -- a bar, a restaurant -- some place where there's people so I feel safe.

They're gonna search me when I first meet them, right, so I can't have a weapon on me then.

But if Clemenza can figure a way -- to have a weapon planted there for me -- then I'll kill

'em both.

[Clemenza, Tessio and Sonny laugh. Tom shrugs]

SONNY

Hey, whataya gonna do, nice college boy, eh? Didn't want to get mixed up in the Family

business, huh? Now you wanna gun down a police captain, why, because he slapped ya in

the face a little bit? Hah? What do you think this is the Army, where you shoot'em a mile

away? You've gotta get up close like this and bada-bing! you blow their brains all over your

nice Ivy League suit. Come're...

MICHAEL (as Sonny kisses his head)

Sonny...

SONNY

You're taking this very personal. Tom, this is business and this man is taking it very very

personal.

MICHAEL

Where does it say that you can't kill a cop?

HAGEN

Come on, Mikey...

MICHAEL

Tom, wait a minute. I'm talking about a cop -- that's mixed up in drugs. I'm talking about ah

- ah - a dishonest cop -- a crooked cop who got mixed up in the rackets and got what was

coming to him. That's a terrific story. And we have newspaper people on the payroll, don't

we, Tom?

[Hagen nods in the affirmative]

And they might like a story like that.

HAGEN

They might, they just might...

MICHAEL (to Sonny)

It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business.