and are among , and the characters are a huge reason why—from their personalities to their levels of intelligence. There are many chess pieces moving throughout the trilogy, and part of the allure is its ability to show just how much strategy goes into, say, the assassination attempt on Vito Corleone (), the successful assassination of Sonny (), planting the gun in the restaurant bathroom for Michael (), or any other plot point throughout the franchise.

The adaptations of 's bestselling novel couldn't be taken seriously without the astounding writing and acting to make some characters look smarter than others. The audience is just as surprised as some of the characters are, and yet the explanations given make sense. It is no easy feat to make someone seem brighter than most other people, as some screenplays try to hide relatively dumb characters by making everyone around them even dumber. Though it's not one of the most realistic depictions of the mafia, 's mafia saga feels real because we as an audience believe that people like Vito Corleone and Hyman Roth are more deliberate with their actions than we would be. The fifteen most intelligent characters in The Godfather impress us more than the rest, but the process of ranking them is with their schemes.

Moe Greene () isn't on this list for what he does, since he doesn't have much screen time. He's here for what he has done beforehand, which includes running his casino (though it's currently not doing great) and making enough dough to confidently tell off Michael Corleone to his face when the man suggests he buy the casino. Moe is privy to the fact that the Corleone family has lost a good amount of muscle by then, and it's clear that he has accrued a formidable amount of power himself. Telling of Michael proves fatal, but no one really saw that move at the end coming.

by sleeping with cocktail waitresses during business hours. He knocked Fredo around in public a little to get him straightened out, but the man runs a tight ship to keep that ship from sinking. Ostensibly, standing up for himself was the right move. Furthermore, the fact Hyman Roth held him in high regard also speaks to the man's intellect.

In the beginning of The Godfather Part II, Frank Pentangeli is eventually able to complain to Michael that he doesn't have enough support back east. The Rosato brothers (played by and ) are taking over his territory, and Pentangeli won't be able to stop them without the necessary muscle. Although the Rosato brothers have a lot of power, you still need to have the smarts to use that power wisely.

While Pentangeli isn't enough of a strategist to find a way out of this situation, . Taking advantage of Michael shifting things out west, they're also working with Hyman Roth. Although Roth winds up losing this battle, he is still one of the ; and it speaks to the Rosato brothers' judgment that they take sides with him.

The Corleone family is pretty tough, so it takes a tough family to fight them in a mafia war. This would be the Tattaglia family, headed by Philip Tattaglia (). Although Vito Corleone tells Tom that Philip wouldn't be able to fight Santino without help, it's still a smart move for Tattaglia to recognize that and join up with Don Barzini. Self-awareness is a sign of intelligence, even if it admits a degree of weakness in a certain field.

. Only at the meeting with the heads of the various families does Don Corleone realize that Barzini was pulling the strings the entire time. Notice also that Tattaglia doesn't quite trust Don Corleone's offer of peace at first, which ends up being somewhat prophetic. He anticipates that Corleone's position will grow, and he might resume vengeance on the family that took his son. Michael eventually carries out an even more aggressive move during the Baptism sequence, so the old don wasn't quite wrong.

The very first , Don Ciccio () is the reason why young Vito Corleone fled Italy at the turn of the century. He had Vito's brother killed, and he understood perfectly well that Vito would seek vengeance as an adult. So he had the boy's mother killed and tried to have Vito killed too. That would have been the end of his troubles, but the boy was able to escape. Sure enough, Vito does exactly as the cruel don predicted.

Although Don Ciccio is only seen in the very beginning and end of Part II, he is still in charge of Corleone throughout all of that time in-between. Holding on to that much power is a formidable challenge, and he was apparently brutal enough to maintain his stranglehold on the community for decades. (and ruthless) he was.

After killing Sollozzo and McCluskey, Michael has to flee to Italy until things cool down in America. But who's going to protect him? Italy may keep him from the United States' authorities, but it's still a dangerous place. Luckily, Michael has Don Tommasino () on his side. Tommasino wasn't able to make his security foolproof, as Michael's wife is killed right as he was about to leave, but Michael still gets home in one piece because of this man.

Tommasino is an old friend of Vito Corleone. They went into the olive oil business together; Tommasino produces the oil, and Vito sells it. In Part II, it's Tommasino who helps Vito exact revenge upon Don Ciccio. . In The Godfather III, he still proves his usefulness to Michael by telling him about people in the Vatican. Although he would eventually get assassinated, this guy definitely had a good run.

Though largely a background character, Connie () . The first movie in the trilogy begins with her marriage to a man who would later abuse and cheat on her. When Michael kills him, Connie understands immediately what happened; she even says to Kay, "Why do you think he kept Carlo at the Mall? All the time he knew he was gonna kill him." Michael had to wait for his father to die in the meantime, which Connie also points out.

Michael never admitted this, yet Connie still brings it up with the utmost confidence in Part II. She also marries men who only seem to use her for her money, which isn't the smartest thing to do. However, she is so self-aware by the end of the sequel that she tells Michael that she entered those relationships out of hatred for him. Then, in , Connie compellingly schemes to get Vincent () higher up in the ranks. It appears that she learns more and more through experience.

There's a reason why Clemenza () is able to take over in New York after Michael leaves for Nevada, and it's not just because he's the one who got Vito into organized crime in the first place. He's smart and reliable, as is implied at the end of the very first scene in . Notice that Clemenza agrees with Michael when the latter states that killing Vito is the key for Solozzo's plan to work. He's also able to find a way to plant the gun in the restaurant.

It was Michael's idea, sure, but he's not the one who had to work out the specifics, like leaving the weapon in the bathroom. Through all those years of experience, Clemenza knows more than just how to assassinate people. He also understands that leaving the table is a challenge in itself, which is why he tells Michael to ask permission to go to the bathroom. This makes him seem less eager. Along with introducing Vito to organized crime in Part II, .

Salvatore Tessio () doesn't get quite as many memorable moments as Clemenza, but . That alone is a marker of his intelligence. Don Corleone was also going to give him his own family at the end of the first film, which obviously shows that the Don still trusted both his friend's abilities and strength of mind. Things didn't work out that way, of course.

On the surface, Tessio's betrayal doesn't sound like the smartest thing in the world, but that's because Vito gave Michael some significant advice. Without his father's counsel, which is more valuable than anyone else's, Michael most likely wouldn't have known that the meeting Tessio set up with Barzini was a trap. Tom tells Michael that he thought Clemenza would have been the one to betray the family, but Michael explicitly says that it was "the smart move. Tessio was always smarter." Can't argue with the screenplay.

Don Fanucci (), otherwise known as The Black Hand, has Little Italy in his pocket at the start of Part II. It's explained to the audience that he's an Italian who steals from Italians because he knows they have no protection. That's a cold move, but it certainly works. He makes everyone pay him off, and his stranglehold on the community is so tight that he commands respect on sight. His insistence on having everyone let him "wet my beak" is one of the .

. Funny enough, Don Fanucci recognizes that Vito is a man he himself can use. When the young Corleone doesn't give him all the money he asked for, Fanucci is impressed by his confidence and demeanor. Although Vito kills him later that day, he was apparently going to get a well-paying job from the don had he decided to take the less ambitious path.

During their meeting in the first movie, Don Corleone tells Virgil Sollozzo () that he agreed to meet with him because he was told that Sollozzo is a serious man who's treated with respect. At that same meeting, Sollozzo immediately intuits that Sonny would support his deal when the young man speaks out of turn. He's also able to see that Tom thinks it's a good idea as well. Vito is old-school; that's why he doesn't like the drug game, and it makes him the outlier in the family. Take him out, and the rest will follow.

Of course, it's not quite so simple: Sonny (and Luca Brasi) will be furious when he finds out his father's been assassinated. Anticipating that, Sollozzo briefly kidnaps Tom to tell him he needs to talk some sense into the new don. Along with knowing that Luca Brasi is acting as a spy and picking up on Michael's confusion (though not getting suspicious enough) about going to eat in New Jersey, .

. That title belongs to Tom Hagen (), who started as the adopted son of Vito Corleone and then became his lawyer (a big honor in itself). As the advisor to Don Corleone, he proves an excellent voice of reason who often goes head-to-head with Sonny. He thinks everything through, even hearing Michael out when he tells him that the newspaper men on the payroll might like the story of a corrupt cop getting killed.

Although he's given a bit of a hard time for not being a wartime consigliere, Tom is still useful enough for Michael to keep him on as legal counsel by the end of the first movie. In fact, Michael puts him in charge of everything while he travels to Cuba in Part II. Overall, Tom's calculations are so integral in the first two films that he is sorely missed in the third.

The man who outsmarts Vito Corleone, Don Barzini (Richard Conte) is first presented as a mob boss who is so careful that he won't even have his picture taken at Connie Corleone's wedding. It's an amusing scene that shows that some of the men here demand a certain level of respect (photographers beware), but the audience gets a clearer understanding of the man later on in the story.

He uses Tattaglia like a puppet, and Don Corleone only figures out that Barzini set up the war after the meeting of the five families (noticing that Barzini more or less presided over the whole thing). Vito even says Tattaglia could never outfight Santino, while Barzini indeed could. Along with gradually taking over Clemenza's and Tessio's territories and even talking to Moe Greene about buying him out before the Corleones, Don Barzini is one of the most intimidating strategists in the franchise.

Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg) is the main antagonist of Part II, known as one of the oldest friends of the Corleone family and a man who always makes money for his partners. He backs up the Rosato brothers, who are pushing into Pentangeli's territory. He also tried (and almost succeeded) to assassinate Michael. As Barzini almost killed Vito, it requires a lot of thought and maneuvering to get so close to achieving such a difficult plan.

More impressive, however, is his attempted assassination on Frank Pentangeli. Since he has one of the hitmen tell the target that they were sent by Michael Corleone, Pentangeli is given a pretty compelling reason to testify against the Corleone family in court. This orchestrated betrayal really puts Michael on his heels, and Tom even says that Roth played it out beautifully. He still doesn't win the battle, but he puts up one heck of a fight and helps make The Godfather Part II among the greatest R-rated gangster movies of all time.

Michael's level of intelligence depends on the movie. In the first installment, his ingenuity is extremely formidable. He figures out how to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey, a plan that no one else thinks of (or even likes) at first. He also winds up killing the heads of the other five mafia families in New York, consolidating the Corleone family's control. Along with expanding West and eventually making so much money that he can donate a hundred million dollars to the Vatican in Part III, Michael clearly knows how to gain power and money.

Though it's unclear whether Michael or Tom came up with the idea to bring Frank Pentangeli's brother to the trial in Part II, it was a successful last-ditch effort to save the Corleone family. Michael's decision to kill Hyman Roth when the man is already dying speaks much more to his relentlessness than his smarts. So much could have gone wrong, and Tom understandably argues against it. Also, when Michael tries to make the Corleone family legitimate in Part III, this seems doomed from the start. Overall, however, he's definitely one of the smartest people in the trilogy.

Based on several people (including Mario Puzo's own mother), Vito Corleone says that he spent his whole life trying not to be careless. He built the Corleone empire up from nothing, making it one of the strongest mafia families in New York. His gracious manners and soft-spoken demeanor allow him to gain a respected reputation. It might have been unwise of him to refuse the drug trade, but Sonny's interruption is what makes it much worse.

Though Sollozzo claims the don was "slipping," Vito was still able to figure out that Don Barzini was behind the attempt on his life all along. He was also able to give Michael enough wisdom to bring the Corleone family to remarkable levels of power. In one of the best quotes from The Godfather, Vito is the one who warns Michael about what turns out to be Tessio's betrayal. Perhaps his greatest accomplishment, however, is his ability to wield so much power while maintaining a strong emotional connection to his family. That takes more than just heart.

NEXT:The Best Quotes from 'The Godfather,' Ranked