The Roth assassination in the airport is a suicide mission, all the more so because the assassin has a limp and therefore has zero chance of getting away.
Originally Posted By: 90Caliber
Was it known in advance that whoever was to kill Roth was without any doubt going to be shot or thrown in jail? If yes, what kind of circumstances/predicament/frame of mind must someone be in in order to be recruited for such a job?
I am not intending to disrepsect your opinions about this, but am sincerely trying to understand your thought process.
You say that that Rocco was sent on this Roth hit and took it as a form of self redemption, similar to Pentangeli, and that it WAS a suicide mission.
Then a few posts later you ask if Rocco had known in advance that he was going on a suicide mission, what kind of frame of mind would he be in going on this mission.
So which is it?
Did Rocco take this assignment as a way of going out with honor for betraying Michael, just as Pentangeli did?
Or
Was Rocco sent on this mission unaware that he would be killed? Unaware that Michael was setting him up for betraying him?
My opinion on the matter is that when Rocco was approached by Michael and told that he would do the hit in the airport, he knew Michael figured out he was a traitor because there was no possible escape from the bullets of "half the FBI" at the airport.
Now I do not think this has anything to do with redemption in the usual sense of that term. I don't even think Pentangelli's choice has to do with redemption, or going out with honor. It's a deal. Indeed this is how Tom puts it to Frankie. Frankie kills himself because he is getting something tangible in return: "When a plot against the emperor failed, their families were always given a chance to keep their fortunes." Frankie then says "only if they [the plotters] killed themselves." At this exact moment Tom chucks his cigar and extends his hand as a sign that he got what he came for and he's now leaving -- Frankie gets my point: he kills himself, and in exchange we take care of everything he leaves behind. "That was a good break, a nice deal."
To your question, "Was Rocco sent on this mission unaware that he would be killed? Unaware that Michael was setting him up for betraying him?" -- I think Rocco must have known, as soon as Michael approached him to assign the Roth hit to him (a conversation which necessarily occured but is not shown on screen), that he was a dead man. Why? Tom already gives us the reason in the earlier "Difficult, not impossible" conversation: when Roth gets to the airport he'll be swarmed by customs and half of the FBI. This little conversation is truly remarkable: after Tom notes this fact, it's now understood by all four men in the room that whoever is later approached by Michael to do that hit is not coming home. What drama!
