The most famous sequence intercuts Michael's nephew's baptism with the simultaneous assassination of all rival bosses. Michael renounces Satan at the altar while his men commit mass murder. The sequence compresses the film's entire thesis into a single, devastating contradiction.

The editing creates a meaning neither scene carries alone: Michael has become exactly the kind of person he vowed never to be, and the religious ritual that should represent purity has become a cover for atrocity. This is Eisenstein's montage theory applied with maximum emotional and moral force.