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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | That's the guy Adriana. My uncle Tony. The guy I'm goin' to hell for. | „ |
| ~ Christopher Moltisanti to Adriana La Cerva, on Tony Soprano; his most famous quote. |
| “ | That's it. I don't wanna just survive. It's says in these movie writing books that every character has an arc. Understand? Like everybody starts out somewhere's and they do something, something gets done to them and it changes their life. That's called an arc. Where's my arc? | „ |
| ~ Christopher Moltisanti to Paulie Gualtieri about his life crisis. |
Christopher Moltisanti is the deuteragonist in the HBO mob series The Sopranos and the posthumous narrator of its 2021 prequel film The Many Saints of Newark.
He is the son of Tony Soprano's mentor Dickie Moltisanti and the cousin of his wife Carmela. Due to his relationship with Dickie, Tony affectionately considered Christopher a nephew and gave him leniency he did not show to others. Christopher was extremely violent, impulsive, and immature. Eventually Christopher's substance abuse problems helped to ruin his relationship with his uncle, and Tony killed him after deciding his nephew had become a liability.
He was portrayed by Michael Imperioli.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
In General[]
- He was physically and emotionally abusive to his girlfriend Adrianna, insulting her, cheating on her, and beating her up repeatedly. When she admits to Christopher that she's become an FBI informant, he tells Tony that she's an informant and has her murdered because he doesn't want to live a mundane lifestyle.
- His abuse of drugs constantly causes a lot of trouble and causes a lot of physiological damage to people who are close to him, for example:
- In the second season, he traveled to Naples with Tony and Paulie to make a deal with the Vittorio/Zucca Camorra crime family over the smuggling of stolen cars, where he secretly fed his heroin habit behind the backs of the crew.
- In the third season, while in attendance of Livia’s wake at the Sopranos residence, Christopher was shamelessly high on a mix of marijuana and cocaine, which caused him to give a confusing and rambling speech in memory of Livia.
- In the fourth season, while attending a party hosted by Tony, Christopher smokes a heroin-laced joint in the bathroom with one of the Icelandic Air stewardesses, Furio, brought behind Adriana’s back.
- While high on cocaine during an evening at Adriana’s club, as he kissed Adriana, he put his hand on Danielle’s thigh and later lies and says Danielle took the initiative when Adriana yells at him over this.
- Whilst he returned home, in a heroin-induced stupor, Christopher sat on Adriana’s dog Cosette on the couch, killing it, although it was an accident.
- Even though some of his bad deeds, like killing the waiter, are played for laughs, it doesn’t distract him from his heinousness, as most of his actions are taken seriously in universe.
Season 1[]
- Assisted Tony in pursuing Alex Mahaffey, a gambling addict who owned Tony money, where Tony ran down Mahaffey, broke his leg, and beat him up in broad daylight.
- To settle a dispute with Triboro Towers, a rival Czech waste management company to the Soprano family’s front business, Christopher lures out and shoots dead the company’s heir Emil Kolar under the false premise of a drug deal.
- Created a truck hijaking gig with his friend Brendan Filone, where they’d hijack shipments of DVD players from Comley Trucks and attack the driver, delivering the players to Tony, Silvio, and Paulie.
- Supplied Meadow and Hunter with speed; however, in Christopher’s defence, this was only a one-time supply, and he didn’t want them to get drugs from the wrong people.
- While performing an errand for Tony at a bakery, Chris becomes impatient over his ticket not being called, angrily snapping at the counter worker when he served another customer, Gino, which led to Christopher forcing Gino out of the store and pulling his gun on the worker, demanding he fill the box with various pastries. Christopher fired past the worker’s head multiple times while he filled the box, scaring the worker, and before he left, Christopher spitefully shot the worker in the foot, all just to vent out his frustration over struggling to write a screenplay.
- Additionally, Tony reveals later to Christopher that the incident came to the attention of the local police, and the worker’s gunshot wound was so bad he had to be hospitalised and ended up losing one of his toes.
- In order to intimidate Meadow’s soccer coach, Don Hauser, into staying after he planned on leaving for a college coaching job, Christopher presumably stole Hauser’s dog, as he later visits Hauser and “returns” the dog after it went missing.
- Robbed and murdered a Colombian drug dealer alongside Paulie and Big Pussy, stealing his money and giving it to Tony.
- After financing a demo for the band Visiting Day, when the demo recording progressed slowly, Christopher smashed Richie Santini’s, the band singer and Adriana’s ex, guitar over his back in frustration.
- After Junior gives permission to whack Jimmy Altieri, who is believed to be an FBI informant, Christopher lures Jimmy to a hotel room where he’s ambushed and executed by Silvio, whose body is left out in public with a dead rat shoved in his mouth.
- Christopher, alongside Paulie, ambushes Mikey Palmice, a soldier in Junior’s care involved in Tony’s hit, chasing him into the woods and shooting him in the leg, before brutally emptying all their bullets into Mikey.
Season 2[]
- Christopher lazily hires someone to take his stockbroker’s licensing exam and becomes the SEC compliance officer for a boiler room conducting a pump and dumb scam, pressuring people to push a worthless stock, as well as hiring Matt Bevilaqua and Sean Gismonte, who brutally beat up and poorer hot coffee on a broker just for providing genuine investment advice instead of what Christopher had ordered him to do. This is also said to have caused multiple employees to leave after the incident and Christopher's poor work performance.
- After being enrolled in an acting course by Adriana, Christopher violently attacks his acting partner whilst acting out a scene from Rebel Without a Cause, as it reminded him of his father’s murder.
- Upon a meeting with his cousin Greg over reentering the film industry, Christopher meets Greg’s fiancée Amy, who is working with Jon Favreau on a film project, later having sex with her in a hotel after discussing screenwriting, cheating on very loyal Adriana. He also later tries to have sex with her again a few days later; however, she refuses.
- When Amy didn’t reply to his messages, Christopher tracked her down in California and heatedly argued with her, insultingly calling her a “D-Girl”.
- He gets into a huge argument with Adriana after embarrassing her in a restaurant, which caused Adriana to briefly leave him and go back to her mother’s house.
- Planned on hijacking a shipment of Pokémon cards with an associate.
- Alongside Furio, Christopher assisted Tony in disposing of Richie’s body after he had been killed by Janice, brutally dismembering the corpse at Satriale’s.
Season 3[]
- Desperate to pay back Paulie as part of a sportsbook operation, Christopher goes behind Tony’s back in not involving Jackie Jr. in the mafia lifestyle by helping Jackie rob a charity concert at Rutgers, taking over the operation and making Jackie the getaway driver, where Jackie nervously wet himself after hearing a gunshot, presumably from Christopher. He later uses the money to pay back Paulie.
- Tries to stab Artie Bucco in the eye with a fork after he drunkenly insults him and expresses feelings for Adrianna.
- After the DiMeo Family take over The Lollipop Club, Christopher gave the club to Adriana to manage, with the ulterior motive of using the club as an opportunity for the crew to run their business in a safe environment without FBI interference.
- Christopher accompanies Paulie to make a collection from a Russian mobster, Valery, helping subdue and knock out Valery after Paulie provoked him, before traveling to the New Jersey Pine Barrens to dumb his body. When Valery is revealed to have been still alive, having chewed through the duct tape, and to have been a former commando,
- Christopher and Paulie give him a shovel and force him to dig his own grave. However, Valery escaped, and Christopher and Paulie attempted to shoot him dead, with Valery somehow escaping despite being shot in the head.
- Christopher and Albert Barese shot dead Dino Zerilli, one of the robbers in Jackie’s card game robbery, who was left abandoned and begged to be spared, though this is understandable given what had occurred during the robbery.
- Following the robbery, Christopher warns Tony that he knows Jackie Jr. was the orchestrate and demands that he be killed, which likely influenced Tony’s decision to stay neutral in the matter and subtly pressure Ralph in ordering Jackie’s death, making Christopher partly responsible for his death.
Season 4[]
- Tony has Christopher drive out to a Hooters, where he claims to Christopher that the man who killed his father, Dickie Moltisanti, corrupt Detective Lieutenant Barry Haydu, who is on Tony’s payroll, is in the restaurant having his retirement party, giving Christopher Haydu's address and his blessing to execute him. Christopher ended up tracking Haydu to his home, knocking him unconscious, taking his gun, and handcuffing him to the staircase. When Christopher questions him, Haydu seems to genuinely deny any involvement with Dickie’s death and claims Christopher is being set up; however, Christopher says none of it made a difference because “he wants you dead.” However, Christopher shoot him dead after Haydu managed to escape, ignoring Haydu’s pleas for life. He also robs him before he leaves.
- It is heavily implied that Tony was manipulating Christopher and lying about Haydu’s involvement with his father’s death, and mixed with Haydu’s genuine surprise and perplexity at being accused of killing Christopher’s father, it’s all the more likely that Haydu was innocent. Despite these factors, Christopher still went along with Tony’s orders and gave no regard in considering Haydu was innocent.
- Christopher, alongside Silvio, visited the Gallina crew to pay DiMaggio Gallina, a hitman, half of the money for the assassination of Johnny Sack, on Tony’s orders, and hand him a photo of Johnny, suggesting DiMaggio make him disappear as he is in Boston visiting his father.
- After agreeing to Adriana’s suggestion to set a date for a wedding, Christopher brings up having children, to which Adriana reveals she could be sterile. Christopher gets into a heated argument with her, calling her “damaged goods,” and rips in to her before storming out in a fit of rage.
- Assisted Tony in disposing of Ralph’s body after Tony beat him to death, cutting off his head and severing his body and throwing it over a cliff into a quarry.
- After getting carjacked and beaten while trying to purchase heroin in a low-income barrio, Christopher comes to Adriana, who gives him a pamphlet for a rehab clinic. Christopher, however, responds by violently attacking her; infuriated, she tries to get him to go to rehab before storming off.
- During his intervention, Christopher frequently interrupts and verbally attacks everyone speaking to him, even showing no remorse for accidentally killing Cosette when Adriana brings it up, making references such as Paulie’s Pine Barrens fiasco and Silvio’s infidelity, refusing to accept everyone’s attempts to help him.
- While the intervention was somewhat hostile and judgmental, Christopher was the main instigator, as he refused to listen to anyone and verbally attacked everyone in a hostile and abrasive manner.
- Soon the intervention becomes even more hostile, and Christopher starts to get worse, insulting Tony on his eating habits and even badly cursing at his own mother, causing Paulie and Silvio to beat him up.
- After getting out of Rehab, Christopher helps Tony with a hit against Carmine and delivers a payment to two heroin dealers to make the hit look like an outside job; however, Tony eventually decides against the hit and orders Christopher to kill the hired guns.
Season 5[]
- Christopher sparks a feud with Paulie after a re-telling of the Pine Barrens incident devolves into mutual recriminations and accusations, which influences Christopher, resenting the fact he has to pay for dinners because of his lower-rank status, to force Paulie to pay for their dinner.
- During a dinner in Atlantic City, Paulie orders his guests to order expensive meals to inflate Christopher’s bill, which causes an argument between the two in the parking lot. When a waiter confronts Christopher about the poor tip he left, Christopher threatens that he should leave before he gets hurt, which causes the Waiter to angrily insult the two. In response, Christopher throws a brick at his head, which causes the waiter to collapse and start convulsing because of a seizure attack, which promotes Paulie to shoot the waiter dead and rob him before the two sped off.
- The very next day, Christopher and Paulie make amends and agree to split the tab, saying that the previous night could’ve gotten out of hand and someone could’ve gotten hurt, callously forgetting about the waiter’s death.
- Christopher, alongside Benny, assisted Tony in getting rid of Feech by tricking him into hiding a truckload of flatscreen TVs in his garage in return for payment, plus a TV for himself, where the next day a parole officer visited Feech and found the stolen goods, getting him sent back to prison.
- Upon his return from North Carolina, where he was taking part in a cigarette smuggling job, Christopher finds out about Tony and Adriana’s car accident; however, after Tony’s crew played telephone games and the situation turned into “Adriana gave Tony a blowjob” and the FBI caught wind of the situation, Christopher became a laughing stock. He angrily visits Satriale’s and becomes hostile with the crew after they wouldn’t divulge what they were laughing about, as they stopped when he entered, causing Christopher to lose his temper and throw his sandwich at Vito.
- Upon coming home, Christopher violently batters Adriana and chokes her, believing the distorted story, viciously yelling at her and refusing to give her a chance to defend herself, even after she admits she and Tony were going to see her drug dealer but insists nothing happened, dragging her out of the apartment and demanding he never see her again. After this, he also relapses by drinking a bottle of Vodka.
- Christopher drunkenly arrived at the Bada Bing! car park and shot his pistol at Tony’s car before entering the club and shouting threats to Tony, waving his gun around.
- After hanging out with J.T. Dolan, a television screenwriter he met in rehab, Christopher introduced him to the family’s high-stakes poker games despite Dolan's potential to channel his addiction problems into gambling, which causes him to run up $60,000 in debt and start missing payments, to which Chris, alongside Little Paulie, visits him in his apartment and gives him a beating. This caused Dolan to lose some writing jobs and turn back to heroin. Christopher, however, does help direct him back towards rehab.
- When Adriana finally admits to Christopher that she has been an FBI informant, he reacts violently and chokes her to near death; however, he breaks down crying and lets her go, agreeing to flee with her and start a new life. However, Christopher revealed this to Tony and sold Adriana out to her death, as Tony called Adriana later and claimed Christopher tried to commit suicide and that Silvio would be picking her up, of whom would drive her out to the woods and execute her, despite Adriana’s cries and pleas.
- This is an immensely horrible act, as Christopher could’ve done more to save Adriana’s life than help her escape, instead backstabbing her and selling her out to her death to Tony, still remaining loyal to Tony rather than his own fiance. And to make matters worse, he made her life a living hell by constantly verbally and physically abusing her, which contributed to her immense stress and illness conceived upon being an FBI informant, which makes Adriana’s demise all the more disturbing and horrifying.
- After Adriana’s death, Christopher packed her possessions into a suitcase and tossed it into an industrial marshland. He later drove her car to the Newark Liberty International Airport and left it out in the car park.
- Christopher later callously disregards Adriana’s death as he helps Tony bury Tony B’s body and promises Tony he will stay sober and prove his worth, emotionally hugging and embracing Tony, who was the one that ordered his own fiancé’s death.
Season 6[]
- On Christopher’s orders, Eugene executed Teddy Spirodakis, a gambler refusing to pay his debt, in a fast food diner right in public.
- Sided with Phil when he mocked Johnny for crying after being taken away by the Marshals at his daughter Allegra’s wedding, even though he was the man who became violently hostile to his own mother and even threatened to kill him.
- After being informed by Tony that two Italian hitmen would be sent over to assassinate Rusty Millio, Christopher helps him by hiring a third party to equip them with weapons and to act as an intermediary between the assassins and the DiMeo family, giving the task to associate Corky Caporale and paying him heroin as a partial payment. Corky ended up providing the hitmen with “clean” pistols and Rusty’s whereabouts, who shot dead Rusty and his bodyguard.
- During a visit to Los Angeles with Little Carmime, Christopher went behind the back of his AA sponsor by partaking in excessive alcohol and drug consumption.
- When Ben Kingsley turned down Cleaver, Christopher and Murmur cornered Kingsley in the elevator and tried to subtly intimidate him into giving them access to the Luxury Lounge. When Kingsley reveals that award presenters get free goods worth around $30,000, Christopher later mugs Lauren Bacall outside the Awards Show, punching her and stealing her rewards bag, which he later tries to give to Tony.
- On their way home from a trip to Pennsylvania, Christopher and Tony witness two bikers stealing crates of 1986 Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande wine, stealing the crates for themselves when the bikers go back into the store. When they reemerged, Christopher held them at gunpoint and exchanged gunfire with them as they sped away, wounding one of the bikers. While drinking the wine in a parking lot.
- Christopher and Tony reminisce about all their good and bad times, even the day when Chris told Tony about Adriana and the Feds, to which the two of them profess their love and support for each other, with Christopher callously disregarding Adriana.
- While watching football on Thanksgiving with Tony, Bobby, and A.J. Christopher reveals he has a new mistress named "Kaisha," who is actually Julianna Skiff, Tony’s former mistress, whom he has been secretly meeting because he felt he rushed into marriage with Kelli and doesn’t want a family with her.
- During the screening of Christopher’s mafia-themed slasher Cleaver, Carmela found a similarity between the film's love triangle and Christopher's suspicion that Tony had an affair with Adriana, heavily implying that the entire film was made as a sort of revenge fantasy against Tony.
- When he asked Cleaver’s screenwriter J.T. Dolan to tell Tony that the character was his idea, which he refuses, Christopher hits him over the head with a Humanitas Prize trophy.
- Assisted Paulie in selling stolen power tools through the hardware store owned by Christopher's father-in-law, Al.
- When Little Paulie stole from the hardware store, Christopher tracked him down and threw him out of a third-story window, which broke six of Little Paulie’s vertebrae.
- Upset about Paulie’s joke against his daughter, Christopher visits Dolan to pour his heart out; however, when Dolan unenthusiastically rebuffs him and makes a remark about him “being in the Mafia,”Christopher begins to leave before suddenly turning around and shooting Dolan in the head, killing him.
- While driving Tony back to Newark, Christopher, while high, becomes agitated and repeatedly changes the radio station, and as he continues to be distracted by the stereo as the road curves, causing him to drive into the opposite lane and nearly hitting an oncoming car and causing his car to go off the road and crash. When he exited the car, Tony noticed that a tree branch had impaled Chris' vehicle directly where his daughter's baby seat was located, meaning his daughter would’ve been killed if she was in the car. Tony kills Christopher soon after this, pinching Chris's nose shut so that he cannot breathe, and he chokes to death on his own blood.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He's an extremely tragic and sympathetic character for many reasons, for example:
- His mother Joanne was a drug addict, who is implied to have neglected Christopher while his dad Dickie was murdered on the orders of Junior Soprano when he was very young. Thus he only had Tony as a parental figure, which leads him into being the Mafia and what happens after.
- He was also bullied by Tony and their cousin Tony Blundetto in youth, with the former also taking an abusive and manipulative attitude towards him later in life.
- Even after he manages to get off drugs and alcohol before starting a family of his own to improve himself, Tony and Paulie still give him a hard time. Tony even angrily tells Christopher to have a drink after feeling annoyed by him. Thus no matter the sacrifices Chris made (including giving up one of the few people who genuinely loved him), it still wasn’t good enough for Tony and he was doomed from the moment he joined the Mafia.
- This extends to having a sympathetic death, as he’s betrayed and killed by Tony merely because he was a liability. Despite Christopher being undyingly loyal to Tony for so many years, even sacrificing Adriana in the process, showing how everything he did for Tony was for nothing. Unlike Paulie and the others, Tony shows no guilt or remorse whatsoever for Chris’ demise, which he admits openly to Dr. Jennifer Melfi.
- As a result, his new wife is widowed, and his daughter will never know her father, like he never knew his own father. Taken together, his pathetic fate and later funeral are rather upsetting to watch.
- He has a few Pet the Dog moments:
- He comforts Ralph after Justin’s disastrous injury, feeling sorry for his colleague.
- He comforts Carmela after Tony is shot by Junior. Carmela even recalls to Tony after Christopher’s death, “When we were in that ICU, it was Chris who held me.”
- He's always courteous to Livia Soprano and does maintenance around her house. This saves his life, as she ensures Junior spares him.
- Despite his desire to kill Vito and see him dead for being gay, he is one of the few persons who sympathizes with Vito's children and understands Vito Jr.'s troubles in the aftermath of his father's death.
- He conceals Paulie's failure from Tony, despite Paulie's attempt to screw him over by throwing him under the bus.
- When he learns that AJ attempted to purchase a pistol to kill Junior after Junior shot Tony due to dementia, he and Bobby try quietly to talk AJ out of it and sympathize with his thoughts.
- He genuinely cares about several people:
- He loves his daughter Caitlyn, even telling Paulie how much he enjoys watching her, which Chris was unfortunately teased for.
- Although their relationship is hardly ideal, he does have a soft spot for his mother. He almost confronts Phil when he spots him threatening Joanne through a window.
- Despite being rather abusive and toxic partner, Christopher really did love Adriana. While he does end up turning her into Tony for working with the FBI, he was incredibly heartbroken and was unable to kill her himself. Later on, when he’s venting about Tony and the others to J. T. Dolan, he mentions how he gave up Adriana for them, feeling remorse for doing so.
- He was genuinely saddened when his friend Brendan Filone was murdered by Mikey Palmice, going so far as to kill Mikey to avenge his death.
- He’s undyingly loyal to Tony and views him as the closest thing to a father; a big part of the reason he commits crimes is to gain favor and respect from Tony.
- He cares for Tony's children, Meadow and AJ. He was hesitant to give Meadow speed to use it in her choir and even made sure she got it from him and not the streets, as he knew she would likely get beaten and raped had she done so. Later on, when he heard AJ was going to buy a gun so he could kill Junior for shooting Tony, he and Bobby attempted to talk him out of it as they didn't want him involved.
- Despite their frequent arguments, he has a genuine friendship with Paulie. With Paulie feeling sorry for how he treated Christopher upon his death.
- According to the conversation he had with J. T. Dolan, he refers to Ralph as a friend and is angry that Tony made him help in brutally disposing Ralph’s body. On top of being genuinely sorry for Ralph when his son was in the hospital.
- He has some standards as he (like Tony and the rest of the DiMeo Crime family) showed discomfort upon hearing about Vito’s gruesome fate at the hands of Phil Leotardo. Going as far to call Phil a ‘prick’ and stating he never liked him. He also isn’t too keen on Carlo’s compliment of Phil for what he did to Vito, looking over to Tony (who was more visibly angry about it).
- He is shown to be somewhat affable, as despite his volatility and immaturity, Chris is usually a kind guy if you don't irritate him.
