Summary

  • The shocking and confusing ending of "The Departed" leaves Colin Sullivan alone and exposed as a rat, facing justice for his two-faced nature.
  • Frank Costello's revelation as an FBI informant sends shockwaves through the characters, changing their motivations and causing chaos.
  • Staff Sergeant Sean Dignam, the only honest character, returns at the end to expose the web of informants and bring the chaotic story to a close.

The Departed ending is one of the most shocking and analysis-worthy film finales of the 21st century. Martin Scorsese’s award-winning 2006 movie, a remake of the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, culminates in the collision of the plot's parallel storylines. For most of The Departed, characters Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) are deep undercover in the Irish Mob and the Boston State Police force, respectively. It isn’t until the end of the movie that the two moles discover each other’s identities and the final confrontation between them is set off. But the explosive and violent ending is a bit confusing on the first watch.

Like many of Scorsese’s best movies, The Departed has a large ensemble cast, and with so many characters working either as spies or loyal soldiers within their respective networks, the relationships and the identities of the characters can get lost. This is done intentionally by the director, and the confusion the audience feels by the whiplash undercover reveals mirrors what the characters themselves are experiencing. Important players like Staff Sergeant Sean Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) are forgotten only to reappear, and characters like Matt Damon’s Colin Sullivan seem to emerge victorious only to be gunned down in the final moments of the movie.

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What Happens In The Departed's Ending

Twists That Nobody Saw Coming

In The Departed's ending, nearly everyone is dead except for Colin Sullivan. After years of spying for the mob, he's left as the only one with knowledge about his duplicity. That is until his girlfriend, Dr. Madolyn Madden (Vera Farmiga), receives a recording proving that he is a rat. Even if she doesn’t reveal his crime, Colin still hasn't escaped being discovered. A major theme of The Departed is that characters ultimately pay for their two-faced nature and no one stays hidden for long. Even though Colin thought he would get away with it all, his girlfriend knowing the truth hangs over him like a knife.

That dour ending to the movie would be satisfying enough, as Colin has survived The Departed's climax but is now left completely alone without his romantic partner or his connections to the Irish Mob. For Scorsese, that still is not enough justice for the shady character, and The Departed actually ends differently than the original film, Infernal Affairs. In the final scene of the remake, Dignam, who had disappeared halfway through the movie, surprises Colin — and the audience watching — with a bullet to Colin's head, tying up all loose ends but also allowing for a possible Wallberg-led Departed 2.

Frank Costello’s Secret

Hiding Things Until The End

Jack Nicholson talks to someone off-screen as Frank Costello in The Departed.

Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson), is one of the more evil villains in a Scorsese movie. Frank commits many illegal activities throughout The Departed, but for some reason, they are never pinned on the mob boss. As it turns out, Frank himself was a rat, for the FBI, and as no department ever reveals who their moles are, no one in the State Police was aware that the man they were trying to indict was actually already working as a rat and is therefore untouchable. This revelation comes crashing down on everyone who hears it and completely changes their motivations for the end of the movie.

Meanwhile, Billy Costigan is terrified of being found out as a rat. When it turns out that Frank is also one, Billy becomes even more desperate to get out of the undercover work because he has basically been assigned an impossible task. Colin, who is in the precarious position of being an informant in the State Police, finds out that his only contact could turn him in if given the chance. Frank's secret identity in The Departed ending sends the moles into a frenzy as they try to discover the other informants in their respective organizations before they themselves are discovered.

How Billy Costigan Discovers The Rat In The State Police

The Only Person Who Figured Out Colin

A bloodied Matt Damon as Colin Sullivan stands in an elevator with Leonardo DiCaprio as Billy Costigan in The Departed.

With Frank and Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen) both dead, Billy and Colin feel safe at last. DiCaprio and Damon are finally on-screen together for the first time at The Departed's ending, and it’s in their meeting that Billy sees the envelope marked “Citizens Trust," something that only Frank could have had. With that information, Billy goes after Colin. Billy may have stopped searching after he was released from his duty and tried to forget everything, but the fact that the informant is right in front of him is enough to galvanize him into acting.

At first, Colin argues, threatening Billy with legal action and telling him he erased any evidence of Billy working for the department. This is all shown to be bluster when in the elevator, right as The Departed's final “X” Easter egg is shown, Colin breaks down crying. Everything about him is a lie: his job, his loyalty, his whole persona. Billy has barely been able to keep the strain of lying from breaking him while Colin seems sociopathic in his ability to hide. It’s clear from his reaction upon being captured that he is only moments away from completely falling apart.

Who Kills Who In The Shootout (& Why)

There Are Several Major Deaths

Billy and Colin in the elevator in The Departed

The Departed ending sees three characters shot in quick succession, with only Colin left standing. In another twist, Trooper Barrigan (James Badge Dale) turns out to also be working for the Irish mob, and he shoots Trooper Brown (Anthony Anderson) and Billy, adding another death to DiCaprio’s movie career. Colin finishes off the killings by shooting Barrigan so that there are no loose ends. Even though Barrigan and Colin are ostensibly on the same side, Colin is loyal to no one but himself and doesn't trust anyone to help him; killing the one remaining person who knows his identity is his safest option.

While The Departed ending may have focused on just one section of informants, there is more that was happening off-screen. Barrigan and Brown are in no more than a few minutes of the movie but are key players in revealing Colin and Billy at the end. The world of undercover informants is a knot of tangled threads, and the shootout at the end of The Departed bares that mess. The war between the mob and the police is so confusing that one informant may think they are the key figure when they’re only a piece.

Why Staff Sergeant Dignam Returns

The Only Man Left Standing

Dignam points a gun in The Departed

As the man who never lied about who he was, Staff Sergeant Sean Dignam is the type who can sniff out when another is being duplicitous. The Departed's characters are wrapped in so many layers of lies that it can be difficult to tell what’s real. It takes someone like Dignam, who only knows how to operate honestly and directly, to cut through the maze of deception. Dignam doesn’t fall for Billy ducking questions during his interview, and he never takes his eyes off Colin during his, despite the trooper answering every question perfectly. Dignam is the only one who could see the tangled web of informants all along.

The Real Meaning Of The Departed’s Ending

Scorsese Has Fun With The Ending

The rat in The Departed.

In terms of Scorsese movies, The Departed ending leans closer to The Wolf of Wall Street than it does Goodfellas — it’s ridiculous on purpose. The Departed ending is bloody and grim, but overall, it is farcical. Every character is either angry, crying, or laughing with not much in between; emotions run wild and everyone has a hair trigger. The film moves lightning-fast, and the rapid-fire ending scenes offer a twist every time a location changes.

Though The Departed's final image of a rat is mocked for being on the nose, it is a necessarily bold exclamation point. The mayhem of the last 20 minutes leaves viewers shocked but also amused at the absurdity of the violence. Audiences shouldn’t finish the movie in silence; they should be laughing out loud at the excitement. The rat isn’t a final clue to drive home the theme of the movie — it's Scorsese’s version of a “That’s All Folks!” to cap his movie off.

There Was A Script To Follow Up On The Departed Ending

The Departed 2 Was On The Table

Infernal Affairs didn't end with just one movie as The Departed did; it was actually a trilogy of films. The first movie saw Tony Leung (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) in the role that Wahlberg played and Andy Lau in Damon's role. However, the difference is that, in Infernal Affairs, Lau's crooked cop was never discovered or killed. Also, the sequels were actually prequels to show what happened before the first movie.

Despite the differences, The Departed almost continued as a franchise as well, as Wahlberg and screenwriter William Monahan came up with an idea for a new story centered on Wahlberg's character with the goal of casting Brad Pitt (a producer on The Departed) and Robert De Niro. However, Wahlberg and Monahan's loose idea for the sequel wasn't enough to impress Warner Bros. in their meeting, and Wahlberg revealed, "the pitch didn't go very well." (via Esquire)

In 2016, producer Roy Lee spoke to Collider and hinted that The Departed could get a TV series. That is when he revealed the possibility of a sequel, which never got made. Lee did say that they could bring back the dead characters for the sequel, which makes it sound more like a prequel and might deal with their actions outside what the first movie showed, the same as Infernal Affairs. However, there was another big reason it never got made, other than the definitive The Departed ending and Wahlberg and Monahan's failed pitch meeting. Lee said, "It would be so expensive and Scorsese didn’t want to do a sequel."

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  • The Departed Movie Poster
    The Departed
    Summary:
    An undercover cop and a mole in the police attempt to identify each other while infiltrating an Irish gang in South Boston.
    Release Date:
    2006-10-06
    Budget:
    $90 million
    Cast:
    Martin Sheen, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Leonardo DiCaprio
    Director:
    Martin Scorsese
    Genres:
    Thriller, Drama, Crime
    Rating:
    R
    Runtime:
    151 minutes
    Writers:
    William Monahan
    Studio(s):
    Warner Bros. Pictures
    Distributor(s):
    Warner Bros. Pictures