The Departed

Martin Scorsese returned to the crime genre with a vengeance in 2006's The Departed, a taut thriller that pits the police against the Irish mob in South Boston. The plot sets up a deadly game of mirrors: Billy, a young state trooper played by Leonardo DiCaprio, goes undercover inside the organization of crime boss Costello, portrayed with menacing glee by Jack Nicholson. Meanwhile, Matt Damon's Colin rises through the police ranks as a mole planted by Costello. Both men race to uncover the other's identity before their covers blow.

Scorsese directs with relentless energy, and the script by William Monahan (adapting the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs) keeps the tension coiled tight. The cast also delivers sharp support: Mark Wahlberg's explosive Dignam steals every scene, Martin Sheen brings gravitas as Captain Queenan, and Ray Winstone plays Costello's right-hand man with cold efficiency. Shot by Michael Ballhaus in gritty, rain-soaked tones, the film captures a Boston of dark alleys and double-crosses.

Produced on a $90 million budget, The Departed earned over $291 million worldwide, becoming Scorsese's highest-grossing film at the time. It also landed him his first Academy Award for Best Director. The movie earned a strong 8.16 out of 10 from over 16,000 votes on one major rating site, reflecting its status as a modern classic. [edit]

Set in South Boston, the film opens with archival footage and voiceover from Irish mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson), establishing his philosophy of power and his influence over the neighborhood's poor and working-class Irish community. As part of his long-term strategy, Costello grooms a young boy, Colin Sullivan, buying him groceries, giving him money, and subtly steering him toward a future in law enforcement so he can serve as Costello's inside man.

Years later, Colin (now Matt Damon) realizes that vision: he joins the Massachusetts State Police, projecting an image of ambition, discipline, and respectability. Simultaneously, another South Boston native, Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio), from a fractured, criminally connected family, also enters the state police academy. Billy's background—split between a respectable mother's side and a rough, criminal father's side—marks him as different, someone the system can use but not fully trust.

Upon graduating, Colin is quickly steered into the Special Investigations Unit, led by the blunt, politically attuned Captain Ellerby (Alec Baldwin), where he's supposedly tasked with bringing down Costello. Secretly, however, Colin's true loyalty lies with Costello; he serves as the mob boss's mole inside the police, feeding him intelligence and helping him evade prosecution.

Billy's path takes an opposite turn. Recognizing that his family history and street familiarity could be an asset, Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen) and his volatile second-in-command, Sergeant Dignam (Mark Wahlberg), recruit Billy into an undercover operation. He's asked to disappear from official records, feign a breakdown, and serve time for minor offenses so he can plausibly embed himself in Boston's criminal underworld. In essence, Billy becomes the police's mole inside Costello's organization.

Billy's undercover life is brutal and psychologically corrosive. He must constantly prove his toughness and loyalty to survive. After carefully orchestrated steps, including a staged incarceration and visible break from the force, Billy catches Costello's attention and eventually becomes part of his crew, working alongside men like Mr. French (Ray Winstone), Costello's ruthless enforcer. Every interaction with Costello carries the risk of exposure, and Billy endures frequent tests of loyalty, unpredictable violence, and intense paranoia.

Colin, in contrast, climbs the ranks with relative ease. Seen as a rising star, he gains more access to sensitive investigations into Costello, which he discreetly sabotages from within. He cultivates a respectable life: a nice apartment, political connections, and a relationship with Madolyn Madden (Vera Farmiga), a psychiatrist who consults for the department. Madolyn eventually intersects with Billy's story as well, creating a personal triangle that mirrors the film's professional duplicity.

The central conflict intensifies when both sides realize they have a mole. During a botched operation targeting Costello's crew, the police know a leak warned Costello, while Costello's gang understands someone in their midst tipped off the cops. Neither knows the other's identity, generating a tense game of cat-and-mouse. Colin is tasked internally with finding the police mole—while actually trying to identify Billy for Costello. Billy, embedded with Costello, is ordered to help uncover Costello's rat within the police—without revealing his own role as an undercover cop.

Scorsese structures the film around parallel lives and mirrored scenes: Colin working clean offices and high-tech surveillance rooms, Billy operating in dingy bars, warehouses, and cramped Boston apartments. Both men suffer severe psychological strain. Colin fears exposure from surveillance, forensic trails, and Costello's increasing volatility. Billy is wracked by anxiety, unable to reveal his true identity to anyone except Queenan and Dignam, and haunted by the risk of being killed by either side if his cover slips.

Madolyn becomes a critical emotional pivot. She witnesses Billy's deteriorating mental state in therapy sessions, sensing that he carries a secret he cannot share, while also living with Colin and believing him to be a stable, committed officer. The romantic and emotional entanglements intensify the film's themes of identity, honesty, and the impossibility of living two lives indefinitely.

As investigations tighten, electronic surveillance, phone traces, and covert meetings raise the stakes. A critical encounter involving a drug and weapons deal, secret notes, and misdirected phone calls leaves both the police and the mob certain that exposure is imminent. The narrative pushes toward a series of confrontations where Billy and Colin come dangerously close to discovering each other, even as Costello's own secrets and alliances complicate the picture further.

The film builds relentless tension through narrow escapes, near-miss identifications, and shifting loyalties. Violence erupts unpredictably, and several key characters meet sudden, shocking fates as the net closes around both moles. Before the final act, the story positions Billy and Colin on a collision course that will force each man to confront what his life has become and what, if anything, redemption looks like in a world defined by betrayal and corruption.[edit]