MovieChat Forums > The Departed (2006) Discussion > My issues with the ending....

My issues with the ending....

posted 11 years ago by CGlMDB
65 replies | jump to latest

I'm probably not the first to sound off on this, but every time I watch it the ending is so assinine that it cheapens & nearly ruins everything that came before it!!

Why would Wahlberg take Damon out the way he did?

He obviously lives in a luxury apartment building, which is bound to have a ton of cameras everywhere. A baseball cap would not cut it, especially in broad daylight.

But, worse than that, he shoots Damon as he stands in his open doorway, splattering blood everywhere in the hallway behind him, not to mention leaving his body sprawled halfway out the door!

What if someone had been in the hallway? In fact, someone was, just seconds before! They would have seen him walk out immediately after!

Extra stupidity points given if the building had a fire escape & he didn't use it!

(And the rat on the railing was cheesy, no pun intended.)

Is it just me???

[–] Jletto-611-336259 9 years ago

Forget the rat part altogether... I also don't understand why Wahlberg took our Damon the way he did. Why the booties and suit if he was just gonna shoot him in the doorway in the middle of the day?? It's like he put half thought into it.

[–] EuroNYC7 9 years ago

Actually, my wife and I always have a good laugh at the part where the "symbolic rat" shows up on the balcony, since it pretty much depicts the nature of the entire film--let's face it, even the dialogue itself is smeared with the word "rat" lolololol. I'm also in agreement with the ending, with Dignam finally dealing the ultimate justifiable blow on Sullivan, who seemed to hitherto be getting away with murder on all fronts. All in all, yet another outstanding film by Martin Scorcese!!! PERIOD!

[–] peteepabl0 9 years ago

Yes, the whole movie is about rats, congratulations on noticing that. All the central characters are rats and all of the rats die. It's not exactly subtle.

Putting the rat on the balcony out of nowhere completely broke any realism of the movie and also insulted the audience's intelligence. A big fat middle finger from ol' Martin on his way out the door.

As Ralph Wiggum observed in The Simpsons' spinoff episode:

The rat symbolizes obviousness!

Take The Challenge: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0410591/board/threads/

[–] EuroNYC7 9 years ago

"Putting the rat on the balcony..broke the realism..insulted the audience's intelligence.." How do you know? It was JUST MERE SYMBOLLISM! Some of the above commentators made statements like "oh, it's a brand new building where Sullivan lives, so how can there by rats" or "a rat so far high in the whatever floor he lives on".. It is painfully (and SAD) obvious most of the posters on this thread have to be 25 years old or younger - so typically idiotic commentary goes along with THAT. Newer generation gets dumber and more docile, it seems!! I have been a movie buff FOR DECADES, I've watched and always had academically-sound criteria for many, many films and shows, and many of my more cultured, mature colleagues (MUCH older than 25 obviously--THANK GOD!!) agreed the same way I do with the finale. I saw ABSOLUTELY nothing wrong with it. Hats off to Martin Scorcese. As for certain number of the degenerate imbeciles on this thread: Shut up and go watch some moronic reality TV...after all, that's pretty much what your non-creative, pea brain LOW IQs are good for!!!

[–] peteepabl0 9 years ago

I'm not sure why you decided that 25 is your magical, arbitrary age line of wisdom, but given the rest of your rambling mess I won't dwell on it too much other than to say that I would guess most people posting here are actually older than that. In any event I'm glad you took the time to reveal your idiocy and bias so that I don't need to assume it anymore. Clearly you're just an ageist, elitist, crotchety snob who is too narcissistic and set in their ways to even consider an opinion which differs from their own. You and your "more cultured, mature colleagues" can go pop some Viagra and circle jerk to a Scorcese marathon. That way, you won't need to challenge yourself with conflicting thoughts and opinions. Bye!

[–] RynoII 9 years ago

I'm probably not the first to sound off on this, but every time I watch it the ending is so assinine that it cheapens & nearly ruins everything that came before it!!

Why would Wahlberg take Damon out the way he did?

He obviously lives in a luxury apartment building, which is bound to have a ton of cameras everywhere. A baseball cap would not cut it, especially in broad daylight.

But, worse than that, he shoots Damon as he stands in his open doorway, splattering blood everywhere in the hallway behind him, not to mention leaving his body sprawled halfway out the door!

What if someone had been in the hallway? In fact, someone was, just seconds before! They would have seen him walk out immediately after!

Extra stupidity points given if the building had a fire escape & he didn't use it!

(And the rat on the railing was cheesy, no pun intended.)

Is it just me???
Re: My issues

Aside from the rat, which others have explained, I assumed that Wahlberg would have taken care of the cameras before entering, or something like that. Or keep his down with the cap on, not showing his face to any.

And as for leaving Damon splattered out in the hallway, I think Dignam was so angry at him, that he probably didn't care, and he wanted people to see Damon's dead body. It sends a message like, this is what happens to dirty mole cops people! Maybe that's what was going through his head.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] OneSixteen 8 years ago

Here's my point of view..... Dignam had suspected Sullivan ever since Queenan's death. He felt his leave of absence he could solve the case of the rat himself as a vigilante. After discovering how Sullivan really was he decided tot take the law into his own hands because he saw that Sullivan was a respected & corrupt cop that could lie his way out a jury ruling him guilty. You can even see the rage Dignam had knowing that Sullivan killed 2 important cops in his unit. The way he was dressed he was convinced he would not get caught & finally have justice.

[–] purplenad2004 8 years ago

Even though your pun wasn't intended, it was cute.