MovieChat Forums > The Departed (2006) Discussion > Two things that didn't add up

Two things that didn't add up

posted 9 years ago by skeetchtvs
12 replies | jump to latest

This is one of my favorite movies but I noticed two things that don't make a lot of sense.

In the warehouse scene, Colin identifies each member of Costello's crew, there are only 5 of them (Costello, French, Fitz, Delahunt & Costigan). Costigan leaves his phone on which the police identify one phone is on, Colin sees Queenan get a text for his undercover. If there are only so few guys how was it that hard for Costello to figure out who the rat was?

Another thing was when Colin identifies all the guys getting out the car, this would tell me his crew knows what they all look like. Wouldn't Anthony Anderson's character have noticed Costigan since they were in the Academy together? He says it later on in the movie.

This isn't really a flaw but after Queenan was killed, it seems like a really stupid idea to suspend the only other guy who has direct access to Costello's undercover. Queenan's death IMO would have made Costello an even bigger target, they should have kept Dignam on until after they got him.

Other than that I thought the film was perfect, and I might have missed something with the two points above.

[–] ipeedaily 9 years ago

This was not a perfect film.....not by a long shot. In fact, parts of it are very sloppy and are more noticeable on rewatching in addition to the stuff you mention.

For instance when Sullivan kills Costello at the end both he Costello fire their guns.....there is a pause and Sullivan fires another 8 - 10 rounds when Costello gets off a final shot....but, despite there being a sh*tload of cops in the area, none come running after hearing the shots....yeah, right. The shooting situation near the warehouse was long over with and the sound of gunshots would have resulted in cops on the scene hauling ass to where the shots came from. But that they don't allows us to get a nice long talk session between the two and only after Costello is finally dead do the cops seem to be getting to where the shots rang out from (keep in mind not more than a few hundred yards if that) with Sullivan announcing....."I'm here....I got him".....totally ridiculous and bad film making....yet it isn't called out cause it's Scorcese. It could have been made a lot better and more believable if Sullivan cornered Costello in an office in the warehouse or another building and not right next to where the original shootout was in an area where the shots would be amplified loudly with all the steel overhangs & containers and everyone would hear them.

Another loose ending.....what happened to the envelope Costigan gave Madalyn???.....she put it in her desk after he instructed her not to open it unless something happened to him.....why wasn't that covered at the end? ....is it still there in that desk that's maybe being used on a sitcom now?

There are quite a few bad edits, positioning errors with things changing between scenes, etc.

There are other issues but overall it was a good movie but no masterpiece....an 7.8 - 8.0 seems about right.

[–] akshayj001 9 years ago

The envelope Costigan gave to Madolyn was the reason Dignam gunned down Sullivan at the end. How else do you think that Dignam got to know about Sullivan being the rat? You can say that maybe he already had an intuition that Sullivan was the rat, but he isn't going to kill him just because of his intuition. The envelope must be containing instructions for Madolyn to contact Dignam and give him the proof.

And about the positioning errors with things changing between scenes('continuity goofs' as called on IMDb), name one film that is free of these types of error. It is almost impossible to avoid these errors.

[–] ipeedaily 9 years ago

If that was the case then why not a quick 10 second shot of her giving or sending the envelope to Dignam??.....it shouldn't have to be assumed or inferred.....Scorcese should have covered it and fleshed it out being the great story teller he supposedly is (and, again, it would have be a very quick scene needing no dialogue even.....what 10 - 15 secs more in a 2:45 min movie?)

[–] Tristan_Carter44 9 years ago

Maybe Scorsese wanted us to make our own inferences about what was in the envelope. Maybe they did film that scene and decided to leave it out. Who knows? Not me, but I don't think it's necessarily bad film making.

[–] gary_w_trott 9 years ago

Definitely could of been cut out, and a good reason to cut it out would be to prevent us from knowing that Dignam was on to Sullivan. The ending would have lost a lot of it's impact.

[–] wpw100 8 years ago

This.

[–] akshayj001 9 years ago

1) Costello had his doubts about Billy. Remember that scene when he confronts Billy about it in the bar? Billy manages to answer his questions smartly and ward off Costello's suspicions a little bit. But Costello still has his doubts and tries to test Billy. There's a very brief scene which isn't noticed much. Costello gives Billy fake information in that scene and then calls Sullivan to check if that fake information has reached to the cops. Fortunately for Billy, he senses that this must be a ploy by Costello to find out if he's the rat and doesn't give the information to the cops.

2) It wouldn't have made any difference even if Anthony Anderson's character(Brown) would have recognized Costigan. He would have said that Costigan was with him in the academy and Sullivan would have reported to Costello that Costigan was once a part of the police academy. But Costello already knew it. So, it wouldn't have made any difference.

3) They didn't come up with the idea to suspend Dignam. Dignam himself was reluctant to work under Captain Ellerby after Queenan's death and decided to resign. Dignam himself was so adamant about it that he wouldn't have listened even if they tried to stop him.

[–] NikolajCostas1005 9 years ago

There's a very brief scene which isn't noticed much. Costello gives Billy fake information in that scene and then calls Sullivan to check if that fake information has reached to the cops. Fortunately for Billy, he senses that this must be a ploy by Costello to find out if he's the rat and doesn't give the information to the cops.

Oh man, great catch! I didn't even notice that after 10 years.

I notice your English gets better when you want something.

[–] skeetchtvs 9 years ago

I do remember that scene but I mean Costello didn't really get suspicious of anyone else after that played out either, which is what I didn't get. His crew was small, I would have thought Costello would have been able to figure it out without having to pull something like that.

Since Dignam resigned himself, I would have thought he would have kept Billy's contact information. Obviously he was still interested in the case since he was the one who got to Sullivan at the end. It just seemed a little out of character for Dignam to just resign and stop all contact with Billy.

[–] akshayj001 9 years ago

Costello didn't get suspicious of anyone after that played out because he had no time for that. Just a few hours after Costello tried to test Billy by giving him disinformation, Queenan got killed. Along with Queenan, Delahunt who was a part of Costello's crew got shot in the shoot-out. Delahunt succumbed to the gunshot and was buried. The cops found out Delahunt's body very soon and put it in the news that Delahunt was an undercover cop. Costello believed it and thus Billy got totally cleared from Costello's suspicions.

About Dignam, I do think that he should have tried to contact Billy after Queenan's death. But the primary means of communication which they used- Queenan's cell phone was in possession of Sullivan. Maybe he could've dropped by Billy's house but that could be risky. Anyway, if he really wanted to contact Billy, there could have been several ways. But things happened so fast after Queenan's death. Costello himself was killed just about 2-3 days after Queenan's death. It was all over before Dignam could have re-established contact with Billy.

[–] lolmyspacewhooers 8 years ago

The cops found out Delahunt's body very soon and put it in the news that Delahunt was an undercover cop. Costello believed it and thus Billy got totally cleared from Costello's suspicions.

I don't think that is correct. Paraphrasing, but Costello says something along the lines of "The cops are saying he's a rat, so I won't look for the rat." - during the scene where Costello and his crew are watching the TV report.

[–] hero-de-celluloid 8 years ago

^this

He straight out says he doesn't believe the report and he thinks it was to have him believe there were no more rats in his crew. But, just as Costello had more than one rat in the police - I would bet he thought there could be more than one rat in his crew - thus the report would be useless even if he believed Delahunt was a cop. I don't think he is that stupid to theorize that since a cop was found - he could take it easy now as there couldn't be another rat in his crew.

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