All the stabbings in Goodfellas and baseball bat beatings in Casino cant hold a candle to the opening scene in The Departed where Costello brutally executes a kneeling gagged screaming woman and then blurts out: "She fell funny!"

I didn't really care if Costello lived or died. In the original, I was really invested in Andy Lau's character. Here, although Matt Damon was great in the role, I was indifferent toward his character. I also felt that when Costigan and Costello teamed up felt a bit rushed. I remember the whole phone tag being a little longer in the original. Finally, the ending came out of nowhere. How did Marky Mark know Matt Damon was the rat?

Finally, the ending came out of nowhere. How did Marky Mark know Matt Damon was the rat?

the envelope DiCaprio gave the shrink contained all the info on him, and figured she gave it to Marky Mark as per DiCaprio's instructions. Of course, I'm just guessing there, but it seems like the natural thing for him to do - give the info to the one guy he knew he could trust.

1) Costigan beats a Providence thug repeatedly in the face with a coat rack
2) Costigan's already broken forearm gets pounded with his own boot while being held down (a la the hammer to the hand in casino, but not as gross)
3) Queenan falls off a building onto the ground right in front of Costigan. The impact is just off screen but lots of blood splatter
4) Three headshots within a minute, plus Sullivan getting his own headshot in the last scene

Can someone explain to me, like I'm a moron, the whole "Costello being an FBI informant" angle and who the guy was who leaked that info to Leo, and what Leo was doing at that guys house in the first place. Maybe this was all explained in the movie and I was busy nodding off...

They never explain why they were there, it's just assumed they were going about their usual business of collecting drug payments, and since Mr. French was providing gunshot cover by lighting M-80s, Costigan had the opportunity to torture him to extract information. He wanted to get info about the mole, but the drug guy slipped out that Costello was an FBI informant.

For all of the praise he's garnering, Scorcese didn't seem to "do" much in this movie. As far as the actors go, it's not like he was directing Jennifer Lopez - it doesn't take much to elicit a great performance from Jack Nicholson or Alec Baldwin or Matt Damon or any of the other all-stars in the case. Stylistically, there wasn't much going on... a shot through a pocket as a cell phone was dialed worked well, and I liked how the music/audio would be cut abruptly in certain spots, but there was nothing really special that made me think that there was any signature being put on the movie - any competent director could've made a comperable final product.

Aside from the hole where the cell phone is vibrating one minute and ringing the next, I also didn't love the coincidences. I can see both men wanting to know Vera Farmiga's character and they both had the opportunity, but there was no case made as to why Anthony Anderson - DiCaprio's friend - was placed on Damon's team... there was no dialogue between the two, he didn't seem to be a standout in his job, and yet he was personally selected to be in the elite team?

My largest problem, though, was with the sex scene between DiCaprio and Farmiga. A few scenes earlier, she was with Damon at his place and the movers were arriving... then she's back at her old apartment (I can understand that part because there were a few weeks left on the lease) with boxes and furniture all over the place and the picture she had brought to Damon's house on the wall. This is before they experienced any real problems regarding whether they would stay together, and it just had me going "WTF?" as the rest of the movie was in chronological order and this scene made no sense in that position.

Also, the elevator scene... at headshot #2, I was in row 4 of the theater and heard a huge uproar of laughing from behind me... by 3 it was wild, and with the final one, people were practically rolling in their seats. In my mind, this was an extremely poignant moment and should not have been funny. It could have been handled much better, in my opinion. Similarly, this laughter arrived again in the final scene, which, once again, didn't seem appropriate, as a depressed man with nothing left in life is embracing being killed by someone he used to work with.

Finally, after a great final shot with Wahlberg leaving no evidence of his killing on Damon, the camera moves toward the window to show the view... a very good ending as that view had a certain significance, and then a rat is going across the railing on an upscale 7th floor balcony? What the hell is that? If anything, it makes me say that Scorcese ruined the scene and completely changed the feeling people had as the movie ended.

If Costello was an FBI informant... what was he actually doing for the FBI?
1. Meaning, he hid the microchips that he was originally supposed to give back to the police through divulging info on who he sold them to.
2. Police new that he killed many people
So what info was FBI getting from him, that was worthwhile not to shut him down?

The end shot, the handling of the elevator scene, the strange placement of the DiCaprio/Farmiga sex scene, plus the overly long runtime, etc.

In the elevator, I'm trying to remember who got shot and what order. I'm reading there were three shootings, but I can't remember the third outside of AA and Leo. Was there another cop there or something? Thanks!

Barrigan shows up, shoots DiCaprio in the head. Barrigan shoots Anderson in the head. Barrigan explains to Damon, he wasn't the only guy on the inside. Damon shoots Barrigan. There's 3 for ya.

I still don't understand what Jack was doing as an FBI informant. Did they know he was basically killing assloads of people? He seemed to operate with impunity, I don't understand what the FBI was gaining other than the occassional low level grunt it sounded like he turned over.

ah man...what the hell was in that envelope?! the last 10 minutes of the movie i was DYING to see what was in there and i cant believe they never showed!

That may have been something that they decided to use from Infernal Affairs 2, which is a prequel to the first Infernal Affairs. In that, Jack's counterpart is sort of the low man in the triad situation, so the Martin Sheen's counterpart uses him to get info on the bigger guys.

I was watching intently to see if something slipped through the cracks that I may have missed to explain just exactly *WHAT* Nicholson did as an informant. It was a turning point for the whole movie, and unless I'm missing something, it makes no sense. IF they pulled it from IA, they can't just leave it hanging out there. I kind of agree with one of the above posts that it really feels like an epic movie when you leave, but it didn't work nearly as well the second time through.

What does shine through the second
time were the performances of Dicaprio, Wahlberg, and Farminga (sp?), I thought they were outstanding. Dicaprio deserves a nod just for keeping that role together, any overplaying could have killed that whole movie, he hit every note throughout the whole thing.