History Film / TheDeparted

* KillEmAll: With extreme prejudice. [[spoiler:The only prominent characters to survive are Madolyn, Dignam and Ellerby.]]

--> '''[[http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Interview-Martin-Scorsese-3542.html Martin Scorsese]]''': ''"What I immediately related to in the material of Bill Monahan's script...As we were making it I'm realizing that we're in a moral Ground Zero...it's a world where morality no longer exists. Costello knows this. I think he's almost above it, he knows that God doesn't exist anymore in the world that they're in and it's the old story, in order to know you have a problem first you have to know you have a problem...I think for me it just is a sadness and a sense of despair since we've been [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror in this situation]] since September 11th and somehow this all came together and that's what kept me going in depicting this world sort of like a moral Ground Zero."''

* GoodCopBadCop: When Costigan is being interviewed about his application by Queenam and Dignam, Queenam plays the good cop while reading Costigan's application and Dignam plays the foul-mouthed bad cop trying to discourage Costigan from signing up.

* HollywoodSilencer: [[spoiler:In the final scene]].

* JurisdictionFriction: There's a small bit between Sullivan and members of the Lynn police when they find the bodies of the two Italian mobsters who were sent to kill Costigan. [[{{Truth In Television}} Justified]] too, since in Massachusetts, the Staties have automatic jurisdiction in all homicide investigations in the Commonwealth ''except'' in Boston, Springfield, and Worcester, where the local police department has first dibs.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Captain Queenan (who also has some overlap with TeamDad).

* SexualKarma: Costigan is [[SexGod a love machine]]. Sullivan, meanwhile, seems to have [[TheLoinsSleepTonight issues with erectile dysfunction]]. Guess which one is the hero. More subtly applied with Costello, who has an active sex life (even at his old age) despite being a far from exemplary individual. However, it's strongly implied that he's infertile. WordOfGod says that Costigan is [[spoiler: actually the father of Madolyn's child.]]

* TeamDad: Queenan, especially to Dignam and Costigan.
** When Costigan had enough of Dignam's abuse and they started brawling on the street, Queenan breaking them up was like a father dealing with his two misbehaving kids.

--> '''Fitzy:''' ''"That cop was tough. We were excessive with the cop."'''

* BlackComedy: A lot of what Costello is this. In one scene, he's yammering about basically nothing to Billy when he pulls out a severed human hand in a plastic bag, just to make a point. In another scene, he comes out of the back of a bar, looking a little addled, his arms soaked in blood to the elbows, and tells Billy that he can have the night off.

* TheCameo: Massachusetts State Police Major Thomas B. Duffy, most well-known for being involved in the Whitey Bulgar case, appears as a the Governor of Massachusetts, swearing in a group of police academy graduates.

-->'''Billy Costigan''': Look, you're seventy years old, Frank. I'm just sayin', Okay?. [[Foreshadowing One of your guys is gonna pop you. One of your guys is gonna pop you.]] As for running drugs, what the fuck are you doing? What are you doing?. You don't need the money or the pain in the ass, and they will catch you.

-->'''Billy Costigan''': Look, you're seventy years old, Frank. I'm just sayin', Okay?. One of your guys is gonna pop you. One of your guys is gonna pop you. As for running drugs, what the fuck are you doing? What are you doing?. You don't need the money or the pain in the ass, and they will catch you.

* ProtectionRacket: Costello's Irish-American crew is involved in shaking down various businesses in Boston. In the prologue, Costello is shown doing the collecting personally before he later hands it off to his underlings as he rises in power; he meets his protege Sullivan while doing his rounds and his eventual mistress is the daughter of a corner store owner. Costigan also beats up two mafioso from Providence who attempt to extort an indian store owner.

* AsianSpeekeeEngrish: Costello says, "No tickee, no laundry," to insult some Asian gangsters with the broken English and Chinese laundry stereotypes.

* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: Costigan is a love machine. Sullivan, meanwhile, seems to have issues with erectile dysfunction. Guess which one is the hero. More subtly applied with Costello, who has an active sex life (even at his old age) despite being a far from exemplary individual. However, it's strongly implied that he's infertile.
** WordOfGod says that Costigan is [[spoiler: actually the father of Madolyn's child.]]

* RiseAndFallGangsterArc: Sullivan's character arc. Colin Sullivan is taken under the wing of gangster Frank Costello at an early age and groomed to eventually become Costello's [[TheMole mole in the police]]. The first half of the film features him skyrocketing to prominence within the force, using his connections to pin Costello's crimes on scapegoats, getting engaged and gaining a fancy apartment. However, things start coming undone when Costello tasks Sullivan with finding the police informant in his gang (the ''other'' main character, Billy Costigan) - and [[HiredToHuntYourself the police task Sullivan with finding the mole in the department]]. As a result, Sullivan is drawn into a deepening web of lies and paranoia that results in him having to screw over both factions; in the process, [[spoiler:he [[PyrrhicVillainy loses his girlfriend]], [[SanitySlippage his nerves]], and very nearly his life. Just when it looks as if he's managed to beat the odds and get out in one piece, [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty he ends up getting shot dead by the one cop who distrusted him from the very beginning]].]]

* EstablishingCharacterMusic: Costello is introduced in TheSeventies to "Gimme Shelter" by Music/TheRollingStones.

* ArtisticLicenseLawEnforcement: Colin Sullivan is assigned to a detective role immediately upon graduating from the police academy for the Massachusetts State Police. In the real Staties, troopers are immediately assigned to field training in uniformed patrol upon graduation and can expect three to five years of patrol work on the roads before they are even considered for any other role or promotion in the agency. The script mentions that four years passed between Sullivan's graduation and him being selected for the investigation unit, but this is never mentioned onscreen in the final film.

* HiredToHuntYourself: Sullivan, looking for a mole within the police department. He HangsALampshade on this while talking to Costello about it.

* MacGuffin: Lampshaded: The microprocessors. "Yes those. I don't know what they are, you don't know what they are, who gives a fuck?".

* LargeHam: Frank Costello. He ''is'' played by Creator/JackNicholson after all.

* LargeHam: Frank Costello.

** Also, Sullivan is shown ''giving orders'' to Detectives, Sergeants, and other ranking officers. Not only would he not be a detective if he'd been assigned to the unit right after graduation, but even if four years had gone by, he may have made detective but nothing higher. For a detective to try ordering around other detectives or ranking police officers would have resulted in them all telling him to go fuck himself, no matter what his job was.

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Colin Sullivan is assigned to a detective role immediately upon graduating from the police academy for the Massachusetts State Police. In the real Staties, troopers are immediately assigned to field training in uniformed patrol upon graduation and can expect three to five years of patrol work on the roads before they are even considered for any other role or promotion in the agency. The script mentions that four years passed between Sullivan's graduation and him being selected for the investigation unit, but this is never mentioned onscreen in the final film.

* AxCrazy: Frank Costello is established as this early on when he and French execute a man and woman on a beach.
-->'''Costello:''' Jesus... she fell funny. ''(starts chuckling)''
-->'''Mr. French:''' Frank, I really think you ought to see somebody.

* AxCrazy: Frank Costello embodies this trope.

* IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten: Billy Costigan is constantly being tested by Costello.

* LifeImitatesArt: In-Universe example. The rat at the ending mirrors the drawing Frank is working on as he waits for Bill in the restaurant scene - the Golden Dome surrounded by rats.

* SuspiciouslyCleanCriminalRecord: When Sullivan is up for promotion, Ellerby says to him "You have an immaculate record. Some guys don't trust an immaculate record. I do. I have an immaculate record." (The irony, of course, is that Sullivan is TheMole in the police force.)

-->'''Billy Costigan''': You're seventy fucking years old. One of these guys is going to pop you. As for running drugs, what the fuck. You don't need the pain in the ass, and they're going to catch you. And you don't need the money.
-->'''Frank Costello''': I haven't "needed the money" since I took Archie's milk money in the third grade. Tell you the truth, I don't need pussy any more either... but I like it.