Two men from opposite sides of the law are undercover within the Massachusetts State Police and the Irish mafia, but violence and bloodshed boil when discoveries are made, and the moles are dispatched to find out their enemy's identities.
In South Boston, the state police force is waging war on Irish-American organized crime. Young undercover cop Billy Costigan is assigned to infiltrate the mob syndicate run by gangland chief Frank Costello. While Billy quickly gains Costello's confidence, Colin Sullivan, a hardened young criminal who has infiltrated the state police as an informer for the syndicate, is rising to a position of power in the Special Investigation Unit. Each man becomes deeply consumed by his double life, gathering information about the plans and counter-plans of the operations he has penetrated. But when it becomes clear to both the mob and the police that there's a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin are suddenly in danger of being caught and exposed to the enemy-and each must race to uncover the identity of the other man in time to save himself. But is either willing to turn on the friends and comrades they've made during their long stints undercover?
Written by Anonymous
The "MASS Processor Company's" microprocessor shown in the movie is really an ST Microelectronics' ST9F150JDV1QC micro-controller, released in 2003 and intended for applications such as MP3 players, GPS devices, and car radios. It went for around $7 at the time it was released (in the movie it is stated they go for $100,000 each). The microprocessor has an internal clock frequency of 24 Megahertz and 100 pins and can address up to 4 Megabytes of memory. A typical Intel Core 2 Duo microprocessor, released in 2006 (the same year as The Departed) for use in desktop computers, runs at 1400 Megahertz or higher frequencies, has 775 pins, and can address up to 4000 Megabytes.
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Goofs
Incorrectly regarded as goofs:
When Colin is playing rugby near the start of the film he is playing the position of flanker, but he is wearing the no. 10 shirt, which is the position of fly half. However, some of the players have the same numbers (blue team has 2 number 5s), are out of position (like a 5 and 8 on the flanker spot), both teams have players wearing jerseys in completely unrelated colors (red team has a guy in white) and half of the players are wearing jerseys without numbers on them. Apparently, they didn't care what jerseys they wore.
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Quotes
[first lines]
Frank Costello:
I don't want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me. Years ago we had the church. That was only a way of saying - we had each other. The Knights of Columbus were real head-breakers; true guineas. They took over their piece of the city. Twenty years after an Irishman couldn't get a fucking job, we had the presidency. May he rest in peace. That's what the niggers don't realize. If I got one thing against the black chappies, it's this - no one gives it to you. You have to take it. See more »
Crazy Credits
The title doesn't appear on screen until nearly 20 minutes into the movie.
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"Thief's Theme"
(2004) Written by Salaam Remi, Doug Ingle (as Douglas Ingle) and Nas (as Nasir Jones) Performed by Nas Courtesy of Sony Urban Music / Columbia Records By Arrangement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment Contains a sample of "In A Gadda Da Vida" (1968) Performed by Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band Courtesy of Phoenix Audio
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