The Departed
Overview
In South Boston, Irish mob boss Frank Costello grooms two boys. Colin Sullivan, taken under Costello's wing as a child, grows up to join the Massachusetts State Police and rise through its Special Investigations Unit, reporting back to Costello. Billy Costigan, whose family has deep ties to the same criminal world, is recruited by Captain Queenan and Sergeant Dignam to go undercover: he drops out of the police academy, serves time in prison on a staged assault charge, and works his way into Costello's crew. Neither man knows the other exists, and both live their double lives under unbearable strain, Billy seeing a police psychiatrist, Madolyn, for his anxiety, while Colin moves in with her, unaware she is involved with them both. When a sting on Costello's deal to sell stolen microprocessors fails, both sides realise they have a mole, and the hunt begins. Costello's men throw Queenan off a rooftop, leaving Billy with no handler and no proof he was ever a cop. Colin discovers that Costello has been an FBI informant, and, fearing his mentor will sell him out, he kills Costello himself during a drug bust. But Billy has found the evidence that Colin is the rat, and he confronts him at gunpoint, only to be shot dead by another of Costello's moles inside the police. Colin tries to return to a normal life with Madolyn, but Sergeant Dignam, waiting in his apartment, shoots him dead, and a rat scurries across his balcony railing.
