The Gone: Press pause at 1 hour and 5 minutes and take a good look at Leonardo DiCaprio’s back

Warning, this article contains spoilers about the plot and ending of The Departed

18 years ago, Martin Scorsese gave us an absolutely extraordinary suspenseful thriller: The Departed. An excellent remake of the Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, the film is directed by the explosive duo of actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon. We also celebrate Jack Nicholson’s chilling performance as a sadistic mob boss.

Let’s remind you, the story takes us to Boston, Massachusetts. A relentless battle pits the police against the Irish underworld. To end the reign of godfather Frank Costello, the police infiltrate his gang with “Blue Boy” from the slums, Billy Costigan.

While Billy struggles to win the old thug’s trust, Colin Sullivan joins the police in a special investigation unit tasked with eliminating Costello. But Colin acts as a “submarine” and informs Costello of the planned operations against him.

At the risk of being unmasked at any moment, Billy and Colin are forced to lead double lives that force them to lose their attitudes and identities. Traps and counterattacks follow until each side realizes it has a mole. A race against time begins between two people with one goal in mind: discover the other’s identity or risk losing their skin…

If you’re a die-hard fan of The Departed, you may have already noticed this detail about 1 hour, 5 minutes and 18 seconds into the movie. DiCaprio, aka Billy Costigan, is at the airport. He calls Sergeant Dignam, played by Mark Wahlberg. Exasperated, he risks his life by infiltrating underworld boss Frank Costello’s team.

The Grim Reaper announces his arrival

He then tries to come up with a plan with Dignam to untangle the carpet at the police station. Obviously, at this point in the film, he doesn’t yet know that the mobster’s informant is named Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon). While talking to the Sergeant, he walks on the catwalk and we see the planes in the background.

If you look closely, you can see that the metal supports of the podium behind DiCaprio form giant “X’s”. If Scorsese wanted to shoot this scene here, it’s for good reason! Indeed, the director chose to place “X’s” in the field to announce the violent deaths of various important characters in his work.

Thus, the death of the main character of the story, Billy Costigan, was announced by Scorsese long before the end of the film! Obviously, when we first see it, we don’t get that clue, so no spoilers…unless you’re a fan of Scarface by Howard Hawks (1932)!

Indeed, in this iconic work, the director marked each hero’s kill by the presence of an “X” on the screen. Martin Scorsese used the same technique in The Departed while offering a sharp cinephile reference.

Have fun finding the “X’s”!

If the letter is particularly conspicuous in this scene, it may be much less obvious to discover it in others; We can note the red “X” in the background in the sequence where Billy chases Colin into a porn movie after meeting Costello. After all, the carpet in the entrance to the corrupt cop’s apartment has an “X” pattern announcing his imminent death.

Also, if you’re observant, take a close look at the background at the beginning of the featurette when Costello, aka Jack Nicholson, does his voice-over monologue. We can see, in the shadows, a large “X” looming behind the big boss of the underworld, already foreshadowing his death throughout the film. We’ll let you have fun finding all the “X’s” in the movie, Scorsese has scattered fifteen of them throughout the story.