The Departed (2006) - 65 mistakes

Other: When Costigan drags a handcuffed Sullivan into the elevator, Costigan slams Sullivan against the wall and his left arm is visible and not in handcuffs.

Continuity: When Costigan is with Madolyn in her office, the tissues in the tissue box change consistently between shots.

Revealing: ***SPOILER*** When Costello is killed, a blood-pack is noticeable under his shirt.

Continuity: In the scene after Queenan dies, when Sullivan picks up his phone to contact Costigan, he presses the "talk" button and a smudge of blood is left. In subsequent shots, there's no trace of blood on the "talk" button.

Continuity: At Billy's mother's funeral, the signature of Frank Costello on the flowers changes between shots.

Continuity: When Ellerby attacks the guy for not installing the cameras in the right place, he knocks off a map from the board. A second later Ellerby is still going after him, and the map is fixed.

Continuity: While Costigan is having coffee with Madolyn, a coffee cup suddenly appears in his hands close to his mouth, and the toothpick that was in his mouth a second ago vanishes.

Revealing: When Costello's hooligans drive away from 344 Wash after the shoot-out, Queenan's body on the ground is quite obviously a dummy.

Continuity: When Costello and French encounter the cops, the first shot shows the cops' car turning their lights on. In a new shot a second afterwards the lights on the middle and right side cars are out and they are turning them on again. On yet another new angle, the lights on the car on the left turn from off and on again in a split second.

Visible crew/equipment: When the song starts, right before the main title, we have a dolly shot of Billy in jail. It starts from a red wall and moves towards him. If you look closely at the wall, you can see the subtle shadow of the camera and the rest of the equipment as it moves.

Continuity: During the final shootout between the baddies and the cops, the pilot window of the grey GM is destroyed but appears perfect a second later.

Continuity: After the beach scene, Costello is preaching young Sullivan on loaded guns. His cigarette disappears from his lips between shots.

Continuity: When young Sullivan is at Mass, a priest is swinging the smoking incense burning. In the next shot the smoke is gone, and he is away, arriving with the burner and repeating the previous movement.

Revealing: When Costello's men drive off, after throwing Queenan off the top of the building, the undercover FBI are firing at the van. One back window is shot out, then in the next shot of the van the other window is shot out and then the same one is shot again so the one window is shot out twice in the same scene.

Continuity: When Costello's bad guys are pulling up in the van to the building where Queenan and Costigan are talking, you can see the wet tire marks where the van stops before it gets there.

Continuity: The top layer on their dessert changes when Sullivan and Madolyn are in the restaurant. Between shots, the top piece changes back and forth between flat and curved.

Audio problem: When Colin answers Costello's phone, we hear the girl ask, "Where the hell are you?" but her mouth actually asks, "Where the f*** are you?"

Continuity: Before French dies he starts to cough and there's suddenly less bullet holes in the windshield than in the previous shot.

Continuity: While Queenan is talking to Costello out on the street, watch the people behind him. First there's no one, then we have a shot of a woman and a huge line of kids passing next to her. Then back to Costello and the woman, who hasn't moved, is now miraculously visible behind him. To add to the mess, the kids have vanished.

Continuity: When Queenan is interviewing Costigan, the metal thing and the papers around it keep changing positions depending on the angle.

Visible crew/equipment: When Costello is looking at the dead corpses on the beach, two beams of light get reflected on his glasses.

Continuity: When Sullivan and his pal are watching the golden dome building from a bench, from a back shot his friend has his head faced straight, but from the front shot it's sideways.

Continuity: In the scene after Queenan dies, when Sullivan picks up his phone, the number Sullivan calls Costigan in isn't the same as the one from which Costigan calls back, even though it's the same mobile (silver and blue vs. Costigan's red phone for Costello's gang). When Sullivan calls, the number begins with something like "617-854" and when he sees Costigan calling back, it's "617-177".

Continuity: In the scene where Alec Baldwin is briefing the cops on the micro processor bust, his shirt has distinct sweat patterns. These patterns change between scenes, back to original then finally almost dry.

Revealing: In the scene where Costello is smashing Billy's hand with the boot heel, you can tell from the position of Billy's arm that Costello is hitting the pool table rather than Billy's hand. He is actually hitting his own hand more than he could possibly be hitting Billy's.

Continuity: In the opening scenes, of the execution on the beach, it cuts to the woman lying there. Before the cut French has a gun in his left hand, then after he has an axe in his right hand as well.

Continuity: When Billy Costigan is at the funeral near the beginning of the movie and reads the card signed "From Frank Costello," it is initially seen as a heavy bold script, but in the closeup, it is a thin script written in different handwriting.

Continuity: At the end of the scene, where Queenan and Dignam confront Costello on the street, there is a man in a blue jacket and red tie positioned between Queenan and Dignam, who was never introduced in the course of the movie nor explained within the context of the scene.

Continuity: When Sullivan is questioning a bad guy, he sits down with a cell phone right in front of him. But later on, he reaches out to our left to grab it.

Continuity: When Sullivan is analysing the Providence corpses, the close-up shows both of his hands together, but on the wide shot one is near the corpse, and the other one close to his hip.

Continuity: When Billy is sitting inside Queenan's house, the glass of water is in his hand in one shot, disappears in the next and then returns.

Continuity: When Costello tells the girl he has a hard-on, the position of her fingers on the blue book keep changing.

Factual error: In one of the opening scenes, when Queenan and Dignam are first interviewing Billy Costigan and Colin individually, Dignam refers to himself as a "staff sergeant." However, the Massachusetts State Police has not had staff sergeants since 1992.

Continuity: After Costello smashes Costigan's wrist he hands all of the dollars he has in his right hand. A frame later money reappears in the hand.

Continuity: In the restaurant, after Costigan says "The Academy is over" he starts to bring the cigarette to his mouth but before he smokes, while the action, music and dialogue continues, the shot cuts to him already exhaling the smoke.

Continuity: After Costigan comes out of jail he visits an old lady. From a front shot she is slightly leaning, her left hand unseen. From a back shot the left hand is standing out over his shoulder with a burning cigarette. It should have been visible from the opposite shot at first.

Continuity: When Costello is getting his money in the diner, young Sullivan is first sitting next to some packages on the right of the screen , but a shot later, when he stands up holding a brown paper bag, he is seen sitting next to to an empty seat.

Continuity: After the football game, when Sullivan turns around to insult the other team, there's a guy with a light blue shirt that steps ahead of another one with a dark blue shirt. A second later their positions swap.

Continuity: Just after Billy Costigan is shot, the elevator doors try to close. In the shots where the black guy comes out of the other elevator, the doors aren't moving anymore.

Continuity: When Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) reports the processor theft to the SIU detectives, he says 20 chips were stolen. When Fitzy opens the case at the sale, there are 66.

Continuity: While having dinner, from a side shot we see Sullivan's mouth chuckle. Frame later, from the front, he is serious and smiles half a second afterwards.

Revealing: When Mr. French smashes Costigan's arm cast, on the second attempt Costigan seems to be using his own force to smash the cast. As French loses his grip at the top of the motion, Costigan's arm moves downward with all the force it would have had had French not let go.

Continuity: In the beginning when Costello is saying: "You could become cops or criminals", he has a cigarette in his mouth, but when he leans into to say: "whats the difference?", it disappears.

Continuity: While running from the cops, French turns the car 90º to the left, but from a different angle it's still facing in the original direction.

Continuity: Costello tells Costigan "your dad had his own code". Then Costigan turns his head and exhales some smoke, but the following frame shows his head in the opposite direction and the smoke is gone.

Continuity: While Sullivan is rain drenched in military school, when he says "Sir! Yes sir!" his hair style changes in a nano second.

Other: When Anthony Anderson is shot in the head towards the end of the film, you can see him still breathing as he lays on the ground.

Continuity: In the scene in a bar where Costello talks to the young Colin Sullivan, the time in his watch is evidently very different in two shots (when he takes the money from the bar owner and later when he hands Sullivan a bunch of coins). First it reads 2:50, then 2:58, and only one and a half minute has passed in the movie, as shown by Costello talking. Also, the watch in the second shot has no seconds hand, only hours and minutes.

Continuity: During the opening scene at the diner, Costello places a comic book in the grocery bag, and it is well below the top of the bag. In the next shot of the bag, the comic book is much higher in the bag, and in fact is almost rubbing the boy's cheek.

Continuity: When Frank and Francis executes the couple on the beach, the woman falls almost on top of the man's back. When it cuts her body has almost moved off him. Then in the next shot she is on top of the man again.

Continuity: When French is holding the bag with the hand he places a ring very close to Costello's cheek. A second later, without him having moved, the hand is at jaw level and farther away.

Continuity: Costigan enters the bar and points at a guy with a leather cap. In the background, a waiter is leaning on the bar, who then stands up and starts to walk. In the following close shot he is back in the previous place, leaning.

Continuity: After the football game, Sullivan turns to his right to call the other team "faggots". From a different angle he is making a left turn.

Continuity: The position of Madolyn's spoon while eating the chocolate cake is not continuous in the front and back shots.

Continuity: When Costigan is beating up the Providence goons, he is hitting the one in the cooler with his right hand. In the next shot he is hitting with his left.

Continuity: In the final scene of the movie, when Sullivan is walking down the hallway and into his apartment, his belt is light brown. But when he's dead on the floor, it's a dark brown, almost black.

Continuity: When Billy and Frank are sitting in a bar, Billy is just sitting at the table. In the next shot he's suddenly in the middle of blowing smoke rings into the air.

Revealing: In the shootout at the elevator near the end of the movie, when Sullivan shoots the last guy, you can clearly see kneepads under his pants, to soften the fall.

Factual error: When Costigan is riding the "T" (Boston subway), he is talking to Queenan on a cell phone. However, they are on the "Red" line, which is obvious because of the red walls in the tunnel. Cell phones don't work on the Red line because it is underground and there are no cell phone routers in those tunnels.

Continuity: When Sullivan crosses the street there's a lot of people going to the right. From the CCTV recording there's just one person.

Continuity: The dead woman on the beach lies with her feet together, but a shot later they are spread apart.

Deliberate "mistake": In all the shoot-outs, the bullets that hit the cars spark, which bullets do not do, and leave no hole, dent, or even a small scratch. They do, however, break the glass.

Factual error: When Queenan and Costigan are riding the Red Line, Queenan gets on at Park Street station. Costigan tells him, "Get off at the next stop, South Station." South Station is two stops away; the next stop after Park Street is Downtown Crossing. However, Queenan does get off at the next stop, and it is magically South Station.

Visible crew/equipment: When Ellerby introduces Dignam and he describes his undercover unit, a microphone is seen moving around at the top, center of the screen.

Continuity: After Queenan gets thrown off the building there is a shoot out, when the van drives away the back windows get shot out twice.