Premise: An undercover cop infiltrates Boston's Irish mob, while another cop works within the Massachusetts state police passing information to the mob. When the mob and the police each realize that they have a rat in their midst, the two moles must try to determine each other's identities while keeping their own secret.

Background: The Departed is a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Mou gaan dou (Infernal Affairs).

Filming: Filming on The Departed began on April 25, 2005 and ended on September 15, 2005. The movie was made with an estimated budget of $90 million. It was filmed on locations in and around New York City and Boston, Massachusetts (where it is set).

Release Dates: The Departed was released in North America, Hong Kong, and the UK on October 6, 2006, and had been released in most international markets by the end of November 2006. (For the full list of international release dates, see IMDb.) Because of its many award nominations, the movie was re-released in the United States on January 26, 2007. The film still has not been released in China: it was banned by the Chinese government.

Taglines: "Lies. Betrayal. Sacrifice. How far will you take it?" (The tagline for the Hong Kong original was "Loyalty. Honor. Betrayal.")
"Cops or Criminals. When you're facing a loaded gun what's the difference?"

Box Office: The film was #1 at the US box office its first week of release, taking in almost $27 million. It also had the highest per screen average that weekend. It held the #2 slot through the rest of October, and remained in the top ten until the weekend of November 19. In the UK, it opened at #2 but then took the #1 slot for the next two weeks, remaining in the UK top ten until the weekend of November 19. The film's total box office gross in 2006 in the US was estimated at $129,402,536, making it the 15th highest grossing movie of the year in that country. That number also makes it the highest-grossing film of Martin Scorsese's career, replacing The Aviator ($102,593,534).

Rating: In the US, the movie was rated R for violence, language (the word "fuck" in some form is said 237 times in the film), sexual content, and drugs.

Reviews: According to Rotten Tomatoes' sampling of reviews, The Departed's reviews were 93% positive, making it the second best reviewed wide release film of 2006 (behind only Casino Royale) and Scorsese's best reviewed film since Goodfellas (1990). Users at IMDb rated it the second best film of 2006 (behind Pan's Labyrinth). It is also currently rated the 7th best of the decade so far, and holds position 34 on the IMDb Top 250 movies of all time.