You know how it is. One minute, you're driving along with your friend Jules. You've got Marvin, a drug dealer's associate, minding his own business in the back seat. The next, you turn around to ask his religious opinions and- blam - suddenly the rear window has turned a dark splash of red. Mistake or not, maybe you shouldn't have pointed your gun at him... Below are twelve other characters (in no rank order) who were mercilessly yet memorably written out of the script without a word of goodbye. And while they may not all share the same dark humour as the above example, suffice it to say that There Will Be Spoilers.
12. Billy Costigan (The Departed)
Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an undercover officer for the Massachusetts State Police; the same force that Irish Mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) has planted Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) to work as a mole. Throughout the film, the two men have been tasked with identifying the informant in their respective organisations until a third-act rooftop chase marks the point in which all covers are blown. Costigan handcuffs Sullivan and drags him to a lift shaft. As they travel to the ground floor, Sullivan pleads with his captor, telling him to ''Just '' f***ing kill me.'' ''I
am killing you'', he replies. A few seconds later, the doors have barely opened and Costigan is shot at point blank range. We see this from the perspective of his killer, Officer Barrigan (James Badge Dale) - who was Sullivan's classmate at the police academy. This sets in motion a bloodbath; with fingers twitching on triggers until, as he had done thirty years earlier in
Taxi Driver, Scorsese sees us out with the floors littered like a Shakespearean tragedy.