10 Movies Where The Good Guy & Bad Guy BOTH Lose
2. The Departed
Scorsese strikes again, this time with his Best Picture-winning masterpiece The Departed, which reworks the ending from its inspiration - 2002's classic Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs - to prevent the villain from winning.
Rather than have undercover cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) be killed in the film's climax and police spy Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) get away it - as happens to their equivalent characters in Infernal Affairs - things go a little differently.
Indeed, Costigan is suddenly shot and killed during his final confrontation with Sullivan, and though it at first appears that Sullivan's going to get away scot-free, the final scene has Costigan's incensed colleague Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) wait for Sullivan in his apartment and shoot him dead.
There's no winners here - on the hero's side, Costigan dies and Dignam is clearly left completely broken by the deaths of both him and Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen), while on the villain's team, Sullivan and mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) also both die.