At the time when Hot Fuzz came out, The Departed had won the Best Picture Oscar the year before, giving Martin Scorcese the Oscar he deserved for at three decades. It was wildly popular and featured a police force. Wright got a reference to this modern great in there, albeit in a subtle way. The reference point is when Billy Costigan walks past Colin Sullivans window-fronted office while the villain is oblivious to him, If you swap out Nic Angel for Leo Di Caprio and Jim Broadbent for Matt Damon, you get the same effect, adding a cool in-joke to this already-awesome scene. Angel and Franks dynamic is also informed by classic neo-noirs LA Confidential (Dudley Smith) and Magnum Force (Neil Briggs), where the seemingly benign good-hearted guy turns out to be a cold hearted villain in one of Eberts clichés.