Having starred in the biggest movie of his career this past summer, Matt Damon has set an incredibly high benchmark for himself. Damon has continued t
Having starred in the biggest movie of his career this past summer, Matt Damon has set an incredibly high benchmark for himself. Damon has continued to level up in each of the four decades of his professional career, starting with Good Will Hunting, continuing with the Jason Bourne trilogy and The Martian, and most recently, delivering the record-breaking blockbuster The Odyssey. Directed by Christopher Nolan, the epic historical fantasy film shattered all expectations to gross more than $1.7 billion worldwide. It’s a shoo-in for Oscars consideration, and a major contender for a Best Picture nomination. Damon, of course, has starred in a Best Picture winner more than once. In 2023, he played a pivotal role in Nolan’s Oppenheimer. Now, one of his most acclaimed movies is about to be removed from its streaming home, leaving audiences with not much time to check it out.
The movie in question was released in 2006, just one year before The Bourne Ultimatum grossed more than $400 million worldwide and brought the landmark action trilogy to an end. The 2006 film also featured Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Vera Farmiga, Ray Winstone, Alec Baldwin, Mark Wahlberg, and Martin Sheen. Directed by Martin Scorsese, it remains memorable for being the movie that won him a long-overdue Best Director Oscar. It also won the Best Picture honor in addition to emerging as a major box-office hit.
Collider Exclusive · Villain Personality Quiz
Which Criminal Mastermind Would Be Your Nemesis?
Lecter · Joker · Moriarty · Chigurh
Four of the finest criminal minds ever put on screen. One of them would look at you and see something worth their time. Eight questions decide which one comes for you, why they picked you, and what they would want when they arrived.
Lecter
Joker
Moriarty
Chigurh
MEET YOUR NEMESIS →
01
What would a criminal mastermind notice about you first?
Great villains choose their opponents carefully. Something about you got their attention.
AMy manners, and everything I am careful not to say.
BThat I still believe people are basically decent.
CThat I am clever, and quietly enjoy proving it.
DThat I handle things myself, and always have.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
How do they make first contact?
The introduction tells you everything about what is coming next.
AA polite letter. Beautiful handwriting. Quietly wrong.
BSomething on fire, with a message left beside it.
CA puzzle, left where only I would look.
DNo contact. Just the aftermath, and a coin.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
What do you actually believe about right and wrong?
Every nemesis is really an argument about the thing you believe most.
AThere are lines. Mine are private and absolute.
BRules are the only thing keeping us from being animals.
CMorality is a system, and systems can be solved.
DThings happen. Most of it was never up to me.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
What finally gets under your skin?
Everybody has a pressure point. Finding yours is the whole plan.
ABeing seen clearly by somebody I cannot read.
BWatching good people do something ugly.
CLosing to someone who was simply better prepared.
DHaving no move left that changes anything.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
They have made their move. How do you fight back?
This is the part of the film where the audience finds out who you are.
ACarefully, and never where they expect to be touched.
BLoudly. I would rather lose than play their game.
CWith a better plan. I can out-think this.
DDirectly, once, with whatever is closest to hand.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
What would they utilize against you?
A good villain never brings a weapon you have not already handed them.
AMy privacy. I have kept far too much to myself.
BMy conscience. I will not cross the line they want.
CMy ego. I cannot resist a worthy opponent.
DMy certainty that I can handle it alone.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
What do they actually want from you?
The money is never the point. Something else always is.
ATo understand me better than anyone ever has.
BTo prove I am no better than they are.
CTo finally be beaten by someone worth the trouble.
DNothing at all. I stepped into the wrong path.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
How does it end between the two of you?
Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who comes for you.
AA conversation I will be replaying for years.
BA choice forced on me that has no neat answer.
COne final move, and the better mind wins.
DA coin in the air, and nothing I can say.
REVEAL MY NEMESIS →
The Case File Is Complete
Your Nemesis Is…
Four criminal masterminds. One of them was always going to be yours.
Here is who comes for you, why they picked you out of everyone available, and what they want from
the encounter.
Hannibal Lecter
Your nemesis does not want to beat you. He wants to know you
completely, and he is patient enough to wait for it. The frightening part is how good the
conversation is.
- Lecter is the most perilous kind of opponent: the one who finds you compelling. He
never raises his voice, because he has never needed to. - You keep a great deal to yourself and you are careful about what you show. That reserve
is exactly the door he would knock on. - The films understood something other thrillers missed. The horror is not the violence.
It is being perfectly understood by the wrong person. - He would be unfailingly polite about all of it. That is the worst part.
The Joker
Your nemesis is not after money, territory or revenge. He is
after a demonstration, and you are the person he has chosen to prove his point on.
- The Joker only picks opponents who believe in something. Your decency is not a defence
against him. It is the entire reason he showed up. - He has no plan you can predict and nothing you can take away, which removes every tool
you would normally reach for. - His whole argument is that you are one bad day away from being him, and you would spend
the rest of your life proving him wrong. - He would call it a magic trick. You would call it the worst night of your life.
Moriarty
Your nemesis respects you, which sounds flattering until you work
out what it means. He chose you because nobody else was worth his time.
- Moriarty is the original criminal mastermind, the template every later one borrows from:
a mind the equal of the hero’s, pointed the wrong way. - You enjoy being the cleverest person in the room. He is counting on exactly that, and he
has already built the room. - This is the scarce nemesis who would be genuinely disappointed if you lost badly. He needs
the game to be worth playing. - It ends the way these things always end. Two people, one problem, and only one way down.
Anton Chigurh
Your nemesis has no personal interest in you whatsoever, and that
is precisely what makes him unsurvivable. You are not a rival. You are a stop on the way.
- Chigurh does not negotiate, gloat or explain. He arrives, he asks one question, and the
answer was decided long before you opened your mouth. - You trust yourself to handle things. He is the one problem in the world that has no
interest in how capable you are. - No Country for Old Men rewrote the screen villain by removing the thing audiences
quietly rely on: the sense that talking might work. - Call it. He will wait.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
Here’s How Long You Have Left to Watch the Crime Epic on HBO Max
By now you’ve probably guessed that we’re talking about The Departed, the English-language remake of the Hong Kong movie Infernal Affairs. Produced on a reported budget of $90 million, the film grossed nearly $300 million worldwide. It now holds a “Certified Fresh” 91% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “Featuring outstanding work from an excellent cast, The Departed is a thoroughly engrossing gangster drama with the gritty authenticity and soupy morality we come to expect from Martin Scorsese.” The film is currently streaming on HBO Max in the United States, but only until November 1. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Release Date
October 6, 2006
Runtime
151 minutes
Writers
William Monahan
Producers
Brad Grey, Brad Pitt, Graham King
