Martin Scorsese’s 2006 crime thriller *The Departed* featured a tense confrontation between Jack Nicholson’s mob boss Frank Costello and Leonardo DiCaprio’s undercover officer Billy Costigan. Nicholson sought to make the scene more unpredictable by introducing unplanned elements, including pointing a gun at DiCaprio, producing a visibly startled reaction that Scorsese chose to keep in the film. The account illustrates the film’s improvisational intensity and the pressure central to its story of opposing police and criminal informants.

Nicholson also intended to set a table alight by spraying bourbon from his mouth, but the production had supplied coloured water rather than alcohol. He later said his frustration at being unable to light it caused him to break character on camera. *The Departed*, Scorsese’s remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film *Infernal Affairs*, starred DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Nicholson, and went on to become one of the director’s most acclaimed films.