A Rat-Free Edit Of 'The Departed' Ending Now Exists

In The Simpsons‘ loose parody of The Departed, naturally called “The Debarted,” the episode ends the same way as the movie, with a rat walking across the screen… except then Ralph Wiggum pops out of a trash can and notes, “The rat symbolizes obviousness.” Speaking of: it was obviously only a matter of a time before the Kickstarter to edit that infamous rodent out of Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning film was fully funded; the goal was $4,000, and it already has $4,506 from 121 backers (with 21 days left to go!).

It’s always bothered me that a movie as good as The Departed has such a cheesy ending, and I recently realized it could be fixed by digitally erasing the rat from the last shot. But digital effects are not cheap, which is why I’m here on Kickstarter trying to raise $4,000 dollars. $4,000 dollars may sound like a lot of money, so let me break down the costs for each of the nine steps in this process. (Via)

You can read all nine steps and donate money (which you didn’t earn doing “odd jobs” for the mob, wink), or you can watch the rat-free scene on Twitter… for free! “Fun fact: the view out the window was digitally inserted in the film, which made tracking the shot in order to remove the rat more difficult than you’d expect because the original motion matching… wasn’t quite perfect,” editor Mark LaCroix explained. (The guy behind the Kickstarter called the Twitter edit “disrespectful to Mr. Scorsese’s legacy” because it’s not on 35mm film.)