Catch Me If You Can

 

Catch Me If You Can is a 2002 American biographical crime comedy-drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks with Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Nathalie Baye, Amy Adams, and James Brolin in supporting roles. The screenplay by Jeff Nathanson is based on the semi-autobiographical book of the same name by Frank Abagnale Jr., who claims that prior to his 19th birthday, he successfully performed cons worth millions of dollars by posing as a Pan American World Airways pilot, a Georgia doctor, and a Louisiana parish prosecutor. However, the truth of his story is, as of the 2020s, heavily disputed.

In 1969, FBI agent Carl Hanratty arrives in Marseille, France, to pick up a prisoner named Frank Abagnale Jr., who has fallen ill due to the prison's poor conditions.

Six years ago, Frank lived in New Rochelle, New York, with his father, Frank Sr., and his French mother, Paula. During his youth, he witnesses his father's many techniques for conning people, but Frank Sr.'s tax problems with the IRS eventually force the family to move from their house and into a small apartment.

One day, Frank discovers his mother is having an affair with Jack Barnes, his father's friend from the New Rochelle Rotary Club. When his parents divorce, Frank runs away. Needing money, he turns to confidence scams to survive, his cons progressively growing bolder. He poses as a Pan Am pilot named Frank Taylor and forges the airline's payroll checks. Soon, his forgeries are worth millions of dollars.

News of the crimes reaches the FBI and Carl begins tracking Frank. He finds him at a motel, but Frank tricks Carl into believing he is a Secret Service agent named Barry Allen. He escapes before Carl realizes he was fooled.

Frank then begins to impersonate a doctor. As Dr. Frank Conners, he falls in love with Brenda, a naive young hospital nurse, and asks her attorney father for both her hand in marriage and help with arrangements to take the Louisiana State Bar exam, which Frank passes. Carl tracks Frank to his and Brenda's engagement party, but Frank escapes through a bedroom window, telling Brenda to meet him at Miami International Airport two days later.

At the airport, Frank spots Brenda, but also plainclothed agents. He realizes she has given him up, then drives away. Reassuming his pilot identity, he stages a recruiting drive for stewardesses at a local college. Surrounded by eight women as stewardesses, he conceals himself from Carl and the other agents at the airport and escapes on a flight to Madrid.

In 1967, Carl tracks down Frank in his mother's hometown of Montrichard, France, and convinces him to surrender to the French police. Frank is immediately arrested and taken into French custody, but Carl assures him that he will get him extradited back to the U.S.

Picking back up once more in 1969, Carl takes Frank on a flight back to the U.S. As they approach, Carl informs Frank that Frank Sr. has died. Grief-stricken, Frank escapes from the plane and reaches the house of his mother, who now has a daughter with Barnes. Frank surrenders to Carl and is sentenced to 12 years in a maximum-security prison.

Carl occasionally visits Frank. During one visit, he shows him a fraudulent check from a case he is working on. Frank immediately deduces that the bank teller was involved in the fraud. Impressed, Carl convinces the FBI to allow him to serve the remainder of his sentence working for the FBI Financial Crimes Unit. Frank agrees but soon grows restless doing the tedious office work.

One weekend, Frank prepares to impersonate a pilot again and is intercepted by Carl, who is willing to let him continue with his con, assuring him that no one is chasing him and that it's his choice. Frank returns to work and discusses another fraud case with Carl, who asks him how he cheated on the Louisiana State Bar exam. Frank tells him he studied and passed it. Carl smiles and asks Frank if he's telling the truth, but Frank doesn't answer, instead giving Carl input on a new fraud case.

A postscript says that Frank lived for 26 years in the Midwestern United States with his wife, with whom he had three sons, remained friends with Carl, and made a living as a leading expert on bank fraud and forgery.