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 before 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. The historical truth of his story is heavily disputed.
A movie version of Abagnale's book of the same name was contemplated soon after it was published in 1980 but began in earnest in 1997 when Spielberg's DreamWorks bought the film rights. David Fincher, Gore Verbinski, Lasse Hallström, Miloš Forman, and Cameron Crowe were all considered to direct the film before Spielberg decided to direct it himself. Filming took place from February to May 2002.
The film opened on December 25, 2002, to critical and commercial success. At the 75th Academy Awards, Christopher Walken and John Williams were nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Score, respectively.
Plot
In 1969, FBI agent Carl Hanratty arrives in Marseille, France, to pick up a prisoner named Frank Abagnale Jr. who became ill due to the prison's conditions.
Six years earlier, Frank Abagnale Jr. lives in New Rochelle, New York, with his father Frank Abagnale Sr. and his French mother Paula. During his youth, he witnesses his father's many techniques for conning people. Because of Frank Sr.'s tax problems with the IRS, the family is forced to move to a small apartment.
One day, Frank discovers that his mother is having an affair with Jack Barnes, his father's friend from the Rotary Club of New Rochelle. When his parents divorce, Frank runs away. Needing money, he turns to confidence scams to survive and his cons grow bolder. He impersonates 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 Agent Carl Hanratty begins tracking Frank. Carl finds him at a hotel, but Frank tricks Carl into believing he is a Secret Service agent named Barry Allen. He escapes before Carl realizes that he was fooled.
Frank begins to impersonate a doctor. As Dr. Frank Conners, he falls in love with Brenda, a naive young hospital nurse. He asks her attorney father for her hand in marriage and also for help with arranging 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. Re-assuming his pilot identity, he stages a false 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, Spain.
In 1967, Carl tracks down Frank in his mother's hometown of Montrichard, France and manages to trick him into being arrested.
Back in the present, Carl takes Frank on a flight back to the United States. As they approach, Carl informs him that his father 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 fraud check from a case he is working on. Frank immediately figures out 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 about 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 questions him about how he cheated at the Louisiana State Bar exam but Frank tells him that he studied and passed it. Carl smiles and asks Frank if he's telling the truth, but Frank diverts by giving Carl input on their new fraud case, which Carl willingly goes along with.