Catch Me If You Can

A true story about Frank Abagnale Jr. who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of dollars worth of checks as a Pan Am pilot, doctor, and legal prosecutor. An FBI agent makes it his mission to put him behind bars. But Frank not only eludes capture, he revels in the pursuit.



A seasoned FBI agent pursues Frank Abagnale Jr. who, before his 19th birthday, successfully forged millions of dollars' worth of checks while posing as a Pan Am pilot, a doctor, and a legal prosecutor.
—ahmetkozan



New Rochelle, the 1960s. High schooler Frank Abagnale Jr. idolizes his father, who's in trouble with the IRS. When his parents separate, Frank runs away to Manhattan with $25 in his checking account, vowing to regain dad's losses and get his parents back together. Just a few years later, the FBI tracks him down in France; he's extradited, tried, and jailed for passing more than $4,000,000 in bad checks. Along the way, he's posed as a Pan Am pilot, a pediatrician, and an attorney. And, from nearly the beginning of this life of crime, he's been pursued by a dour FBI agent, Carl Hanratty. What starts as cat and mouse becomes something akin to father and son.
—





SYNOPSIS

A pre-credits scene shows an episode of the popular game show 'To Tell the Truth' set in 1977 where three contestants appear claiming to the panelists to be the legendary Frank Abagnale, Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) who impersonated an airline pilot, a lawyer, and doctor, as well as scammed people on three continents for millions of dollars... all before reaching the age of 19.

The film then shifts to 1969, with FBI agent Carl Hanratty Jr. (Tom Hanks) arriving at a French prison to meet the flu-stricken Frank Abagnale Jr, who attempts to escape from the prison prior to his extraction to the USA for a series of crimes.

The film then flashes back to six years earlier. 16-year-old Frank Abagnale Jr lives in New Rochelle, New York with his father Frank Abagnale, Sr. (Christopher Walken), and French mother Paula (Nathalie Baye). One morning, Frank's father rouses him out of bed, and Frank then watches as his father cons a woman into lending him a suit for Frank Jr. Frank Jr then drives Frank Sr to Chase Manhatten Bank, in a ruse to get a loan. When the loan is denied (due to a series of IRS tax frauds by Frank Sr.), the family is forced to move from their grand home to a small apartment, with which causes tension between Frank's parents.

Frank is then enrolled in a public school. When he hears some guys in his class claiming he could be their teacher, Frank then pretends to be the class' substitute teacher. The ruse goes on for a week's time, before Frank's parents are called in to discuss the matter. While his mother is upset by this, Frank's father is rather impressed by how far his son was able to go with the ruse.

Frank soon realizes that his mother is having an adulterous affair with his father's friend Jack (James Brolin), but he grows even more appalled when it is revealed that his parents are getting a divorce. When he is asked with which of his parents he wishes to stay with, Frank runs away from home, using a book of checks that his father had given him to con his way into transportation and shelter. When Frank runs out of money, he attempts to use confidence scams, but is unable to get much leverage. One day, he takes notice of some airline pilots and some stewardesses checking into a hotel. Seeing how they are treated almost like royalty, gives Frank an idea.

Obtaining a Pan Am Airlines pilot's suit and learning more about the airline (under the guise of a student doing a report), Frank is soon able to not only get his fake Pan Am checks cashed, but also claims to be a dead-head pilot on several occasions, flying across the country for free.

Meanwhile, Carl Hanratty, the nearly humorless but persistent FBI agent, receives word of the fake Pan Am checks, and begins to try and track down the culprit. Tracking the latest falsified check to a hotel, Carl discovers to his surprise that Frank is still a resident there and breaks into his room to arrest him. Emerging from the bathroom and knowing only that Carl is from the FBI, Frank pretends to be Agent "Barry Allen" of the United States Secret Service, and brazenly claims to have just caught the suspect before Carl showed up. It is not until after Frank has escaped from the room that Carl realizes he has been fooled.

Frank soon attempts to use the money that he has stolen to find a way to reunite his divorced parents. He invites his father to a fancy restaurant, and gives him the keys to a brand-new Cadillac. Frank Sr. explains that he can't accept the gift, since the IRS are still watching him, and makes an attempt to put a positive air to the meal.

Some months later on Christmas Eve, while Carl is working in the office late and alone, Frank calls him to apologize for tricking him back at the hotel. Carl announces that it doesn't work that way and, to Frank's horror, Carl realizes the reason for the call: Frank has no one else to talk to. Frank hangs up, and Carl continues his investigation. He later discovers that the name Barry Allen is a character in "The Flash" comic books, and surmises that Frank is a teenage minor, which explains why they have been unsuccessful in finding a record of him or matching him through fingerprints.

Remembering that Frank had made a reference to the New York Yankees during their phone call, Carl has his men check for runaways in New York. Their search eventually leads them to Frank's mother, who has now remarried. After seeing Frank's yearbook picture, Carl now knows who his suspect is.

One year later. Frank has gone from impersonating a pilot to impersonating a doctor (complete with a forged Harvard Medical School degree) in Georgia, due to an interest in a young hospital nurse named Brenda Strong (Amy Adams). After finding out that her parents disowned her after she had an abortion, Frank attempts to help her reconcile with her family. The two travel to meet her parents in Louisiana, where Frank not only claims to be a Lutheran like them, but also that he is a qualified lawyer as well as a doctor. Frank soon joins Brenda's father (Martin Sheen) as an assistant prosecutor after passing the Bar exam.

Frank soon decides to marry Brenda, and goes to tell his father. It is here that Frank Sr. (now working for the US Post Office) informs his son that Frank's mother has remarried, devastating Frank. After Frank leaves his father for good, he calls Carl, wanting the chase to end in the wake of his wanting to settle down. Carl informs Frank that this is not possible, since Frank has stolen some $4 million. Once Frank hangs up, Carl's men look through wedding announcements to track Frank down.

Carl manages to track Frank down on the night of the engagement party, leading Frank to confess to Brenda who he is, before escaping out a window, and asking her to meet him at the local airport a few days later. However, when she arrives as planned, Frank is devastated to see Brenda is being watched closely by a number of disguised FBI agents who are watching her.

When Frank doesn't appear, Carl has his men stake out the airport, certain that Frank will attempt to show him up somehow, and try to escape by plane.

Frank puts a new plan into effect, where he claims that he works for Pan Am, and is recruiting stewardesses to travel to Europe. The girls he chooses work as "eye candy", and Frank manages to walk right past Carl's men, distracting them with a decoy in the unloading zone of the airport, before escaping to Europe.

A year-and-a-half later in 1967, Carl angrily tells his boss that Frank has been forging checks all over the Eastern Hemisphere. Only this time, the checks are the real thing. Claiming that Frank is out of control, he requests permission to track him down in Europe. When his boss denies him permission, Carl takes one of Frank's bogus checks to professional printers who suggest it can only have been printed in a handful of European countries. Remembering from an interview with Franks mother Paula that she was born in France, Carl travels to her birthplace of Montrichard and finds Frank there (on Christmas Eve), inside a massive printing factory.

Carl tells Frank that the French police outside will kill him if he doesn't surrender quietly. Frank assumes he is joking at first, but Carl vows that he is not lying. Frank handcuffs himself and Carl takes him outside, where, seeing no police, he compliments Carl on his ability to fool him. Almost immediately, however, the French police arrive and escort Frank to prison. The French police take Frank away, with Carl promising to have Frank extradited back to the USA. After two years, Frank is released into Carl's custody (as was seen in the opening of the film).

On Christmas Eve 1969, the plane extraditing Frank flies into the United States. As they prepare to land, Carl informs Frank that his father (Frank Sr) died accidentally the previous year. Devastated, Frank escapes from the plane in an incredible fashion, and tracks down where his mother lives. Here he finds his mother with her second husband, as well as a young girl who Frank realizes is his half-sister. Before he can even speak to his mother, a posse of police arrive in pursuit and Frank surrenders, wanting to be taken away before his mother knows he is there.

Frank is tried, convicted, and given a 12-year prison sentence, which he is sent to serve out in a maximum security Federal prison in Atlanta. During the next four years, Frank receives regular visits from Carl. During one of these visits, Frank easily deduces the identity of a forger by glancing at a check that Carl shows him...giving the FBI agent an idea.

In 1974, Carl arranges for Frank to be allowed to serve out the remainder of his sentence working for the check fraud department of the FBI under Carl's custody. Although Frank is out of prison, he is chained to his desk-job and misses the thrill of his old life and even attempts to pose as an airline pilot once again. Just as he tries to run again, Carl meets him at the airport. Carl allows him to go free, predicting that Frank will return to work on Monday since there is no one chasing him.

Back in the office on Monday morning, Carl is nervous when Frank doesn't appear for work on time. However, Frank does show up, and the two begin going over a recently-discovered check forgery, that shows some new signs of forgery they haven't encountered before. As they look over the check, Carl asks Frank something that has been on his mind for years: how he cheated on the Louisiana Bar Exam, to become a lawyer.

Frank claims he didn't cheat, and that he studied for two weeks and passed the exam on his own merits. Carl inquire to know if this is the truth, but Frank presses on with their observations of the case in front of them.

Lastly, it is revealed through scrolling text that "Frank has been happily married for 26 years" had three sons, lives in the Midwest with his family, is still good friends with Carl, caught some of the world's most elusive money forgers and gets millions of dollars each year because of his work creating unforgeable checks.