History Film / CatchMeIfYouCan

** Frank escapes from custody by unscrewing the toilet in the bathroom, climbing into the landing gear wells on the wing. Toilets drain into holding tanks and are located inside the pressurized section of the fuselage, while the landing gear is in the unpressurized section with no connection between the two.

* SickCaptiveScam: DoubleSubverted. When Hanratty arrives at the run-down French prison to extradite Frank to the United States, he assumes that Frank's uncontrollable coughing is just him acting in order to attempt another escape. He's legitimately ill and has to be taken to the hospital after he collapses in front of Hanratty. He does attempt to escape while there, but he doesn't get any further than the end of the block before he collapses again. The cops don't even bother running to catch him; they walk coolly.

%%* ATeamMontage

* GameShowAppearance: Frank Jr. appears on ''Series/ToTellTheTruth'' at the very beginning of the movie; real footage of Abagnale's appearance on the show from 1977 was used with Leonardo [=DiCaprio=] and other actors (playing the imposters) digitally inserted. The question Kitty Carlisle gives to the first imposter, and the response, is unaltered, but the first question posed to the real Frank Jr. was how long he stayed on the state attorney's staff without being caught, as opposed to the film's segue to the composite character Carl Hanratty.

* WrongGenreSavvy: Frank learned everything he knows about being a doctor and being a lawyer from ''Series/DrKildare'' and ''Series/PerryMason'' respectively. His attempts to use this knowledge in actual medical and legal settings just end up confusing his colleagues.

* GameShowAppearance: Frank Jr. appears on ''Series/ToTellTheTruth'' at the very beginning of the movie; real footage of Abagnale's appearance on the show from 1977 was used with Leonardo [=DiCaprio=] and other actors (playing the imposters) digitally inserted. The question Kitty Carlisle gives to the first imposter, and the response, is TruthInTelevision, but the first question posed to the real Frank Jr. was how long he stayed on the state attorney's staff without being caught, as opposed to the film's segue to the composite character Carl Hanratty.

* BasedOnAGreatBigLie: A lot of the movie embroiders Abagnale's memoir--the fraught relationship with his father is fictional, Brenda is a composite of two different people described in Abagnale's book, etc. But later research has shown that most everything that the movie ''did'' take from Abagnale's book, in fact the whole book, is essentially made up. Abagnale never impersonated a doctor. He never took the bar exam in Louisiana or practiced law. He didn't escape custody by climbing out of an airplane toilet--that's physically impossible. He never worked for the FBI as a consultant in fighting check forgery. While he did sometimes wear a pilot's uniform as part of his check kiting, he did not use it to hitch plane rides around the world. And he was convicted of forging not up to $4 million in checks, but only $1,448.60. Wikipedia has [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Abagnale#Veracity_of_claims much more]] about this.

** From that same pair of scenes, Carl tells his fellow agents that if they just keep their eyes open and do their jobs, he'll buy them both a Good Humor bar, though at the time it seems like a throwaway condescending line. Guess what those two agents are munching on back at the boss' office?

* BrokenAesop: Frank watching Brenda's parents flirting in the kitchen, wistfully recalling his own parents before their divorce. Poignant and heartwarming - until you remember they threw their daughter to the street for having an abortion after being raped by her fathers friend who plays golf.

* HistoricalVillainDowngrade: The movie ignores Abagnale's cons he pulled on ordinary people, most notably the Campbell family who he wined and dined with their own money. There's also no mention of his sexual abuse crimes; he once infiltrated a college posing as a doctor hired by Panam. However, he wasn't trying to recruit various female students to become stewardesses as part of some scheme against the FBI, he was just there to perform "physical examinations" on them.

* HistoricalVillainDowngrade: The movie ignores Abagnale's cons he pulled on ordinary people, most notably the Campbell family who he wined and dined with their own money. There's also no mention of his sexual abuse crimes; when he infiltrated a college posing as a doctor hired by Panam, he didn't pick various female students in a lottery as part of some scheme against the FBI, he was just there to perform "physical examinations" on them.

* HistoricalVillainDowngrade: The movie ignores Abagnale's cons he pulled on ordinary people, most notably the Campbell family who he wined and dined with their own money.

* BasedOnAGreatBigLie: A lot of the movie embroiders Abagnale's memoir--the fraught relationship with his father is fictional, Brenda is a composite of two different people described in Abagnale's book, etc. But later research has shown that most everything that the movie ''did'' take from Abagnale's book, in fact the whole book, is essentially made up. Abagnale never impersonated a doctor. He never took the bar exam in Louisiana or practiced law. He didn't escape custody by climbing out of an airplane toilet--that's physically impossible. He never worked for the FBI as a consultant in fighting check forgery. While he did sometimes wear a pilot's uniform as part of his check kiting, he did not use it to hitch plane rides around the world. And he was convicted of forging not $2.5 million in checks, but $1,448.60. Wikipedia has [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Abagnale#Veracity_of_claims much more]] about this.

* BasedOnAGreatBigLie: A lot of the movie embroiders Abagnale's memoir--the fraught relationship with his father is fictional, Brenda is a composite of two different people described in Abagnale's book, etc. But later research has shown that most everything that the movie ''did'' take from Abagnale's book, in fact the whole book, is essentially made up. Abagnale never impersonated a doctor. He never took the bar exam in Louisiana or practiced law. He didn't escape custody by climbing out of an airplane toilet--that's physically impossible. He never worked for the FBI as a consultant in fighting check forgery. While he did sometimes wear a pilot's uniform as part of his check kiting, he did not use it to hitch plane rides around the world. And he was convicted of forging not $2.5 million in checks, but $1448.60. Wikipedia has [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Abagnale#Veracity_of_claims much more]] about this.

* PrettyInMink: Jennifer Garner plays a FashionModel, first seen in a mink jacket.

* YoungerThanTheyLook: Frank convinces people that he is a working professional in a variety of careers while still being just a teenager. This also helps justify the DawsonCasting of Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio.

--> '''Frank:''' People only know what you tell them.

* FailedASpotCheck: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] as Frank Sr. ultimately dissuades Frank from giving him an expensive car as a gift because it would lead a blatant trail to his con jobs.

-->'''Carl''': Well, would you like to hear me tell a joke?
-->'''His subordinate''': Yeah, we'd love to hear you tell a joke.
--> '''Carl:''' Knock knock.
--> '''His subordinate:''' Who's there?
--> '''Carl:''' ({{Beat}}) Go fuck yourselves.

--> '''Judge:''' There is no defense, there is no jury. It's just me. Son, what in the hell is wrong with you?

* TheSeventies: The last fifteen or so minutes of the film.
* TheSixties: The majority of the film.

'''Doctor 1''': Do you concur?\\
'''Doctor 2''': I concur!\\

* AnachronismStew: The would-be stewardess singing "Leavin' On A Jet Plane" in a scene that probably happens in 1966 (Frank said a few days earlier that he'd run away from home "a year and a half ago when I was sixteen," which would be sometime in 1964 or early '65). That song is OlderThanTheyThink: although Peter, Paul and Mary's version didn't become a hit single until 1969, it was released on an album in 1967. But that puts it a year away from release in that scene, which can't be any later than the summer of 1966 according to the movie's timeline. (John Denver did release an album in 1966 that had the original recording of that song under the title "Babe I Hate To Go", but that was a demo that wasn't released to the public at the time.

* BaitAndSwitch: Meeting up in a money printing facility in France, Carl tells Frank that a team of French police are outside, Frank thinks he's lying and has him promise on his daughter. Carl takes him outside in cuffs, where no French police are present. Franks says "That was really good, Carl". Seconds later, a horde of French police appears.

** Young Frank impersonates a substitute teacher for French Class: where he plays the role so convincingly enough to lecture his students and hand out homework, hold Parent-Teacher Conferences, and even organize plans for a field trip to a French Bread factory. He gets in trouble with the school once they find this out ''an entire week later;'' Frank's parents make a show of being angry at him but Frank Sr.'s face becomes a proud smirk once they leave the principal's office.

** Young Frank impersonates a substitute teacher for a week. He gets in trouble with the school once they find out; Frank's parents make a show of being angry at him but Frank Sr.'s face becomes a proud smirk once they leave the principal's office.

* HistoricalVillainDowngrade: The movie ignores Abagnale's cons he pulled on ordinary people, most notably the Campbell family who he wined and dined with there own money.

* StatingTheSimpleSolution: The game show lady mentions that Frank is very talented and he could have gone into a legitimate career. On the game show, the impostor Frank says he needed the money. In the film, Frank started doing it to pay the bills but got addicted to the thrill of scamming that much money out of Pan-American Airlines.

* AmbiguousSituation: It's not made clear if Brenda [[spoiler: cooperated with the FBI to bring Frank in because she was coerced to, or willingly agreed to because she was heartbroken over everything Frank told her about himself being a lie. Since [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse she never appears again after the scene in Miami]], we also don't learn if she was able to keep her relationship with her parents or got disowned again.]]

* ShoutOut: Frank turns into a huge ''Film/JamesBond'' fan at the height of his pulling off his Pan Am pilot con game. (At one point early in his career, Spielberg wanted to direct a Bond movie). He even watches ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'' at one point and while being fitted for a suit, his alias is [[Creator/IanFleming Mr. Fleming]].

Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio stars as Frank Jr., with Creator/TomHanks as FBI agent Carl Hanratty, who is chasing Frank, and Creator/ChristopherWalken as Frank Sr. Creator/AmyAdams has one of her first big film roles as a young volunteer nurse who gets engaged to Frank.