Catch Me If You Can is a wildly entertaining story and one of Steven Spielberg’s most underrated films. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio in the real-life story of Frank Abagnale, a young man who, before he turned 20, mad become one of the most successful con men in American history.
The movie dives into Frank’s exploits and offers a fun and exciting adventure as he takes daring risks and lives lavishly while trying to remain one step ahead of the lawmen who are on his trail. These cons would seem too outlandish if you didn’t know that many of them actually happened. Here are Frank Abagnale’s best scams from Catch Me If You Can.
The French Teacher
Though Frank didn’t embrace his conman ways until running away from home, it was clear that he always had a bit of a mischievous nature to him. After his family falls on hard times, Frank is taken out of private school and placed in public school. On his very first day, he already finds himself getting in trouble.
After getting bullied by one of his new classmates, Frank decides to pose as the new French teacher to humiliate the bully. The scheme goes on surprisingly long as frank manages to keep it up for weeks and even begins planning a field trip before getting caught.
Learning The Ropes
Unlike some movie conmen, Frank does not take a relaxed approach to his crimes. He puts in the work and does the research necessary. So when he sets his sights on the airline companies as a potential opportunity to make some money, he decides he needs to learn as much information as possible.
To do this without arousing suspicion, Frank poses as a high school student writing a newspaper article on how to become a pilot. He gets incredible access to the process, the jargon and is even given I.D. badges that he later uses to forge his own.
Frank Meets Carl
As Frank is hard at work on his criminal life, another man is hard at work tracking him down. Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) is a dedicated FBI agent who gets on Frank’s trail early on when his criminal activity really takes off.
Carl is effective enough to track Frank to a hotel room and corners him. However, Frank is quick on his feet and pretends to be a young Secret Service agent who is also hunting down this mystery forger. He bluffs his way through the situation, even giving Carl his wallet so he can check his credentials. Carl inadvertently just lets him walk away.
Becoming A Pilot
Throughout Frank’s criminal career, he seems to gravitate towards people in positions of power. When he is down on his luck, he spots a Pan Am pilot who is getting attention from everyone around him and decides that is the new path for himself.
Frank studies how pilots walk and talk to come off as believable as possible. He even gets himself a genuine Pan Am uniform and has the bill sent to Pan Am to pay for it. As soon as he looks the part, everyone starts treating him differently and no one questions him.
Hitching A Ride
While posing as a pilot was initially a way of opening new doors for himself, Frank finds himself taking to the role quite well. He likes the attention he gets, especially from women and takes advantage of the perks of the position.
One such perk is hitching a ride for free on one of Pan Am’s planes. It takes a lot of guts to pretend to be a pilot while sitting in a cockpit with real pilots, but if there’s one thing Frank has, it’s guts. However, he still can’t fully hide that he has a slight fear of flying.
Becoming A Lawyer
If being a pilot wasn’t enough, Frank decided to pursue yet another enticing career by becoming a lawyer. However, unlike some of his other false identities, Frank did not do this to make money or get attention. Instead, he did it for love.
When Frank falls for a young woman named Brenda (Amy Adams), he tries to get in good graces with her conservative Southern family by following her father’s footsteps in becoming a lawyer. Impressively, Frank maintains that he didn’t scam his way into passing the bar exam but rather did it honestly. However, his one time in court proves he might be a little overzealous about the position.
A Pricy Date
Much like his hero James Bond, Frank uses his life of luxury to meet beautiful women who seem to take an interest in him as well. On one particular occasion, he meets a high priced escort named Cheryl (Jennifer Garner) who assumes he’s a man of wealth and invites him on a date.
After some flirting, Frank agrees to pay her $1000 for a night with her. However, when he plans to go cash a $1400 check to make the payment, she suggests he endorse the check to her, and she pays him the difference. In the end, their night together proved profitable for both of them.
Stylish Getaway
When Frank tries to settle down and start a real life with Brenda, Carl and the authorities begin closing in on him. After narrowly missing getting arrested at his own engagement party, Frank finds that the FBI is monitoring the airport to prevent him from making a getaway.
However, Frank once again proves he has more guts than anyone when planning his escape. He once again poses as a Pan Am pilot and recruits a dozen beautiful women to become part of the Pan Am flight attendants’ program. Frank shows up at the airport with all the ladies and suddenly no one is looking at the guy in the pilot’s uniform.
Becoming A Doctor
Posing as a pilot and a lawyer is crazy enough, but for Frank to then think he can pull off posing as a doctor as well might suggest he’s too crazy for his own good. On the other hand, he pulls it off.
Frank decides to become a fake doctor almost on a whim after meeting Brenda who is working as a nurse. He learns the jargon and gets a sense of the job only by watching movies. When he is brought into the actual emergency room, it becomes clear that he is in way over his head.
The Fake Checks
Frank’s real criminal activity starts a bit out of desperation. After running from home, Frank only has a checkbook for a bank account that has no money in it. As a way of getting some quick money, he begins forging checks. While no bank is willing to cash them, this begins his very profitable career as a forger.
Like many of his other endeavors, Frank is meticulous and dedicated to making the check look authentic and eventually can steal millions of dollars with his various forging scams.
