In 1969,
FBI agent Carl Hanratty arrives in
Marseille, France, to pick up prisoner
Frank Abagnale Jr., who has fallen ill due to the prison's poor conditions. Six years prior, 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 payroll checks from Pan Am. 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 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 plainclothes agents. He realizes she has unknowingly been followed and drives away. Reassuming his pilot identity, he stages a recruiting drive for stewardesses at a local college. Surrounded by eight women as stewardesses, the agents at the airport are distracted and Frank 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 he will be extradited back to the U.S. In 1969, Carl accompanies Frank on a flight to the U.S. As they approach, Carl informs Frank 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 fraudulent check from a case on which he is working. 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 but 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 is 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 did not cheat, but studied and passed it. Carl smiles and asks Frank if he is telling the truth, but Frank does not answer, instead giving Carl input on a new fraud case. Frank lived another 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 in the FBI. ==Cast==