Catch Me If You Can

Corrected entry: When Hanratty is talking to Frank Sr. in Frank Sr.'s apartment, Hanratty sees an envelope from Frank Jr. It is illegal for Hanratty to look through Frank Sr.'s mail without his consent or a court order, that constitutes invasion of privacy.

Correction: Yes it is true cops cannot search areas without consent or a warrant, EXCEPT if the item is in plain view, which that envelope was.

Corrected entry: There is a scene in which Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio are aboard a plane at LaGuardia Airport. This particular scene takes place in 1969, and at one point there is a shot of the New York City skyline with the Twin Towers intact. However, the towers were not completed until 1973.

Correction: After going over it several times, all I see is The Empire State Building. It was either filmed after the tragedy, or they were removed during editing.

Anthony Chiaro

Corrected entry: In the scene at the French prison in 1969, Carl uses a pop-up mini-umbrella. This type of umbrella wasn't available until the late 70s. Until then, all umbrellas were of the two-hand, slide-up variety.

Correction: Sure looked like a regular long black push-up type when I double-checked it.

Anthony Chiaro

Corrected entry: When DiCaprio is in the hotel room with Jennifer Garner, they agree on $700 for her to stay the night. He goes through his checks and finds one for $1100 and then says he will have to go get it cashed. Why? He flips past one for $700 and this is not the kind of situation you want to leave in the middle of.

Grumpy Scot

Correction: He was tricking Jennifer Garner. He gets her to pay him $400 for his fake check. He made a profit on the transaction. They agree on $1000, not $700.

Anthony Chiaro

Corrected entry: When Frank Jr. recieves the book of checks from his father, he flips through them. There is a zip code visible on his address, but zip codes weren't used until 1967. There couldn't be a zip code if it was 1963.

Correction: This scene was set in March 1964 (Frank's 16th birthday; he was born in 1948, as shown in the later scene where he's altering his ID). Zip codes were introduced on July 1 1963 (see http://www.usps.com/history/history/his2_75.htm).

Corrected entry: When Tom Hanks and Leo DiCaprio are returning on the plane from France, Leo remarks that they are passing over, and apparently landing at, LaGuardia Airport. Flights from Europe never land at LaGuardia as the runways are too short for very large planes.

Correction: It never says they are landing there, Frank justs points out where it is.

Stefanie

Corrected entry: As Frank is climbing out of the window at the party, to escape from the FBI, he turns and tells his girlfriend, Brenda, to meet him at Miami International Airport in two days, and specifically tells her to leave at 10am. Then when he is telling her again, he tells her to be there at 10am. (01:41:35)

Scrappy

Correction: That could have been a mistake he made, or maybe he just changed his mind.

Corrected entry: In the scene where Handratty is studying a map of Europe, you can see Germany united. From 1949 til 1989, Germany was divided into West Germany (BRD) and East Germany (DDR). (01:50:45)

Correction: No, Germany was not formally divided until several years after the Western zones were merged. It's not impossible that Hanratty had a map from the late forties or early fifties, which would show post-war borders and a united Germany.

Factual error: On the plane, while being escorted by FBI agents, Frank Jr sees New York's LaGuardia Airport and says, "There it is, LaGuardia Airport, runway 44." A runway numbered 44 is impossible. No runway can be numbered over 36 because there are 360 degrees in a circle. (01:58:25)

More mistakes in Catch Me If You Can
More quotes from Catch Me If You Can

Trivia: The real Frank Abagnale Jr. was held in the French prison (Perpignan's House of Arrest) for approximately six months. His term was shortened from twelve months. When released (extradited to Sweden), he was ill because he had been forced to live in a damp, dark cell, naked and allowed only bread and water. In Sweden where he was tried and convicted he was kept in a comfortable Swedish prison. However, upon completion of his prison term in Sweden, he was next to be extradited to Italy. The Swedish government believed in prison reform and was afraid of the treatment he would receive in an Italian prison. As a result, Sweden revoked Frank's passport so it could intentionally have him extradited to the U.S. Once in the US, he was protected and couldn't be tried in the foreign countries where he perpetrated his fraudulent schemes. The book about his life contains a more accurate depiction than the film and was written 10 years prior to its release.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Incorrect. Abagnale served three months in a French prison, not six. He then served two months in a Swedish prison. He was ordered to recompense Swedish victims of his crimes but never did. The book about his life was published over 20 years before the film was released, not 10. The book and movie are both almost completely inaccurate; most of Abagnale's stories of his crimes and frauds were greatly exaggerated or completely made up. Journalists started discovering these lies in the late 1970s.

More trivia for Catch Me If You Can

Question: I may have missed this, but why does Frank tear the labels off bottles?

Answer: He was taking the labels off the bottles to make fake checks, using the logos as this is the one thing that he could not create on the checks. The MICR printer was only used to print the routing and account numbers and the emboss the checks.

This is incorrect. Frank exclusively makes Pan Am checks until his arrest in France. A logo from a ketchup bottle or peanut butter jar would be far too large for a check. Instead, as shown, Carl examines Frank's wallet, which is filled with labels taken from various items—supporting the more accurate explanation provided in the other answer.

jshy7979

Answer: He does it so he will have things in his wallet. As he has no identity of his own and steals or creates others, filling his wallet with labels is fulfilling a subconscious desire to be normal and have an identity.

Grumpy Scot

More questions & answers from Catch Me If You Can

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.