11. The Long Con Of Catch Me If You Can
DreamWorksOne of the first films that convinced us all that Leonardo DiCaprio could do more than just draw French girls and fail to hold onto pieces of driftwood, Catch Me If You Can was a fun caper film about teenaged con artist Frank Abagnale, who used his smooth tongue and sharp wits to swindle himself millions of dollars as a Pan Am pilot, doctor, and a lawyer in the deep south, all before his nineteenth birthday. Hot on his heels was Tom Hanks as Carl Hanratty, an FBI agent who ended up losing all his stature in the bureau, his kids and his wife in pursuit of Abagnale, only for them to become bezzie mates at the end.
What really happened: Basically nothing from the film, apart from the fact that Frank Abagnale was a real guy. The real Abagnale gave Steven Spielberg his blessing to make his life story more cinematic, which included the addition of an absent father to give the Abagnale some motivation (which was totally fabricated). In fact his dad was all right, and actually one of the first people Abagnale "conned", running up a huge tab on his credit cards. The kid grifter also didn't ring Agent Hanratty every Christmas, because firstly that would be stupid, and secondly Hanratty doesn't exist; he's based off an actual agent who hunted Abagnale, Joe Shea, which is what the character was called in the script. The biggest break from reality, though? Abagnale wasn't caught after a dramatic chase sequence culminating in a warehouse standoff, but because somebody recognised him from a WANTED poster when he was out buying milk. Maybe not a great third-act climax, unless you wanted to go all No Country For Old Men on the audience.