Director Michael Mann's historical crime drama follows the efforts of top FBI agent Melvin Purvis in capturing notorious bank robber John Dillinger. A folk hero to the American public, Dillinger was virtually unstoppable at the height of his criminal career. J. Edgar Hoover's FBI was just being formed, and in order to turn his fledgling agency into a national police force, Hoover recruits Purvis to catch the most-elusive criminal in the country.