Plot

J. Edgar Hoover, powerful head of the F.B.I. for nearly fifty years, looks back on his professional and personal life.

Biopic of J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) told by Hoover as he recalls his career for a biography. Early in his career, Hoover fixated on Communists, anarchists, and any other revolutionary taking action against the U.S. government. He slowly builds the agency's reputation, becoming the sole arbiter of who gets hired and fired. One of his hires is Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer), who is quickly promoted to Assistant Director and was Hoover's confidant and companion for the rest of Hoover's life. Hoover's memories have him playing a greater role in the many high profile cases in which the F.B.I. was involved, the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, the arrest of bank robbers like John Dillinger, and also show him to be quite adept at manipulating the various politicians with whom he worked over his career, thanks in large part to his secret files.—garykmcd

Near the end of his career, J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.), the first person in this position, dictates the biography of his career from 1919 onward to a fellow Agent, as he feels the "bad guys" get all the press, thus glorifying crime. His story generally focuses on his battle against the red insurgence of Communism in the United States. It also highlights the advancement of investigation over his tenure, increasingly using science as proof. What he wants as the centerpiece of his biography is the kidnapping case of Charles A. Lindbergh's (Josh Lucas') infant, despite the scribe's belief that the outcome was questionable. However, much of what Hoover describes are highly exaggerated versions of the truth, done largely to portray himself as strong and not to embarrass himself, especially in light of public scrutiny on him, both professionally and personally. Many of his battles have been with people in authority, such as the eight presidents he served under as F.B.I. Director. As such, he kept private files on many people as information to use against them if need be, those files which were well-known to his enemies. Much of what he talks about is framed by his relationships with those few people who have been by his side for most of his career: his mother, Annie Marie Hoover (Dame Judi Dench), who always saw great things for her son, but who would rather not have a son at all than have one who was a "daffodil"; his personal secretary, Helen Gandy (Naomi Watts), who vowed to protect him at all cost; and Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer), the F.B.I. Associate Director, who was more than just a right hand man and friend.—Huggo

J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) was the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for nearly fifty years. Hoover was feared, admired, reviled and revered, a man who could distort the truth as easily as he upheld it. His methods were at once ruthless and heroic, with the admiration of the world his most coveted prize. But behind closed doors, he held secrets that would have destroyed his image, his career and his life.—Warner Brothers

J. Edgar Hoover (Leonardo DiCaprio) is in his office during his later years. He asks that a writer (Ed Westwick) be let in, so that he may tell the story of the origin of the FBI for the sake of the public. Hoover explains that the story begins in 1919, when A. Mitchell Palmer was Attorney General and Hoover's boss at the Justice Department. Palmer suffers an assassination attempt, but is unharmed when the bomb explodes earlier than intended. Hoover recalls that the police handling of the crime scene was primitive, and that it was that night that he recognized the importance of criminal science. Later, Hoover visits his mother (Judi Dench), and tells her that Palmer has put him in charge of a new anti-radical division, and that he has already begun compiling a list of suspected radicals. He leaves to meet Helen Gandy (Naomi Watts), who has just started as a secretary at the Justice Department. Hoover takes Gandy to the Library of Congress, and shows her the card catalog system he devised. He muses about how easy it would be to solve crimes if every citizen were as easily identifiable as the books in the library. When Hoover attempts to kiss her, she recoils. Hoover gets down on his knees and asks her to marry him, citing her organization and education, but his request is once again denied. However, Gandy agrees to become his personal secretary.

Despite his close monitoring of suspected foreign radicals, Hoover finds that the Department of Labor refuses to deport anyone without clear evidence of a crime; however, Anthony Caminetti the commissioner general of immigration dislikes the prominent anarchist Emma Goldman. Hoover arranges to discredit her marriage and make her eligible for deportation, setting a precedent of deportation for radical conspiracy. After several Justice Department raids of suspected radical groups, many leading to deportation, Palmer loses his job as Attorney General. Hoover had dealt with the communist threat with Palmer's support, but with the threat vanquished the American political landscape looked for a scapegoat for the harsh methods adopted & Palmer lost his job. Under a subsequent Attorney General, Harlan F. Stone, Hoover is made director of the Justice Department's Bureau of Investigation. He is introduced to Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer), a recently graduated lawyer, and takes his business card. Later, while reviewing job applications with Helen Gandy, Hoover asks if Tolson had applied. Gandy says he had, and Hoover interviews and hires Tolson.

Back in present, Hoover has a meeting with Robert Kennedy where he almost blackmails Robert to give him authority to pursue radical groups in exchange of keeping information of President John Kennedy having sex with a communist girl in a SFO basement from going public. Hoover believes information is power.

In 1932, the Bureau pursues a string of gangster and bank robbery crimes across the Midwest, including the high profile John Dillinger, with general success. When the Lindbergh kidnapping captures national attention, President Hoover asks the Bureau to investigate. Hoover employs several novel techniques, including the monitoring of registration numbers on ransom bills, and expert analysis of the kidnapper's handwriting. The birth of the FBI Crime Lab is seen as a product of Hoover's determination to analyze the homemade wooden ladder left at the crime scene. When the monitored bills begin showing up in New York City, the investigators find a filling station attendant who wrote down the license plate number of the man who gave him the bill. This leads to the arrest, and eventual conviction, of Bruno Hauptmann for the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh child. The baby was found dead within sight of Lindbergh's home, proving Hoover right that the kidnapper had fallen from the ladder, with the baby in his arms.

The kidnapper Bruno Hauptmann was put on trial & Hoover's scientific evidence brings about a swift guilty verdict & Bruno is sentenced to death. The FBI establishes itself. As Roosevelt comes to power, he brings Hoover to his office & questions the existence of the FBI. Hoover shows him surveillance of his wife, Mrs Roosevelt, canoodling with a known communist & President Roosevelt is forced to expand Hoover's powers in exchange for not going public with the transcripts.

When Hoover asks congress for more powers, he is ridiculed for not being qualified as he has not made a arrest himself personally. Hoover responds by starting a surveillance on resisting members of congress & demoting agents who seek public approval. After going to a Shirley Temple movie with Hoover's mother, Hoover and Tolson decide to go out to a club. When Ginger Rogers asks Hoover if he ever wishes he had someone to keep him warm at night, he responds that he has dedicated his life to the bureau. Ginger's mother asks Hoover to dance and he becomes agitated, saying that he and Tolson must leave, as they have a lot of work to do in the morning. When he gets home he shares his dislike of dancing with girls with his mother, and she tells him she would rather have a dead son than a "daffodil" for a son. She then insists on teaching him to dance, and they dance in her bedroom. Soon after, Hoover and Tolson go on a vacation to the horse races.

That evening, Hoover tells Tolson that he cares deeply for him, and Tolson returns the feeling by stating that he loves Hoover. However, Hoover claims to be considering marriage to a young woman twenty years his junior, Dorothy Lamour, he has been seeing in New York City, provoking outrage from Tolson. Tolson accuses Hoover making a fool out of him and then begins throwing insults at Hoover, and consequently they begin throwing punches at each other and cause grave damage to the hotel room in the process; they eventually end up fighting on the floor. The fight ends when Tolson gets an upper hand over Hoover, and suddenly kisses him. Hoover demands that it must never happen again; Tolson says that it won't, and attempts to leave. Hoover apologizes and begs him to stay, but Tolson only says that if Hoover ever mentioned another woman again, their friendship would be over. He then leaves, with Hoover professing love for him moments after.

Years later, Hoover feels his strength begin to decline. He requires daily visits by a doctor, and Tolson suffers a stroke which leaves him in a severely weakened state. An attempt by Hoover to blackmail Martin Luther King, Jr. into declining his Nobel Peace Prize proves ineffective, and Martin Luther King, Jr. accepts the prize. Hoover eventually begins to consider his mortality and tells Helen Gandy to destroy his secret files if he were to die to prevent Nixon from possessing them. When Tolson appeals to Hoover to retire when Hoover comes to visit him, Hoover refuses, claiming that Richard Nixon is going to destroy the bureau he has created. Tolson then accuses Hoover of exaggerating his involvement in many of the bureau's actions, claiming that Hoover kept the glory for the actions of his other agents, including the arrest of Bruno. Upon Hoover's death, Helen Gandy is seen destroying stacks of files, assumed to be Hoover's rumored "personal and confidential" files as Nixon does a eulogy on television for Hoover.