The Aviator (2004 Film) - Plot

Plot

In 1914, nine-year-old Howard Hughes is being bathed by his mother. She warns him of disease, afraid that he will succumb to a flu outbreak: "You are not safe." By 1927, Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) has inherited his family's fortune, is living in California. He hires Noah Dietrich (John C. Reilly) to run the Hughes Tool Company.

Following an interest in film and aviation, at the age of 22, Hughes begins directing the silent film, Hell's Angels. He becomes obsessed with shooting the film realistically and when theThe Jazz Singer, the first partially talking film, premieres, he converts Hell's Angels to a sound film. As a result, it takes several years and an enormous amount of money to finish. Finally, despite press skepticism, Hell's Angels is a hit. Hughes is unsatisfied with the end result, however, and orders the film re-cut after its Hollywood premiere. He later produces Scarface (1932) and The Outlaw (1943).

Hughes becomes romantically involved with actress Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett). They live together and she helps alleviate the symptoms of his worsening obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). As Hughes' fame grows, he is linked to various starlets, inciting Hepburn's jealousy.

Hughes' greatest passion remains the same: aviation. He purchases majority interest in Transcontinental & Western Air (TWA), the predecessor to Trans World Airlines. In 1935, he test flies the H-1 Racer, pushing it to a new speed record, but crashes in a beet field; "Fastest man on the planet," he boasts to Hepburn.

Three years later, Hughes flies around the world in four days, shattering the previous record by three days. Juan Trippe (Alec Baldwin), chairman of the board of rival Pan American World Airways, is determined not to let Hughes challenge his company's success. Trippe gets his crony, Senator Owen Brewster (Alan Alda), to introduce the Commercial Airline Bill, which would give Pan Am a monopoly on international air travel.

Hepburn and Hughes break up when she announces that she has fallen in love with fellow actor Spencer Tracy (Kevin O'Rourke). Hughes soon has new love interests: first 15-year-old Faith Domergue (Kelli Garner), then actress Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale).

Hughes secures contracts with the Army Air Forces for two projects: a spy aircraft and a huge troop transport designed to circumvent the U-boat menace. By 1946, Hughes has only finished the XF-11 reconnaissance aircraft and is still building the enormous "Spruce Goose" flying boat.

Hughes' OCD worsens, characterized by the repetition of phrases and a phobia of dust and germs. He takes the XF-11 for a test flight. One of the engines malfunctions, causing the aircraft to crash in Beverly Hills; he is severely injured and takes months to recover. Although the H-4 Hercules flying boat order is canceled, he continues development of the aircraft with his own money. When he is discharged, he is told that he has to choose between funding a floundering TWA or his flying boat. Hughes orders Dietrich to mortgage the TWA assets so he can continue developing the Hercules prototype.

Hughes grows increasingly paranoid, planting microphones and tapping Gardner's phone lines to keep track of her. His house is searched by the FBI for incriminating evidence of war profiteering. The incident creates a powerful psychological trauma for Hughes, with investigators handling his possessions and tracking dirt everywhere. Brewster privately offers to drop the charges if Hughes will sell TWA to Trippe, an offer Hughes rejects. Hughes sinks into a deep depression, shuts himself away in his screening room and grows detached from reality. Hepburn tries unsuccessfully to help him. Trippe has Brewster subpoena Hughes for a Senate investigation, confident that the reclusive Hughes will not show up.

After Hughes has shut himself away for nearly three months, Ava Gardner visits him and personally grooms and dresses him in preparation for the hearing. Reinvigorated, Hughes defends himself against Brewster's charges and accuses Trippe of essentially bribing the senator. Hughes concludes by announcing that he is committed to completing the H-4 aircraft, and that he will leave the country if he cannot get it to fly.

Hughes successfully test flies the flying boat. After the flight, he talks to Dietrich and his engineer, Glenn Odekirk (Matt Ross), about a new jetliner for TWA. He seems free of his inner demons, but relapses after seeing strange men in germ-resistant suits who may not be real. Hughes begins repeating the phrase "the way of the future" over and over again, until Dietrich and Odekirk hide him in a restroom while Dietrich fetches a doctor. Hughes has a flashback to his boyhood, being washed by his mother, and resolving he would fly the fastest aircraft ever built, make the biggest movies ever and become the richest man in the world. He continues repeating the phrase as the screen cuts to black.