Federal Bureau of Investigation portrayal in media

US FBI media coverage

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been a staple of American popular culture since its christening in 1935. That year also marked the beginning of the popular "G Man" phenomenon that helped establish the Bureau's image, beginning with the aptly titled James Cagney movie, G Men. Although the detective novel and other police related entertainment had long enthralled audiences, the FBI itself can take some of the credit for its media prominence. J. Edgar Hoover, the Bureau's "patriarch", took an active interest to ensure that it was not only well represented in the media, but also that the FBI was depicted in a heroic, positive light and that the message, "crime doesn't pay", was blatantly conveyed to audiences. The context, naturally, has changed profoundly since the 1930s "war on crime", and especially so since Hoover's death in 1972.

Any author, motion picture producer, or television script writer may consult with the FBI Office of Public Affairs about closed cases or their operations, services, or history. However, there is no requirement for the FBI to cooperate, and it does not edit or approve/disapprove fictional works. The Office of Public Affairs may, on a project by project basis, provide assistance to help ensure accuracy. Some filmmakers offer reasonably accurate presentations of the FBI's responsibilities, investigations, and procedures in their story lines, while others present their own interpretations or introduce fictional events, persons, or places for dramatic effect. There have been many fiction and non fiction portrayals of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, from which the following is only a small sample.

Warner Brothers' G Men (1935) was a deliberate attempt to rehabilitate crime movies by transforming the "gangster movie", wherein criminal protagonists were shown as leading exciting, affluent lives and living above the law, into stories where the heroic G Man, or FBI agent, triumphs against the nefarious criminal underworld. The title of the movie is from a term allegedly coined by Machine Gun Kelly and appropriated by J. Edgar Hoover as a name for his federal agents that would strike fear in the hearts of criminals. According to the FBI's own history, Machine Gun Kelly "was caught without a machine gun in his hands and cringed before the federal agents and pleaded, 'Don't shoot, G Men! Don't shoot, G Men!'" James Cagney was recruited for the lead role as the well educated and incorruptible Brick Davis. G Men was essentially intended as a corrective to the film that catapulted Cagney to fame, The Public Enemy (1931). Just as he adopted G Man as a badge of honor for his men, J. Edgar Hoover also attempted to re invent the "Public Enemy" label by referring to the most notorious criminals as "public rat number one". The G Men concept was extended in the 1940s to include the Junior G Men film serials. The Dead End Kids, a group of wisecracking New York City street toughs who appeared in numerous films, were transformed into amateur detectives, helping the FBI solve cases. Walk East on Beacon! (1952), produced by Columbia Pictures and starring George Murphy, portrays the activities of the Bureau in their hunt for Communist spies in Boston. Released during the height of 1950s anti Communist hysteria in the United States, the film's pedantic narrative, its presentation in the style of a documentary, and its basis in a story written by J. Edgar Hoover himself and published in Reader's Digest, indicates it is blatant propaganda. Samuel Fuller's Pickup on South Street (1953) aroused the ire of J. Edgar Hoover, who met with Fuller and Darryl F. Zanuck of 20th Century Fox to express his disapproval of many aspects of the film. Zanuck refused to make the changes Hoover demanded, and consequently, the advertising for the film had to remove all references to the F. B. I. The FBI Story (1959), produced by Warner Bros. and director Mervyn LeRoy, relates the history of the FBI from the point of view of a fictitious character, Chip Hardesty (played by James Stewart). FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover served as consultant on this film, which forced director LeRoy to reshoot several scenes that did not meet with the FBI's approval. Producer Robert Evans claimed that during production of The President's Analyst (1967), he was visited by FBI Special Agents who told him that due to its unflattering depiction of the FBI, the Bureau wanted the film altered or canceled. However, Evans refused either to stop or to make changes to The President's Analyst. Only when pressure came from his studio did he change the FBI to the FBR and CIA to CEA by redubbing the voice track. Evans believed his telephone was monitored by the Bureau from then on. Disney's That Darn Cat, based on the 1963 book Undercover Cat, follows Agent Zeke Kelso as he teams up with teenager Patti Randall and her titular pet cat, D. C., to solve a kidnapping case. The 1965 film had Kelso portrayed by Dean Jones, Patti by Hayley Mills, and Grayson Hall portraying the victim, a bank teller kidnapped by two robbers (Frank Gorshin and Neville Brand). The 1997 remake had Kelso portrayed by Doug E. Doug, Patti by Christina Ricci, and Rebecca Koon portraying the victim, the housekeeper of a wealthy couple (Dean Jones and Dyan Cannon), whom the kidnappers (Rebecca Schull and Peter Boyle) mistook for the wife in an effort to obtain a ransom. FEDS (1988), starring Rebecca De Mornay alongside Mary Gross, although a comedy, provides insight into how women train at the FBI Academy. This movie had a limited release and could only be found on VHS as of August 2009. Mississippi Burning (1988) is a fictionalized account of the investigation into an actual civil rights murder case, the murders of three civil rights workers in the state of Mississippi in 1964. The Silence of the Lambs (1991), starring Jodie Foster as FBI Trainee Clarice Starling in pursuit of serial killer Buffalo Bill, aided by the cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter (played by Anthony Hopkins), is a movie sequel to Manhunter (1986), the first film adaptation of the 1981 Red Dragon. The 1991 film received five Academy Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor for Hopkins, and Best Actress for Jodie Foster, and spawned another sequel, Hannibal (2001), and a remake of Red Dragon (2002) starring Edward Norton and Harvey Keitel. Point Break (1991) is the story of an undercover FBI agent Johnny Utah, who is sanctioned by the FBI to learn surfing in order to infiltrate a gang of thieves. Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), a prequel/sequel to the television series Twin Peaks, includes the character Special Agent Dale Cooper as well as several other FBI agents, but to a more limited degree than in the television series. Michael Apted directed Incident at Oglala (1992), a documentary about the deaths of FBI agents Jack R. Coler and Ronald A. Williams on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the summer of 1975, in conjunction with the movie Thunderheart (1992). Panther (1995) portrays the FBI in a negative fashion as a crooked and racist organization that interacted with the Mafia to subdue the Black Panther Party. Donnie Brasco (1997) is based on the true story of undercover FBI agent Joseph D. Pistone's infiltrating the mafia. Face/Off (1997) stars John Travolta as FBI special agent Sean Archer, who must undergo a surgery that gives him the face of ruthless terrorist Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage) in order to stop a bomb planted by Castor from leveling Los Angeles. However, things go wrong when Castor wakes up from his coma and steals Archer's face, then begins to implant himself in Archer's family and job. Home Alone 3 (1997) portrayed the Bureau pursuing four internationally wanted spies (Olek Krupa, Lenny Von Dohlen, Rya Kihlstedt and David Thornton) working for a North Korean terrorist group searching the Chicago area neighborhood of eight year old Alex Pruitt (Alex D. Linz) for a $10 million top secret missile cloaking microchip they stole from a defense department contractor hidden inside a remote controlled toy car, which, following a baggage mix up at the San Francisco airport while going through the security checkpoint, landed in the hands of his elderly neighbor, Mrs. Hess (Marian Seldes), who gives him the toy as payment for shoveling her driveway. While recovering from the chickenpox, Alex reports the burglars twice in two days, but the police and his family won't believe his story due to them having fled the crime scenes in time, forcing him to take matters into his own hands. It is after Alex finds the chip hidden in the car and reports it to the Air Force, who in turn, report it to Stuckey (Christopher Curry), the FBI agent in charge of the case—as well as the spies learning he has the chip and plan to hit his home next, only to suffer numerous injuries from the booby traps he implemented for them—do the authorities and his family finally believe him. The Siege (1998), starring Denzel Washington, Tony Shalhoub, Annette Bening and Bruce Willis, is based on the FBI's modern efforts to crack down on terrorism and gives a hypothetical idea of what would happen if there were a series of consecutive terrorist attacks in New York City. The ideas in the plot would ultimately come true with the 9/11 attacks. The X Files: Fight The Future (1998) follows agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Final Destination (2000) features FBI agents interrogating high school graduate Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) after Alex foresees a mysterious plane explosion. Later in the franchise, the fifth film Final Destination 5 (2011) features another FBI agent, Jim Block (Courtney B. Vance), interrogating and following Sam Lawton after a deadly suspension bridge collapse. The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000) has rookie FBI agent Karen Sympathy (Piper Perabo) joining forces with the titular squirrel (June Foray) and moose (Keith Scott) when their adversaries, Boris (Keith Scott; animated/Jason Alexander; live action), Natasha (June Foray; animated/Rene Russo; live action) and Fearless Leader (Keith Scott; animated/Robert DeNiro; live action) make their way out of the cartoon universe into the real world and plot to use their new television network RBTV (Really Bad Television) to brainwash the nation into electing Fearless Leader as President of the United States. Karen enlists the moose and squirrel team's help to not only foil Fearless Leader's plan, but to rescue her captured fellow agents, who have been transformed by the latter into helpless, mindless vegetables to power his broadcasting machine. Red Dragon (2002), a prequel to The Silence of the Lambs (1991), stars Edward Norton as FBI profiler, agent Will Graham, and Anthony Hopkins reprising his role as Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Austin Powers in Goldmember follows Austin Power's love interest, Foxy Cleopatra, who is an undercover FBI agent that is determined to solve the murder of her partner. Club Dread (2004) stars M. C. Gainey as the retired director of FBI's Homicide department, who serves as the bodyguard to Resort owner Peter Wabash, AKA Coconut Pete (Bill Paxton). White Chicks (2004) features brothers Marcus and Kevin Copeland (Marlon and Shawn Wayans) who are FBI agent partners. The two agents are assigned to protect two young women from a dangerous kidnapper, but a car accident forces the two agents to masquerade as the two young girls to capture the kidnapper. The films Saw IV (2007), Saw V (2008), and Saw VI (2009) featured three agents (Peter Strahm, Lindsey Perez, and Dan Erickson), all of them falling victim to the Jigsaw Killer. Untraceable (2008) stars Diane Lane as an FBI Cyber Crimes agent who is after a serial killer who hooks his victims up to machines set up to where the speed in which his victims die, corresponds to the number of views the live internet stream of the victims receives. The Indian movie New York (2009) depicts an innocent student who is detained arbitrarily by the FBI and is severely tortured for nine months. Public Enemies (2009) is a partially fictionalized account of the BOI's pursuit of John Dillinger, starring Johnny Depp as Dillinger and Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis. In Time (2011) portrays a futuristic version of the FBI, whose mission is to hunt down a poor young laborer, Will Silas, whom they believe murdered an extremely wealthy elderly businessman, Henry Hamilton. In this film, the FBI are known as the Timekeepers instead of Agents. Tower Heist (2011) involves a Ponzi scheme based on the infamous former financier Bernard Madoff. The film follows FBI Special Agent Claire Denham (Téa Leoni) as she investigates a Ponzi scheme orchestrated by Wall Street fat cat Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda), which also involves the employees and other tenants of the apartment building he lives in, including the building manager, Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller). With Shaw placed under house arrest in his penthouse apartment, Kovacs enlists help from his coworkers (Casey Affleck, Michael Pena, Gabourey Sidibe and Stephen McKinley Henderson), a bankrupt Wall Street investor who was a former tenant of the tower (Matthew Broderick) and a former classmate turned petty thief (Eddie Murphy) to lure Shaw and Denham out with a fake Thanksgiving Day court date in an effort to break into the penthouse and find the stolen money. American Hustle (2013) portrays a fictionalized version of the ABSCAM operation, with special agents portrayed by Bradley Cooper and Louis C. K.
The Heat follows Sandra Bullock as Sarah Ashburn, an FBI agent from New York City, who is assigned a mission in Boston in hopes of landing a promotion and teams with a foul mouthed Boston detective (Melissa McCarthy). The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) is based on the criminal stock broker, Jordan Belfort, and his arrest by the FBI. Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House (2017) is based on Mark Felt, the FBI administrator who became the informant Deep Throat during the events and reporting of the Watergate scandal in the mid 1970s. The 2011 film J. Edgar follows the founder of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Hoover.

The FBI appears thoroughly in the horror roleplaying game Delta Green, mostly as a character profession. Delta Green employs a large amounts of FBI agents, as they have deep training, specialized skills, advanced forensics and jurisdiction not only in the whole of the United States, but also a large presence overseas. The 2016 Agent's Handbook give options to player characters to be members of the CID, NSB, the Intelligence and Operations Support Section (IOSS) and the HRT. The game also advises for Gamemasters to use a Joint Terrorism Task Force as a cover that Delta Green uses for its covert operations and as a way to justify players from different law enforcement agencies to work together. The FBI also appears in the Vietnam War spin off The Fall of DELTA GREEN, offering player character professions of Special Agent, Laboratory Researcher, Undercover agent and a Domestic Intelligence Division "Black bagger". In the Chronicles of Darkness roleplaying game Hunter: The Vigil, the FBI has a fictional unit known as the Vanguard Serial Crimes Unit, or VASCU, which specializes in hunting down supernatural serial killers.

In the video game Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth the protagonist goes on to assist former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover as well as other members of the FBI in destroying the Cult of Cthulhu in a major plot point of the game. In the game Call of Duty: Black Ops II, the FBI is a playable faction in multiplayer, opposing the Mercs on certain maps. All members wear masks and tactical gear and have access to the same arsenal as other military factions in the game. They are also mentioned in the single player campaign. In the game Counter Strike: Global Offensive, the FBI is one of the counter terrorist factions. In the video game Deadly Premonition, the main protagonist is an eccentric FBI profiler named Francis York Morgan. The game Destroy All Humans! features parodies of 1950s era FBI members, known as Majestics, acting in a similar role to the Grand Theft Auto, appearing if the player causes too much mayhem. They wield the same technology as the alien protagonist, Crypto. The character G Man from the Half Life series is so named for his resemblance to a stereotypical member of the FBI (suit, tie and brief case) as well as his strange demeanor and conspiratorial nature. In the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, the FBI is portrayed in game and drive black SUVs or town cars, wearing black ties, white shirts, and blue jackets with the letters "FBI" on the back. In gameplay, they appear during certain missions and when the player has reached a five star wanted level, appearing before the Military hunt the player. From Grand Theft Auto IV onward, they are instead called Federal Investigation Bureau (FIB), nodding towards the corruption of the in game agency. In the video game Heavy Rain one of the four main characters is Norman Jayden (played by Leon Ockenden), an FBI profiler who uses ARI (Added Reality Interface). In the video game Hitman: Blood Money, some of the NPC's are FBI agents, wearing a black suit and tie, sunglasses, and a Bluetooth headset. The video game Red Dead Redemption, set in 1911, features the BOI, the early FBI. In game, Bureau agents commit the "justified" murders of outlaws in order to "tame" the Wild West. In the Survival RPG Parasite Eve 2 Aya Brea is an FBI agent working for MIST, a unit specialized in combating genetically mutated creatures. Throughout the game she uncovers a genetic conspiracy involving mithocondrial DNA. On the first installment, she was a NYPD cop. In the series of Saints Row, after getting 5 out of 5 "stars", the FBI come with a black SUV with sirens and lights. When they come out of the SUV, they are men with all black suits with assault rifles and combat pistols. In the video game Godfather the protagonist bribes FBI agents to turn the heat on other mafia families.