American Hustle is a 2013 American black comedy crime film directed by David O. Russell. It was written by Eric Warren Singer and Russell and inspired by the FBI Abscam operation of the late 1970s and early 1980s. It stars Christian Bale and Amy Adams as two con artists forced by an FBI agent to set up an elaborate sting operation on corrupt politicians, including the mayor of Camden, New Jersey. Jennifer Lawrence plays the unpredictable wife of Bale's character. Principal photography took place from March to May 2013 in Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts, as well as New York City.

Abscam, sometimes written ABSCAM, was an Federal Bureau of Investigation sting operation in the late 1970s and early 1980s that led to the convictions of seven members from both chambers of the United States Congress and others for bribery and corruption. The two-year investigation initially targeted trafficking in stolen property and corruption of prominent business people, but later evolved into a corruption investigation. The FBI was aided by the United States Department of Justice and convicted scam Mel Weinberg in videotaping politicians accepting bribes from a fictitious Arabian company in return for various political favors.