It stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes, Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn, and Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner.

The supporting cast features Ian Holm, John C. Reilly, Alec Baldwin, Jude Law, Gwen Stefani, Kelli Garner, Matt Ross, Willem Dafoe, Alan Alda, and Edward Herrmann.

Shot in Montreal,[5] The Aviator was released in the United States on December 25, 2004, to positive reviews with critics praising Scorsese's direction, its cinematography and the performances by DiCaprio and Blanchett.

In 1913, Houston, eight-year-old Howard Hughes' mother gives him a bath and teaches him how to spell "quarantine", warning him about the recent cholera outbreak.

Fourteen years later, in 1927, he begins to direct his film Hell's Angels, and hires Noah Dietrich to manage the day-to-day operations of his business empire.

In 1935, Hughes test flies the H-1 Racer, pushing it to a new speed record, despite having to crash-land into a beet field when the aircraft runs out of fuel.

In the mid-1940s, Hughes contracts two projects with the Army Air Forces, one for a spy aircraft, and another for a troop transport unit for use in World War II.

As his OCD worsens, Hughes becomes increasingly paranoid, planting microphones and tapping Gardner's phone lines to keep track of her, until she kicks him out of her house.

As Odekirk hides him in a restroom while Dietrich fetches a doctor, Hughes begins to have flashbacks of his childhood, his love for aviation and his ambition for success, compulsively repeating the phrase "the way of the future".

[6][9] Universal Pictures joined the competition in March 1998 when it purchased the film rights to Empire: The Life, Legend and Madness of Howard Hughes (ISBN 0-393000-257), written by Donald Barlett and James Steele.

[12] In a 2002 report from Variety, it was revealed that Norman Jewison had been developing a Hughes biopic based on Terry Moore's autobiography The Beauty and the Billionaire for "more than a year" and was going to meet with John Travolta for the role.

[19] Scorsese and DiCaprio worked closely with Dr. Jeffrey M. Schwartz, MD of UCLA, to portray the most accurate depiction of OCD.

Instead of receiving proper treatment, Hughes was forced to hide his stigmatized compulsions; his disorder began to conflict with everyday functioning.

The character arc of Howard Hughes was a drastic one: from the height of his career to the appearance of his compulsions, and eventually, to him sitting naked in a screening room, refusing to leave, and later repeating the phrase "the way of the future.

"[20] In an article for the American Cinematographer, John Pavlus wrote: "The film boasts an ambitious fusion of period lighting techniques, extensive effects sequences and a digital re-creation of two extinct cinema color processes: two-color and three-strip Technicolor.

When Martin Scorsese began planning his aviation epic, a decision was made to film flying sequences with scale models rather than CGI special effects.

The Aero Telemetry team was given only three months to complete the three models including the 450 lb H-1 Racer, with an 5.5 m (18 ft) wingspan, that had to stand-in for the full-scale replica that was destroyed in a crash, shortly before principal photography began.

Warner Bros. Pictures originally bought North American distribution rights to The Aviator shortly before production on the film began.

However, a heavy release schedule for Warner Bros. Pictures during the fourth quarter of 2004 prompted the company to start discussions to sell distribution rights in the United States to Miramax Films.

Trifecta Entertainment & Media (via Miramax) also held the rights to the US television distribution, while Warner Bros. Pictures retained the rights for home video distribution in North America (though the North American home video releases feature the Miramax Films logo at the beginning of the film instead) and theatrical release in Canada and Latin America.

[33] The first disc includes commentary with director Martin Scorsese, editor Thelma Schoonmaker and producer Michael Mann.

The site's critical consensus reads: "With a rich sense of period detail, The Aviator succeeds thanks to typically assured direction from Martin Scorsese and a strong performance from Leonardo DiCaprio, who charts Howard Hughes' descent from eccentric billionaire to reclusive madman.

"[34] On Metacritic, the film received a weighted average score of 77 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

What an enthralling film...There's a match here between Scorsese and his subject, perhaps because the director's own life journey allows him to see Howard Hughes with insight, sympathy – and, up to a point, with admiration.

"[37] In his review for The Daily Telegraph, Sukhdev Sandhu praised Scorsese's direction, DiCaprio and the supporting cast but considered Beckinsale "miscast".

Of the film, he said it is "a gorgeous tribute to the Golden Age of Hollywood" even though it "tips the balance of spectacle versus substance in favour of the former.

"[38] David T. Courtwright in The Journal of American History characterized The Aviator as a technically brilliant and emotionally disturbing film.