在这部窃听大阴谋剧情/悬疑/惊悚片中,哈里·考尔（吉恩·哈克曼 Gene Hackman 饰）在旧金山开了一家侦探公司，他最近的一单生意是去窃听一对男女的对话。他精心地在一个广场附近布下层层的窃听装置，来捕捉这对男女所说的每一句话。窃听进行得很顺利，声音很清晰，但他不理解他们所说的话到底什么意思。 他带着录音文件去雇佣他的公司准备拿他的报酬，却被告知老板不在，便决定暂时不交出录音文件，并退回报酬。他只能小心翼翼地保管着他的录音文件，即使在聚会的时候仍旧提心吊胆，生怕录音文件被人偷走。千防万防，录音文件还是丢失了。心急如焚的哈里只能按照他窃听到的录音内容，于某日来到那对男女口中提到的酒店，却不想他正陷入一场巨大的阴谋中……
Harry Caul is a devout Catholic and a lover of jazz music who plays his saxophone while listening to his jazz records. He is a San Francisco-based electronic surveillance expert who owns and operates his own small surveillance business. He is renowned within the profession as being the best, one who designs and constructs his own surveillance equipment. He is an intensely private and solitary man in both his personal and professional life, which especially irks Stan, his business associate who often feels shut out of what is happening with their work. This privacy, which includes not letting anyone into his apartment and always telephoning his clients from pay phones is, in part, intended to control what happens around him. His and Stan's latest job (a difficult one) is to record the private discussion of a young couple meeting in crowded and noisy Union Square. The arrangement with his client, known only to him as "the director", is to provide the audio recording of the discussion and photographs of the couple directly to him alone in return for payment. Based on circumstances with the director's assistant, Martin Stett, and what Harry ultimately hears on the recording, Harry believes that the lives of the young couple are in jeopardy. Harry used to be detached from what he recorded, but is now concerned ever since the deaths of three people that were the direct result of a previous audio recording he made for another job. Harry not only has to decide if he will turn the recording over to the director, but also if he will try and save the couple's lives using information from the recording. As Harry goes on a quest to find out what exactly is happening on this case, he finds himself in the middle of his worst nightmare.
声音、摄影机与观众的在场：《对话》作为一种元电影。看科波拉如何描绘“窃听时代”。我们还能有隐私吗？。别样的金汉科曼。有人在看着你（座架及科波拉的技术批判）。自我的对话。《窃听大阴谋（The Conversation）》：良心的折磨【第27届戛纳电影节金棕榈奖】。《对话》电影剧本。地下舞厅的摩托狂飙。导演说。
