All the President's Men is based on the true story of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's investigation into the Watergate break-in and subsequent cover-up. Although the story is dramatized for film, it is based on the book of the same name, which was written after the investigations were over. The movie is closely tied to the real facts presented in the book.

On June 17, 1972, a security guard named Frank Willis, along with the D.C. police, caught five men breaking into the Democratic National Committee office located in the Watergate Hotel. The men were all former CIA agents or technology specialists who had broken in three weeks earlier to put taps on the phones and around the office. Woodward found the jobs of the men to be strange and began investigating the break-in further. Through his investigations with Carl Bernstein, the truth of Watergate was uncovered and eventually...