Taglines: The movie was fake. The mission was real.
In late 1979, anti-American sentiments are running high in Iran due to the US harboring the ailing former Shah of Iran, who the US put into place in the 1950s, and who many Iranians saw as causing much hardship and death for residents over his close to thirty year reign, solely for his and his family’s own benefit.
In November, Iranian militants, working under the name of its new leader, the Ayatollah Khomeini, are able to break through the secured perimeter of the US Embassy in Tehran. The fifty plus embassy staff are able to burn or shred most of their documents before they are taken hostage. What the Iranians are unaware of is that six embassy staff members escaped just prior to the raid, and managed to take refuge in the home of the Canadian ambassador, Ken Taylor, and his wife, Pat. Fast forward two months…
The situation has not changed, and the State Department has brought in the services of the CIA, both to free the hostages and extricate the six in hiding. Tony Mendez with the CIA is the lead consultant on the six. Although many, in his mind, implausible plans are hatched to extricate the six, Tony eventually comes up with what some others believe is an implausible plan: have the six, under Canadian passports, pretend to be a film crew in Iran scouting for locations, with Tony part of that film crew to lead the six out himself.
On the advice of Tony’s Hollywood advisors, make-up artist John Chambers and producer Lester Siegel, Tony’s plan not only has to fool the Iranians to work, it has to fool the entire world, who need to believe that this film is actually in pre-production.
Beyond the need to get past the militants, especially at Tehran Airport where they are vigilant about capturing any Americans trying to escape, the plan has many obstacles to success, including: the six, who need to get up to speed basically overnight on their cover stories, some who predetermine certain failure, which if does happen means torturous death; competing priorities in Washington between the six and the fifty plus hostages; the Taylors’ Iranian housekeeper, Sahar, who comes to the realization that the Taylors’ supposed Canadian house guests are not who they say they are; and a mug shot book of embassy staff among the shredded materials, which Iranian sweat shop workers are tasked with putting back together, and which if achieved would identify the fact that the militants are minus six people from among their hostages.
Argo is a 2012 American historical drama film directed by Ben Affleck. Screenwriter Chris Terrio adapted the screenplay from the book by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency operative Tony Mendez, The Master of Disguise, and the 2007 Wired article by Joshuah Bearman, “The Great Escape: How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran”. The latter deals with the “Canadian Caper”, in which Mendez led the rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Tehran, Iran, under the guise of filming a science fiction film during the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis.
The film, starring Affleck as Mendez, and Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, and John Goodman in supporting roles, was released in the United States on October 12, 2012. It was produced by Grant Heslov, Affleck and George Clooney.
Argo (2012)
Directed by: Ben Affleck
Starring: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Victor Garber, Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall, Scoot McNairy Christopher Denham, Kerry Bishé, Kyle Chandler
Screenplay by: Chris Terrio
Production Design by: Sharon Seymour
Cinematography by: Rodrigo Prieto
Film Editing by: William Goldenberg
Costume Design by: Jacqueline West
Set Decoration by: Jan Pascale
Art Direction by: Peter Borck
Music by: Alexandre Desplat
MPAA Rating: R for language and some violent images.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: October 12, 2012
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