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Argo
As the Iranian revolution reaches a boiling point, a CIA 'exfiltration' specialist concocts a risky plan to free six Americans who have found shelter at the home of the Canadian ambassador.
2012 · Directed by Ben Affleck · 120 min · Drama · Thriller · Screenplay in the scene database · 20 frames
Tagline
The movie was fake. The mission was real.
Plot
On November 4, 1979, Iranian Islamists storm the United States Embassy in Tehran in retaliation for the right of asylum granted by President Jimmy Carter to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, whose Western-supported monarchy was overthrown by the Iranian Revolution. Sixty-six embassy staff are taken hostage, but six avoid capture and are secretly sheltered in the home of Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor.
The U.S. State Department explores options for exfiltrating them from Iran and consults Tony Mendez, a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency exfiltration specialist. He criticizes their proposals but offers no alternative until inspired by watching Battle for the Planet of the Apes. The cover story he crafts for the escapees requires them to pose as Canadian filmmakers scouting exotic locations for a science-fiction film in Iran.
On the advice of John Chambers, a Hollywood make-up artist who had previously worked for the CIA, Mendez works with film producer Lester Siegel to create a phony film production company. They successfully establish the pretense of developing Argo, a "science fantasy adventure" in the style of Star Wars, to lend the cover story credibility. The revolutionaries reassemble embassy photographs shredded before the takeover and realize some personnel are unaccounted for. Posing as a producer for Argo, Mendez enters Iran under the alias Kevin Harkins and meets with the six escapees, who are growing restless. With the cooperation and under the authority of the Canadian government, Mendez passes along to them Canadian passports and fake identities. The escapees reluctantly go along, knowing that Mendez is also risking his own life. A scouting visit to the bazaar to maintain their cover story takes a bad turn when a hostile shopkeeper harasses them, but their Iranian culture contact hustles them away from the hostile crowd.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Chris Terrio
- Cinematography: Rodrigo Prieto
- Edited by: William Goldenberg
- Music: Alexandre Desplat
- Production design: Sharon Seymour
- Produced by: Grant Heslov, George Clooney, Ben Affleck
Cast
- Ben Affleck as Tony Mendez
- Bryan Cranston as Jack O'Donnell
- Alan Arkin as Lester Siegel
- John Goodman as John Chambers
- Victor Garber as Ken Taylor
- Tate Donovan as Bob Anders
- Clea DuVall as Cora Lijek
- Scoot McNairy as Joe Stafford
- Rory Cochrane as Lee Schatz
- Christopher Denham as Mark Lijek
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: Arabic, English, German, Persian
- Studios: GK Films, Warner Bros. Pictures, Smokehouse Pictures
- Budget: $44,500,000
- Box office: $232,300,000
- Themes: central intelligence agency (cia), husband wife relationship, revolution, press conference, biography, american abroad, extraction, iran hostage crisis, intelligence agent, langley virginia
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