Warner Bros Pictures
Argo is a 2012 American historical political espionage drama thriller film[1] directed by, produced by, and starring Ben Affleck. The screenplay, written by Chris Terrio, was adapted from the 1999 memoir The Master of Disguise by U.S. C.I.A. operative Tony Mendez and the 2007 Wired article “The Great Escape: How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran”[4] written by Joshuah Bearman. The film 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 1979–81 Iran hostage crisis. The film, which also has Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, and John Goodman in supporting roles, was released by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States on October 12, 2012. It was produced by Affleck, Grant Heslov, and George Clooney.
Argo became a box office success, grossing $232 million worldwide, and receiving widespread critical acclaim for the acting, Affleck’s direction, Terrio’s screenplay, the editing, and Desplat’s score. Commentators and participants in the actual operation criticized flaws in historical accuracy. The film received seven nominations at the 85th Academy Awards and won three, for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing.
The film also earned five Golden Globe Award nominations: it won Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director, and Alan Arkin was nominated for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture. It won Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the 19th Screen Actors Guild Awards, and Arkin was nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role. It also won Best Film, Best Editing and Best Director at the 66th British Academy Film Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards for Best Screenplay, and 37th Hochi Film Award for Best International Picture.
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.
Mendez is told the operation has been canceled in favor of a planned military rescue of the hostages. He pushes ahead anyway, forcing his boss, Deputy Director Jack O’Donnell, to hastily re-obtain authorization for the mission and rebook their canceled tickets on a Swissair flight. Tensions rise at the airport, where the escapees’ new ticket reservations are belatedly confirmed, and the head guard’s call to the fake Hollywood production company is answered only at the last second. The escapees board the plane as airport authorities are alerted to the ruse but fail to stop the plane from taking off.
U.S. involvement in the rescue is suppressed to protect the remaining hostages from retaliation, and full credit is given to the Canadian government. Taylor shuts down the embassy and leaves Iran with his wife while their Iranian housekeeper escapes to Iraq. Mendez is awarded the Intelligence Star, secretly due to the mission’s classified nature, and returns to his wife and son in Virginia.
A textual epilogue reveals that the remaining hostages were released after 444 days in captivity. Chambers, who received the Intelligence Medal of Merit, remained friends with Mendez until his death. Mendez’s Intelligence Star was returned to him after Bill Clinton declassified the Canadian Caper in 1997. At the time of the film’s release, Mendez lived with his family in rural Maryland.
