Argo (2012) on Netflix
Militants storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran, and six Americans hide with Canada's ambassador. CIA specialist Tony Mendez proposes flying them out as a crew scouting for a science fiction movie.
- Netflix4.1/5
- IMDb7.7/10673,118 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes96%
Trailer
Plot summary
On November 4, 1979, Iranian revolutionaries overrun the United States embassy in Tehran and take the staff hostage. Six employees slip out and are given refuge by the Canadian ambassador, Ken Taylor. As the Iranians piece together shredded embassy documents, the State Department consults CIA exfiltration specialist Tony Mendez. He proposes that the six leave the country posing as a Canadian film crew scouting locations for a science fiction production. With the help of the Hollywood make-up artist John Chambers and the producer Lester Siegel, Mendez sets up a fake studio and travels to Tehran, carrying Canadian passports and invented biographies for each of the six, who must learn their new identities well enough to pass inspection.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Argo (2012)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The CIA's fake production company, Studio Six, was convincing enough that weeks after the rescue was complete and the office had folded, 26 scripts were delivered to its address, including one from Steven Spielberg.
- In a CNN interview, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said that 90 percent of the contributions to the ideas and the consummation of the plan was Canadian, and that the movie gives almost full credit to the American CIA.
- On March 12, 2013, the New Zealand House of Representatives censured Ben Affleck with a unanimous motion from New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, thanking former diplomats Chris Beeby and Richard Sewell for assisting American hostages in Tehran in 1979.
- The screenplay the CIA used to build its cover story was an adaptation of Roger Zelazny's 1967 novel Lord of Light. Producer Barry Geller had spearheaded an earlier attempt to produce the film under that original title; after it failed, the screenplay was renamed Argo.
- The film's dramatic chase as the plane takes off did not occur. Mark Lijek recalled that there were very few Revolutionary Guards around at the 5.30 in the morning flight, and that immigration officers barely looked at the group, who were processed out in the regular way.
