Argo Film Plot

On November 4, 1979, Iranian

activists storm the United States
embassy in Tehran in retaliation for
President Jimmy Carter giving the
Shah asylum in the U.S. during the
Iranian Revolution.
60 of the embassy staff are taken as hostages, but six avoid capture
and hide in the home of Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor.
With the escapees' situation kept secret, the U.S. State Department
begins to explore options for exfiltrating (getting them out) them
from Iran. Tony Mendez, a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
exfiltration specialist, is brought in for consultation. He criticizes the
proposals, but is at a loss when asked
for an alternative.
While on the phone with his son, he is
inspired by watching Battle for the
Planet of the Apes and begins plans
for creating a cover story for the
escapees: that they are Canadian
filmmakers who happened to be in
Iran scouting exotic locations for a similar science-fiction film.
Mendez contacts John Chambers, a Hollywood make-up artist who
had previously crafted disguises for the CIA. Chambers puts Mendez
in touch with film producer Lester
Siegel. Together, they set up a phony
film production company, publicize
their plans, and successfully establish
the pretense of developing Argo, a
"science fantasy adventure" in the
style of Star Wars, to lend credibility
to the cover story. Meanwhile, the
escapees grow frantic inside the ambassador's residence. The
revolutionaries reassemble embassy photographs shredded before
the takeover and learn that some personnel have escaped.
Posing as a producer for Argo, Mendez enters Iran under the fake
name Kevin Harkins and links up with the six escapees. He provides
them with Canadian passports and fake identities to prepare them to
get through security at the airport.
Although afraid to trust Mendez's scheme, they reluctantly go along
with it, knowing that he is risking his own life too. A scouting visit to
the bazaar to maintain their cover story takes a bad turn, but their

Iranian culture contact gets them

away from the hostile crowd.
Mendez is told that the operation has
been cancelled to avoid conflicting
with a planned military rescue of the
hostages. He pushes ahead, forcing
his boss Jack O'Donnell to hastily reobtain authorization for the mission to
get tickets on a Swissair flight.
Tension rises at the airport, where the
escapees' flight reservations are
confirmed at the last minute, and a
guard's call to the supposed
production company in Hollywood is answered at the last second.
The group boards the plane, which takes off just as the
Revolutionary Guards at the airport uncover the ruse and try to stop
them.