Argo (2012 film)

Argo is a 2012 American political thriller film directed by Ben Affleck. The film is adapted from U.S. Central Intelligence Agency operative Tony Mendezs book The Master of Disguise and Joshuah Bearmans 2007 Wired article The Great Escape How the CIA Used a Fake SciFi 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, during the 19791981 Iran hostage crisis.

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. More than 50 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 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 sciencefiction film.Mendez contacts John Chambers, a Hollywood makeup 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 ambassadors residence. The revolutionaries reassemble embassy photographs shredded before the takeover and learn that some personnel have escaped. ........

Source: Wikipedia