What was it about? Describing the plot to science-fiction epics can be underwhelming and confusing — think of the "John Carter" trailer. We haven't read the original, but according to Geller himself as quoted in the "Rocky Mountain News" , the story is about a "very advanced civilization" that colonizes a new planet, uses technology to assert their superiority and establishes themselves as the "gods" with the rest of the planet's inhabitants subjugated to a strict Hindu-like caste system.
The protagonist, Sam, is a renegade who rejects the godlike status and wants to return power to the people. Or something like that. Eventually Geller's expensive and wildly elaborate plans for the film, park and science mecca fell through, but Chambers' involvement with "Lord of Light" and CIA agent Mendez that led to the use of the script. There's a scene in which the filmmakers visit the crowded, labyrinthine public market and their safety is endangered when a shopkeeper objects to having his photograph taken by the " Argo " production "set designer.
The embassy personnel are impersonating members of a film crew -- director, cinematographer, a couple of producers of various kinds, location manager, screenwriter -- and the "director" Tate Donovan -- in an ascot! This would not happen. Any real director would obviously be out in front, so this had me fearing our protagonists might be unceremoniously unmasked. Even though, yes, we all know they got out safely; suspense can work even when you know what happens.
Taylor, the Canadian ambassador, also taught the group to "speak Canadian" -- something that really happened but isn't in the movie, and I miss it.
Although mention is made of the native articulation of "Toronto" without saying the second "t" , I kept waiting for somebody to mispronounce "zed" or say "a-genst" instead of "a-GAYNst," in which case the jig would have been up. The real reason I bring all this up is what happens in the last 20 minutes or so of the movie well, before the umpteen Happy Endings that have been tacked on, from the hostages' homecoming to Jimmy Carter's VO to Mendez's romantic reunion with his estranged wife is so preposterously suspenseful that it seems to be making fun of itself.
And by that I mean that, by embracing and overdoing just about every thriller trope you can think of, it shows just how visceral Pavlovian? In other words, it's patently outrageous and it works -- which is what the movie itself is about. I seem to remember somebody saying that if you put this scenario into a movie nobody would believe it.
Or, if they didn't, they should have. So many climaxes are built into the final escape that, on the level of meta-awareness, you just have to laugh, even as your pulse is pounding. I'm not sure I can even remember them all. Let's see: The mission is cancelled at the last minute, but after a night of whiskey and solitary hotel soul-searching, Mendez decides at the even-more-last-minute to go ahead with it anyway -- meaning someone in Washington has to re-approve the airline tickets, which have been cancelled.
Only the President Himself can give the order, so Mendez's colleague Bryan Cranston has to get ahold of Hamilton Jordon pronounced "Jer-dn, you may remember; here played by Kyle Chandler and in order to do that he has to track down the school his kids attend and impersonate the principal by saying there's an emergency.
On the way to the airport, their van is nearly caught between two crowds of angry demonstrators. Then, when the group reaches the ticket counter, the reservations aren't there!
The first security checkpoint isn't too much trouble, but when they get to the second one they are stopped because, although they have the proper exit forms, there is of course no record of the six entering the country under their false identities. Fast forward two months The situation has not changed, and the State Department has brought in the services of the CIA, both to free the hostages and extricate the six in hiding. Tony Mendez with the CIA is the lead consultant on the six.
Although many, in his mind, implausible plans are hatched to extricate the six, Tony eventually comes up with what some others believe is an implausible plan: have the six, under Canadian passports, pretend to be a film crew in Iran scouting for locations, with Tony part of that film crew to lead the six out himself.
On the advice of Tony's Hollywood advisors, make-up artist John Chambers and producer Lester Siegel, Tony's plan not only has to fool the Iranians to work, it has to fool the entire world, who need to believe that this film is actually in pre-production. Beyond the need to get past the militants, especially at Tehran Airport where they are vigilant about capturing any Americans trying to escape, the plan has many obstacles to success, including: the six, who need to get up to speed basically overnight on their cover stories, some who predetermine certain failure, which if does happen means torturous death; competing priorities in Washington between the six and the fifty plus hostages; the Taylors' Iranian housekeeper, Sahar, who comes to the realization that the Taylors' supposed Canadian house guests are not who they say they are; and a mug shot book of embassy staff among the shredded materials, which Iranian sweat shop workers are tasked with putting back together, and which if achieved would identify the fact that the militants are minus six people from among their hostages.
In , the Islamic Revolution overthrows the dictator Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who came to power sponsored by the United States government, and the leader of the revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, assumes the power.
The Iranian revolutionaries invade the American Embassy in Tehran and the American officials are taken hostages. However, six officials flee from the Embassy and are secretly hosted by the Canadian Ambassador at his residence in Tehran and the CIA directors summon the agent Tony Mendez, who is an expert in bringing American citizens back to their country, to plot a rescue plan to save the group.
Tony Mendez plots the most incredible plan to bring the six officials: to create a fake Canadian film to be shot in Iran and include the officials in the production crew.
Without other alternative, Tony Mendez receives green light from his superiors and travels to Hollywood to set in motion his almost impossible mission to rescue the group. November 4, Now, as six escapees find themselves trapped in the home of the Canadian ambassador, Ken Taylor , the ex-filtration expert, Tony Mendez, comes up with an impossible plan, proposing that they all pose as members of a Canadian film crew scouting for shooting locations for "Argo", their latest science-fiction movie.
With the aid of the Hollywood veterans, make-up artist, John Chambers and producer, Lester Siegel, Mendez embarks on a dangerous mission to create the perfect illusion, and sneak the team out in broad daylight.
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