Ben Aflleck (left) and Brian Cranston (right) in a scene from "Argo"
A quintessential life-is-stranger-than-fiction tale, Argo tells the true story of a daring, albeit ridiculous, escape plan involving six American hostages in Iran and an unorthodox CIA agent named Tony Mendez.
The movie opened on November 4, 1979 with images of furious Iranians in a spontaneous up-from-the-streets eruption against the yoke of US imperialism, who storm the US embassy in Tehran and take its employees hostage.
The protesters are seen churning to a slow boil outside, while inside, embassy employees feverishly destroy documents, as it dawns on them that the cavalry isn't coming. They're on their own.
But six members of the consular staff escape the embassy and eventually end up at Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor's (Victor Garber) home where they are sheltered as supposed personal friends, knowing they might face public execution if they are caught.
This is where Tony Mendez steps in. While watching a few minutes of Planet of the Apes on TV, Mendez, the resident CIA exfiltration expert, contrives what agency head honchos grudgingly admit is "the best bad idea we've got".
As part of the rescue mission, the six house guests would pose as a Canadian film crew who've travelled to Iran to scout a location for a science fiction epic. The plan would entail supplying them with fake Canadian passports and flying out from the airport right under the noses of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. As one skeptic observes, Mendez's plan comes from the long-standing "so crazy it just might work" school of thought.
EB
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