History Film / Argo

* BurnBabyBurn: {{Subverted}}. As the protesters try to scale the walls of the embassy, the staff is ordered to destroy any incriminating evidence that might lead to Iranian retaliation down the line. Two staffers try to use an incinerator to dispose of classified and sensitive data, but it breaks shortly thereafter, and they are captured while trying to shred the rest. The revolutionaries then use sweatshop workers to reassemble the shredded documents and learn the identities of the missing employees.

* CheckpointCharlie: {{Discussed}} at length by the main characters. Mendez and the employees have to get through three checkpoints of escalating scrutiny at the Iranian airport in order to make their flight.

-->'''Lester Siegel:''' Okay, you got six people hiding out in a town of what, four million people, all of whom chant "death to America" all the livelong day. You want to set up a movie in a week. You want to lie to Hollywood, a town where everybody lies for a living. Then you're gonna sneak 007 over here into a country that wants CIA blood on their breakfast cereal, and you're gonna walk the Brady Bunch out of the most watched city in the world.
-->'''Tony Mendez:''' Past about a hundred militia at the airport. That's right.
-->'''Lester Siegel:''' Riiiiight. Look, I gotta tell you, we did suicide missions in the army that had better odds than this.

-->'''Mob Member''': Who did this? (''grabs dartboard, turns towards Embassy employees in the room, who cower in fear as he shows them the dartboard'') [[SuddenlyShouting WHO DID THIS?!]]

* DiplomaticImpunity: {{Averted}}. The Iranian revolutionaries completely disregard any American diplomatic privileges once they take power. Later, that includes the Canadian staff the moment they realize they're harboring American fugitives, but the Canadians made their escape from the country before it happened.

* EmbarrassingCoverUp: {{Inverted}} in that it is not played for comedy -- this is the reason why, halfway through the film, [[spoiler:the op is cancelled and Mendez is ordered to turn in the six Americans to the Embassy, where Delta Force will extract them.]]

-->'''Tony Mendez:''' I should have brought some books to read in prison.
-->'''Jack O'Donnell:''' Nah, they'll kill you long before prison.

-->'''Tony''': It's an exfil, from the worst place you can think of...
-->'''Chambers''': [[DeadpanSnarker Universal City?]]

* InvisiblePresident: {{Downplayed}}. UsefulNotes/JimmyCarter is mentioned several times and shown in stock footage, but is not portrayed in the film; his final approval for the mission comes via telex. Over the credits there is an audio excerpt of a Carter interview, where he talks about the mission.

* TheCameo: Famed Iranian filmmaker Rafi Pitts appears as a consulate officer.

--> '''Joe:''' This is the part where we're supposed to say it's [[CrazyEnoughToWork so crazy that it just might work]]??

* WineIsClassy: PlayedWith. During the script-reading at the Beverly Hilton, Mendez takes a glass of wine to fit in with the crowd, then immediately puts it on a tray after taking a sip. Later on, he begins shotgunning glasses of it during the script-reading to loosen up.

** As pointed out by Tony early in the film to the people in State Department, a plan to get the personnel out when dealing with odds this long is going to be absurd and he shoots down a few of the Department's alternatives too[[note]]it's winter in Iran so using an agricultural cover is out, the schools are closed so giving them a teacher cover is out, a humanitarian cover is out for the same reasons as agricultural (and the implication State would have screwed up the cover's advertisement), and the plan to have them ride bikes out of the country is in the realm of "too complicated"[[/note]].

* CrazyEnoughToWork: When Lester Siegel sums up the plan:

* ArtisticLicenseHistory:
** Lee Schatz escaped separately from the rest of the group and actually stayed at the Swedish embassy before later arriving at the Canadian consulate. Another group of staff made an escape but were soon captured.
** The British and New Zealand diplomats are explicitly stated to have refused to help their American colleagues; in reality, they both offered help and the British actually hosted the Americans for a short time, before it was decided it was safer for them to be with the Canadians, while a New Zealander drove the Americans to the airport and another coached them on the roles.
** Most of the tensest scenes in the movie -- the location scout, the CIA brass trying to kill the plan, the nail-biting escape from the airport -- didn't happen.
** The actual exit from Mehrabad airport went off perfectly, and was done at five o'clock in the morning (an early flight having been chosen partly because security would likely be more lax at such a time).
** Since the CIA didn't try to kill the plan once Mendez was in Tehran, the Canadian ambassador never suggested destroying the passports and abandoning the plan; this last part annoyed folks in Canada (see AmericaSavesTheDay above).
** The movie portrays Mendez as estranged from his wife and living alone in a tiny garret, subsisting on leftover Chinese takeout; in real life, Mendez was a successful artist (he had started at the CIA as document forger, as referenced in an early scene where he's creating a fake Soviet passport) who lived with his wife and their children on a converted farm in Virginia.
** After Mendez and the six fly out, the CIA officials decide that they'll give the credit to the Canadians in order to protect the remaining hostages. In reality, the six were taken to a safe house in Switzerland and it was intended for them to be held at an undisclosed location in Florida until the hostage crisis was resolved; for diplomatic reasons, the Americans had maintained that all of the embassy staff were accounted for and being held hostage. Then a Canadian newspaper broke the story, though American involvement remained classified.

* HollywoodHistory:
** For elements of the story which emphasize the CIA role in the extraction at the expense of the Canadians and others, see AmericaSavesTheDay above.
** Lee Schatz actually fled separately from the other five and spent much of November staying at the Swedish embassy.
** The ''Argo'' script was selected by John Chambers, not Mendez.
** [[invoked]]''Argo'' wasn't a rejected script for godawful ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'' rip-off as the film suggests, but an in-production (albeit [[DevelopmentHell stagnant]]) film loosely adapting the 1967 sci-fi novel ''Literature/LordOfLight'', which actually ''pre-dated Star Wars''.[[labelnote:Essentially...]]''Argo'' was to ''Lord of Light'' as ''Film/BladeRunner'' was to ''Literature/DoAndroidsDreamOfElectricSheep'' -- a mostly-original story that drew heavily on the themes and setting of the original novel. It ''did'' start out as a straight-up adaptation, but switched midway through its stagnant production.[[/labelnote]] To be fair, they ''were'' both ScienceFantasy stories about a [[LaResistance space rebellion]] with themes of eastern religious mysticism (Taoism for ''Star Wars'', Hinduism and Buddhism for ''Lord of Light'').
** Jack Kirby wasn't commissioned for the fake ''Argo'' movie. His conceptual artwork had already existed from the aborted but serious attempt to film ''Lord of Light''.
** The setup for the film was more low key, there was no read-through with actors in costume. Posters, a story in a magazine, business cards, and a telephone number were it. The number was in fact called by the Iranians, but before the 6 were evacuated.
** Mendez was not sent alone to Iran; he had several assistants.
** In the film, Mendez and the passengers [[JustInTime barely make it]] through the checkpoint and onto the plane before the Iranian guards discover the ruse and run to try and catch the departing flight, ending with them chasing it down a runway in several vehicles. In real life, the passengers went through the airport without incident, and were never spotted or suspected during their time there. One of the real-life persons involved, Robert Anders (played by Tate Donovon), [[http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenewspaper.ca%2Fthe-news%2Fitem%2F989-diplomats-in-iranian-hostage-crisis-discuss-argo&date=2012-11-17 recalled]] that he had to go through less security in Tehran in 1980, than in Toronto in 2012 to come see the film. However, the film does not mention the mechanical failure suffered by the real aircraft Mendez and the group left on.
** Mendez actually came to Tehran with several escape scenarios, and the final one was chosen by the groups themselves.
** The group were not holed up in the Canadian ambassador's home, they stayed at two different places and they did move about the city, although rarely.
** Far from being estranged from his wife, Mendez was on good terms with her – she drove him to the airport. He did return his wedding band, but that is apparently SOP for agents going overseas.

** After Mendez and the six fly out, the CIA officials decide that they'll give the credit to the Canadians in order to protect the remaining hostages. In reality, the six were taken to a safe house in Switzerland and it was intended for them to be held at an undisclosed location in Florida until the hostage crisis was resolved. Then a Canadian newspaper broke the story, though American involvement remained classified.

* ForTheEvulz: In one scene, the Iranian militants pretend to execute some hostages just seemingly to scare'em or demoralize'em.

* HollywoodOld: Inverse; Victor Garbor was 63 when cast as Canadian diplomat Ken Taylor, who was 43 during the Iranian Revolution. Taylor even joked in an interview following the release of the film that Garbor looked more like him in the present day than he did in 1979.

* AmericaSavesTheDay: The film has Mendez (a CIA agent) take the lead and ultimate responsibility for rescuing the employees trapped in the country. It raised some complaints in Canada for emphasizing the CIA role in the extraction and deemphasizing the role of the Canadians (see FocusGroupEnding). The film makes it clear that the Canadians are taking a big risk hiding the Americans and their participation in the extraction operation is vital such as supplying passports, but the ambassador knows that everyone is in danger and is trying to find a way that doesn't involve his house-guests getting executed, even if it means [[spoiler:agreeing with the plan to turn the hostages directly in to the Embassy, so they can be extracted by Delta Force.]] The film has also been criticized for the HistoricalVillainUpgrade given to Britain and New Zealand. In the film, British and New Zealand diplomats are explicitly stated to have refused to help their American colleagues; in reality, they both offered help and the British actually hosted the Americans for a short time, before it was decided it was safer for them to be with the Canadians, while a New Zealander drove the Americans to the airport and another coached them on the roles.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Most of the tensest scenes in the movie -- the location scout, the CIA brass trying to kill the plan, the nail-biting escape from the airport -- didn't happen. The actual exit from Mehrabad airport went off perfectly, and was done at five o'clock in the morning (an early flight having been chosen partly because security would likely be more lax at such a time). Since the CIA didn't try to kill the plan once Mendez was in Tehran, the Canadian ambassador never suggested destroying the passports and abandoning the plan; this last part annoyed folks in Canada (see AmericaSavesTheDay above). Also, the movie portrays Mendez as estranged from his wife and living alone in a tiny garret, subsisting on leftover Chinese takeout; in real life, Mendez was a successful artist (he had started at the CIA as document forger, as referenced in an early scene where he's creating a fake Soviet passport) who lived with his wife and their children on a converted farm in Virginia.

* DartboardOfHate: A member of the mob storming the embassy is furious when he discovers a picture of the Ayatollah Khomeini with several darts stuck in it.

* FiveFiveFive: On the business card for the fake production company, Cloud 6.