49 Fun Facts About Argo Movie

Who directed and starred in Argo?

Ben Affleck won the Golden Globe and BAFTA for directing it, yet the Academy left him off its Best Director shortlist in the year his film took Best Picture.

Who announced Argo's Best Picture win by live video link from the White House?

Michelle Obama appeared from the Diplomatic Room as Jack Nicholson's co-presenter, so a film about a White House-approved secret mission got its prize from the White House.

The real rescue dramatised in Argo is known by what nickname?

The Canadian Caper was credited to Canada alone in 1980; Washington hid the CIA's part for years, at first for fear of reprisals against the hostages still held.

Argo, the title the CIA gave its fake film, is also the name of which Greek hero's ship?

Jason sailed the Argo after the Golden Fleece, but Mendez wrote that the word first came from a colleague's profane knock-knock joke, which his disguise team used as a battle cry.

Which film gives Argo's Mendez the idea for the cover story?

Battle for the Planet of the Apes inspires him as he watches it in the film; the real Mendez wrote that he and Chambers chose science fiction because space epics had just become big business.

Argo opens with the US embassy stormed after America admitted which exiled Iranian for medical treatment?

Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had been toppled by the revolution months earlier, and the students who seized the embassy demanded that Washington send him back to Iran.

Who plays Chambers, the Hollywood make-up artist behind the fake film in Argo?

John Goodman's Chambers was a real Oscar-winning make-up artist who had been quietly helping the CIA with disguises long before the Tehran job.

The real CIA team behind Argo advertised its fake film in The Hollywood Reporter and which other trade paper?

Variety and its rival both ran news items on the ad, and the phones at the fake studio began ringing with people looking for work on a film that would never be shot.

Which major Argo character is essentially fictional?

Lester Siegel stands in for Bob Sidell, a make-up man Chambers brought in; a trade-paper headline of the day credited the new sci-fi film to two make-up artists.

In Argo, Mendez enters Iran posing as the fake film's what?

Producer was his cover: he arrives as Kevin Harkins of the fake studio, then gives each of the six escapees a film-crew role of their own to play.

In Argo, how do the revolutionaries realise some embassy staff are missing?

They reassemble shredded photographs strip by strip in the film; the real militants did hire carpet weavers to piece embassy papers together, but nobody spotted the six in time.

In Argo, where does the group's location-scouting trip go wrong?

The bazaar outing is meant to make the cover story look real, but a shopkeeper turns on the group and their Iranian guide has to hustle them away from an angry crowd.

Why is Argo's mission called off at the last minute?

A military rescue of the hostages is planned instead, in the film's telling; in reality nothing was called off, and the Canadians had bought the plane tickets well in advance.

Who plays Jack O'Donnell, Mendez's CIA boss, in Argo?

Bryan Cranston's O'Donnell calls Mendez in at the start and, once Mendez defies the order to stand down, scrambles to get the mission approved again and the tickets rebooked.

In Argo, which airline flies the escaping group out of Tehran?

Swissair's bar opened once the jet had left Iranian airspace, and the real escapees and their CIA escort marked the moment by ordering Bloody Marys.

Which decoration is Mendez secretly given as Argo ends?

The Intelligence Star went to the real Mendez in 1980, but the mission was secret, so the film has it awarded behind closed doors and returned to him only once the files are opened.

How many days were the remaining embassy hostages held, according to Argo's epilogue?

444 days of captivity dominated the 1980 election campaign and shook American confidence before the 52 remaining captives finally came home.

Who wrote Argo's Oscar-winning screenplay?

Chris Terrio's script invents the runway chase for suspense: no jeep or police cars pursued the real plane as it took off.

Argo's script drew on a 2007 article in which magazine?

Wired ran Joshuah Bearman's story after a producer tipped him off, hoping a published yarn might kick-start a movie, which is exactly what happened.

Which 1999 memoir by the real Tony Mendez did Argo also draw on?

The Master of Disguise could only be written once the CIA's part in the escape was declassified; until then Canada had taken all the credit and his role stayed secret.

The CIA's fake Argo studio moved into offices just vacated by which star, fresh from producing The China Syndrome?

Michael Douglas had just moved out of the suite at Sunset Gower Studios, which let a company invented in four days sit at a real studio address with ringing phones.

Which famous director sent a script to the CIA's fake Argo studio?

Steven Spielberg's was one of 26 scripts that reached Studio Six, Mendez wrote; the trade-paper ads made the sham company look so real that Hollywood kept pitching to it.

Which Los Angeles landmark looks derelict in Argo, though it had been rebuilt before the events shown?

The Hollywood Sign had crumbled through the 1970s until donors such as Alice Cooper and Gene Autry each paid for a letter of its 1978 steel replacement, so the wreck seen in the film is an anachronism.

What did Canada specially authorise so that the six Americans in Argo's true story could fly out of Iran?

Real passports with false names took a special exception to Canadian law, and Mendez then stamped them with forged Iranian visas at the embassy in Tehran.

Argo shows Mendez flying into Tehran alone; who really travelled in with him?

A second CIA officer, a documents specialist called 'Julio' in Mendez's account, posed as the representative of the film's supposed South American backers, making the party eight.

Which vintage studio logo opens Argo?

The 1972-84 Warner 'Big W' by Saul Bass was revived so the film would look like a product of its own era, and the studio even repainted its water tower with the lot's 1970s name.

Who plays Lester Siegel, the fake film's Hollywood frontman, in Argo?

Alan Arkin's Siegel options a sci-fi script and puts out press releases about it, so that a film nobody means to shoot looks like the real thing.

Which critic named Argo the best film of 2012, the last such pick before his death?

Roger Ebert wrote that it took first place 'because it is above all else a movie', praising its classic thriller values; he died in 2013.

Which craft Oscar did Argo win?

Film Editing went to William Goldenberg, who was up against himself that night: he was also nominated for cutting Zero Dark Thirty.

Argo was the first Best Picture winner without a Best Director nomination since which film?

Driving Miss Daisy had done it 23 years earlier, and only Wings and Grand Hotel before that; Argo's director, passed over himself, still went up to accept the night's top prize.

The fake film in Argo is pitched as a science-fantasy adventure in the style of which blockbuster?

Star Wars had turned space adventure into Hollywood's hottest property, which is why a crew scouting desert locations for a sci-fi epic seemed believable in 1980.

Who hosted the 2013 Oscars where Argo won?

Seth MacFarlane opened the night by joking that Argo's story was so top-secret its director remained unknown to the Academy, a dig at the Best Director snub.

Which film led the nominations at Argo's Oscars with twelve?

Lincoln nearly had a different star: Liam Neeson, long attached to the title role, withdrew saying he had grown too old, and his replacement, Daniel Day-Lewis, won Best Actor on the night.

George Clooney had an acting Oscar; his 2013 Argo Oscar was for what?

Producing brought him the Best Picture statuette: Clooney never appears in Argo, and his earlier Oscar was for playing a CIA officer in Syriana.

Argo gave one of its supporting actors back-to-back Best Picture winners. What was the other film?

He played the studio boss in the silent-film homage the year before.

After Argo's release, which former president said 90% of the plan was Canadian and Ken Taylor its main hero?

Jimmy Carter, president during the crisis, still called the film a great drama and hoped it would win Best Picture, while noting its CIA hero spent only a day and a half in Tehran.

Which country's parliament rebuked Argo's director for implying its diplomats turned the Americans away?

New Zealand's MPs passed the motion without dissent in 2013; one of its diplomats had in fact driven Mendez to the airport before dawn on the day of the escape.

What held up the real Mendez's departure for Tehran?

The president's OK was the last-minute hitch: a cable told Mendez to wait while the president was briefed, and 30 minutes later came the go-ahead, signed off 'Good luck'.

Why can six staff slip away when Argo's embassy is stormed?

Their office has a street exit: the visa section was the only building in the compound with its own door to the outside, so they walked out the back as the main gate fell.

Which comic-book legend's art for an unmade film becomes storyboards in Argo?

Jack Kirby drew his designs for Lord of Light, a film meant to anchor a science-fiction theme park; when that scheme collapsed, its script was the one the CIA borrowed and renamed.

The embassy hostages left behind in Argo were finally freed minutes after which US president was sworn in?

Ronald Reagan had been president for only minutes when the 52 were released on 20 January 1981, after months of talks brokered by Algerian diplomats.

Who composed Argo's score?

Alexandre Desplat saves his surprise for the moment Mendez reaches Iran: the voice of the Iranian singer Sussan Deyhim, scatting and then singing a lament over players from Turkey and France.

After which 2012 festival screening did Argo's director reword the film's closing caption?

Toronto's screening drew Canadian complaints that the film shrank the country's part in the rescue, so the director reworded the caption to call it a model of international co-operation.

Which president declassified the CIA's part in the Argo rescue, finally letting Mendez tell his story?

Bill Clinton's administration lifted the secrecy in 1997, seventeen years after the escape; until then even the medal Mendez had been given could not be mentioned.

What did Argo win at the 19th Screen Actors Guild Awards?

Outstanding Performance by a Cast was Argo's second guild triumph in two days, and the director, himself one of the cast, went up to accept on the actors' behalf.

Who plays Ken Taylor, the Canadian ambassador who shelters the Americans in Argo?

Victor Garber plays the envoy as brave and sympathetic, yet the real Taylor objected that the film played down how much of the escape was Canada's work.

What American honour went to the real Ken Taylor, Argo's Canadian ambassador, for sheltering the six?

The Congressional Gold Medal was voted while Canada was getting all the public credit and the CIA's part was still secret, and the president later presented it to Taylor in person.

Which country's embassy does Argo show turning the six away, though its diplomats had in reality sheltered them first?

Britain's diplomats had in fact put the Americans up for a night at their summer compound, a risk their senior man later said would have had them all 'for the high jump' if discovered.

What hitch did the real Argo escapees meet at Tehran airport?

A mechanical delay held the flight up; as they finally boarded, one escapee spotted the jet's name, Aargau, and joked to Mendez that the CIA arranged everything.