50 free Argo Movie trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Argo trivia quiz covers Ben Affleck's 2012 Best Picture winner and the real Canadian Caper it dramatises. It follows the story from the storming of the US embassy in Tehran to the Swissair flight out: the six diplomats hiding with Ambassador Ken Taylor, Tony Mendez's Planet of the Apes brainwave, the fake production company Studio Six, the bazaar scouting trip, the cancelled-then-uncancelled mission and the phone that rings just in time. Behind the scenes it covers Chris Terrio's screenplay and the Wired article it grew from, the first actor cast, the CIA lobby that was really the CIA, the anachronistic Rolling Stones song, the Lord of Light script the real CIA borrowed, and the 26 screenplays that kept arriving at Studio Six after it closed. A separate round covers what the film got wrong, from the British and New Zealand embassies to the runway chase that never happened, and the 85th Academy Awards, where Argo won without its director being nominated. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries before publishing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who directed and starred in Argo?
Ben Affleck
He also produced it with George Clooney and Grant Heslov.
Q 02Which real CIA officer does the director play?
Tony Mendez
The real Mendez wrote four memoirs about his CIA career.
Q 03The rescue operation is known by what nickname?
The Canadian Caper
The CIA's role stayed secret until Bill Clinton declassified it in 1997.
Q 04How many US diplomats are hidden at the Canadian ambassador's home?
Six
Sixty-six others were taken hostage at the embassy.
Q 05Which film gives Mendez the idea for the cover story?
Battle for the Planet of the Apes
He watches it on TV while criticising the State Department's other proposals.
Q 06What is the escapees' cover story?
Canadian filmmakers scouting locations for a sci-fi film
The fake film is pitched as a 'science fantasy adventure' in the style of Star Wars.
Q 07Who plays the Hollywood make-up expert who helps set up the fake film?
John Goodman
The real Chambers created Spock's ears and the Planet of the Apes make-up.
Q 08Who plays producer Lester Siegel?
Alan Arkin
He was the first actor cast and earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination.
Q 09Lester Siegel is a fictional character. Whose personality is he based on?
Jack Warner
His name and some contribution come from Robert Sidell.
Q 10Under what alias does Mendez enter Iran?
Kevin Harkins
He poses as a producer for Argo.
Q 11How do the revolutionaries realise some embassy staff are missing?
They reassemble shredded photographs
Child workers piece the shreds back together.
Q 12Where does the scouting trip go wrong?
The bazaar
A hostile shopkeeper harasses them before their Iranian contact hustles them away.
Q 13Why is the operation cancelled at the last minute?
A military rescue of the hostages is planned instead
Q 21Which novel was the real fake-film script actually an adaptation of?
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
Producer Barry Geller had tried to make it under the original title before the CIA renamed it Argo.
Q 22How many scripts arrived at the fake Studio Six office after the rescue, according to Mendez?
26
One of them was from Steven Spielberg.
Q 23Where were most of the CIA interior scenes actually shot?
The basement of the Los Angeles Times Building
Only the lobby scene was shot at the real CIA original headquarters building.
Mendez pushes ahead anyway, forcing Jack O'Donnell to re-obtain authorisation.
Q 14Who plays Mendez's boss, Deputy Director Jack O'Donnell?
Bryan Cranston
Victor Garber plays Ambassador Ken Taylor and Kyle Chandler plays Hamilton Jordan.
Q 15Which airline flies the group out of Tehran?
Swissair
The real flight was a Douglas DC-8; the film shows a 747-300 that didn't fly until 1983.
Q 16What decoration is Mendez secretly awarded?
The Intelligence Star
It was returned to him after the operation was declassified in 1997.
Q 17How many days does the epilogue say the remaining hostages were held?
444
Ken Taylor received the Congressional Gold Medal from Reagan in 1981.
Q 18Who wrote the screenplay?
Chris Terrio
He won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar and later co-wrote Batman v Superman.
Q 19The script drew on a 2007 article in which magazine?
Wired
Joshuah Bearman's 'How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran'.
Q 20What was the title of Mendez's 1999 memoir the film also adapted?
The Master of Disguise
He co-wrote a longer account, Argo, with Matt Baglio in 2012.
Q 24Which city stood in for Tehran?
Istanbul
Filming also took place in Los Angeles, McLean, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Q 25Which Rolling Stones song in the film is an anachronism, released a year after the events?
Little T&A
Dire Straits, Van Halen and Led Zeppelin also feature on the soundtrack.
Q 26Which vintage studio logo opens the film?
The 1972-84 Warner 'Big W' by Saul Bass
Warner also repainted its water tower with The Burbank Studios logo.
Q 27Who was the first person cast in the film?
Alan Arkin
That was in June 2011; the rest of the cast followed before an August shoot.
Q 28Which critic named Argo the best film of 2012, the last such pick before his death?
Roger Ebert
He also correctly predicted its Best Picture win after Toronto.
Q 29How many Oscars did Argo win?
Three
Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay and Film Editing, from seven nominations.
Q 30Argo was the first Best Picture winner without a Best Director nomination since which film?
Driving Miss Daisy
Only Wings, Grand Hotel and Driving Miss Daisy had done it before.