In 1980, Studio Six Productions
trumpeted a new film project that had the elements of a hit sci-fi movie:
spaceships, aliens, action and adventure, all happening on an arid, distant
planet. Billed as a “cosmic conflagration,” the epic feature was never greenlit
by any studio chief.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. |
It
could only be given a green light by America’s Commander in Chief.
More
than 30 years later, Ben Affleck directed, produced and stars in Warner Bros.'
“Argo,” a film based on the true story of the covert mission to rescue six
Americans trapped in Iran, following the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in
Tehran that shocked the world.
The
group had narrowly avoided being taken hostage by Iranian revolutionaries and
were given sanctuary at the home of Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor, who risked
everything to help the Americans, even when others turned them away. But the
“houseguests”—as they came to be known—were in constant jeopardy of being found
out and captured…or worse. With time running out, the CIA’s top exfiltration
expert, Antonio “Tony” Mendez, devised a brilliant but outrageous escape plan.
Affleck
explains, “Tony was friends with a famous makeup artist named John Chambers and
knew it was a viable prospect for movie people to be traveling around, checking
out different locations. He came up with an idea no one else would ever have
thought of.”
The
plan was for the six to pose as a Canadian filmmaking team on a location scout
and then simply fly out…although it was anything but simple. Tony Mendez
emphasizes, “This was a game with no rules, so it was extremely risky. The most
dangerous thing about it was the capriciousness of the people we were trying to
get around. We had no way of predicting what would happen if we got caught—to
us or to those already held hostage.”
Joshuah
Bearman, who, in 2007, chronicled the escape in a Wired Magazine
article, relates, “The embassy seizure was a seismic event on the world stage.
No one knew quite how to respond to the hostage situation in the embassy
compound. The problem of the hidden houseguests was even trickier because diplomacy
wasn’t an option. And with each day, the likelihood that they would be
discovered grew. Eventually, Tony Mendez, who had ‘exfiltrated’ sensitive
people from Iran and elsewhere before, stepped in with this plan.”
There
was also a very real threat to those harboring the Americans. Ambassador Ken
Taylor confirms, “During those three months, the staff at the Canadian Embassy
was dealing with the dangerous reality of the situation. We had all been
offended by the violent breach of diplomatic protocol, but apart from that,
these were our friends. The U.S. and Canada have always had a special
relationship that transcends any boundaries. I have been given a lot of the
credit, but an equal amount belongs to my wife, Pat, and my embassy staff, as well
as my colleagues in Canada.”
Holding
an emergency session, the Canadian Parliament made a rare exception to their
own laws to provide the six Americans with fake Canadian passports, under the
“film crew’s” individual aliases. They arrived by diplomatic pouch to
Ambassador Taylor, who rendezvoused with Mendez to deliver them. Applying his
expert counterfeiting skills, Mendez imprinted them with the correct Iranian
visas and entered dates to indicate that the six had arrived in the country only
the day before.
“To
me,” says Affleck, “one of the most important themes of the movie is
remembering when the United States stood up as a nation to say ‘Thank you,
Canada.’ None of this would have happened without them, so America will always
have a debt of gratitude to our friends to the north.”
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