14 quotes
The Need for Credibility in Deception
John Chambers
If you're going to do a $20 million ] rip-off, you need somebody who's a somebody to put their ] on it. Somebody respectable. With credits. Who you can trust with classified information. Who will produce a fake movie. For free.
[To Tony Mendez; [w:Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope|Star Wars; [name]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
High-Stakes Mission with Daring Odds
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.
Siegel
Right. Look, I gotta tell you. We did suicide missions in the army that had better odds than this.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Creating a Successful Fake Movie
Lester Siegel
If I'm going to make a fake movie, it's going to be a fake hit.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Reality Behind Fiction in Argo
Taglines
The movie was fake. The mission was real.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
The Cycle of Farce and Tragedy
Lester Siegel
The saying goes, "What starts in farce ends in tragedy.
John Chambers
No, it’s the other way around.
Siegel
Who said that exactly?
Chambers
].
[[Karl Marx|Marx]
Siegel
] said that?
[[Groucho Marx|Groucho]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
CIA's Hollywood Operations Discussed in Meeting
Stansfield Turner
You're telling me there's a movie office in Hollywood right now that's funded by the CIA.
Tony Mendez
Yes, sir.
Cyrus Vance
What's wrong with the bikes again?
Jack O'Donnell
We tried to get the message upstairs.
Turner
You think... You think this is more plausible than teachers?
O'Donnell
Yes we do. One, there are no more foreign teachers in Iran.
Mendez
And, we think everybody knows Hollywood people. And everybody knows they would shoot in Stalingrad with ] directing if it'd sell tickets. There are only bad options. It's about finding the best one.
[[Pol Pot]
Turner
You don't have a better bad idea than this?
O'Donnell
This is the best bad idea we have, sir. By far.
Turner
The United States government just sanctioned your science fiction movie.
[short pause]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Seeking Recognition Beyond the Spotlight
Jack O'Donnell
If we wanted applause, we would have joined the circus.
[Explaining the lack of fanfare regarding the awarding of Mendez' Intelligence Star]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Making History, Not Just a Movie
Taglines
They weren’t making a movie, they were making history.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Declassified Truth Inspires Dramatic Storytelling
Taglines
Based on a declassified true story.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Understanding the Title "Argo
Reporter
So the title refers to...
Lester Siegel
The Argo, it's the, you know, the thing...
Reporter
] and the ], or...?
[[w:Jason|Jason; [w:Golden Fleece|Golden Fleece]
Siegel
The spaceship, it flies around space, all over space...
Reporter
Is it the Argonaut?
Siegel
No.
Reporter
Then what does "Argo" mean?
Siegel
It means, Argo fuck yourself.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Passport Origins and Identity Verification
Tony Mendez
You. Where was your passport issued?
Bob Anders
Vancouver.
Mendez
Where were you born?
Anders
Toronto.
Mendez
Toron-o", Canadians don’t pronounce the T.
Lee Schatz
Some Komiteh guard is actually going to know that?
Mendez
If you are detained for questioning they will bring in someone who knows that, yes ... Mary, who are the last three prime ministers of Canada?
Cora Lijek
Uh, ], ] and ].
[[Pierre Elliott Trudeau|Trudeau; [Lester B. Pearson|Pearson; [w:John Diefenbaker|Diefenbaker]
Mendez
What's your father's name?
Lijek
Howard.
Mendez
What's his occupation?
Lijek
Fisherman.
Mendez
Where were you born?
Lijek
Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Mendez
What's your date of birth?
Lijek
February 21, 1952.
Mendez
Good. What's your job on the movie?
[to Stafford]
Joe Stafford
Producer.
Mendez
Associate producer. What's the last movie you produced?
Stafford
High and Dry.
Mendez
Who paid for that?
Stafford
].
[[w:Telefilm Canada|The CFDC]
Mendez
What's your middle name? What's your middle name? What's your middle name?
[Stafford stammers]
Stafford
Leon.
Mendez
Shoot him. He's an American spy ... Look, they're going to try to break you, OK, by trying to get you agitated. You have to know your resume back to front.
Stafford
You really believe your little story's gonna make a difference when there's a gun to our heads?
Mendez
I think my story's the only thing between you and a gun to your head.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Challenges of Rescuing Embassy Hostages
Jack O'Donnell
The six of them went out a back exit. Brits turned them away, Kiwis turned them away, Canadians took them in. Traffic calls them the Houseguests'; they haven't left the Canadian ambassador's house since it happened.
Tony Mendez
Why didn't we get them ten weeks ago?
O'Donnell
Too dangerous. You've got ] going door to door like Jehovah's Witnesses. Half of them think Khomeini's been too lenient on the ones in the embassy.
[[w:Revolutionary Guards|Revolutionary Guards]
Mendez
What about the White House?
O'Donnell
Carter's shitting enough bricks to build the pyramids. The Canadians are done; they say they're bearing too much risk. Their foreign secretary corners ] in Brussels and told him she wants the six of them out.
[[w:Cyrus Vance|Vance]
Mendez
Who else knows?
O'Donnell
Just the families. Meanwhile, some genius in our embassy was keeping a mug book on everybody who worked there.
Mendez
Jesus Christ!
O'Donnell
We think it got shredded before they got in. But now the bastards are using sweatshop kids to reassemble the shreds, and once they reassemble that book, they'll know six Americans got out and they'll know what they look like. Standing room only for beheadings in the square.
Mendez
Who's handling?
O'Donnell
State is coordinating in house.
Mendez
State? They don't do exfils.
O'Donnell
They do now. They want to run it by us, strictly as consultants. Engell says its a lose-lose. These people die, they die badly. Publicly. State wants the blame, we'll give it to them.
Mendez
What does he want me here for?
O'Donnell
So he can tell State he ran it by his best exfil guy.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Unmade Films and Their Lasting Impact
Taglines
The most important movie of all time ... was never made.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Bicycle Escape Plan for Hostages
Robert Pender
What we like for this now are bicycles. We've identified back roads from the Shemiran district — a couple of rat lines through the mountains to the crossing at Tabriz. Cars are off the table because of the roadblocks.
Jon Bates
We wait until the weather clears up then deliver the six bikes, provide them with maps to the Turkish border.
Adam Engell
We have intelligence they can ride bicycles or we’re prepared to send in somebody to teach them.
Tony Mendez
Or you could just send in training wheels and meet them at the border with Gatorade. It's 300 miles to the Turkish crossings. They'd need a support crew behind them with a tire pump.
Engell
We've only been asked to sharpshoot this, State's handling the op.
Pender
Who is...?
Jack O'Donnell
Tony's an exfil spesh. He got a lot of the ]'s people out after the fall.
[[w:Shah Reza Pahlavi|Shah]
Mendez
Sir, if these people can read or add, pretty soon they're gonna figure out they're six short of a full deck. It's winter. You can't wait around until spring when it's nice enough to take a bike ride. The only way out of that city is the airport. You build new cover identities for them, you send in a Moses, he takes them out on a commercial flight.
Bates
We've explored those options.
Engell
They're never going to get past airport control. Komiteh own the place.
Bates
They could pose as reporters. The government issued seventy-something visas for American journalists.
Mario Malinov
Seventy-four. And the Revolutionary Guards keep them on 74 leashes.
Mendez
If they're caught with fake journalist creds, it's ] head in a noose in an hour. Sir, exfils are like abortions. You don't want to need one, but when you do, you don't do it yourself.
[[w:Peter Jennings|Peter Jennings'; ...]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.