Argo - 亞果出任務

Argo (亞果出任務) is an 2012 film. The movie stars Ben Affleck. The supporting cast include Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, and John Goodman. Ben Affleck also acted as the films producer and director. The story was based on real life events during the Iran Hostage Crisis.

In 1979, Iran has recently seen a new government put in place. With that new government, they really hate the US of A. As such, demonstrations in front of the US Embassy in Tehran take a turn for the worst when it is overrun and the workers taken as hostages. 6 of the workers find a way to slip the Embassy and find their way to an Canadian safe house. Back in the US, gov't folks in the CIA find out and will look for ways to extract these 6. But it can't make the US take on any political pressure in relation to the Iran Hostage Crisis. Tony Mendez is the man for the job. They concoct a film production plan to get these six out. With help from an CIA contractor working in Hollywood, they set up an fake studio and fake a real movie production. Along the way, Mendez flies out to Middle East and eventually Iran to get these folks out.

This movie was pretty awesome. Great story, great set up, and great pay off. I recently saw it on Blu-ray and it deserves the hype it's been given. I don't think it'll hold its longivity vs films like the Avengers, but it'll be a classic. I can't see myself flipping through the channels and stopping on this movie. But that is not the point. It was a great movie. Affleck did it right. You should do the right thing and watch this.

The Blu-ray extras were a real treat too. In one of the featurettes, they went into the making of the Tehran airport. It just so happens that they filmed the whole sequence in nearby Ontario Airport (ONT in the greater Los Angeles area). That is my airport of choice to fly out of for domestic flights. However, they didn't film at the new location. It was the old Ontario building from the 1960s. Making it the perfect backdrop. As I watched the making of, it brought back all those memories of flying up to the Bay Area out of that airport back in the 1990s. Awesome!