Argo - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Argo or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Argo

[steve]

The Iranian chief guard that questions Tony Mendez and his group when they're about to leave Iran, is the same guard that was arresting a woman at the airport, when Tony was entering the country.

[marc]

The film features one hundred twenty speaking parts.

[sandra]

First movie in seven years to win the Oscar for Best Picture, without winning the Oscar for Best Director (the previous movie was Crash (2004)). It is also the first movie in twenty-three years to win the Oscar for Best Picture, without being nominated for Best Director (the previous one was Driving Miss Daisy (1989)).

[ronnie]

Alan Arkin and John Goodman appeared in Mother Night (1996) and Love the Coopers (2015).

[frederick]

Several family members of the real Tony Mendez appear as bus passenger extras after the group is allowed to board the plane.

[mathew]

In order to make the movie feel like the 1970s, Ben Affleck shot on regular 35mm film but using the minimum 2-perforation widescreen frame size as well as further enlarging the Tehran scenes in post-production to further increase their perceived graininess. He also copied camera movements and bustling office scenes from All the President's Men (1976) for sequences depicting CIA Headquarters; for Los Angeles exteriors, he borrowed from The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976).

[melinda]

Zsa Zsa Gabor's Beverly Hills estate exteriors doubled for the house of Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin). Gabor, who was at home during filming, was too ill to observe the production proceedings.

[aaron]

During one of the many promotions for this film, Alan Arkin didn't realize that Bryan Cranston was in Little Miss Sunshine (2006), surprisingly quoting "Get out of here. I had no idea!" This was due to the fact that both actors didn't share scenes together (just like in Argo (2012)).

[kenzi]

In what very likely could be an intentional in-joke, Tony (Ben Affleck) asks Chambers (John Goodman): "Can you teach someone to be a director in a day?" to which he glibly replies: "you can teach a rhesus monkey to be a director in a day." Immediately following the line, the camera cuts to Affleck, who looks slightly dumbfounded. Ben Affleck, whose career is mostly built on acting roles, directed this film.

[manuel]

The stock footage of the Iranian-American getting attacked by angry American protesters was filmed in front of the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. The read-through of the fake "Argo" film occurred in the same hotel.

[carl]

Hamilton Jordan and Kyle Chandler, who plays him in the film, graduated from the University of Georgia.

[gerald]

Ben Affleck has stated that the production was granted unprecedented access to CIA Headquarters, both for interiors and exteriors, and that the gratitude for that privilege belongs to Tony Mendez, the retired CIA officer portrayed by Affleck in the film.

[aaron]

Ben Affleck met former C.I.A. operative Tony Mendez for the first time in March 2011 to discuss his role. The meeting took place at the Washington, D.C. Chadwicks Bar on K Street, where the infamous spy Aldrich Ames had passed classified American documents to the K.G.B. In the movie, however, the initial meeting place where the pivotal scheme was hatched, was staged at the Smoke House restaurant in Burbank, California, a real-life haunt for many movie celebrities. George Clooney and Grant Heslov's company, SmokeHouse Productions, is named for this restaurant.

[mathew]

After the film was released, Iran hired a radical lawyer in France to pursue a lawsuit against the film, claiming that the film was designed to pave the way for U.S. Military operations against Iran by garnering anger against Tehran for the embassy hostage crisis. The attorney filed a claim, saying Ben Affleck was guilty of war crimes for this possibility. The case was heard in a French court by a judge who heard this presentation, and then immediately dismissed the suit as groundless.

[kristina]

In reality, Tony Mendez was only in Teheran for a day and a half.

[tamara]

In the movie, it was stated that both the British and New Zealand embassies in Tehran turned away the six American diplomats, leaving the Canadians as their only refuge. In fact, the British embassy did shelter the six for a few days, but it was agreed by everyone that the Canadian embassy would be more secure and suitable, so they moved. A New Zealand official transported them, and the British also helped other Americans trapped in the country at the time. Ben Affleck acknowledged that he intentionally deviated from the real events, in order to quicken the pace, and build up the tension.

[addison]

The fake film poster created for the real Argo mission was rather plain, and black-and-white. In the movie, it is briefly visible in the background before the script reading event is held for the press. In the same scene, the colorful fake poster used in the movie is briefly visible, too.

[scarlett]

In an interview with Piers Morgan, former President Jimmy Carter said that he believes the film was a "great drama", and it deserved to win an Oscar for best film. However, Carter noted that although "ninety percent of the contributions to the ideas, and the consummation of the plan was Canadian", the film "gives almost full credit to the American C.I.A. With that exception, the movie's very good," Carter said, but "the main hero, in my opinion, was Ken Taylor, who was the Canadian ambassador, who orchestrated the entire process."

[kyle]

Tied with Gigi (1958) for being the shortest-titled Best Picture Academy Award winner, at four letters. The Best Picture winner with the longest title is The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) (ten words and thirty-five letters).