What do you do when real life doesn’t deliver a ‘wow’ ending? Dramatically flat or unsatisfying endings can drag down an otherwise strong fact-based story. But Argo is an example of how you don’t have to sacrifice the spirit of the truth to create that all important Act Three climax…

Screenwriter: Chris Terrio

Based on: The Wired magazine article ‘How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans From Tehran’ by Joshuah Bearman (published 24 April 2007) and chapter nine of The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA by Antonio Mendez (originally published 1999). This analysis also draws on the tie-in book Argo by Mendez and Matt Baglio, which was published after the film was released.

Script source: Script Slug

Set-up

In 1979, militants overrun the US Embassy in Tehran, Iran and take 52 Americans hostage. Six American employees escape and find shelter with the Canadian ambassador. As the weeks drag on and the threat of their discovery grows, CIA exfiltration specialist Tony Mendez is brought in to advise on getting the ‘houseguests’ home.

A cover story is concocted that the houseguests are a Canadian film crew in Tehran to scout locations for a film. Mendez works with his friend John Chambers, an award-winning Hollywood make-up artist. They set up a production studio and publicise the fake sci-fi movie, Argo.

Mendez flies to Iran to prep the houseguests on the cover story and their identities. They are provided with Canadian passports and plans are made for them all to fly out together.

What actually happened?

In real life, the plan came off. Mendez and the ‘houseguests’ flew out of Iran and safely arrived in Zurich. Barring a couple of small snafus at the airport (questions over an outdated passport photo and a minor flight delay), everything worked as planned.

After all the hard work that went into setting up the fake movie, little of the cover story was required for the escape. Great for all concerned. Not so much for those crafting this compelling story into tense screen drama.

Ramping up the tension into Act Three

The script significantly departs from the historical record on page 73, heightening the tension and stakes on multiple levels. The main beats are:

• Mendez and the houseguests make an unexpected visit to the bazaar that goes awry (forcing them to act out their cover identities and raising concerns about the airport).
• The Ambassador’s housekeeper gets a visit from the Revolutionary Guard (komiteh) and covers for the houseguests.
• Continued internal dissent from one of the houseguests (Joe Stafford), who resists the plan and doesn’t trust Mendez.
• Komiteh piecing together the houseguests’ real identities.
• CIA Headquarters cancels the escape plan at the 11th hour, with orders to shut down the LA production office (the all-is-lost point).
• Mendez decides to defy the order and take the houseguests through the airport (page 94, launching Act Three)
• A last-minute scramble by his CIA colleague O’Donnell to get the plan reapproved and the airline tickets confirmed.
• The houseguests are detained at the airport, amid final boarding calls for their flight.
• Joe Stafford steps up and uses his Farsi language skills to convince the komiteh that the Argo movie is real.
• A delayed phone pick-up by Chambers in the LA production office as a komiteh attempts to confirm the cover story.
• Komiteh realising the houseguests’ true identities.
• A desperate run through the airport by the komiteh to try and halt the flight, ending with armed guards chasing the plane down the runway as it takes off.

It all makes for a tense and action-packed ‘will they make it?’ final act, which brings the story to a close in a satisfying way.

Takeaway

The main takeaway from Act Three of Argo boils down to one word – expectation.

As this is billed as ‘based on a true story’, the audience has the expectation that what they’re seeing actually happened. However, there are two more important expectations the filmmakers needed to satisfy:

1. Genre: Argo is a thriller, which means the audience expects tension, heightened risk, jeopardy and a genuine question over whether the protagonist and the houseguests will make it out of Iran. That required building in rising action which was missing from the true story.

2. Premise: The fake Hollywood production needs to play a role in the finale, otherwise the audience would feel short changed. That meant fulfilling what Save the Cat! calls the ‘promise of the premise’ – getting the most from an intriguing plot hook.

However, in meeting these audience expectations, Argo sticks to the spirit of the truth. How? Well, in both the true story and the film, Mendez flew to Iran and got the houseguests safely home using the cover story. But in the film, he does it with a little more Hollywood pizazz – only fitting for a story that used the smoke and mirrors of Tinseltown to pull off an audacious rescue.

So, if the real ending of your story is dramatically flat or unsatisfying, look at ways to heighten what actually happened. Focus on character, genre and premise. How can you raise the stakes? Increase tension? Intensify the emotional engagement? But always while keeping the true story in sight.

Read more in my full Argo deep dive, which lands on The Fact-Based Screenplay’s Substack on 31 October – subscribe for free.