Argo Page #2

AL GOLACINSKI:

Let me in! Jesus Christ! Open

the f***ing door!

The Marines OPEN THE CHANCERY DOOR -- PROTESTERS POUR IN.

27A INT. CHANCERY OFFICE - MORNING 27A

ANN SWIFT:

-- Washington on flash -- Get Ops

-- get a line --

We hear --

The POUNDING of footsteps on the roof. They look up.

28 EXT. CONSULATE ROOF - MORNING 28

Protestors RUNNING on the roof of the consulate building.

Several stop to try and RIP off a vent cover using CLUBS

and PIPES.

29 EXT. EMBASSY GROUNDS - MORNING 29

THOUSANDS are now on the grounds of the embassy and they

continue to swarm through the gates.

The student with the SUPER 8 continues to film it all.

Also filming, a NEWS PHOTOGRAPHER with a 16 mm camera.

Smoking cannisters of TEAR GAS, people hurling them.

A protestor lights a paper on fire to ward off the sting

of the gas --

30 INT. CHANCERY OFFICE - MORNING 30

STAFFERS using pieces of machines to destroy other

machines -- any embassy equipment that might function --

Then... screams. The lights have gone out. The power

has been cut.

31 IN THE VAULT - MORNING 31

AHERN destroys the cryptography keys -- box-sized hard

drives -- while BILL DAUGHERTY, 33, tosses stacks of

papers into an electrical furnace.

ARGO - Final 7.

27 CONTINUED:
27

(CONTINUED)

BILL DAUGHERTY:

Well, Tom. You wanted to see the

world...

The furnace makes a LOUD CHUNK and stops. They both hold

their looks for a beat.

BILL DAUGHERTY:

Are you kidding me?

AHERN:

Get the shredder.

32 INT. CHANCERY STAIRWELL LEADING TO 2ND FLOOR - MORNING 32

BROTHER ALI, 20s, one of the student leaders, shouts as

he holds a cloth near his face to protect from tear gas.

33 INT. CHANCERY OFFICE - MORNING 33 *

The mood is now frantic -- people destroying things or

shouting everywhere --

ANN SWIFT:

No... Hal -- yes -- INSIDE the

building, IN --

34 INT. CONSULATE OFFICE - MORNING 34

Bob Anders SMASHES AMERICAN VISA PLATES.

The visa-applicant Iranians are now huddled in a group.

A couple of the women are wailing.

Improv resuming the debate over leaving.

Lijek on his walkie, but every channel is now speaking

FARSI.

MARK LIJEK:

Nobody is coming. We need to go. *

35 OMITTED 35

36 INT. CONSULATE OFFICE - MORNING 36

Mark gestures for the other six staffers -- and the

twenty IRANIAN VISA SEEKERS in the office -- to head to

the stairwell.

ARGO - Final 8.

31 CONTINUED:
31

(CONTINUED)

BOB ANDERS:

Iranians first.

(as no one moves)

Go! Now!

37 INT. CHANCERY - HALLWAY - MORNING 37

One STUDENT emerges with a large portrait of KHOMEINI

that had been used for dart practice.

STUDENT:

(screaming)

Who has made this!!!

Two EMBASSY EMPLOYEES look at the floor.

38 INT. CONSULATE STAIRWELL - MORNING 38

The twenty VISA-SEEKING IRANIANS pass our guys and run

down the stairs out onto the street and disperse outside.

Behind them, the FIVE CONSULATE EMPLOYEES we saw head

down the stairs.

So the group of SIX is: MARK AND CORA LIJEK, JOE AND *

KATHY STAFFORD, and BOB ANDERS. They get to the bottom

of the stairs.

39 INT. CHANCERY OFFICE - MORNING 39

The students, guns drawn, burst into the Chancery Office,

shouting at Ann Swift and the others. The mood among the

staffers is now almost peaceful.

ANN SWIFT:

(into the phone)

It.’s done. They.’re in.

She puts down the phone. *

40 EXT. BIST METRI STREET - MORNING 40

The It.’s quiet -- the sound of the protest on the other *

side of the roof and the embassy campus is distant. Just

the empty street.

On the ground:
discarded banners from the protest,

fliers and newspapers.

We see something that looks like BLOOD on the street.

ARGO - Final 9.

36 CONTINUED:
36

(CONTINUED)

They walk west. They.’re hurrying but taking care not to

run. The five can hear the gunfire and shouting in

Farsi. They walk up the street, away from the sounds of

the protest, instinctively grouping together. Cora looks

back.

BOB ANDERS:

Keep going.

41-45 OMITTED 41-45

46 INT. STATE DEPARTMENT HALL - SEVENTH FLOOR - NIGHT 46

Halfway around the world, hell has broken loose here,

too. BATES and MALICK, 30s, State Department mid-level

aides. A cascade of voices and energy -- a reverberation

from the embassy siege -- the building exploding into a

crisis center.

BATES:

These fucks can hit us, we

can.’t hit back?

MALICK:

Mossadeq. We did it to

them first.

BATES:

You think the Russians would put

up with this? They.’d f***ing

invade --

ROBERT PENDER, 40s, joins them heading down the hall.

They.’ve all gotten the same call to get to the

Secretary.’s office. PETER GENCO, late 20s, behind.

MALICK:

What did you expect? We

helped a guy torture and deball

an entire population --

PENDER:

(turning behind him)

Schafer! Schafer!

BRICE:

At least 60. Could be a hundred.

GENCO:

(catching up to them)

You still haven.’t found Schafer?

PENDER:

(to Genco)

No, I was screaming his name

.‘cause I was f***ing him.

HAL SAUNDERS, late 40s, Assistant Secretary of State for

Near Eastern Affairs, perpetually stressed, coming out of

his office, out of breath --

ARGO - Final 10.

40 CONTINUED:
40

(CONTINUED)

SAUNDERS:

Six got out!

47 OMITTED 47

47A INT. SECRETARY OF STATE.’S OFFICE - NIGHT 47A

STAPLED PAGES with PHOTOGRAPHS. In the hands of

SECRETARY OF STATE CYRUS VANCE, 62, a former Navy man who

is used to telling important people what to do.

EVERYONE FROM THE PREVIOUS HALLWAY SCENE is here in

attendance as well.

VANCE:

I was told five.

BATES:

Apparently it.’s six now.

VANCE:

What happened?

PENDER:

Not clear. We know they escaped

the embassy.

VANCE:

Where are they?

SAUNDERS:

The Canadian Ambassador.’s house.

BATES:

Are we attempting rescue?

BRICE:

Hold for the Secretary --

VANCE:

(handed another

phone)

-- there.’s no one -- this is he...

(to an aide)

Can we get Ottawa patched? Five

phones and none of them work.

Coming back -- on phone --

VANCE:

Is White House joining?

ARGO - Final 11.

46 CONTINUED:
46

48 INT. WHITE HOUSE - WEST WING - NIGHT 48

HAMILTON JORDAN, 40s, Carter.’s White House Chief of

Staff, comes up stairs, trailed by AIDES. Jordan is

forty, Southern.

BUTLER (O.S.)

They.’re claiming the embassy was a

.‘den of -- .‘

JORDAN:

We wish it was the f***ing Den of

Espionage. C.I. had three people

there, didn.’t see a revolution

coming? I.’d call that something

other than intelligence --

49 INT. CHIEF OF STAFF.’S OFFICE - NIGHT 49

There are already maps of Iran on easels in here. The

big three plus foreign networks on silent televisions.

LANDON BUTLER, 30s, Jordan.’s Deputy Chief of Staff, is on

the phone.

SECRETARY:

(into a phone)

Hold for the Chief of Staff --

(holds out the phone

to Jordan)

Hodding --

JORDAN:

(to Secretary)

I.’ll call him back.

BUTLER:

They.’re sticking to it. No

release till we expel the

shah.

Jordan sinks into his chair, putting his feet up on the

desk.

JON TITTERTON, 30s, an aide to Jordan --

TITTERTON:

Put him on a plane. F*** him.

JORDAN:

He.’s half dead and he.’s in chemo.

BUTLER:

We took him in. He.’s ours now.

TITTERTON:

So we.’ll take in any prick as long

as he.’s got cancer?

ARGO - Final 12.

(CONTINUED)

Rate this script:3.0 / 2 votes