Argo Page #6

89 INT. NEAR CRAFT SERVICES TABLE - DAY 89

Chambers is foraging through .‘70s SNACKS. At the craft

service table. A guy in his SPACE ARMOR PANTS without

the top is eating as well.

A P.A. approaches, carrying a PHONE on a long cord.

P.A.

Mr. Chambers.

CHAMBERS:

(still foraging)

Who is it?

P.A.

Kevin Harkins?

Chambers gives the kid a look, takes the phone from him

and puts it to his ear.

CHAMBERS:

Hey, Tony.

90 INT. CIA - CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY 90

Pender and Engell sit at the table; O.’Donnell hovers. A

few State Department and CIA ANALYSTS here, including

Malinov and Lamont; and DAVID MARMOR, early 30s, Engell.’s

guy.

O.’DONNELL

(quiet, to Malinov)

Is he coming?

Engell nods for the door to be shut.

ENGELL:

(to Pender)

Okay. Our N.E. put together a

work-up. David.

MARMOR:

They would pose as teachers from

the international school.

PENDER:

We went through all that -- it.’s

boarded up --

O.’Donnell looking at the clock.

ARGO - Final 30.

(CONTINUED)

MARMOR:

Suppose the airport guards don.’t

know that --

PENDER:

Suppose. Suppose Heckle and

Jeckle go over and save them --

The door swings open.

MENDEZ:

Hi. Sorry. Hi.

O.’DONNELL

Have a seat, Tony.

He doesn.’t. There.’s an energy in him we haven.’t seen

before.

MENDEZ:

They.’re a Canadian film crew on a

location scout for a science

fiction movie --

A shift in the room.

MENDEZ:

Star Wars, Star Trek. They need

an exotic place to shoot. We put

it out -- the Canadian producers

put it out -- that they.’re looking

at Turkey, Egypt, whatever. Then

we go to the consulate and say we

wanna look at Iran. I fly in

there and we fly out together as a

film crew. Done.

MARMOR:

(dry)

.‘In an exfiltration, flamboyant

cover identities should be

avoided, as it increases

operational.’ --

MENDEZ:

This is more plausible than

foreigners who want to go to

school in Iran -- *

ENGELL:

So you.’re going to wake up

tomorrow in the movie business?

We have credentials for --

ARGO - Final 31.

90 CONTINUED:
90

(CONTINUED)

MENDEZ:

I.’ve got a contact in L.A.

ENGELL:

(catching on)

Chambers.

MENDEZ:

(to Pender)

John Chambers. He.’s a Hollywood

prosthetics guy, does contracting

work for us on the side. If I go *

see him, he.’ll set us up. A

couple days to make it look real.

Mendez and O.’Donnell turn their eyes on Pender, who is

the decision-maker here.

PENDER:

(after a beat, to

Mendez)

Remind me who you are again?

91 INT. CIA - THE PIT - A FEW MINUTES LATER 91

Tony stands in small messy KITCHEN AREA, pouring coffee.

On the coffeepot somebody.’s pinned a note: CHANGE FILTER

IF YOU USE! DO UNTO OTHERS.

O.’Donnell approaches, quietly stands behind him, smoking

quietly. Mendez turns around.

O.’DONNELL

We want you to go to L.A. If you

can make the movie thing credible,

we.’ll take it to the Director.

(a beat; a cigarette

drag)

Don.’t f*** up. The whole

country.’s watching you. They just

don.’t know it.

92 INT. T.W.A. FLIGHT - MORNING 92

Mendez sits in an aisle seat. The PASSENGER next to him

is looking at the headline of The New York Times: .“NEW

THREATS FOR HOSTAGE TRIBUNALS..”

Mendez is reading THE FIVE C.’S OF CINEMATOGRAPHY.

ARGO - Final 32.

90 CONTINUED:
(2) 90

93 INT. MIDDLE-CLASS TEHRAN HOUSE - NIGHT 93

Six KOMITEH force their way into a house.

KOMITEH SOLDIER:

SAVAK! SAVAK!

A Komiteh drags away a MAN in his forties while the man.’s

wife cries. Automatic weapons are aimed at him, pointblank.

From ACROSS THE STREET, an IRANIAN WOMAN, 20s, watches.

94 OMITTED 94

95 INT. CANADIAN AMBASSADOR.’S RESIDENCE - LIVING ROOM - 95

NIGHT:

Lee Schatz and Bob Anders play poker in a room decorated

with Persian carpets and mosaics. The gunfire audible

here too. Staring at their cards.

LEE SCHATZ:

50 caliber?

BOB ANDERS:

Mmm. 50, 35.

95A INT. CANADIAN AMBASSADOR.’S RESIDENCE - DINING ROOM - 95A

NIGHT:

Pat Taylor helps THE SAME WOMAN we just saw, SAHAR, 20s,

clear the table. She is their housekeeper.

SAHAR:

Your friends from Canada, ma.’am.

All this time. They never go out.

A significant moment of eye contact. Then Sahar goes

back to clearing the table.

96 INT. CANADIAN AMBASSADOR.’S RESIDENCE - KITCHEN - LATER 96

Kathy Stafford is roughly washing wine glasses at the

sink.

JOE STAFFORD:

You.’ve washed them three times.

He puts his arm on her shoulder. She keeps scrubbing.

ARGO - Final 33.

97 INT. CANADIAN AMBASSADOR.’S RESIDENCE - BATHROOM - NIGHT 97

Ken Taylor is brushing his teeth in the mirror. Pat

comes in.

PAT TAYLOR:

Sahar knows.

98 EXT. BURBANK - AFTERNOON 98 *

The water tower on Warner Bros. studio -- which in 1980

read, .“Burbank Studios..”

99 INT. CHAMBERS.’ STUDIO - AFTERNOON 99

Chambers leads Mendez into his makeup studio and starts

to open windows. Around the studio: stunt double-masks,

deformed monster foreheads, dental implants on shelves.

Planet of the Apes prosthetics. Mr. Spock ears on

Styrofoam stands. (Chambers created all these --

really.)

MENDEZ:

What are you shooting?

CHAMBERS:

A monster movie.

MENDEZ:

Any good?

CHAMBERS:

The target audience will hate it.

MENDEZ:

Who.’s the target audience?

CHAMBERS:

People with eyes. Talk to me.

MENDEZ:

It.’s an exfil.

CHAMBERS:

From where?

MENDEZ:

Worst place you can think of.

CHAMBERS:

Universal City. *

ARGO - Final 34.

(CONTINUED)

Mendez picks up a Newsweek magazine under a can of Tab on

a makeup table:
blindfolded Iran hostages on the cover.

Chambers takes it in for a moment -- the gravity of it.

CHAMBERS:

How you getting in the embassy?

MENDEZ:

Six got away. They.’re hiding in

the city. I.’m going over to get

them.

CHAMBERS:

What am I making?

MENDEZ:

I need you to help me make a fake

movie.

CHAMBERS:

You.’ve come to the right place. *

MENDEZ:

I need to set up a production

company and build a cover around

making a movie.

CHAMBERS:

That we.’re not going to make.

MENDEZ:

No.

CHAMBERS:

You want to go around Hollywood

acting like you.’re an important

person in the movie business.

MENDEZ:

That.’s right.

CHAMBERS:

But you don.’t want to actually do

anything.

MENDEZ:

No.

CHAMBERS:

You.’ll fit right in. *

ARGO - Final 35.

99 CONTINUED:
99

100 INT. SMOKE HOUSE - AFTERNOON 100

A couple of empty highball glasses on the table.

Chambers is looking at PHOTOGRAPHS of the SIX. Mendez is

taking notes. On a photo of Cora Lijek.

CHAMBERS:

This one.’s got an M.A. in English.

She should be your screenwriter.

Sometimes they go on scouts .‘cause

they want the free meals.

(re:
Bob Anders)

This guy.’s the director.

MENDEZ:

Can you teach a guy how to be a

director in a day?

CHAMBERS:

You can teach a rhesus monkey to

be a director in a day. Look, if

you.’re gonna do it, you.’ve got to

do it. The Khomaniacs are fruit

loops, but they have cousins

selling eight tracks and prayer

rugs on La Brea. You can.’t build *

cover stories around a movie that

doesn.’t exist. You need a script. *

You need a producer.

MENDEZ:

I.’m the producer.

CHAMBERS:

No, you.’re not. .‘Associate.’ at

best. If it.’s a twenty-million

dollar Star Wars rip-off, you need

somebody who.’s a somebody to put

his name on it.

Here we see some AUTOGRAPHED .‘70s CELEBRITY 8X10s hanging

on the wall.

The waiter brings a bill.

CHAMBERS:

Somebody respectable. With

credits. Who we can trust with

classified information. Who.’ll

produce a fake movie. For free.

101 EXT. BEVERLY HILLS - EVENING 101

They walk up the driveway of a .‘70s Bel Air home.

ARGO - Final 36.

(CONTINUED)

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