The true account of the 1979 rescue of six American hostages from Iran. On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants stormed the American embassy in Tehran and captured dozens of American hostages, sparking a 444-day ordeal and a quake in global politics still reverberating today. Beneath this crisis another shocking story was known by only a select few: six Americans escaped. A top-level CIA officer named Antonio Mendez devised an ingenious yet incredibly risky plan to rescue them before they were detected. Disguising himself as a Hollywood producer, and supported by a cast of expert forgers, deep-cover CIA operatives, foreign agents, and Hollywood special effects artists, Mendez traveled to Tehran under the guise of scouting locations for a fake science fiction film called "Argo." While pretending to find the perfect film backdrops, Mendez and a colleague succeeded in contacting the escapees, and smuggling them out of Iran. After more than three decades, Antonio Mendez finally details the extraordinarily complex and dangerous operation he led. A riveting story of secret identities, international intrigue, and got old-fashioned American ingenuity, "Argo" is the gripping account of the history-making collusion between Hollywood and high-stakes espionage. .

Introduction -- Welcome to the revolution -- Picking up the pieces -- Diplomacy -- Nowhere to run -- Canada to the rescue -- Lessons from the past -- Assembling the team -- Cover story -- Hollywood -- Studio Six -- A cosmic conflagration -- Getting ready to launch -- On location in Iran -- Final preparations -- The escape -- Aftermath.