Argo Page #5

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)

JORDAN:

No. Just the pricks on our side.

So all our other pricks on their

prick thrones know, when they get

run out on a rail, they won.’t be

getting their spleens out by a

camel vet in the Sinai.

TITTERTON:

The six with the Canadians.

Now Jordan is looking at a monitor showing footage of a

BLINDFOLDED HOSTAGE in front of the Embassy. AL

GOLACINSKI being prodded and led down the front stairs of

the embassy.

JORDAN:

We.’ve got 60 in the embassy with

guns to their heads right now --

TITTERTON:

The eyes of the world are on the *

embassy. That makes them safer *

than the six on the street. *

ANALYST:

(coming to the door)

Bani-Sadr.’s saying it.’ll be over

in 24 hours.

JORDAN:

Leave the six where they are. *

I.’ll go brief the president. *

CUT TO BLACK.

FADE IN:

49A EXT. OLD DOMINION DRIVE (VIRGINIA) - AFTERNOON 49A

A LONE ribbon sags in the f.g. -- the CAPITOL BUILDING

behind.

Yellow ribbons tied to lampposts. A Catholic church with

a sign on the lawn that says PRAY FOR OUR HOSTAGES. A

dry cleaner with a large American flag in the window and

yellow ribbons drawn by kids around it.

The exterior of a neighborhood bar, O.’Tooles. More

ribbons.

SUPERIMPOSE:
McLEAN, VIRGINIA - 69 DAYS LATER

ARGO - Final 13.

49 CONTINUED:
49

49B INT. MENDEZ APARTMENT - BEFORE DAWN 49B *

A television connected to a faraway wall with an *

extension cord sits on a coffee table. The t.v. shows *

color test patterns. *

We move over the coffee table, a mess of Chinese food *

containers and beer bottles, to find TONY MENDEZ, 40, *

asleep in his clothes from the day before. *

The phone rings. He answers it, half awake. *

MENDEZ *

Yeah. *

He listens for a moment, then sits up, suddenly wide- *

awake. *

49E 49E *

50 EXT. CANAL ROAD - MORNING 50

Mendez.’s car speeds by yellow ribbons along trees on

Canal Road.

51 EXT. CIA - PARKING LOT - EARLY MORNING 51

Mendez gets out of his car and hurries toward a white

building that looks like a college campus.

NEWSCASTER (V.O.)

Prime Minister Bani-Sadr today restated

demands for the hostages.’

release...

52 INT. CIA DIRECTORATE OF OPERATIONS - MORNING 52

As we watch him hurry out of his car and into the CIA, we

start to pick up TVs as we go by them -- all tuned to

some version of the same story.

He enters the front doors and crosses the famous EMBLEM

on the ground.

He moves past the STARS ON THE WALL, signifying fallen

CIA officers (and there were fewer stars then than now).

He passes the SECURITY GUARD at the desk, holds up his

badge. The guard nods.

ARGO - Final 14.

(CONTINUED)

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