Argo

The establishing shot when Tony Mendez goes to Hollywood to seek help is the dilapidated HOLLYWOOD sign, which is indeed how the sign appeared in the mid 1970's after years of neglect.

Since the sign was originally built in the 1920's, it was only planned as a temporary structure.

However, the sign was refurbished and rebuilt with new letters in November 1978, which was a full year before the Iranian hostage crisis began.

A TV shows Ted Kennedy's victory speech in the New York and Connecticut primaries.

These happened on March 25, 1980, and the mission was completed on January 27.

In closing credits, they misspell "Battlestar Gallactica" (sic) As Tony Mendez writes his son a happy birthday post card the word "so" jumps down a line between shots.

As the Swissair Boeing 747 is taking off, police cars are keeping up along side when it rotates even though the take off speed of this aircraft is between 160-180 kts.

The vehicles also drive directly behind the number 4 engine without being affected by jet blast.

Long shot of plane taking off from Dulles for London shows twin-engine jet, which were not generally cleared for use in transatlantic flights until 1985.

During the table read scene, the robot who speaks has blue LED's for eyes.

Blue LEDs were not invented until 1993.

In the meeting in Max Klein's office, there is a copy of Sid Caesar's autobiography, "Where Have I Been?", on the bookshelf.

This memoir was not published until 1983.

'Ben Affleck' (qv)'s character Tony Mendez wears a Rolex Sea-Dweller DEEPSEA (reference number 116660) watch which was introduced first in 2008 (in 1980 the correct Rolex Sea-Dweller should be a reference number 1665).

When Mendez first finds the "Argo" script, it has a black vinyl cover with gold embossed lettering.

When he walks out to the patio, the cover is gone.

The opening narration states that, in 1953, Britain and the C.

engineered a coup d'etat to depose Prime Minister Mohammmad Mossadegh and install Reza Pahlavi as Shah.

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was already the shah at the time of the coup.

The coup began when the Shah dismissed Mossadegh and appointed Fazlollah Zahedi prime minister.

When in Istanbul, agent Tony Mendez enters the Blue Mosque to meet up with a fellow, but the next scene with their conversation is taking place in the Hagia Sophia former Orthodox Church (there are even close-up frames with byzantine frescoes of saints).

Early in the film there is a reference to the Canadian "Foreign Secretary".

This is a British title, not Canadian.

The Canadian cabinet member is "Minister of External Affairs", and this title is correctly referenced (in a TV clip) near the end of the film.

Joe Stafford's glasses are plain glassthey do not distort what is behind them.

The time difference between Tehran and Washington DC is 8 1/2 hours and the difference between DC and LA is another 3 (ie, 8:30AM in Tehran is midnight in DC and 9PM in LA).

On the day of the escape, when Tony confirms to the CIA that he is going ahead with the mission, it appears to be dawn in Tehran and the scenes which follow over the next several hours are difficult to reconcile with these time zone differences.

Most of the glasses worn by the characters have an anti-reflective coating that looks blueish / purple in color to those looking at the front of the glasses.

This type of coating would not be used in 1979-1980.

The safety glass at the Swissair gate when broken by the Iranian guards sounded like a regular (nonsafety) pane of glass when it hit the ground.

When driving up to Dulles Airport outside of Washington, the terminal building is not shown accurately.

One see additions to the terminal that were not constructed until 1996.

In 1979/1980, the terminal was about half the size it is now.

It is indicated as 1980 when Istanbul Bosphorus is viewed but the ferry shown is a new modern ferry travels between Asian and European sides of the Bosphorus.

When Sahar crosses the border into Iraq the flag at the border station has Allahu Akbar in traditional kufic Arabic script between the three black stars.

Saddam Hussein added the phrase in 1991 in what was supposed to be his handwriting.

The kufic variant was added in 2004 following the US invasion.

The flag in 1978 would have just displayed the stars.

While Mendez is going to the Canadian Embassy in Iran, you can clearly see the logo of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality behind a traffic sign.

Some shots in Iran, there are some "Anadol" brand cars on the streets.

Anadol is a Turkish car manufacturer which sold only in Turkey.

During the final sequence between Tony and his sleeping son Ian, a toy of the "Star Wars" character Boba Fett can be seen on the shelf.

While many believe that the character of Boba Fett was not introduced until _Star WarsEpisode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)_ (qv), he actually first appeared in _The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978) (TV)_ (qv) (and had appeared in a parade a few weeks earlier still) and even the regular-sized figure originally came out in 1979 (as a special mail away offer).

Tony Mendez boards his flight at Dulles International Airport via a jetway.

There were no jetways at Dulles in 1980passengers rode mobile lounges or walked across the ramp to get to their flights.

The design of the Swissair Boeing 747 as shown in the film was not used until 1981, when the appearance dating from the mid-1950s was overhauled for the 50th birthday of the airline.

Until then, the 747's design sported a red stripe around the body on white ground with a grey belly and the name in a different font in black.

Most of the cars shown in the film were Volkswagen ,Peugeot 504, Mercedes or some other Turkish or American vehicles, while more than 70% of vehicles in Iran in that era was PAYKAN (a British designed car which was produced in Iran).

There wasn't even one in the movie.

At a shot in Istanbul, Bosphorus, there is a big Turkish flag in a column.

These flags appeared first in the 21st century.

There's a line "some guy in Scranton is planting a flag a day", but this actually happened on the other side of Pennsylvania near Sharon, PA.

The flags are still there as seen at www.

Avenueofflags.

Tony Mendez is shown walking through Washington DC near the Washington Monument in January of 1980, yet the trees and vegetation are in bloom and full of green leaves, a scene more reflective of late spring in DC, not winter.

When Tony calls his son while watching TV, a McDonald'a bag is seen with the logo clearly visible, but when he gets up to change the channel, the bag has been turned around with no logo to be seen.

The insignia outside the Canadian Ambassador's residence is a maple leaf.

This is not used by Canadian diplomatic missions.

The royal Canadian coat of arms (implemented in 1921) would have been used instead.

As a ruse to make certain he would be patched through to speak with President Carter's Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan, CIA Agent Jack O'Donnell asks one of his aides where Malinov's children go to school.

She answers, Pace Academy, Buckhead, Georgia.

The city of Buckhead is 75 miles from Pace Academy.

The school is in Atlanta, in a neighborhood known locally as Buckhead.

It is stated that the British and New Zealand embassies refused to help staff from the American embassy.

This is not true.

Both the British and New Zealand embassies sheltered the Americans, then helped to pass them on to the Canadians.

Britain's Arthur Wyatt was later awarded the Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George for the risks that he took.

When Tony Mendez is issued his airline ticket he's given seat 1C.

This is first class aisle bulkhead seat.

When he boards the plane he's in a coach window seat.

During the final scene where the plane is taking off from the Tehran airport, a shot from the city streets is used showing the plane in the air.

One of the air-conditioners on a building has the new logo of Turkish manufacturer Arcelik, which was introduced during the 21st century.

In most cities in Iran (Northern cities excluded due to the climate conditions) rooftops are flat.

In historic archive clips used and some aerial shots in the movie this is very visible.

However, when the crowd breaks through the Embassy gates and rushes into the yard in background one can see buildings with hipped or gable roofs which is a very common sight in Istanbul and not in Tehran.

Swissair had only two Boeing 747s, each assigned to a specific routeZurich-New York and Geneva-New York.

They never flew them to Iran or any other country.

There is an UK TV advertisement for Cillit Bang in the background, Cillit Bang was first launched in Hungary in 2003, before being rolled out across mainland Europe, and finally arriving in the UK in November 2004.

The Swissair 747 has a stretched upper deck like those on a 747-300 and 747-300; but the first 747-300, completed in 1983, included a stretched upper deck - so the type shown in the movie in 1980 did not yet exist.

In the closing credits, when the camera pans over the Star Wars toys, the Jawa and Sand People figurines are under each other's label.