[At a CIA briefing]
The six of them went out a back exit. Brits turned them away, Kiwis turned them away, Canadians took them in. Traffic calls them the 'Houseguests'; they haven't left the Canadian ambassador's house since it happened.
Tony Mendez Why didn't we get them ten weeks ago?
Too dangerous. You've got Revolutionary Guards going door to door like Jehovah's Witnesses. Half of them think Khomeini's been too lenient on the ones in the embassy.
Mendez What about the White House?
Carter's shitting enough bricks to build the pyramids. The Canadians are done; they say they're bearing too much risk. Their foreign secretary corners Vance in Brussels and told him she wants the six of them out.
Mendez Who else knows?
Just the families. Meanwhile, some genius in our embassy was keeping a mug book on everybody who worked there.
Mendez Jesus Christ!
We think it got shredded before they got in. But now the bastards are using sweatshop kids to reassemble the shreds, and once they reassemble that book, they'll know six Americans got out and they'll know what they look like. Standing room only for beheadings in the square.
Mendez Who's handling?
State is coordinating in house.
Mendez State? They don't do exfils.
They do now. They want to run it by us, strictly as consultants. Engell says its a lose-lose. These people die, they die badly. Publicly. State wants the blame, we'll give it to them.
Mendez What does he want me here for?
So he can tell State he ran it by his best exfil guy.
RP Robert Pender
[The CIA starts talking about extraction options for the six US Embassy employees]
What we like for this now are bicycles. We've identified back roads from the Shemiran district — a couple of rat lines through the mountains to the crossing at Tabriz. Cars are off the table because of the roadblocks.
JB Jon Bates
We wait until the weather clears up then deliver the six bikes, provide them with maps to the Turkish border.
AE Adam Engell
We have intelligence they can ride bicycles or we’re prepared to send in somebody to teach them.
Tony Mendez Or you could just send in training wheels and meet them at the border with Gatorade. It's 300 miles to the Turkish crossings. They'd need a support crew behind them with a tire pump.
E Engell
We've only been asked to sharpshoot this, State's handling the op.
Tony's an exfil spesh. He got a lot of the Shah's people out after the fall.
Mendez Sir, if these people can read or add, pretty soon they're gonna figure out they're six short of a full deck. It's winter. You can't wait around until spring when it's nice enough to take a bike ride. The only way out of that city is the airport. You build new cover identities for them, you send in a Moses, he takes them out on a commercial flight.
B Bates
We've explored those options.
E Engell
They're never going to get past airport control. Komiteh own the place.
B Bates
They could pose as reporters. The government issued seventy-something visas for American journalists.
MM Mario Malinov
Seventy-four. And the Revolutionary Guards keep them on 74 leashes.
Mendez If they're caught with fake journalist creds, it's Peter Jennings' head in a noose in an hour. [...] Sir, exfils are like abortions. You don't want to need one, but when you do, you don't do it yourself.
Okay, you got six people hiding out in a town of what, four million people, all of whom chant "death to America" all the livelong day. You want to set up a movie in a week. You want to lie to Hollywood, a town where everybody lies for a living. Then you're gonna sneak 007 over here into a country that wants CIA blood on their breakfast cereal, and you're gonna walk the Brady Bunch out of the most watched city in the world.
Tony Mendez Past about a hundred militia at the airport. That's right.
Right. Look, I gotta tell you. We did suicide missions in the army that had better odds than this.
Tony Mendez [Tony Mendez and the six embassy escapees talk about their cover stories]
You. Where was your passport issued?
Mendez Where were you born?
Mendez "Toron-o", Canadians don’t pronounce the T.
LS Lee Schatz
Some Komiteh guard is actually going to know that?
Mendez If you are detained for questioning they will bring in someone who knows that, yes ... Mary, who are the last three prime ministers of Canada?
CL Cora Lijek
Uh, Trudeau, Pearson and Diefenbaker.
Mendez What's your father's name?
Mendez What's his occupation?
Mendez Where were you born?
L Lijek
Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Mendez What's your date of birth?
L Lijek
February 21, 1952.
Mendez Good. [to Stafford] What's your job on the movie?
JS Joe Stafford
Producer.
Mendez Associate producer. What's the last movie you produced?
Mendez Who paid for that?
Mendez What's your middle name? [Stafford stammers] What's your middle name? What's your middle name?
Mendez Shoot him. He's an American spy ... Look, they're going to try to break you, OK, by trying to get you agitated. You have to know your resume back to front.
S Stafford
You really believe your little story's gonna make a difference when there's a gun to our heads?
Mendez I think my story's the only thing between you and a gun to your head.
ST Stansfield Turner
You're telling me there's a movie office in Hollywood right now that's funded by the CIA.
Tony Mendez Yes, sir.
CV Cyrus Vance
What's wrong with the bikes again?
We tried to get the message upstairs.
T Turner
You think... You think this is more plausible than teachers?
Yes we do. One, there are no more foreign teachers in Iran.
Mendez And, we think everybody knows Hollywood people. And everybody knows they would shoot in Stalingrad with Pol Pot directing if it'd sell tickets. There are only bad options. It's about finding the best one.
T Turner
You don't have a better bad idea than this?
This is the best bad idea we have, sir. By far.
T Turner
[short pause]
The United States government just sanctioned your science fiction movie.
