Based on a real declassified operation, it is set in 1979, when the Iranian revolution reaches boiling point and a mob storms the American embassy in Tehran, though six staff members manage to slip away and take refuge in the Canadian ambassador's home. To get them out of the country without being discovered and executed, Tony Mendez, a CIA exfiltration specialist, devises a plan so outlandish it might just work: to fake the shooting of a Hollywood science-fiction film and pass them off as its crew. Ben Affleck directs and stars in a thriller of mounting tension that combines political suspense with a satire of the movie world.