9. Argo Make Everything Up
Warner Bros.Better known as the film that got Ben Affleck out of Gigli jail, or the film that won Oscar for Best Picture the year Django came out, or the film where Michael Parks played Jack Kirby (okay, so nobody actually calls it that), Argo told the amazing story of a CIA operation to get American hostages out of Iran under the auspices of making a sci-fi movie. Even more amazing? That this actually happened, and has been well documented in books and even the 1981 TV movie Escape from Iran: The Canadian Caper. Affleck told the story of Argo (the name of the fake film-within-a-film) with a little more aplomb, however, bringing along an all-star cast playing colourful characters to provide some levity to the dramatic proceedings. Which is probably why he won all those Oscars. How do you like them apples, Daredevil haters?...We imagine his acceptance speech originally began.
What really happened: So Argo is actually one of the better films for historical accuracy on this list. Working from multiple sources, including CIA agent Tony Mendez's book The Master of Disguise and an article from Wired called "The Great Escape", screenwriter Chris Terrio crafted a reasonably faithful recreation of what really happened in Tehran. It wasn't totally perfect, mind. For one thing the film almost totally discounts the role the Canadian government played in the covert operation, instead focussing on the heroic actions of the CIA, with no less than former US president Jimmy Carter claiming that "90% of the contributions to the ideas and the consummation of the plan was Canadian. And the movie gives almost full credit to the American CIA." But what does he know? He's history's greatest monster! Argo also shows the British and New Zealand embassies in Tehran turning away the American refugees, which didn't happen. In fact the latter took huge risks to keep them hidden, which could very well have sparked an international incident and/or got all the Kiwis killed. Perhaps most egregiously, the ending is totally different from what actually happened as - SPOILERS - the Iranians figure out the scam as the hostages are about to get on a plane and escape, literally chasing them down the runway and shooting at them. Yeah, the whole operation actually went off "without a hitch", in Tony Mendez's own words. Oh wait, one more thing: yes, Ben Affleck played a character called Tony Mendez in Argo. Yes, the real Tony Mendez is of Mexican ancestry. Yes, Bostonian Ben Affleck is pretty much as far as it's possible to get from Mexican. More whitewashing! Woo!