The awards machine is now in full throttle. Not that we necessarily care what pundits think about the awards race (or even the awards themselves), but we may have the pundits and their chatter to thank for our latest screenplay available for legal download for consideration: the long-awaited Argo, written by Chris Terrio, adapted from Joshuah Bearman's Wired magazine article and Tony Mendez's autobiography.

For some reason, if you've been asleep since September, here's the trailer for Argo:


Certainly, critics of the film have said that the ending of Argo is much too Hollywood, but a film about the CIA employing Hollywood to rescue hostages hiding out in Tehran during the crisis in 1979 is, well, inevitably going to feel like a Hollywood movie. While the critics may be right that the ending may take liberties to create a dramatic climax (I'm not a history expert, so I couldn't tell you either way), what the film does extremely successfully is create an incredibly suspenseful ending out of an historical event where everyone in the audience already knows the outcome. And that is good screenwriting.

Here's a link to the screenplay:

  • Argo, screenplay by Chris Terrio, based on the May 2007 Wired magazine article entitled The Great Escape by Joshuah Bearman, and chapter nine of the book entitled The Master of Disguise by Antonio Mendez

As always, please use this screenplay for your educational purposes only, and don't wait to download the screenplay as we never know when these screenplays will be taken offline.

If you missed our other posts about screenplays available for legal download for your consideration, you can find them at the links below:

What do you think of the depiction of events in the screenplay for Argo? Do you think a screenwriter has creative license to adjust historical facts to tell a more compelling story? Share your thoughts with us in the Comments.

Link: Warner Brothers Awards Screenings - Argo