During the Iranian revolution in 1979, militants storm the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage. Six manage to get away and hide in the home of the Canadian ambassador, but the solution is temporary because they know as soon as the militants figure out where they are, they'll be killed.
CIA "exfiltration" specialist Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) comes up with a risky plan to get them safely out of the country.
Based on the true story of the rescue operation by Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor after the Canadian Parliament passed special legislation allowing Canadian passports to be issued to the Americans to help them escape.