Trivia

The actual communications director in charge of cipher at the Canadian Embassy during this caper was Mary Catherine O'Flaherty (St. John's, Newfoundland 19 February 1926-13 May 2018, St. John's) . She was named to the Order of Canada on July 1rst 1980 for "her devotion to duty while working under great stress over an extended period." This story is also the basis of the movie Argo.

Part of this movie was filmed outside a government unemployment insurance/employment office at Eglinton and Midland in Toronto since the film-makers decided that the building looked like the American embassy. Some clients worked as extra, as did the building caretaker who had a long beard and filled in for the ayatollah in some scenes where he was at a distance from the camera.

Near the end of the movie, the newspaper clipping that Jean Pelletier pins to a bulletin board is a reconstruction of the actual front page of Montreal's La Presse newspaper of Tuesday, January 29, 1980. It has the same headline and layout as the original, except that the pictures of Ken Taylor and Jean Pelletier were replaced by those of their respective actors. It reads "Audacieux coup du Canada en Iran: Américains cachés à l'ambassade, sauvés" ("Daring operation by Canada in Iran: Americans hide in Embassy and are rescued").