Iranian refugee Mehran Karimi Nasseri passed away from a heart attack in a terminal at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle Airport on November 12, 2022. The man, who was in his late '70s endured a long layover of 34 years. 

Nasseri’s, or rather "Sir Alfred’s," tale is a bizarre one of belonging and inspired multiple documentaries, media attention, and one of the world’s most well-known filmmakers, Steven Spielberg, to reach out for the rights to tell it. In spite of public interest that spanned the course of over three decades, the man in the terminal seems to have finally taken flight, maintaining the mystery that perplexed so many.

In 2004, Spielberg's film The Terminal, starring Tom Hanks and an ensemble cast, raked in $219 million at the box office, worldwide. The movie, adapted to screenplay by Jeff Nathanson (Catch Me If You Can), Spielberg directed on Nasseri's story is a dramatized version.