The Imitation Game
| Alan Turing, a British mathematician, joins the cryptography team to decipher the German enigma code. With the help of his fellow mathematicians, he builds a machine to crack the codes.
CAST
| Directed by | Morten Tyldum |
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Running time | 115 minutes |
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| Based on | Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges |
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Alan Turing, 27, arrives at MI6 headquarters, disguised as Bletchley Radio Manufacturing. Alan is relaxed and humorless when Commander Denniston arrives. When Denniston looks at his resume, he assumes Alan is a genius, since he has published scientific papers at the age of 23. Alan does not think of himself as a prodigy and compares himself to Newton and Einstein, who had accomplished much more by the time they were his age. When Denniston asks him why he wants to work for the British government, although Alan does not speak German, which is one of the requirements for the job since they have to decode German communications, he is one of the best mathematicians in the world. He considers the German codes as puzzles and language skills are not necessary. When Denniston orders his secretary to escort him out, Alan says "Enigma," showing that
he is aware of the top-secret program for which he is being considered. Enigma is the greatest encryption device and the Germans use it for all major encryptions.
Solving Enigma would end the war.
Alan loves puzzles and Enigma is the most difficult puzzle there is. Everyone believes that Enigma is unbreakable, but Alan says that they will know for sure after they give him a shot. Alan joins five other members of the Enigma program. They have a real Enigma machine smuggled out of Berlin, but they need a specific setting on the machine to decode the messages. The Germans change the settings every night at midnight. Every morning at 6 a.m., the codebreakers intercept the first transmission and have barely eighteen hours to crack the code before it changes and they have to start all over again. Hugh, the captain of their Enigma unit, calculates that this means there are 159 million possibilities every day. Alan is reluctant to operate with a team, saying that the rest will just slow him down, but the head of MI6 Stewart informs them that four men have died in the last few minutes because of the unbroken code and instructs them to begin.
Alan narrates that it is easy to get German messages, but it is impossible to decode them.
The Enigma has so many settings that if 10 people tried one setting every minute, it
would take 20 million years to try all possible combinations, suggesting that this task is meant for a machine. The crew wants to take a lunch break, but when they ask Alan, he is off-putting. He can not take a joke and can not have a meaningful conversation with them. After they leave, he continues his work on a machine that could decode Enigma instantly every day.
In 1951, Robert Nock, the detective from the house burglary, discovers that Alan's records are classified. He is suspicious because he cannot understand why a math professor would have classified records. He falsifies a paper with a typewriter and is able to secure Alan's records. Back in 1939, Alan complains to Denniston that his team captain, Hugh, has refused his funding request for the parts he needs to develop his machine. Denniston tells him that his coworkers do not like him and that he should complain to someone else until he addresses their complaints. Alan suggests firing them all and using the money for his machine. He claims that he only needs 100,000 pounds and that only machines can overcome machines, but his request is denied. Alan inquires about Denniston's superior officer and learns that Winston Churchill is in charge.
Alan writes a letter to Churchill and asks Stewart to deliver it. Later, Denniston informs the entire team that Alan has been put in charge on Churchill's orders.
The first thing Alan does is fire two of his teammates for being terrible code breakers and mediocre linguists. Alan, being short handed, decides to make a crossword puzzle to be solved in less than 10 minutes. A nationwide search for new talent is published in the newspaper. Those who solve the puzzle are asked to take an additional test. Two people who solve this puzzle in less than 6 minutes will be considered for a position as a new member of the Enigma program.
Stewart asks Alan if that's even possible and he says no, it took him 8 minutes to solve it.
A woman, Joan, raises her hand. She has solved the puzzle in 5 minutes and 46 seconds, impressing Alan and Stewart, she and another person are hired for the position. A few months later, Alan's machine is set up when the parts finally arrive.
But when Joan does not show up, Alan is worried. He goes to her house and tries to convince her parents that she is essential to his work. Joan has a private conversation with Alan, even though her parents are listening in. Joan argues that according to her parents, it is indecent to work and live among men. Alan catches on and to please her parents, he loudly advises her to work among women
in the secretarial department.
Joan packs her things and leaves with Alan. She asks him why he is so intent on assisting her. "Sometimes it's the very people who no one imagines anything of, who do the things no one can imagine". In 1951, Detective Nock informs Superintendent Smith that Alan's confidential military files are empty. They have been burned and obliterated. They believe he is a Soviet saboteur. Back in 1940, Joan came to Bletchley Park disguised as an office worker. Alan narrates that the British are starving. Every week, the Americans would send 100,000 tons of food, but the Germans sent it to the bottom of the ocean. Every night at midnight, a bell rings, signaling that the previous day's efforts have been in vain. Hugh, frustrated, visits Alan, who is working on his machine, Christopher. Hugh is furious, he grabs a wrench and tries to damage Christopher, but the others stop him.
Hugh informs him that the machine is ineffective.
Peter, one of the others, tells him that his brother and cousins are fighting in the war, but they have nothing to show for it because Alan is obsessed with the machine. Alan is firmly convinced that the machine will work. Later, Alan retrieves a stack of Enigma messages from his desk and stuffs them into his trousers. He manages to avoid detection by the checkpoint personnel and makes his way to Joan's house and climbs through her window. He presents the encrypted Enigma messages sent by the Nazi high command, one of which begins with "Heil Hitler" and ends with "Weather Report." Joan and Alan discuss the idea of a digital computer.
When Alan returns to the hut the next day, he discovers military police rummaging through his desk while the other codebreakers look on. Denniston explains that there is a spy amongst them. Alan is shown a telegram that was intercepted on its way to Moscow and is encrypted with a key phrase. They suspect Alan because he is arrogant and lonely and has no friends or romantic relationships. Denniston claims that he does not have to fire him because if he is discovered, he can hang him for treason. Joan approaches Alan, who is working on Christopher, and offers to take him to a beer hut to cheer him up. At the bar, she claims that it doesn't matter how brilliant he is; Enigma is smarter and Alan needs all the assistance he can get - but his team will not help him if they don't like him.
He brings apples the next time he sees them at their craft, as Joan suggested, and then attempts to tell a joke. When they turn on Christopher, it's the world's first digital computer and it works. They wait to see if it can reveal the Enigma settings for the day. Days later, a conflict arises when Christopher fails to produce results, according to Denniston's office. Alan is surprised to see Denniston and tries to keep him out by barricading the door. They yank the door open and shut Christopher off.
Denniston informs him that his machine is inoperable because the Enigma has not been broken. He is irritated that he has spent a hundred thousand pounds and has nothing to show for it. Alan defends his machine, but it has not yet decoded a single German transmission. Hugh stops Denniston and says that if he fires Alan, they would have to be fired too, since they believe his machine can work. Hugh tells Denniston that they are the best cryptographers in Britain and asks for a six-month
extension. Denniston agrees to give them one more month to solve Enigma or they will all be fired. In the beer hut, Hugh tells Alan that he has decoded the encrypted message to the Soviets and he knows that Alan is not the spy because he wouldn't have encrypted his message with a simple Bible verse.
In 1951, Detective Nock is informed that they have found Alan's burglars.
One of the men who robbed his house is homosexual and so is Alan, he is not a Soviet spy. Nock can not believe it, but at that time it is still punishable to be homosexual. In 1941, Joan returns home to find Alan attempting to solve mathematical equations so Christopher can run through more settings per 18-hour block. She stops Alan to inform him that she must return home since her parents are dissatisfied with her being 25 years old and single. He shows emotions and admits that he likes talking to her and advises her to marry. She thinks he's referring to Hugh or Peter, but he's referring to himself. He proposes with a ring made out of a piece of electrical wire. At the beer hut, there is their engagement celebration. While Joan dances with Hugh, one of his crew members, John, converses with a glum Alan, who admits to being gay. John sympathizes with Alan and admits that he has sensed it for some time. He advises him to keep it a secret because homosexuality is illegal, and Denniston is seeking any reason to imprison Alan. Alan and his crew have been waiting for Christopher to crack the code, but then the midnight buzzer sounds and they have to start over. In 18 hours, the machine will never be able to process that many alternatives. In the pub, Alan overhears Hugh flirting with Joan's co-worker and has a realization about
German coded messages, he sprints across Bletchley Park and security checkpoints, with the whole
crew chasing after him.
Alan pours out the previously decoded messages. He points out that Christopher does not have to look through all the options, but that the computer can search for the words they know will be in the message. They discover that the entire 6 a.m. weather report ends with "Heil Hitler." To decipher the code, they can have Christopher look up the phrases "weather," "Heil," and "Hitler." They put it to the test with a message sent at 6am. Christopher comes to a complete stop.
They take the letters it generated and return to the Enigma machine, where they type the same characters again. They decode the message. They've cracked the Enigma! Throughout the night, the team works. They have decoded the signals and are now able to create a map showing all their ships facing the Axis ships.
John comments that there are only five people in the world who know where each ship is in the Atlantic, and they are all present in this room. Joan points out that the Axis ships are about to attack a British passenger convoy. Hugh tries to contact Denniston to warn him, but Alan interrupts him. He points out that they must let them sink or the Germans will learn that they have broken Enigma. The Germans will immediately cease radio contact and revise the design of Enigma.
In order to keep them cracking Enigma a secret and win the war, they must sacrifice the lives of hundreds of innocent people. When Peter realizes that his brother is in one of the convoys, he breaks down. He asks that only this one ship be reported to Denniston, but Alan simply apologizes and everyone agrees with him. Alan and Joan travel by train to London. At a tea cafe, they meet Stewart and reveal that they have decoded Enigma, but they need Stewart's help in deciding how much information to use and which attacks to abort. So the Germans don't believe the Enigma has been cracked and he would come up with convincing lies to the public about how they got the information. As they continue their work, Peter is angry with Alan and clashes with him.
Alan then notices a Bible and remembers Hugh's words about a Soviet spy using a Bible verse. John is the spy, but Alan can not turn him in to Denniston because then John would tell everyone that he is homosexual. Some time later, he goes to meet with Joan, but her apartment is trashed and Stewart informs him that she is in military prison. That's when Alan reveals that John is the spy, but he knew it all along, he put John in Bletchley Park and fed the Soviets false information. He asks Alan to help him with espionage. It turns out he lied about Joan, she's at the market. Alan meets with Joan and asks her to break up with him because of his sexuality. She still wants to be with him, arguing that they love each other in their own way. To save her from Stewart, he lies to her about not ever caring for her and this hurts her a lot.
In 1951, Alan tells Detective Nock that he has told him his story and must now play the Imitation Game to find out if he is a machine or a human. He wonders aloud, "Am I a war hero?" "Am I a criminal?" Alan is told by Nock that he cannot pass judgment on him. Alan informs him that he is of no assistance to him because Alan can not judge himself, since he has Asperger's Syndrome.
Alan killed himself in 1954, following a year of government-mandated hormonal therapy. In 2013, Queen Elizabeth II granted Alan Turing a posthumous royal pardon in recognition of his wartime efforts.According to historians, solving Enigma cut the war by more than two years, saving morethan fourteen million lives. Alan Turing's invention sparked decades of research into "Turing machines," or computer as they are now known.
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