The Imitation Game (2014)

The Imitation Game (2014)

The Imitation Game is a 2014 British-American historical drama thriller film directed by Morten Tyldum, with a screenplay by Graham Moore loosely based on the biography Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges (previously adapted as the stage play and BBC drama Breaking the Code). It stars watch Benedict Cumberbatch as real life British cryptanalyst Alan Turing, who decrypted German intelligence codes for the British government during World War II.

The film's screenplay topped the annual Black List for best unproduced Hollywood scripts in 2011. The Weinstein Company acquired the film for $7 million in February 2014, the highest amount ever paid for U.S. distribution rights at the European Film Market. It was released theatrically in the United Kingdom on November 14 and the United States on November 28.

The Imitation Game was a commercial and critical success. By April 2015, it had grossed over $227 million worldwide against a $14 million production budget, making it the highest-grossing independent film of 2014. It was nominated in eight categories at the 87th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (Tyldum), Best Actor (Cumberbatch), and Best Supporting Actress (Keira Knightley). It won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. It garnered five nominations in the 72nd Golden Globe Awards and was nominated in three categories at the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards, including Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. It also received nine British Academy of Film and Television Arts nominations, including Best Film and Outstanding British Film, and won the People's Choice Award at the 39th Toronto International Film Festival.

The LGBT civil rights advocacy and political lobbying organisation the Human Rights Campaign honoured The Imitation Game for bringing Turing's legacy to a wider audience. However, the film was criticised for its inaccurate portrayal of historical events and

Storyline

Based on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, the film portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain's top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II.

Plot

In 1951, two policemen, Nock and Staehl, investigate mathematician Alan Turing after an apparent break-in at his home. Turing's suspicious behaviour and lack of war records triggers Nock's suspicion that he might be a Soviet spy. During his interrogation by Nock, Turing tells of his time working at Bletchley Park.

When Britain declares war on Germany in 1939, Turing travels to Bletchley Park, where, under the direction of Commander Alastair Denniston, he joins the cryptography team of Hugh Alexander, John Cairncross, Peter Hilton, Keith Furman, and Charles Richards. The team are trying to break the ciphers created by the Enigma machine, which the Nazis use to provide security for their radio messages.

Turing is difficult to work with and considers his colleagues inferior. He remembers 1927, when Turing was unhappy and bullied at boarding school. He developed a friendship with Christopher Morcom, who sparks an interest in cryptography, and eventually Turing developed romantic feelings for him. Before Turing could confess his love, Morcom dies from bovine tuberculosis.

He works alone to design a machine to decipher Enigma. After Denniston refuses to fund construction of the machine, Turing writes to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who puts Turing in charge of the team and funds the machine. Turing fires Furman and Richards and places a difficult crossword in newspapers to find replacements. Joan Clarke, a Cambridge graduate, and Jack Good pass Turing's test, but Clarke's parents will not allow her to work with male cryptographers. Turing arranges for her to live and work with the female clerks who intercept the messages and shares his plans with her.

Turing's machine, which he names Christopher, is constructed but Turing cannot determine the Enigma settings before the Germans reset the encryption each day. Denniston orders it destroyed and Turing fired, but the other cryptographers threaten to leave if Turing is dismissed. After Clarke plans to leave on the wishes of her parents, Turing proposes marriage, which she accepts. During their reception, Turing confirms his homosexuality to Cairncross, who warns him to keep it secret. After overhearing a conversation with a clerk about messages she receives, Turing has an epiphany, realising he can program the machine to decode words he already knows exist in certain messages - such as the word "weather" (as the morning messages always include a weather forecast) and the phrase "Heil Hitler." After he recalibrates the machine, it quickly decodes a message and the cryptographers celebrate; however, Turing realises they cannot act on every decoded message or the Germans will realise Enigma has been broken.

Turing discovers that Cairncross is a Soviet spy. When Turing confronts him, Cairncross argues that the Soviets are allies working for the same goals and threatens to disclose Turing's homosexuality if Cairncross's role as an agent is revealed. When MI6 agent Stewart Menzies appears to threaten Clarke, Turing reveals that Cairncross is a spy. Menzies reveals that he knew this already and planted Cairncross among them in order to leak messages to the Soviets for British benefit. Fearing for her safety, Turing tells Clarke to leave Bletchley Park, revealing that he is homosexual and lying about never having cared for her. They break up, but she remains at Bletchley. After the war, Menzies tells the cryptographers to destroy their work and that they can never see one another again or share what they have done.

In the 1950s Turing is convicted of indecency and, in lieu of a jail sentence, undergoes chemical castration so he can continue his work. Clarke visits him in his home and witnesses his physical and mental deterioration. They reconcile as she reminds him that his work saved millions of lives.

In the end, the group is seen burning the documents, and a caption reveals Alan Turing committed suicide when he was 41 years old.

Cast

• Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing
• Keira Knightley as Joan Clarke
• Matthew Goode as Hugh Alexander
• Rory Kinnear as Detective Nock
• Allen Leech as John Cairncross
• Matthew Beard as Peter Hilton
• Charles Dance as Cdr. Alastair Denniston
• Mark Strong as Maj. Gen. Stewart Menzies
• James Northcote as Jack Good
• Steven Waddington as Supt Smith
• Tom Goodman-Hill as Sgt. Staehl
• Alex Lawther as young Alan Turing
• Jack Bannon as Christopher Morcom
• Tuppence Middleton as Helen
• David Charkham as Joan's Father, William Kemp Lowther Clarke
• Victoria Wicks as Joan's Mother, Dorothy Clarke