Directed by Morten Tyldum
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch
Running time: 114 min
Can you believe that a genius mathematician shortened World War II by two years and in the process saved 14 million people? The movie The Imitation Game is about decoding the German code, which is based on a true story. After World War II ended, England has long kept this information to itself, but now the process of decoding came out into the open, astonishing many people.
The actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who is the famous lead actor of the TV program Sherlock, is the protagonist. He plays the real life person Alan Turing who is a genius English mathematician. He had to crack the German encryption device called Enigma for his nation. There was a team of scientists assigned to figure out the Enigma Machine, but some of the members quit because of arguing with Turing.
He suggested using a crossword puzzle to select new team members. He ran it in the newspaper and invited people who had solved it in 10 minutes to join the team. He then gave them a new crossword puzzle and set a time limit of six minutes. He tried to see if they could solve the puzzle that took him eight minutes finish. The only woman participant named Joan Clarke solved it in 5 minutes and 34 seconds. Another man was also selected.
The team tried to decode Enigma with them, but Joan and her parents thought that it was dangerous to work with men, so she declined to work with the team. However, Turing persuaded her, saying she could work in a workplace for only women, and as a result, she helped decode Enigma. Turing met her secretly at night and they decoded Enigma together.
Trying to decode Enigma was extremely hard to solve because the key changed every 24 hours. Enigma messages arrived was every day and they had to solve them before midnight or their effort would be wasted. And the next day they tried to solve the next day’s message. One day, Turing and the team met Joan Clarke and her friend. Joan’s friend said that she thinks that the person who made enigma has a girlfriend because the code always starts with the same word. By listening to her advice, the team got a decisive hint and decoded Enigma. The machine that Turing made to decode Enigma became the origin of today’s computers.
“Sometimes it is the people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine,” said Turing to Joan Clarke. He said this to convince her to help him solve the riddle of Enigma. This invitation to her is also an invitation to you to see a fascinating story with great acting by Benedict Cumberbatch and exceptional directing by Morten Tyldum. In addition, this movie won an Oscar for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay.
