T-Biopic: THE IMITATION GAME (2014)

The biopic that starts with a T depressed the shit out of me: THE IMITATION GAME by Morten Tyldum, about British mathematician Alan Turing (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) and his invention of the ancestor of the computer, during WW2.

This is the film adaptation of the book ALAN TURING: THE ENIGMA (1983) by Andrew Hodges. It covers three periods: the present time (1952, the time of his arrest for indecency —he’s gay), his contribution to WW2 by creating Christopher (a machine meant to decipher Enigma, the coded language of the Nazi army), and his young years in junior high school with his one and only friend, and first love Christopher Morcom.

The Imitation Game is “a game. A test of sorts. For determining whether something is a machine or a human being.” (Turing to the detective interrogating him) Looking at you, chatGPT. Anyway, if it were me, I would’ve called the film BLETCHLEY PARK, or TURING, or THE CRYPTO CREW or something.

Meet Christopher, the ancestor of your laptop. When your computer crashes and you think it’s dead, you can always pray its ancestor, Christopher, for a miracle! How about that?

These are the men (and one woman, Joan Clarke, played by Keira Knightley) in charge of defeating the Nazis in three-piece suits, from the tranquility of a British village. From left to right: Peter Hilton (Matthew Beard), Hugh Alexander (Matthew Goode), John Cairncross (DOWNTON ABBEY's Allen Leech) and Alan Turing (Oscar-nominated Benedict Cumberbatch)

While we wait for scientific advances to come…

…at the pace of the humans making them…

…soldiers are dying on the front lines, and civilians under shellfire.

“Some people thought we were at war with the Germans... Incorrect. We were at war with the clock. Britain was literally starving to death. The Americans sent over 100,000 tons of food every week, and, uh, every week the Germans would send our desperately needed bread to the bottom of the ocean. Our daily failure was announced at the chimes of midnight. And the sound would haunt our unwelcome dreams. Tick... tock... tick.” Alan Turing (Cumberbatch)

What an actor.

When Christopher finally works

This was the initial team leader until Turing decided to send a letter to Winston Churchill himself, pitching his idea of an “electrical brain, a digital computer”. Churchill appointed him the new team leader and gave him the budget he asked for, no questions asked. Well, according to the film. To recruit his special unit of cryptographers and cryptanalysts, he put a crossword puzzle in the newspaper. Anyone who managed to solve it within a certain amount of time had a job waiting for them. Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley, seen in the picture), the only woman on the team, beat Turing’s record.

The Allies won the war, and seven years later, a nosy police officer (played by Rory Kinnear) suspected him of hiding something after a burglary at his house. He was hoping to uncover some spy shit from WW2, something exciting. But his team only found out that Turing had hired a male prostitute. Because it was considered a crime, the detective could not simply choose not to arrest him. But he will avoid jail time.

JOAN CLARKE, visiting Turing at his house: Your hands. You're twitching.

ALAN TURING: No-no, I'm not.

JOAN CLARKE: Alan.

ALAN TURING: Uh... It's the medication.

JOAN CLARKE: The medication?

ALAN TURING: Uh, well, the judge gave me, um, a choice... uh, ei-either two years in prison or... ho-hormonal therapy.

JOAN CLARKE: Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

ALAN TURING: Yes, yes, that's right. Chemical castration. Um, to, uh, to cure me of my, um... homosexual predilections. Well, of course I chose that. I mean, I... couldn't... work in prison, and, uh...

JOAN CLARKE: All right. Now, I-I'm going to speak to your doctors. I'm going to speak to your lawyers.

ALAN TURING: I'm-I'm fine.

He certainly wasn’t fine. Joan’s incredible pep talk did not help him. Maybe it did, for one year. Alan Turing took his own life one year after starting hormonal therapy. Two weeks before his 42nd birthday. And that’s something you find out in the closing cards, the epilogue of the film, where you expect to read: “and they all went on to live a happy and long life.”

How fucking sad.

Joan Clarke’s final pep talk

“Do you know, this morning... I was on a train that went through a city that wouldn't exist if it wasn't for you. I bought a ticket from a man who would likely be dead if it wasn't for you. I read up on my work... a whole field of scientific inquiry that only exists because of you. Now, if you wish you could have been normal... I can promise you I do not. The world is an infinitely better place precisely because you weren't.“

© Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University

Up next on my watchlist: a comedy that starts with U, a drama that starts with V and a queer romance that starts with W! Let’s get it over with so I can watch COLUMBO again. I miss watching TV shows!