Imitation game

During WW2, the british intelligence agency, MI6 hires Alan Turing (a genius who loves problems) to crack the hardest problem of all time, enigma. Through different time periods Morten Tyldum tells us about Turing's life and his process to decipher the enigma. He created the first modern computers and he was also the first to develop the idea of artificial intelligence. After his work done, the authorities discover he is gay and put him through therapy and medicines to cure his sickness.

Morten Tyldum is the director of this movie and was nominated best director for the Academy awards. He was shocked at how little he knew about Alan’s life and he became obsessed to tell it to a wider audience. He tells the story while jumping to different time periods: Alan Turing’s childhood, during the codebreaking and his struggle afterwards. That’s because he wanted to make the movie a puzzle as Turing loved puzzles, but also in an intriguing and exciting way, not like a history lesson. For him it was the story of an “outsider”, the celebration of being different.

Benedict Cumberbatch who portrays Alan to perfection in this movie, makes his character come to life. That is due to all the hard work he puts into his acting. The most important for him was to respect Turing’s legacy, because his actions and inventions had a long lasting impact on the world and still do btw. He has already played geniuses in his previous work, like Sherlock Holmes or Stephen Hawking. During the film shooting, Benedict had to play Alan Turing crying in an emotional part of his life, and afterwards he couldn’t stop crying, because he had grown so fond of Alan Turing. He had to dye his hair and wear fake teeths  to look like Alan. Moreover he had to start running and doing physical work, due to Turing’s love for marathons.

Keira Knightly is also starring in this movie alongside Cumberbatch. She plays the work of Joan Clarke, who is not given enough credit in the movie for her contribution to breaking the enigma code. Her intelligence is also undermined.

Both actors were stunned to see they barely knew anything about this, compared to how important it is. They found it outrageous. So they made it their goal to educate people about this story.

Unfortunately, even with all the actors and filmmakers' hard work, the imitation game still is one of the most inaccurate biopic in recent times even though it got pretty good reviews. That’s because, a lot of scenes in the movie were altered for dramatic effects, but also because they didn't have many documents and information about this story. Mostly because it has been kept top secret for 50 years by the government, everything was burnt and erased. Overall approximately 42% of this movie can be considered historical truth. Benedict Cumberbatch actually had to piece up Alan Turing’s character, and imagine how he could’ve been. Even with little information, Benedict did an outstanding job, even Alan Turing’s family said that he had played well.