The Imitation Game

Morten Tyldum

The Imitation Game tells the story of Alan Turing, an eccentric mathematician or, as someone may call him, the father of modern Computers.

Mathieu CéralineMathieu Céraline December 08, 2018

Just last week I finally made one of my best decisions of the year: I opened Netflix and pressed play on “The Imitation Game”. It is not really a recent release as the movie has been around for over two years nor had I just heard about it (it had been winking at me for several months now). But, I don’t know, something about that very moment made me fall in love with cinema all over again.

Directed in 2015 by Morten Tyldum and produced by Bear Pictures, The Imitation Game tells the story of Alan Turing, an eccentric mathematician or, as someone may call him, the father of modern Computers.


The man who cracked the code

“The true enigma was the man who cracked the code.”

The movie takes place around 1942, in the middle of World War II. Alan Turing, one of the brightest minds of the age, is instructed to decode ‘Enigma’, the code protecting every German communication. Known to be unbreakable, solving it is the key for the UK and the allies to win the war.

The movie takes place around 1942, in the middle of World War II. Alan Turing, one of the brightest minds of the age, is instructed to decode ‘Enigma’, the code protecting every German communication. Known to be unbreakable, solving it is the key for the UK and the allies to win the war.

Alan Turing : I'm not a spy. I'm… I'm just a mathematician. Stewart Menzies : I know a lot of spies, Alan. You've got more secrets than the best of them.


The Art of Being Misunderstood

Beautifully portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch, Alan Turing carries with him the weight of his mind. Like most geniuses, his cleverness and his eccentricity put a target on his back, making him a victim of bullying and overall misunderstanding.

“Sometimes it's the very people who no one imagines anything of who do the things no one can imagine.”

Advocating for the difference, I found in this movie the same details that made me love Shape of Water or Queen earlier this year. Because being unique isn’t a flaw, it’s often the most unlikely people that do the most extraordinary things. And, if Freddie Mercury just like Alan Turing were tortured by way more thoughts than the average human, our world would certainly not be what it is today without them.

A scene from The Imitation GameA scene from The Imitation Game

Should you watch it?

Well, since I wrote a whole article about it, some might or might not guess that…. HELL YES, you should watch it. But, I think you will really enjoy The Imitation Game if:

  • You enjoy Biographic movies,
  • You like Doctor Strange’s and Sherlock Holmes’ main actor, the one and only Benedict Cumberbatch,
  • You like dramatic yet deep and emotional movies,
  • You like movies that portray the world during World War II,
  • You like aesthetically beautiful movies.

Not just aesthetically beautiful, The Imitation Game replaced Ready Player One as my absolute favorite movie of the year, right before the deadline (and it wasn’t even published this year).


Let’s chat

Have you watched The Imitation Game? If so, what did you think of it?
Do you usually enjoy watching biographic movies like this one or do you find them too boring?

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