The Imitation Game · written by Graham Moore · 2014

Smith refuses to let Staehl accompany him, so Nock tells Staehl that Smith approved the plan and draws him into following anyway.

Scene 49 of 130 · ≈ 2 min on screen · Act two

Superintendant Smith
Detective Nock
Sergeant Staehl

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 40 min into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 49

At Bletchley Park, Alan Turing must persuade a skeptical team to build a machine that can break Enigma before the war is lost, while concealing the self the law condemns.

Scenes 1–12
Turing is investigated as a guarded outsider in 1951, then enters Bletchley in 1939 looking for the puzzle he can solve.
Scenes 13–30
He sees the scale of Enigma, believes a machine can solve it, and grows isolated from colleagues who make little progress.
Scene 36
Churchill’s order gives Turing command authority; he fires two linguists and begins reshaping the team around his approach.
Scene 45
Joan solves Turing’s test in 5:34 and is admitted to the secret work, beginning the partnership that links his professional and private life.
Just before
Scene 46
The two successful candidates, including Joan, are sworn to secrecy; Turing explains that they will break Enigma to help win the war.
Scene 47
Christopher lends young Alan a cryptography book and explains how visible messages can hide meaning until a key is found, recognizing Alan’s aptitude.
Scene 48
Christopher walks Alan to his dorm, shares a tender goodbye, and leaves Alan privately aware of his affection.
Scene 49
This scene

49INT. MANCHESTER POLICE STATION - DAY - 1951

A crowded POLICE STATION.

Detective Nock approaches his boss, SUPERINTENDANT SMITH, as the latter walks through the station dropping PAPERS onto various DESKS and checking the work of other POLICE OFFICERS.

Nock hands Superintendant Smith a MANILA ENVELOPE.

SUPERINTENDANT SMITH

What is this?

DETECTIVE NOCK

Alan Turing’s classified military

file.

SUPERINTENDANT SMITH

(displays the file)

It’s bloody empty.

DETECTIVE NOCK

Exactly.

SUPERINTENDANT SMITH

It’s an empty manila envelope.

DETECTIVE NOCK

Yes.

SUPERINTENDANT SMITH

Well you’ve cracked the case wide

open then, haven’t you?

DETECTIVE NOCK

Alan Turing’s war records aren’t

just classified. They’re non-

existent. That means someone got

rid of them. Erased them, burned

them.

SUPERINTENDANT SMITH

And that person broke into his

house and stole... Nothing?

DETECTIVE NOCK

What if Turing wasn’t just a math

professor?

SUPERINTENDANT SMITH

You think maybe he also teaches

English lit?

DETECTIVE NOCK

Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean.

SUPERINTENDANT SMITH

The spies? From the papers?

DETECTIVE NOCK

The Soviet spies. But first, they

were professors, weren’t they?

Newspapers say they became

radicalized at Cambridge. Then they

joined the Communist Party, took

positions in the Foreign Office and