The Imitation Game · written by Graham Moore · 2014

During a beer-hut gathering, Helen explains that her German counterpart’s messages repeatedly begin with ‘CILLY’; Turing sees that predictable text can break Enigma and rushes out.

Scene 84 of 130 · ≈ 5 min on screen · Act two

Helen
Joan Clarke
Hugh Alexander
Alan Turing
Peter Hilton
John Cairncross

Act oneAct twoAct three

Begins 1:17 into a 1:57 film

The story so farBefore scene 84

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.
Scenes 31–50
Churchill’s order gives Turing authority and his half-built machine advances toward sustained work.
Just before
Scene 81
Nock asks whether machines can think; Turing explains that different thinking does not make a machine mindless, then invites Nock to question him about the war.
Scene 82
After another failed midnight run, the team abandons the attempt and walks outside, frustrated that they still lack a solution.
Scene 83
The exhausted team says it needs to know what the message will say; Turing asks how they could know, and John points out that known plaintext would make decrypting it unnecessary.
Scene 84
This scene

84INT. BLETCHLEY PARK - BEER HUT - LATER

It’s crowded in the beer hut, even this late at night.

On one side of the room, Alan, Hugh, John, and Peter are drinking. Commiserating about their fate.

On the other side, Joan is drinking with her friend HELEN — a fellow WREN.

ON JOAN AND HELEN:

HELEN

Who’s Alan’s friend?

JOAN CLARKE

Hugh? Bit of a cad, actually.

HELEN

So my type then?

JOAN CLARKE

Here, I’ll introduce you.

HELEN

No! Lord, engaged for a fortnight

and you’ve already forgotten how to

do this? He’ll come over.

JOAN CLARKE

Are you sure?

HELEN

Yes. I smiled at him fifteen

minutes ago and haven’t looked at

him since.

ON HUGH, ALAN, JOHN, AND PETER:

Hugh is looking at the girls.

HUGH ALEXANDER

(re: Helen)

Who’s that, then?

ALAN TURING

Helen? Works with Joan in the

WREN’s hut.

PETER HILTON

You do have a point about the

little hats.

HUGH ALEXANDER

She wants me to come over.

ALAN TURING

How can you possibly know that?

HUGH ALEXANDER

She smiled at me awhile back and

hasn’t looked again since.

ON JOAN AND HELEN:

HELEN

(re: Hugh’s glances)

And... Got him.

JOAN CLARKE

Is it odd that when I was single

this game felt tedious, but now it

seems just dreadfully fun?

ON THE BOYS:

HUGH ALEXANDER