The Imitation Game Page #2

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But I'll tell you,

just because we're friends,

that only last week I rejected

one of our great nation's top linguists.

Knows German better than Bertolt Brecht.

- I don't speak German.

- What?

I don't speak German.

Well, how the hell are you supposed

to decrypt German communications

if you don't...

I don't know, speak German?

Well, I'm really quite excellent

at crossword puzzles.

Margaret!

German codes are a puzzle.

A game just like any other game.

- Margaret, where are you?

- I'm really very good at games,

uh, puzzles.

And this is the most difficult puzzle

in the world.

Margaret!

For the love of God.

This is a joke, obviously.

I'm afraid I don't know what those are,

Commander Denniston.

Have a pleasant trip back

to Cambridge, Professor.

Enigma.

You called for me?

That's what you're doing here.

The top secret programme at Bletchley.

You're trying to break

the German Enigma machine.

What makes you think that?

It's the greatest encryption device

in history

and the Germans use it

for all major communications.

If the Allies broke Enigma, well,

this would turn into

a very short war indeed.

Of course that's what you're working on.

You also haven't got anywhere with it.

If you had, you wouldn't be hiring

cryptographers out of university.

You need me a lot more than I need you.

I... I like solving problems, Commander.

And Enigma is the most difficult

problem in the world.

Oh, Enigma isn't difficult-

It's impossible.

The Americans,

the Russians, the French,

the Germans.

Everyone thinks Enigma is unbreakable.

Good. Let me try,

then we'll know for sure, won't we?

Welcome to Enigma.

The details of every surprise attack,

every secret convoy,

and every U-boat in the bloody Atlantic

go into that thing

and outcomes gibberish.

It's beautiful.

It's the crooked hand of death itself.

Our Wrens intercept thousands

of radio messages a day.

And to the lovely young ladies

of the Women's Royal Navy,

they're nonsense.

It's only when you feed them back

into Enigma that they make any sense.

But we have an Enigma machine.

Yes, Polish Intelligence

smuggled it out of Berlin.

So what's the problem?

Just put the intercepted messages

back into the Enigma and...

Look, it's not that simple. Is it?

Just having an Enigma machine

doesn't help you to decode the messages.

Very good, Mr Turing.

To decode a message, you need

to know the machine's settings.

Now, the Germans switch settings

every day, promptly at midnight.

We usually intercept our first message

around 6:
0Oam.

Which gives you exactly

18 hours every day to crack the code

before it changes and you start again.

Five rotors. 10 plugboard cables.

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