First Time Watching | The Imitation Game (2014) | Reaction 

Alan Turing the father of modern computing is on the british £50 note. Incredible that the very machine you are using to react to a film about him can be traced back to his achievements.

Apparently Alan committed suicide by taking a bite out of a poisoned apple. (Snow white vibes anyone?) When Steve Jobs was asked if the Apple logo was a tribute to Turing, he said "no, but it damn well should of been."

If you ever come to England, you can now visit the real Bletchley Park!! They've opened it to the public as a massive museum

Just to answer the bit about Churchill allowing a convoy to be attacked and people killed. This occurred in the bombing of the city of Coventry when Churchill new that the city was about to be bombed and he had to allow it to take place to prevent the Germans from knowing they have broken the enigma code. the cathedral of Coventry (its ruins) has been left standing as a memorial to the people who died during the bombing.

Benedict Cumberbatch always delivers. This man can do anything when it comes to acting.

Apparently there is a memo from Churchill that he wrote after a visit to BP, as there were requests for more funding. The memo simply read, 'Give them what they want.'

He has finally got some respect as his portrait is on a £50 note in the UK. Also my where I work university named one of its buildings a few years ago, fittingly the Maths/Science centre.

A good film, shame how things went for Turing 😔

An interesting Charles dance fact... His Father Walter was born in 1874 and had him at age 72. Chalres had a daughter in 2012 aged 66. Her grandfather was born 138 years before her.

Benedict Cumberbatch was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Alan Turing in this film. However, he was up against Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything for the Best Actor category, and Eddie Redmayne won. Both actors attended the most prestigious schools in the UK. Cumberbatch went to Harrow. Redmayne went to Eton (and was in the same year as Prince William).

Nice one KB, my mum had her 99th birthday this week, which included her giving a talk on her minor part in the war effort, having joined the Air Force in 1942 (where she learned to drive). She mainly worked with photo reconnaissance squadrons whose interpretation was concentrated at RAF Medmenham - a key counterpart to the signals intelligence at Bletchley Park (which interests her too). A further element of the backroom activities was then deception - you might be interested in the film Operation Mincemeat... which was a particularly filmable one, unlike the massive subterfuge for D--Day - Operation Fortitude. By the time of D-Day, Bletchley Park was deciphering German signals faster than the intended recipients, but still having to decide what they could act on with a plausible explanation that didn't involve having broken the code. On the flip side, when a German U Boat sank HMS Barham (see youtube for the clip released after the war), they knew the Captain didn't know he had sunk it, so didn't make it public for ages (leading to the last conviction under the Witchcraft Act 1735 for Helen Duncan - if that doesn't pique someone's interest for a Google...). All the above relates to Europe and the film to the Enigma code, but I'm sure you are aware that it was the US breaking some Japanese Code that enabled the battle of Midway and often covered in films on the subject.

I vote for Ricky Gervais’s “After Life” next, it’s absolutely hilarious 👍🏻

It wasn’t just London my dad (aged Eleven )and his younger brother sat under a table during the Sheffield blitz 12 Dec 1940 their mother was not there she was across town and came back the next day. They were made of sterner stuff back then. He never mentioned it, his brother my uncle told us about it a few years before his own death.

If you want to see Mark strong in a completely different role you should watch brothers grimsby.

A wonderful film about a genuine international treasure and a very British kind of superhero.

Darkest hour is a good film about what Churchill did during ww2 - Churchill and Alan Turing were the biggest influences from britain in terms of winning the war. Gary Oldman also won best actor for his performance as Churchill

After Life is a must. Its absolutely thought provoking, hilarious and my god you will cry. Definitely one to watch with Queen Boomer however she will cry lol. Seen it three times ❤❤

Chemical castration was not intended to prevent procreation, but to change the hormonal balance and thereby remove homosexual "urges". Such a shameful ending to an amazing life. There are many who today attempt to reprogram(me) gay people through religious and/or psychiatric treatments.

Great performance by Benedict Cumberbatch but the film is plagued with innaccuaracies.

it was all kept top secret for so long, thats why it took the Queen until the 2000s to pardon him

The blitz was awful but the british Spirit never caved, everyone just carried on like normal the next day, hitler wanted us to be his ally and he feared fhe british resolve, he knew wed never give up and that scared him, although we was on our knees and he battered our supply lines the spitfire conquered. Apparently we was like a few weeks away from defeat too, but thats never spoken about, still, we won and britain will never surrender no matter what.

Kids were taken out of the cities and were passed on to folk living in the country pretty much randomly. Often the kids were housed on farms and it was the first time kids had been away from their families.

There are some really good gentle English comedies like the detectorists (series) or Mrs Coldicots cabbage war (film) or maybe you'd like gone fishing with Bob Mortimer & Paul Whitehouse -just being themselves in a program that shows Paul trying to teach Bob how to fish for different fish in a variety of rivers & lakes all around Britain.

Unbelievable film my favourite film of all time. one of the only films I have watched multiple times

Please please watch a British TV series called ‘Faulty Towers’ it’s such a humour-ridden series, John Cleese plays an amazing role in it!

Really impressed with your history knowledge. Learnt some things, even about my own bloody country that I didn't know before watching this video. great reaction.

A fantastic film that is more or less a fable of what actually happened. Turing was a brilliant man whose country committed a heinous crime against in return for his efforts to save it, but the film makes him into a one man army in many ways, when in reality Bletchley Park was absolutely filled with brilliant people working on the most difficult tasks of cryptography. Turing was probably the most brilliant mind of those people, but he wasn't the sole driving force of those efforts . Polish men and women had been deciphering Enigma messages throughout the war, and one of Turing's colleagues, Tommy Flowers, developed a much more complex machine to break a more complex cypher. As for what happened to Turing... Chemical castration is used to reduce sex drive and sexual urges. In Turing's case he was fitted with a device in his thigh which gave him oestrogen, which caused him to bloat and begin to develop breasts, and he remarked that he began to have heterosexual dreams which scared him. This type of 'treatment/punishment' is still used in the UK but with different chemicals, and usually only in cases with extremely bad sexually motivated criminals. Thankfully the shameful days were we subjected people to it for simply being gay are behind us. It's slightly ambiguous if he committed suicide, but the balance of the evidence suggests he did. He had so much cyanide in his system it's unlikely he accidentally inhaled it, and while it's reported his mentality was good prior to his death he had basically been ruined by his being prosecuted.

Being a homosexual in the uk was illegal until 1967, and then only for men aged 21 and above. From the 1500s until 1828 sodomy was a capital offence! Terrible how Turing was treated, especially considering how much he did for the world. Posthumously he's been much more recognised. RIP Alan

Try Roald dahls tales of the unexpected Each episode is a different story

I was visiting friends in London a few years back and on return at Kings Cross station to catch my train back oop north was 2 steam trains and loads of extras milling about. I asked one of the crew what was going on and they said they was doing some filming for a movie coming out the next year called The Imitation Game. Iv'e watched it a fair few times since.

Films like this mean more to me, I live in the Channel Islands, the only part Britain that were occupied by the Germans during the war…

Really enjoyed your reaction & your understanding of how we faced up to the Nazis basically alone for 2 years.

Part of why it took until 2013 to pardon Alan Turing because the whole story of what he and his team did during the war wasn't public knowledge until then. Once the information about breaking enigma was released he was pardoned.

Alan Turing and Jean Laidlaw are definitely 2 of the biggest heroes on the Homefront of WWII, I would recommend looking into Jean Laidlaw of the Royal Navy's Western Approaches Tactical Unit because she was the one who helped design the Tactics and Training to solve the U-boat problem. Also I have seen it mentioned in other comments but A trip to Bletchley Park is highly recommended just to be able to walk around the huts, to see the machines is really an experience not to be missed if you are in the London area.

My dad was evacuated during the war, he was sent Wales and learnt to be a blacksmith. Then when he was conscripted he drove trucks around europe and was stationed near Belsen. He hardly ever talked about that bit.

Yesterday's Cheese Rolling" clips have appeared!! " Thrills and spills as Cheese Rolling 2023 leads to MULTIPLE" seems the best (7 mins) The crowds becoming funnier year by year and the Womens Winner finished unconscious!

Breaking Enigma was of immense importance to winning the war. But this movie does it no real justice. It was a massive operation with countless teams and huge numbers of people. The Polish brought the first machines and started the breaking. Naval operations taking U-Boats, "pinch" raid to steal code books - all so important to Ultra. Breaking, losing and breaking again. This is drama, for the sake of drama and makes it look so much simpler than it was. Still, a good movie and covers the tragedy of Alan Turing.

Logically one would have to ration the use of the daily information from the German forces and i imagine one would have to attempt to look at the possible unseen consequences of a German victory and a German defeat on every occasion then inform the relevant service of the German plan of attack ,when the calculations are made that would allow interception that would not look like information received through enigma but other forms of intelligence.

If you enjoyed this you should watch Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy. Every British actor worth mentioning in it. One of the best British films In decades

Not many The Imitation Game reactions out there. Thanks for doing it. Underrated movie for sure.

this is a great film but it does have some very significant ommissions and inaccuracies. the largest of which is the ommission of the contribution of the Polish in the development of the breaking of Enigma. and the basic way that the Bombe worked. it was not made and then refined by identifying key information. rather using key "unchanging" info to break codes is codebreaking 101. the bombe was used to make this faster.

As a Churchill fan 'Darkest Hour' should be high on your list to react to

So, ironically, it was the Nazi's obsession with "hail Hitler" that cost them the secret of Enigma. Papa Palpatine "Ironic."

THANK YOU for doing a reaction to this movie... for some reason it's one of the RAREST movies to find a reaction to. It is one of MY favorites though.

Gay legalisation was in 1967 in the UK. The US legalised it nationwide in 2003, though that was just the last state to do it.

With the castration the excuse was to protect the children. Even back then they accused gays of attacking and grooming children. And of course it was considered a sin.

25:20 GREAT Recommendation to KB. Whoever you are! Horray, Horray, Horray!

But serious for you this! If your in a serious mood give This is England a go. Or Dead Mans Shoes. This is Englands a self contained film but there are 2 series as sequels so it might add too much to your plate as you already have too many shows to work with! Also Pheonix Nights a short and sweet series, Peter Kay’s in it and it’s insanely funny. For me bin off Benidorm and get on that. But what do I know, I’m just a Northern Muppet!

I haven't watched that film for a while but shit that is heartbreaking and incredible in equal measure, the fact that the country which Turing had a massive role in saving from the N@zis had his life ended by the grateful government is nothing less than barbaric...

Mark Strong along with Keifer Sutherland and many other great actors are in another fantastic movie about WW2 this time about POW'S of the Japanese it's called "To End All Wars" (2001) it's one of those movies that really got to me, it should've won Oscars

'Went The Day Well?' is an interesting little film, released in 1942 so made during the war, about possible invasion. It has it's unexpected moments.

5:15 As an Australian I’d like to point out the Brits weren’t alone. Also, we didn’t wait until the war hit our doorstep to join like you Yanks. 😉

If what I hear is true, the Turing test is likely to be featuring rather prominently in our lives before very long.

Brilliant reaction, thank you King! Laughs are great, but I'm equally fascinated by your reactions on history-based things too! Touching to hear why you wear the DTs and yes we owe so much to the older generations especially those that went to wars!

everything looks like Hogwarts, only an american could say this....i got lots and lots of books in my study... blimey! it looks like Hogwarts! Any thing built before america.. Oh it looks like Hogwarts! Bah!

You’re not far wrong, we ARE so far removed from it now. I’m fact, I’m today’s ridiculous world it’s almost compulsory!

@King Boomer, I've seen The Imitation Game on a number of occasions and it is a great film. Personally speaking I'm a gay man who was born in September 1953 and homosexuality wasn't legalised here in the U.K. until July 1967 therefore at that time I was 13 - what's even crazier was the fact that the law stipulated at that time that it was only permitted "....between two consenting adults in the privacy of their own home....". The age of consent for gay men from then on was 21 therefore anyone caught indulging in it with someone under that age meant that they could both be prosecuted irrespective of how old they were. It took until 1994 until the age of consent for gay men was reduced to 18 so that didn't happen for another 27 years until after the first law came into effect. It took a further 7 years for the age of consent to be reduced to 16 in line with heterosexuals in January 2001. This means that from the age of 17 when I had my first sexual experience with another man in the eyes of the law I was considered to be a criminal and so was he....even though both of us could've been under the age of 21. In January 2001 when the law was equalised I was aged 47 so that particular amendment to the law was neither use nor ornament to either myself or anyone else of my generation. Okay, back to the topic at hand, your reaction to this wasn't totally unexpected on my part when you kept on thinking that London was the only city that experienced the blitz and the rest of the U.K. was left untouched. Despite all of the carnage that happened throughout the whole of the U.K. including the devastation in Coventry as well as the industrial heartlands in the Midlands and the north of England I was born in Plymouth and that city is renowned for being the most bombed city in England throughout World War II. The reason for this is because of its strategic location - it's where a lot of the Royal Navy ships were docked at Devonport, not only did it have easy access to the English Channel but also to the Irish Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. In fact I remember going to visit my late Nan in 1967 and there was still a bomb site located next to her house which I found incredible even though the war had actually ended 22 years before and the land had never been redeveloped. On the subject of Alan Turing and the despicable way that he was treated in the early 1950's the blame for that lies entirely with Winston Churchill. As most of us know Churchill was all too willing to rely upon Alan's genius to break the Enigma codes and Alan was awarded an OBE by Clement Atlee's Labour Government in 1946 for his services during World War II. Winston Churchill then became U.K. Prime Minister in 1951 and served in that office until 1955 therefore it was under that second term of Churchill's that Alan was so despicably treated - Churchill could've done something about it and have Alan's sentence commuted but he did f*ck all and let Alan suffer unnecessarily; that's how much of a loathsome, opportunistic creature Churchill was. Suffice to say that Alan Turing has always been a hero not just amongst us homos but also amongst the vast majority of people throughout the U.K. and across Europe - many of whom wouldn't even be around today without his genius and the saving of so many lives by his dedication and efforts throughout World War II, would we? Think of it this way, if he cut the war short by at least two years and saved 14 million lives then if he and his team hadn't have cracked the Enigma codes when they did then those same 14 million people and their descendants wouldn't be around today, would they?

As others have said there are lots of inaccuracies in the movie, but it does give a flavour for the era and events. Alan Turning was treated appallingly by the “establishment “, and probably committed suicide. A lot of historians agree,as was said at the end of movie, that he probably shortened the war by 2 years and saved millions of lives. The only official recognition he has is that he on our £50 note (bill). As lovely as it is to see Kiera Knightley, there were other women involved. At its height Bletchley Park employed 8,000 women which was 75% of its workforce. A high percentage involved in decrypting messages and translating from German to English. The existence of Bletchley Park wasn’t declassified until the the 1970’s, but no one was told. It took years to leak out, then stories started appearing about dear elderly ladies talking to their grandchildren about how gran was a “spy” during the Second World War. “OK Grandma, is turning funny again, she thinks she’s James Bond”.

We later built different machines to break Lorenz cipher used by German army, it had papertape inputs - wey ahead of its time and again brainchild of Bletchley + Tommy Flowers and the Post Office researchers ( did this and invented binary storage if memory serves (pun intended) ) And again destroyed after the war and kept secret tho i read that one unit was gifted to the USA your welcome silicone valley ;) and has been rebuilt since from what little escaped burning / peoples memories fading.

A conservative estimate - and this is very conservative - of 14,000,000 lives saved as a result of Alan Turing's work. And how did we thank him?

If you like Benedict playing this sort of character you'll love Sherlock! (BBC Tv series)

Why alan turing has a same life like freddie mercury

This is an amazing but also very sad movie to watch. He's such, or was, an unsung hero. I personally hadnt heard of him until i watched this. Watch Bronson next if you haven't seen it already. Tom Hardy is brilliant in it. Really funny in places.

This is the second war film with Benedict and Keira Knightly. The film being the equally brilliant Atonement.

we can watch this thanks to him.....

If you haven't seen it you must watch Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy next, Benedict and Mark Strong are in that

brilliant film this

There is an excellent four part Channel 4 documentary called Station X which details the work that went on at Bletchley Park in breaking the Enigma code, including interviews with people that were there, well worth a look.

Hi boomer, great reaction. Homosexuality amongst men was a crime until the 60’s in the UK. Was called “buggery”. Whilst we were alone for the first two years, by alone it was us and the largest empire the world had ever seen (the term superpower was coined to describe us). The biggest genuine threat to cause us to lose would be of we’d capitulated and we came close in May of 1940 as there was a split in the War Cabinet. Churchill won the argument and we kept going.

A friend of mine back in college was an extra in the film he went to the same school Alan Turing went to

I went to Sherborne School from 2010 - 2015. They filmed the scenes of Turing's young life at the school itself and the children that play extras in those scenes are all my classmates. I was offered the chance to be in it too but ended up refusing because I didn't want to get a haircut... 😅

Some people argue that he didn’t commit suicide but was conveniently ‘dispatched’ as he knew too much.

Benedict Cumberbatch also played Prof Stephen Hawkins in a BBC production Hawking and 2 episodes of a 3 episode series Stephen Hawkins universe.

A very small side note ... Sherbourne, the school young Turing attended, was used as the school location in the film. Alan Turing is the source of the expression "CAPTCHA" which stands for the Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. Mark Strong as Stuart Mengis was otherwise known as "C" which is how he signed off on documents. James Bond movies referred to his head of MI6 as "M".

Please rewatch this with both of you guys! This is one of my favourite films of all time

Pretty sure the sender and receiver had to use 3 letters each, and laziness meant they used words like LON-DON, BER-LIN etc. to encrypt the messages. Also, "chemical castration" is to kill the urge, not the seed.

Kudos for reference to antikythera machine. I believe it has been worked out now.

As a computer geek since I was a kid, Turning was my hero. Computers became my life Also living only just a few miles from Bletchley I've been a member of The National Museum of Computing for many years.

My old fella was an anti aircraft gunner on the south coast during ww2, saw the battle of britain and the blitz. Spent time in Scotland and back to the south east in 45, saw V1 flying bombs, and the fighters shooting them down. He died in 2002 at 84, joined the army two days after the declaration of war in 1939, at 21 !

Many people don't know that Benedict Cumberbatch was ACTUALLY RELATED to Mr. Turing, albeit its distant cousins, it must have been part of how great he was in the movie.

One thing about Britain being 'alone' against Germany. While that is technically true, most of us today don't fully appreciate just how VAST the British Empire was at that time. Were we alone? Only if you consider a quarter of the population of the world and a 5th of its landmass, as being 'alone'.

Homosexuality was illegal in the United States until the Lawrence v Texas SCOTUS decision in 2003, overturning the Constitutionality of such remaining laws in 14 states. It was a felony in every state, punishable by lengthy prison terms and hard labor, until Illinois reformed its laws in 1962. No other state would do likewise for ten more years. My late father-in-law was evacuated from London along with his sister and brother to America in October 1940 to escape the Blitz. His was the last of many ships to flee home shores for the four corners of the Empire. German U-boats torpedoed the passenger ships in front and behind his on convoy for New York. Over 1,100 children perished, fewer than 150 were rescued. After this incident, the program was halted. He returned to England after the war but sailed back to America on a transport ship alone at age 16.

To understand a large part of Turing's character, you must understand he almost certainly had Asperger's syndrome. People with this are socially awkward, but things like hyper focus and graphical thinking make them take a different approach to problem solving. One of the most shaming things in British history is the way he was treated post-war. So many people could have stood for him but chose not to. Shameful.

10:00 Interestingly, MI6 or SIS was not officially acknowledged until 1994

Keira Knightly also impressive in The Duchess, with Ralph Feinnes.

I listened the other day to Alan Touring's grand nephew also a computer genius by the way he said the movie was accurate in parts the code cracking part was artistic license here the pub sceen yes did happen but connection to something else entirely. The code was cracked by something much more mundane and boring and not a ureka moment, everyone thought Turing was totally nuts but in the best British way, in Bletchley Park there were about 10% of people who worked there as dinbatty as Alan Touring....but powers that be Churchill for instance were eccentric anyway how the man functioned and lived to 95 and a half is part of the story...boffins and alcoholics won the war ....and Touring's two issues sadly led to him be driven from history until now,his sexual orientation and there there were thousands of gay men working in Oxford and Cambridge the similar second issue communist leaning of half the faculty since the 1930s .... ironic then he ends up on the £50 note

Homosexuality was illegal in England and Wales for anyone over 21 until 1967. For 18 to 21-year-olds, it remained illegal until 1994...

We are relatively recently finding out more about the vital role played by double agents working for the UK - many not from the UK. Enigma could be used to see how much of the agents work was accepted. It helped save lives. The double agents often seemed to be one-off characters too.

Check out the massive contribution by Gordon Welchman ! Probably as influential as Turing ?

The main thing I remember about this film is historians noting that it’s not at all accurate and doesn’t do any justice to the hundreds of other people involved.

If you really want to see a computer the size of a planet, I would recommend the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. The 1980s TV series not the movie.

As disgraceful as it was, and it was incredibly disgraceful, Britain’s homosexuality laws were typical for the time and the situation would have been much the same (with some state to state variations because the USA, typically, didn’t legislate federally on this matter) in America. In fact there are a number of US states which had laws making certain homosexual “acts” illegal until into this century if you can actually believe that? 😡

A movie nomination. Only for you though. Too brutal for your good lady. Watch "Scum" (starring a very young Ray Winstone).

When Alan Turing made that decision about what information was fed to officials so that the Germans were not alerted, he was just 30 years old. Imagine having to bear the responsibility of making those decisions at that age.

Thank you for doing this one. Such a great story and an excellent film. Sad but true. Always brings me to tears every time i watch it. So sad Alan Turing was treated the way he was. I only wish he lived to see what he had created and even in Tim e met up with Prof Stephen Hawking. Imagine those to mind getting together.

Another film with Charles Dance in it is Michael Collins or if you and Queen Boomer want a decent Irish comedy then check out The Guard. Also whats the story with stopping a film every couple of seconds??

The death of Christopher Morcom and the cause was true but it happened when Christopher was 19 yo. Alan stayed in contact with Christopher Morcom's mother and sent her letters about missing Christopher & she would send him gifts.

If you ever wondered, if there were humans on the other side, as well, I highly recommend watching "Das Boot".

honest question ... all ur questions before the 30 min mark were just the same or some u had to get chit chat? like MI6... i think i would have remember that part the first part i watched it if i watched the first 30 min of it....

38:20 The brother on a convoy scene is fictional and added for dramatic effect to personalise the consequences and add drama. Convoy positions were highly secret, and which ship was in each convoy would not be plotted at Bletchley.