Click here to watch clips from “The Imitation Game” (Links to an external site.)
Cast:
Charles Dance (Links to an external site.)-Cdr. Alastair Denniston (Links to an external site.)
Benedict Cumberbatch (Links to an external site.)-Alan Turing (Links to an external site.)
Keira Knightley (Links to an external site.)-Joan Clarke (Links to an external site.)
Matthew Goode (Links to an external site.)-Hugh Alexander (Links to an external site.)
Matthew Beard (Links to an external site.)-Peter Hilton (Links to an external site.)
Plot:
When Britain declares war on Germany in 1939, Alan Turing travels to Bletchley Park. Under the direction of Commander Alastair Denniston (Links to an external site.), he joins the cryptography team of Hugh Alexander (Links to an external site.), John Cairncross (Links to an external site.), Peter Hilton (Links to an external site.), Keith Furman and Charles Richards. The team are trying to analyze (Links to an external site.) the Enigma machine (Links to an external site.), which the Nazis use to send coded messages.
Turing is difficult to work with, and considers his colleagues inferior; he works alone to design a machine (Links to an external site.) to decipher Enigma messages. After Denniston refuses to fund construction of the machine, Turing writes to Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Links to an external site.), who puts Turing in charge of the team and funds the machine.
Turing’s machine, which he names Christopher, is constructed, but cannot determine the Enigma encryption settings quickly enough; the Germans reset them each day. Denniston orders it to be destroyed and Turing fired, but the other cryptographers threaten to leave if Turing goes.
After overhearing a conversation with a female clerk about messages she receives, Turing has an epiphany (Links to an external site.), realizing he can program the machine to decode words he already knows exist in certain messages. After he recalibrates the machine, it quickly decodes a message and the cryptographers celebrate. Turing realizes they cannot act on every decoded message or the Germans will realize Enigma has been broken.
Scenes from this Clip:
Alan Turing is hired by Commander Dennisen
Description of the Enigma machine
Commander Dennisen makes his wishes clear and Turing goes over his head
The Cryptography Team is successful at their mission
The Cryptography Team faces the ultimate moral dilemma
Submit your answers to these questions as a file (DOC) attachment below:
Does the Cryptography Team behave as a Mechanistic or Organic Organization? Give specific examples.
What type of organization does Commander Dennisen believe he has created, Mechanistic or Organic? Is he correct? Why or why not?
